49ers conducted tryouts with Lance Briggs, Hakeem Nicks

Over the last week we learned that the San Francisco 49ers would be hosting wide receiver Hakeem Nicks and linebacker Lance Briggs for visits this week. The reports had them coming to town on Monday, but Matt Barrows tweeted they arrived Monday and would have workouts on Tuesday.

Ian Rapoport added to that this afternoon, reporting Briggs and Nicks were in town for "tryouts" as opposed to just basic "meet-and-greets." We have reached the stage of free agency where players are not just coming in to negotiate a contract and signing their deals. That happens early in free agency, but we are now at the stage where players are primarily signing short term "prove-it" deals.

Players are hoping to parlay these kinds of contractss into bigger deals, but the reason they have to sign such a contract is due to one issue or another in the recent past. Some players are coming off injuries, others appear to have hit a wall in their career. A tryout at the facility is not going to tell the team if a player will hold up all year, but it gives the team a chance to try and figure out what the guys can bring to the table. Given their veteran status, it would be fascinating to see what goes down at one of these tryouts.