Niners minicamp notes (1 Viewer)

[Jene Bramel]

Maiocco's blog

--The first-team defensive line was: RE Justin Smith, NT Aubrayo Franklin, LE Isaac Sopoaga.

--The second-team defensive line was: RE Ray McDonald, NT Atiyyah Ellison, LE Kentwan Balmer.

--When the 49ers drafted Balmer, Nolan said he would be used at left end and nose tackle. After a couple days of considering it deeper, Nolan said they were going to place him at left end for the foreseeable future. The team wants him to learn just one spot right now to aid in a quicker transition to the NFL.

--Balmer said he's already gotten a lot of help from Sopoaga, Justin Smith and Ronald Fields.

--You could see that Justin Smith is not just going to line up at RE. He moved around, and took some snaps at OLB. He showed his stuff on the very first play of 9-on-7 run drills when he beat Adam Snyder go meet Frank Gore in the backfield.

Smith said he sees good players on the 49ers' defense at every spot. He said he believes all the pieces are in place. Then, he added, "But all the talk is b.s. It's a matter of getting out there on the field and doing it."

--With Manny Lawson still rehabbing his knee, Tully Banta-Cain and Parys Haralson lined up at the outside linebacker spots. Jeff Ulbrich went with the first team at the "ted" spot. Brandon Moore and Dontarrious Thomas lined up at the inside 'backers with the second team.

 

[5Rings]

Justin Smith stands up. Free-agent acquisition Justin Smith spent most of the day lining up at right defensive end with a hand on the ground. But he also spent time standing up like a linebacker, rushing the quarterback from both the right and left side. Smith said he did a little of that early in his career in Cincinatti. he said it was too early to tell how much he might do that with San Francisco.

When asked about the team's interest in veteran linebacker Takeo Spikes, Nolan said, "Right now, the interest is holding tight." In other words, the 49ers have not made any move since the draft to acquire Spikes' services.

--The first-team defensive line was: RE Justin Smith, NT Aubrayo Franklin, LE Isaac Sopoaga.--The second-team defensive line was: RE Ray McDonald, NT Atiyyah Ellison, LE Kentwan Balmer.

--With Manny Lawson still rehabbing his knee, Tully Banta-Cain and Parys Haralson lined up at the outside linebacker spots. Jeff Ulbrich went with the first team at the "ted" spot. Brandon Moore and Dontarrious Thomas lined up at the inside 'backers with the second team.

I'd love to know what BMoore did to get this deep in Nolan's doghouse. Ulbrich? Geez. If Dontarrious can't beat out Ulbrich, then we wasted $10M signing him.