The 49ers didn’t even wait until tomorrow’s 1 pm deadline to cut Darnell Dockett. In doing so, they admitted a fairly large mistake from a general manager who generally does pretty well when it comes to signing veteran free agents (other than aging wideouts, Brandon Jacobs and Nnamdi Asomugha, Trent Baalke’s record in this area is pretty clean).
The 49ers eat $2.5M of Dockett’s 2yr deal, which was worth $8M.
— Jay Hurley (@Jay_AB81) September 4, 2015
Dockett is a loudmouth, and the 49ers might have decided that his bite wasn’t powerful enough at this stage of his career to compensate for his social media bark. Announcing injuries on Snapchat isn’t exactly what the 49ers are looking for in a veteran “leader.”
“Dockett with a rib contusion,” said Jim Tomsula on Tuesday (after this photo made the rounds). “I know there were some, what am I saying? Yeah, it’s cartilage. The crack is in the cartilage, which is treated like the contusion. It’s not the bone. If it was the bone we would be talking about something different.”
I wasn’t sure what the 49ers were thinking when they signed Dockett in the first place, since he has played in over 150 games, missed last season to a torn ACL, and the Cardinals didn’t put up much of a fight when he signed with a division rival. I wrote as much on Mar. 13, and the comments in that article are pretty funny … this one is my favorite.
@BASportsGuy lets talk in September — Alex L (@AlexL4949) March 13, 2015
We’re getting similar reactions from the Faithful to this morning’s tweet about the 49ers from ESPN’s Jim Trotter.
I’ll just say this: The chatter coming from the 49ers locker room is not good. At all.
— Jim Trotter (@JimTrotter_NFL) September 4, 2015
What do you know, Jim Trotter? You’re just throwing stuff against the wall to see what sticks. HATER! When have you ever broken anything newsworthy about the Niners?
FILED TO ESPN: 49ers to release Aldon Smith. — Jim Trotter (@JimTrotter_NFL) August 7, 2015
Yeah, fine. Well, that isn’t much. We were all going to find out about Aldon’s release eventually. What else you got, Trotter?
Justin Smith has informed the 49ers he will retire, per source.
— Jim Trotter (@JimTrotter_NFL) May 18, 2015
Oh.
BREAKING: Jim Harbaugh has informed Alex Smith that Colin Kaepernick will start Sunday, per source. Said decision not based on health. — Jim Trotter (@JimTrotter_NFL) November 22, 2012
FINE, WE GET IT. HE MAY KNOW SOME THINGS.
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Even Peter King, Trotter’s former colleague at Sports Illustrated and noted Jed York fan, thought the 49ers seemed “overconfident” when he visited their training camp a month ago.
The thing I’ll remember about Santa Clara: There’s significantly more confidence here than the players probably have a right to have.
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Meanwhile SB Nation came out with a tool which allows you to “Ninerize” every NFL team. Just click a squad, and you’ll see what they would’ve lost if they suffered through a “Ninerized” offseason.
Nah, that’s enough Ninerization for one day.
