Jim Harbaugh, Braylon Edwards, and downfield blocking

[Jetsfan80]

No joke, Harbaugh hints that he wants Edwards and other Niners receivers involved in downfield blocking. You can't make this stuff up.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/ninerinsider/detail?entry_id=95082

Harbaugh: Niners' receivers will be relevant

Jim Harbaugh said Braylon Edwards is "working through a little something" -- Harbaugh-speak for dealing with an injury -- but indicated Edwards and the Niners' other top wideouts would receive a healthy amount of attention this season during his weekly appearance today on the Murph & Mac Show on KNBR.

"If you watch NFL games I almost think NFL wide receivers are becoming bored," Harbaugh said. "They're not significant in that they might get two to three balls thrown to them a game. But where is the running on the back side of the route? Where is the blocking? I want to make wide receivers relevant again in the game of football to where they're playing 65-70 plays a game and feel relevant on every single play."

In the pass-happy NFL, where 10 wideouts had at least 82 catches last year, it's fair to say not all wide receivers are battling boredom. But San Francisco's wideouts are a different story: In the past seven seasons a Niners wide receiver hasn't finished higher than 37th in the NFL in receptions.

As far as Edwards' injury, he hasn't missed a practice since he signed last week. It's not apparent during practice what he could be "working through."

"He's working through a little something right now that's slowing him down," Harbaugh said. "But he is practicing every day."

* In response to whether rookie quarterback Colin Kaepernick could receive the most snaps during Friday's preseason opener at New Orleans, Harabugh said, "It could work out that way. It could work out that way. A healthy amount of Colin I think would be a good way to frame it. So he'll be in the ballgame quite a bit. I'm really excited for him to get in there."

* Harbaugh said Alex Smith has had "two outstanding days of practice the last two days and Colin is right there with him."

* Wide receiver Ted Ginn was praised for his performance early in training camp, "Ted is having a really good camp. He's trying to improve every day. He's doing all the little things right," Harbaugh said.

* Harbaugh echoed defensive coordinator Vic Fangio in his review of rookie cornerback Chris Culliver. Harbaugh is impressed with his raw ability and praised his in-practice work ethic and attitude.

He said Culliver needs to lean to prepare like a pro.

"(The) arrow's up on Chris," Harbaugh said. "He's got all the tools. He needs to learn to be a carpenter. And he has to be very detailed and be a detail-oriented guy."

* It was noted the Niners' quarterback situation was rather thin -- a polite way of saying third- and fourth-stringers Jeremiah Masoli and McLeod Bethel-Thompson aren't legitimate backup options.

Harbaugh hinted the 49ers were exercising patience in addressing that area of the roster.

"Last week, you were in a panic over free agency," he said. "... You can see things change in a short time."

[StraightCash]

Love kaepernick. Hope he gets a chance to start and blows out all the first round reaches.

[serphnx]

lol he's injured too? The problems just keep coming for this guy!

I seriously think he might be out of the league after this year.

[visajets]

Downfield blocking.

[war ensemble]

Jim Harbaugh's just another alias of JETSFAN5180...

[stoicsentry]

Why would you need downfield blocking on a running team? Makes no sense!!!!!! Oh, wait...

[Barcs]

Downfield blocking.

Niners are going to the superbowl now.

[#27TheDominator]

Who needs linemen?

[Jetsfan80]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ms-silver_harbaugh_keeps_qb_smith_081111

Smith miraculously still behind center for Niners

By Michael Silver

Yahoo! Sports 51 minutes ago

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Of all the cutting-edge calls contained in the playbook Jim Harbaugh brought down the peninsula from Stanford to the head coach’s office at the San Francisco 49ers’ headquarters, none was more surprising than his decision to give Alex Smith a copy last April.

Now that was an audible. During this offseason of labor strife, the quarterback picked No. 1 overall in the 2005 NFL draft (now remembered not-so fondly in the Bay Area as the Aaron Rodgers(notes) Green Room Experience) and considered a goner last winter by every Smith in the San Francisco phone book – including himself – became the conduit between the franchise’s splashy coaching hire and the players with whom Harbaugh was prohibited from communicating.

As Smith said earlier this week from 49ers training camp, where he is still the team’s starting quarterback against all odds, “Yeah, who knew? It’s funny how things work out.”

The humor was lost on legions of frustrated 49ers fans, who lusted over Harbaugh’s collegiate success only to learn that the New Andrew Luck was the same old same old. To them, it was as if the spacey valet-parking dude who kept denting Escalades and Benzes had just been handed the keys to the whole hotel operation.

The lockout, which limited the team’s options, may have saved Smith’s job, but Harbaugh’s hand wasn’t entirely forced. Clearly, the new coach has a higher opinion of the maligned passer than virtually anyone in the region. Otherwise, during the brief period after the draft during which the lockout was lifted by court order (before being reinstated by an appellate court less than 24 hours later), Harbaugh wouldn’t have summoned the seventh-year free agent to Santa Clara, given him a crash course in his system and assembled a gift bag that included the playbook and video cut-ups, with an understanding that Smith would preside over the team’s players-only workouts during the labor dispute.

“Yeah, there was a bit of a leap of faith,” Harbaugh concedes. “But I knew there was a leap of faith that he was taking, too.”

Smith essentially committed to re-signing with the Niners despite the fact they had just traded up in the second round to draft their presumptive quarterback of the future, former Nevada star Colin Kaepernick(notes). It was the second time in three offseasons that Smith would return after relocation seemed a given. He took a vastly reduced, two-year deal following the 2008 season.

A year ago, Smith believed he was staring at his last chance to succeed in San Francisco. When he lost his job seven games into the season to Troy Smith(notes) (no relation), and again in late December after a two-game revival (coach Mike Singletary was fired days later), there wasn’t much sense in pretending. Asked about his future by reporters after leading San Francisco to a season-ending victory over the Cardinals, Smith said he wouldn’t rule out returning to the 49ers.

Afterward, Oakland Tribune columnist Monte Poole stopped Smith on the way to the parking lot and wondered whether he sincerely believed staying with the team was a possibility. Smith laughed and replied, “Are you being serious? Uh … no.”

Yet shortly after Harbaugh was hired, he and Smith met in his office and talked football, and a connection was formed. Harbaugh was impressed by Smith’s intelligence – “how book smart he was, and how football smart,” the coach recalls. Smith felt comfortable with Harbaugh’s candor and, oddly enough, his refusal to make any promises about Smith’s role.

Many coaches preach an allegiance to pure competition and claim that they’ll start the best player, period. For those of us who’ve known Harbaugh since his playing days, when he emerged from perceived mediocrity to Captain Comeback and nearly lead the Indianapolis Colts to the Super Bowl, he’s a lot more believable than most.

“There’s no ‘play the young guy,’ or ‘play the veteran,’ or ‘play the draft pick,’ ” Harbaugh insists. “You play whoever’s playing better, whoever’s practicing better, whoever gives the team the best chance to win. No games. No politics. Just play the best guy.”

Says Smith: “I definitely believe that. He’s been upfront from day one with me. No b.s. And I appreciate that.”

Given his strained relationship with former head coach Mike Nolan, the frequent benchings he endured during Singletary’s tenure and the steady stream of offensive coordinators who’ve messed with his mechanics and mind (including the disastrous Mike Martz training camp of ’08), it’s no wonder Smith says, “You get a little schizophrenic at times. I’ve been taught so many different ways to do things by so many different coaches.”

Smith knows he’ll have to convince his new coaches that he’s a better option than the mobile, strong-armed but obviously raw Kaepernick. Harbaugh believes that’s a healthy situation.

“I think quarterbacks in particular don’t want to be anointed,” the coach says. “I think they want to compete and make it clear-cut who the starter should be. They have something in ‘em that wants it to be earned. I think they relish that opportunity.”

Harbaugh, however, didn’t hesitate to anoint Smith as his de facto stand-in during the lockout. The quarterback organized and ran a pair of weeklong sessions at San Jose State that included the installation of part of the offense and film study of the workouts.

“It was different at first,” Smith says. “It was really weird. I mean, I’m the free agent, and I’m calling guys to get them together.”

Says Pro Bowl tight end Vernon Davis(notes): “He took on a lot of responsibility. He took us into the meeting rooms, went through the plays, kept us up to speed. So I came into training camp with some knowledge of the playbook – and I really appreciate that.”

How far did Smith take his coaching duties? “I had a fanny pack,” he says.

He was kidding – at least, I hope he was.

“A lot of players on this team saw the investment he was making, and that can only be a good thing,” 49ers general manager Trent Baalke says. “It’s called sweat equity, right? And he made a lot of it this summer.”

Whereas wideout Michael Crabtree(notes) openly questioned Smith’s hold on the starting spot in June (he was unavailable for comment earlier this week), two of the team’s other prominent pass-catchers seem highly supportive.

Braylon Edwards(notes) spent the previous two seasons with the New York Jets.

(AP Photo)

“I know exactly what he’s going through, because I faced a lot of the same things in Cleveland,” says newly signed wideout Braylon Edwards, who was drafted third overall – two spots behind Smith – by the Browns in ’05. “You get drafted high by a team that’s sub-average and struggles to win. There are huge expectations and you’re not fulfilling them.

“The fans get on you. It becomes nerve-wracking. You start doubting yourself and let outside opinions influence you, and you worry more than you should. My career kind of mirrors his, and I know he just needs a chance for consistency. And it seems like he’s finally getting a fair shot.”

Davis, who reportedly upbraided Crabtree for what he perceived as uneven effort in practice last September, believes that Smith, too, is in position to become more vocal with teammates.

“Alex was a leader all offseason,” Davis says. “He had to come into his own, and he did that. Now he just has to finish the process by getting it done on the field.”

That, says Smith, is the plan, assuming he can adapt to yet another system before the real games begin.

“I have to embrace it,” Smith says. “I have no choice. I’m trying to go all in with this – like I do every year.”

After an offseason like no other, we’ll soon see if Harbaugh’s unforeseen audible succeeds.

[Jetsfan80]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/08/11/SP0A1KLFCO.DTL

49ers: The Harbaughs and Edwardses go way back

Eric Branch, Chronicle Staff Writer

August 11, 2011 04:00 AM

Stan Edwards was among those who took notice when the 49ers hired Jim Harbaugh in January.

Sure, his son, Braylon, was busy playing wide receiver for the New York Jets, who were in the NFL playoffs. But Stan said he and his son casually considered a future in San Francisco.

"We talked about the Niners and Harbaugh when Jim first took the job out there and how wonderful it would be to play out there," Stan Edwards said.

Seven months later, Edwards is a 49er after signing with San Francisco last week. He acknowledges his family's three-decade-old connection with Harbaugh was a factor.

The tie that binds is the University of Michigan.

Stan Edwards was an all-Big 10 running back at Michigan from 1979-82. Harbaugh was an All-America quarterback at the school from 1983-86. Braylon Edwards followed with an All-American career in Ann Arbor from 2001-04.

Stan Edwards and Harbaugh were never teammates, but they first met over 30 years ago when Harbaugh's father, Jack, was an assistant coach at Michigan and Jim was a star quarterback at Pioneer High in Ann Arbor.

Harbaugh attended Michigan practices and Edwards, who played six seasons in the NFL, remembers the teenage quarterback's arm strength matching the Wolverines' signal-callers.

"Obviously we knew of each other because of Harbaugh Inc., and we'd like to think that the Edwards have a little piece of equity in Ann Arbor as well," Stan Edwards, who works in commercial real estate outside Detroit, said by phone Wednesday. "So the relationship between the Harbaughs and the Edwards goes way back. ... The respect I have for (Ravens head coach) coach John (Harbaugh), Jim and Jack is of the utmost."

Harbaugh speaks of "breathing the same air" as Braylon Edwards. In turn, Edwards acknowledges that.

"I know (Harbaugh's) mind-set, where he's come from and what has been embedded in him in college by his father, Bo Schembechler and the Michigan players and program," Edwards said. "So that was definitely a factor in why I came here. I saw the potential for change in this organization if people bought into the way he thinks and the way he coaches."

The late Schembechler, Michigan's coach from 1969-89, stressed personal accountability and integrity in addition to winning football games. Following Edwards' signing, Harbaugh said the Niners' new receiver needed to return to his college roots after a series of off-field transgressions, including drunken-driving and aggravated disorderly conduct convictions.

"We have a certain way of doing things in Ann Arbor and sometimes a lot of us like to go back to that when we have issues in our businesses and our personal lives," Stan Edwards said. "Those are the foundations that we were taught and if we get away from them sometimes it can cause us to take a left turn."

E-mail Eric Branch at ebranch@sfchronicle.com

This article appeared on page B - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle