49ers modify offer to Crabtree

The 49ers have apparently modified their initial contract offer to rookie Michael Crabtree, according to Michael Silver.

A
team source says the 49ers are willing to give Crabtree incentives that
push the deal “up to a dollar less” than the package the Packers gave
ninth overall pick B.J. Raji (a reported five-year, $28.5 million pact
with just under $18 million in guaranteed money), “but we won’t go over
that. Otherwise, we’re going to have the same problem next year, and
the year after that …” Team president Jed York, general manager Scot
McCloughan and Singletary are uniformly supportive of holding the line,
even if it means losing out on Crabtree altogether. They also
rightfully believe that, with each missed game, his value to them (for
this season, at least) is decreased on a prorated basis. (Translation:
The team just reduced its offer, and it will continue to do so with
each passing week.)

And if that doesn’t scare Crabtree away, ESPN’s Adam Schefter is reporting that Crabtree has left the Bay Area.
Crabtree had been somewhere in the Bay Area throughout training camp,
but with his departure, it looks a lot less likely that Crabtree will
ever sign.

In doing the math, that means Crabtree will lose a $200,000 check every week he misses with the team.
The 49ers don’t look like they will even consider raising the price on
the contract. And if Crabtree does sit out the whole year, the 49ers
will be OK moving on without him.

===

CB Walt Harris made an appearance in Santa Clara. He said that
he plans to return next year, saying that he did not want his career to
end with an injury.Harris’ contract is up at season’s end.

According to head coach Mike Singletary, WR Brandon Jones will get practice time this week and might be back for Sunday.

Also
from the head coach, T Tony Pashos will get opportunities to practice
this week and there might be a chance he could play Sunday.

===

Head coach Mike Singletary spoke to the media in Monday’s conference.

Singletary
had high praise for many of his defensive players. He also mentioned T
Tony Pashos and how he might be worked into the mix this week. Also, WR
Brandon Jones will practice with the team as well.

Singletary also talks about his encounter with rookie referee Don Carey and his thoughts on the Crabtree situation

Here is the full transcript of the conference:

Opening Statements:
“First
of all, it was great to go on the road in a very hostile environment,
and win a football game against a good football team. I think
offensively, if you were to draw it up and say, you’re going to get 30
yards rushing and try to find a way to win the football game - I find
it hard to do. But, that’s kind of what we ended up doing. I think one
of the things that really helped us is, we did not turn over the
football. We managed to hold the football for the most part. We didn’t
have penalties on offense - or I think one maybe. Overall, I think we
did those things well.

I think the best thing that happened
offensively in the game is, obviously, the fourth quarter. When you’re
back is against the wall, you’ve got to go 80 yards and score a
touchdown and give us a chance to go up by four. We made plays, [QB]
Shaun [Hill] did a good job. Everybody just kind of settled down - the
offensive line, the running backs, the receivers, tight ends - and just
put a solid drive, just took it down the field. I think that’s
something that no one really expected. But, they really did it when
they had to do it, and that’s the sign of something special. That’s
something that we can build on on offense.

I thought Shaun did
a good job for the most part in his first game, first start on the
road, managing the game, taking what the defense was giving him. I
thought [TE] Vernon [Davis] was a big part of some of the success that
we had in throwing the ball, and Shaun connecting with him. [WR] Isaac
Bruce and [WR] Josh Morgan, I thought, stepped up and made some
critical plays, as did [WR] Arnaz [Battle], did a nice job.

Our
offensive line, for a number of reasons, did not play great. I think
the penetrating defense that we knew about going in, I think the noise
was a bigger factor than we anticipated. I think it got to our guys
early on, and kind of threw us off track. But, we were able to put it
together in that 15-play drive. Obviously, we’re going to have to play
much better on our offensive line, and we will. We’re going to do
whatever we have to do to make sure that our identity is intact. We
want to run the football when we need to run the football, and there
were a couple of times in the football game that we didn’t need to let
our defense get back on the field, and we did. Good football teams
can’t do that.

Defensively, I thought we played relentless
defense. I thought we went out and we did the things that we thought we
needed to do in order to win the football game. I thought our DBs
challenged their wide outs. We got our hands on them. We were physical
with them. We took away the timing that [QB] Kurt Warner had with his
wide outs. That was a big part of it, which gave our pass rush time to
get there. So, that really worked out well.

When you look at our
defense, I think [DE] Justin [Smith] just kept coming. Justin did a
great job in the game. When you look at our defensive line, he is the
guy you see most of the time getting around Warner, getting him to
move, getting hands in his face. I thought [LB] Patrick Willis did a
great job. He was everywhere. He got the one pick, had a tremendous
drop in coverage and just picked it off - very well played.

Defensively
on the back end, I just thought the guys were exceptional. Our DBs were
exceptional in terms of doing what they had to do. That was a
tremendous challenge for them and winning the game and did a great job.

Other guys to be mentioned, [LB] Parys [Haralson] - just a
constant thorn in the side. [LB] Manny Lawson, it was nice to see him
take a step up in this game, very excited to see that.

Special
teams, I think [KR Allen] Rossum, we have a good guy to return the
ball. We need to do a better job of blocking for him, giving him a
chance to break some free. I think we’re close in a few areas, but it
just didn’t happen. We’re going to have to get back on track. Rossum is
just going to have to take it and go, just hit it. We’ll be more
disciplined in those areas.

Against the field goal blocks, I
thought we were very close on a couple of those. Manny Lawson, a couple
of times there, he and [DT] Ray [McDonald], it just went right between
their hands, and we’ll do a better job in those areas overall.

Injury-wise,
basically, we come out of the game pretty much injury free, with the
exception of the bumps and bruises that you saw - the physicality of
the game. Guys were limping around and had headaches and all these
other kinds of things, but for the most part, no one has to be
concerned about not playing this week. So, we’re good in that area.
There could be a possibility of getting [WR] Brandon Jones back this
week. We’re going to put a jersey on him and let him go out and run
around and we’ll see how he does this week. But, there’s a good chance
of getting him back. [LB] Ahmad [Brooks], we’re just going to continue
to play that by ear and just see how he does and how he feels.

Yes,
it was indeed an ugly game, but it was beautiful to see our guys
continue to fight, persevere, work through the adversity, work through
the issues, work through the noise - work through all of the stuff -
and come out with a win. I think the biggest thing we did was we stayed
together. We hung together. We fought together - and we ended up
winning together.”

On whether he would want to pass more earlier on in the game to take advantage of the defense playing against the run:
“I
think in talking to [Offensive Coordinator Jimmy] Raye, there were some
things that he would do a little differently in this game and I think
hindsight is always 20/20. He still has to get a feel for - it’s the
first live game, bullets are flying - Coach Raye has to get a feel for
what this offense really can do. We know we can run the ball, it’s just
a matter of executing it. It’s a matter of making sure we get the
calls, but in that environment we’ve got to a better job. Noise is
going to be a factor when we are on the road, it’s as simple as that.
We will work through that. The biggest thing that we want to do
obviously is to continue to move the chains as well as take care of the
football. That gives us a chance to be in the football game, just take
care of the football. If we can do that - no, you don’t like to punt,
but you’d much rather punt than to try to force something, make
something happen that’s not there. I think that’s the best thing that
we can do and I think this first game here, just gave Jimmy what we can
do and what we need to work on, so it’s a good gauge to look at this
game and kind of go from there.”

On whether he thinks an
offensive line that is playing as well as it can, can still beat a
defense that is stacking against the run:
“There are
certain things that you have to do offensively. I’ll let Coach Raye
speak for himself sometime this week. It’s a chess game, a cat and
mouse game, however you want to look at it. If they are going to put
eight in the box that means that they can’t cover as well outside. So
we just have to play that game. Coach Raye was getting in the flow and
doing the things that we needed to do, but being on the road, I think
we just kind of wanted to stay with what we had and just be patient.
That was the big word that we had to use going into this game, let’s be
patient. Let’s not lose it here, particularly on the road, in the noise
and everything else. Let our defense play, let us make plays when they
are there and that’s how we are going to win the football game.”

On whether there are any plans to work[T Tony Pashos in at right tackle this week:
"There
may be some work this week, possibly he and [T Adam] Snyder splitting
some snaps or something like that, just to kind of get a feel for where
he’s at and get a look at what he can do, but Snyder is going to
continue to work at it, but obviously we want to get a chance to look
at Pashos as well, see what he can do.”

On whether the
two offensive linemen that missed practice time due to injury, G David
Baas and T Adam Snyder, were as sharp as he wanted them to be:
“I
think Baas missed a little more time than Snyder, but no they weren’t
as sharp as you would like for them to be, but I don’t think anybody
was as sharp as you wanted them to be in this game. Offensively,
particularly on the offensive line, the kind of pressure that they were
exerting early on in the game is just one of those things that you have
to work through and until you see it, we are going to see that a number
of times this year and we’ll do a better job dealing with it as we go
forward.”

On the dynamics of the 12 men on the field call and when he called the timeout to talk to the defense:
“First
of all, with the 11 men on the field, I think the referees saw that
there were three guys back rather than two. Rather than counting all
the other guys, the natural thing was, ‘Well, there’s an extra guy on
the field. So that’s 12 guys.’ It was just a mistake on their behalf. I
think that can happen in any game. I think it was important to make
sure that we caught it and we challenged it and obviously won. So that
was all it was. The other thing when the other guys were out there
playing, obviously Arizona had the momentum. You want to be wise with
the timeouts, but at the same time, for me, I know what it’s like when
you are on the field and you just need somebody, you just need a break
somewhere. Just give me one breath, one minute and let me get my
thoughts back. Let us kind of regroup and we can get it done because I
knew we were playing well and I didn’t want us to lose sight of that
and kind of get a look at their eyes and make eye contact and let them
know, ‘You can do this. I know you’re tired. I appreciate what you are
doing, but guys let’s finish,’ and that’s what they did.”

On whether he had a conversation with referee Don Carey at halftime:
“Yes.”

On what was said during that conversation:
“You
don’t want to know what it was, but it was very positive. He may not
say that. Really what it came down to was, when you are making calls
out there, have someone over there near me that can relay some kind of
information and I’ll be fine and that’s basically what we talked about
and it happened in the second half. It worked out a lot better.”

On how much the team needed that victory as validation for what they’ve been doing over the last six weeks:
“I
think we need every win. I’ll put it this way, you can say that about
everything that you do. You’ve got a scientist trying an invention.
You’ve got a legislature trying a new budget. The first thing, it’s
out, it doesn’t work, what happened? Everybody jumps on them, but I
don’t ever think about that kind of stuff. I know that what I’m doing
is right, so I don’t question myself and you just go forward and if you
don’t win this game, it’s not the end of the world, you’ve got 15 more.
The most important thing is you continue to build, sometimes you can
lose a game, but you gain something. I think the most important thing
is - our guys see the film. They know what kind of shape they are in.
They know the kind of camp they went through, but they hung together
and it’s not all just a training camp, it’s not all the work we’ve
done, it’s them too. We’ve got a lot of good guys on this football team
that just happen to be good football players and we just have to get
better.”

On the aggressiveness of the secondary playing against Arizona:
“I
just think that we were trying to mix it up.  It wasn’t just press, it
wasn’t just zone. I think we were trying to keep Kurt Warner from
getting in sync because that’s the thing that he will kill you with
whether you are playing man or zone. Once he knows what the coverage is
and takes the thought process out of it, he’s going to find someone
open.  We just felt that if we could mix the coverages up and let our
guys get off of the ball up front that we had a chance to have some
success.”

On whether they will continue to use earplugs at practice to simulate the effect of crowd noise:
“I’m
going to sit down and talk with the coaches and the players and just
get a feel on whether they thought that was helpful or if they want to
have the noise boxes out there again. Whatever works. If they say that
they want the noise boxes out there, they will be out there. [If] they
say that the earplugs work, or that they need more of the earplugs,
then we will do that. It just a matter of conversation then we’ll go
from there.”

On whether the crowd noise was the main factor for the offensive lines performance:
“No.
What it was that sometimes on the offensive line it’s extremely
important that they hear each other and the communication of ‘I’m going
to block this guy,’ if I don’t hear a call. I’m still over here
focusing on this guy and I need to be focusing on the guy over there.
If you don’t hear those calls it makes you look like you have no clue
on what the heck you’re doing and it looks really bad. What happens is
that you begin to lose confidence sometimes and the frustration sets in
and then it’s like ‘man, what can we do.’ So, I just think that it’s
one of those things that we have to address. If we have to spend more
time on whether it’s the earplugs, the noise boxes or whatever it is,
and work it out, work it through. That was our first game of the
season, on the road in that environment. That was probably the best
thing for us, we will address it and we will go forward.”

On whether the problems on the offensive line were solely based on miscommunication:
“That
wasn’t all of it. Sometimes the guys were just coming off of the ball.
Don’t let me paint for one second that’s an excuse for us not playing
well. We got our tails kicked up front, it’s as simple as that. So, I
won’t go there saying ‘well, it was…’ no, I won’t do that. We did not
play well and we got our tails kicked, I will say that, but we will get
better. Our offensive line, at some point in time this year, will be
one of the better offensive lines in the league but [in] this game,
[they] did not play well.”

On whether the team sent a letter to Michael Crabtree concerning modifying his contractual offer:
“I
think that this time in the year that may be the case. I’m not sure
since I didn’t want to hear about it anymore since after last Friday I
said ‘hey, do what you all have to do I’m focused over here.’ So I
don’t know if the letter has actually been sent, I know that we’ve
talked about it, but at this point the whole Michael Crabtree thing -
you know what I’m going to say: it’s over there and I’m going to focus
right here. We’ve got our hands full, as you can see, with the 53 [man
roster] that we have. “