49ers Blog and Q&A

Not only has Alex Smith not thrown a ball in nearly two weeks, he hasn't even lifted his right arm over his head. The strategy is to keep his injured shoulder as immobile as possible for two weeks - which will be this Sunday - and then re-examine it at that point. Smith said that examination could occur Monday or Tuesday. He is contemplating a return trip to Birmingham, Ala. to visit Dr. James Andrews or he could possibly fly to Los Angeles to meet with a doctor there that Andrews recommended. The visit will be an important one - the results could determine whether Smith plays again this season or possibly whether he will have surgery to reattach the ligaments between his collarbone and shoulder.

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For those sad few that won't be able to watch the Packers-Cowboys game tonight, here are the draft-worthy players to keep an eye on in the Louisville-Rutgers game. As always, these are just the seniors, hence there is no Ray Rice ...

Rutgers
Eric Foster DT
Jeremy Zuttah T

Louisville
#82 Gary Barnidge TE
#12 Brian Brohm QB
#85 Harry Douglas WR
#78 Breno Giacomini T
#11 Malik Jackson OLB
(For what it's worth, I thought Douglas looked particularly good in the game against Wva. earlier this year.)

The 49ers love to draft players from the SEC. So on Saturday, I thought we'd go with the SEC Championship game between LSU And Tennessee.

LSU
Glenn Dorsey DT
Early Doucet WR
Matt Flynn QB
Jacob Hester FB/RB
Arlington Highsmith OLB
Chevis Jackson CB
Craig Steltz SS
Keith Zinger TE

Tennessee
Erik Ainge QB
Chris Brown TE
Xavier Mitchell DE
Eric Young T

And finally, I'm closing the P Willy Nickname Challenge as of this afternoon. I've received more than 250 submissions, some of them great, some of them OK, and many of them just really, really horrible. I'm thinking that I will pick the top 5, put them to an on-line vote and let the people decide. More on that later. In the meantime, here's a small sampling of the submissions I received. I've withheld names in order to spare some people public ridicule.

1. Patrick "The Machine" Willis
2. Mississippi Mayhem
3. Mississippi Vice
4. Boss Hog (did he play at Arkansas?)
5. The Destroyer
6. The Annihilator
7. The Hit Man
8. Patrick "The Pain Train" Willis
9. Fast Willy
10. Slick Willy
11. Cyborg
12. The Fog (Phonetically, I'm not sure this will work in SF)
13. Patackling Machine
14. The "Heat-Seeking Missile"
15. The Widow Maker
16. 'pshyco patrick'
17. The Hammer (multiple submissions)
18. Patrick "The Road Block" Willis.
19. Will-do
20. Will-power
21. Marshall Will
22. Patrick "the UFO" Willis (huh?)
23. Patrick "The Stalker" Willis
24. Pit Bull Willis (let's hope he never plays Michael Vick)
25. The Red Barron
26. Shock and Awe
27. Shock and Awesome (see what they did here!)
28. Patrick "The Quiet Storm" Willis
29. Wolverine Willis
30. The Patty Wagon
31. Beowillis
32. Sir Patrick
33. 52-pickup
-- Matt Barrows