49ers Blog and Q&A: Late cuts: 49ers eyeing their practice squad

49ers Blog and Q&A

News, notes and reader questions about the San Francisco 49ers

• Ask Matt a 49ers question

August 31, 2012

Late cuts: 49ers eyeing their practice squad

The 49ers are engaging in a bit of gamesmanship.

All the players who were released on the eve of the 6 p.m. cut-down deadline appear to be earmarked for the practice squad. That group includes safety Michael Thomas, wide receiver Nathan Palmer, offensive linemen Al Netter and Mike Person and inside linebacker Michael Wilhoite.

The team has yet to send out the full list of the players that have been released. All 32 teams can start signing the players that were cut today at 9 a.m. Saturday, at which point they also can begin building their eight-man practice squads. The 49ers' strategy - as well as that of several other teams - appears to be to give their competitors as little time as possible to evaluate recently released players.

The 49ers are poised to enter the season with eight offensive linemen after having nine on the 53-man roster a year ago. They are: Joe Staley, Mike Iupati, Jonathan Goodwin, Alex Boone and Anthony Davis. The backups would be Leonard Davis, Daniel Kilgore and draft pick Joe Looney.

Person was a seventh-round draft pick in 2011. He made the final roster a year ago but was not active for any of the games. He can play both tackle and guard, and the 49ers intend to sign him to the practice squad if he clears waivers. The 49ers plan to do the same with Netter, an undrafted player out of Northwestern, who can play tackle and guard.

-- Matt Barrows

About Comments

Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.

What You Should Know About Comments on Sacbee.com

Sacbee.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. (See our full terms of service here.)

Here are some rules of the road:

• Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "report abuse" button to notify the moderators. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.

• Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.

• Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.

• Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand. If you want to discuss an issue with a specific user, click on his profile name and send him a direct message.

• Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.

• Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.

• Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.

• Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.

You should also know that The Sacramento Bee does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "report abuse" button to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at feedback@sacbee.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.

If you submit a comment, the user name of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them, but you may ask our staff to retract one of your comments by sending an email to feedback@sacbee.com. Again, make sure you note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us your profile name.

blog comments powered by Disqus

FOLLOW US | Get more from sacbee.com | Follow us on Twitter | Become a fan on Facebook | Get news in your inbox | View our mobile versions | e-edition: Print edition online | What our bloggers are saying

Please use the form below to submit your question. Because there is a 100-word limit for questions, a word counter is located directly beneath the box where you enter the your question.