49ers Blog and Q&A

The 49ers added depth to what had been a shallow quarterback corps today by dealing two late-round picks to Cleveland for Browns quarterback Colt McCoy and a sixth-round pick, a league source confirmed. McCoy started 21 games in Cleveland in 2010 and 2011 but lost his starting job to first-round pick Brandon Weeden last year.

He was due to earn $1.5 million -- too much for the Browns, who also acquired quarterback Jason Campbell in free agency last week. The trade first was reported by CBS Sports.com.

McCoy now will battle Scott Tolzien for the right to back up Colin Kaepernick in the upcoming season. While Tolzien has yet to throw a pass in a regular-season game, McCoy, 26, has thrown 702 passes, completing 58.3 percent of them with 21 touchdowns against 20 interceptions. He has a career 74.8 passer rating.

Tolzien is a little taller than McCoy -- 6-3 vs. 6-1 -- but McCoy has more mobility. He rushed for 1,589 yards and scored 20 rushing touchdowns at the University of Texas and finished second to Sam Bradford for the Heisman Trophy in 2008. Tolzien, meanwhile, rushed for -9 yards overall at Wisconsin. Both players do not have strong arms and fall under the "game manager" category for quarterbacks.

McCoy was a third-round pick by the Browns in 2010. He missed three games that season with an ankle injury and the final three games of the 2011 after sustaining a concussion in a game against Pittsburgh. He is the second Texas-by-way-of-Cleveland product the 49ers have acquired this offseason. The team signed ex-Browns kicker Phil Dawson last month.

The 49ers dealt their fifth-round pick (no. 164 overall) as well as the earliest of four seventh-round picks (No. 227) to Cleveland. In return, the 49ers got McCoy and the Browns' sixth-round pick (No. 173 overall). The 49ers now have 13 total picks in this month's draft, and they still could take a quarterback. The only other passer they have looked at is free agent Pat White, who worked out for the team last week but left without a contract.

-- Matt Barrows

After the 2012 season ended, the 49ers made it clear to Alex Smith that they were not going to release him. Smith, in turn, made it clear to the team that he didn't want to be a backup quarterback. The only option left was a trade, and Smith today said he had no doubt where he wanted to go.

"It wasn't close," Smith said at his introductory press conference in Kansas City. "Everything pointed here for me, and I was excited about that, and I'm so thankful it worked out, thankful it got done."

New Chiefs coach Andy Reid said he followed Smith since the quarterback was at Utah under Reid's good friend Kyle Whittingham, who was then the team's defensive coordinator.

"When I was at Philadelphia, for whatever reason we seemed to play (the 49ers) every year, and I got to see him first hand," Reid said. "He was somebody if I had the chance, I would want on my team. So I did inquire about him periodically with the 49ers."

Smith will wear No. 11 for the Chiefs, and he'll run a West Coast offense like he did the last two years in San Francisco. Smith said he only arrived last night and has not had time to look at the playbook or to talk to new teammates, such as receiver Dwayne Bowe. He acknowledged that it was awkward to have known about the deal for two weeks and not been able to communicate with his new team. But he said quarterback buddies around the league all assured him he would love working with Reid.

"From all the quarterbacks I've ever known and have gotten to play for him, they only had good things to say," Smith said. "His pedigree, I think, speaks for itself."

Reid, meanwhile, made clear that Smith's intangibles were just as important as his on-field ability when it came to making the decision to trade with the 49ers.

"You'll find out in time what you've got here," Reid said. "From a coaching standpoint, what a tremendous addition to a locker room. He's a fine football player, but even a better person. That's welcome here - his leadership."

Reid even took it a step further.

While acknowledging former Chiefs quarterback Len Dawson at the press conference, he said he wanted to give the Chiefs another hall-of-fame passer. "We're going to work on getting Alex into the Hall of Fame," Reid said. "I'm privileged to be in a room with two great ones."

-- Matt Barrows

It's official ... sort of. The 49ers today announced two trades. One occurred yesterday when the team agreed to send the second of its two sixth-round picks to the Baltimore Ravens in exchange for receiver Anquan Boldin.

The second occurred last month, and it ends a roller coaster, eight-year run in San Francisco for Alex Smith, the player the 49ers chose No. 1 overall in 2005. The 49ers announced they received from Kansas City an "undisclosed" draft pick (it's the Chiefs' second-round selection, No. 34 overall) as well as a conditional pick in next year's draft. The trade won't be executed until Smith passes a physical.

"We would like to thank Alex for his contributions to the 49ers organization over the past eight years," general manager Trent Baalke said in a statement. "He is a true professional who represented the 49ers with class on and off the field."

Also: Smith shows that nice guys don't always finish last.

-- Matt Barrows

This wasn't the first time the 49ers tried to trade for Anquan Boldin.

Back in 2009, they dialed the Cardinals, who had the expensive problem of having both Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald on the roster, to see what Arizona was seeking for Boldin. The Cardinals, however, weren't willing to trade the big, bruising wideout in the division.

Soon after, the 49ers drafted Michael Crabtree, whom then-general manager Scot McCloughan said was the "closest thing I've seen to Anquan Boldin in college."

Said McCloughan on draft day of Crabtree: "He's got excellent hands, and he's got the physical attributes to play on the NFL level and to make plays. He's a highly competitive guy who's not afraid, whatsoever. There are faster guys in the draft, no doubt about it. There will be faster guys in the NFL. But he brings a unique quality to play physical and make plays on the NFL level."

Which raises a question: Can the 49ers prosper with two, similar starting wideouts, neither of whom is known for stretching defensive secondaries? Last year, Crabtree had a career-best season with fleet-footed Randy Moss - at the end of the season, anyway - opposite him. In Baltimore, Boldin was complemented by burners Torrey Smith and Jacoby Jones.

The situation certainly is not unprecedented. Fitzgerald isn't a track star, either, and he and Boldin were the NFL's top receiving tandem when they were in Arizona. The 49ers also have one of the fastest tight ends in the league, Vernon Davis, and surely will work in a third receiver - whether it's A.J. Jenkins or Kyle Williams or, eventually, Mario Manningham - who does have speed.

Boldin's role also is interesting to consider. Unlike Moss, he's an excellent blocker and has been one of the most physical wideouts in the NFL for the last decade. He's also made a career out of catching passes over and across the middle of the defense. (See: 2012 playoffs; opening-drive score in Super Bowl).

In that way, he acts a lot like a tight end. No, he's not as good a blocker as the 49ers' Delanie Walker, who is poised to test free agency. And Walker does not have Boldin's pass-catching prowess, as his multiple drops in 2012 illustrated. But you have to wonder whether Boldin could take over some of Walker's roles in the 49ers' offense should Walker land elsewhere.

-- Matt Barrows

If you can't beat him, trade for him.

That's what the 49ers did today with receiver Anquan Boldin, agreeing to send a sixth-round pick to Baltimore for the veteran wideout, who gave the 49ers fits in the Super Bowl. The Ravens were pressed against the salary cap and would have had trouble accounting for Boldin's $6 million salary.

The trade is pending a physical, which won't be completed until Boldin, 32, returns from a trip to Africa. By then, the 49ers ostensibly will have completed a deal to send Alex Smith to the Chiefs, giving them plenty of salary-cap space to accommodate the trade and Boldin's $6 million cap figure.

News of the deal was first reported by The Baltimore Sun. The 49ers do not comment on transactions until they are complete. However, quarterback Colin Kaepernick, appearing on NFL Live, said he welcomed another weapon to the offense. "We'll be happy to take him," Kaepernick said of Boldin.

The clamor for Darrelle Revis is almost as intense as it was for Nnamdi Asomugha two years ago. Would a healthy Revis improve the 49ers secondary? Of course he would. With apologies to Richard Sherman, Revis is the best cornerback in the league. But his health is not guaranteed in 2013 after Revis tore his ACL last year. Not every player has the Wolverine-like healing ability of Adrian Peterson.

The bigger question is whether the 49ers secondary needs to be upgraded. San Francisco allowed 200 passing yards a game during the regular season, which tied for third-best in the NFL.

Of course, that number jumped to 306 yards per game in the playoffs, and that's what's fresh in the mind of fans. There was poor communication between cornerback and safety that led to a long touchdown for the Falcons. And cornerback Chris Culliver had a terrible outing against the Ravens in the Super Bowl.