49ers GM Trent Baalke admits that his offseason plans were complicated by not knowing whether Anthony Davis would come back.
“We went into it thinking, ‘You know what, if he does choose to come back it’s a bonus, but we can’t count on that,’ ” Baalke said (via Matt Maiocco of CSNBayArea.com). “It did influence some of our decisions.”
Overall, Baalke says he’s “very happy” with Davis and the way he has conducted himself since returning to the team. That’s a serious 180 from where things were just a few months ago when Davis was attacking SF via social media.
Here’s more on the Niners:
- New 49ers quarterback Christian Ponder was pondering a future without football when he got the call from San Francisco, Maiocco writes. “That crossed my mind,” said Ponder, 28, when asked if he thought he might not get another chance to play football. “My plan was to stay ready for this season anyway and see what happens. If nothing happened all year, it would be time to hang it up. I was going to give myself this season and see what happens.”
- 49ers rookie Joshua Garnett is playing “catch up” thanks to an NFL rule which prohibits rookies from joining their team’s offseason program until their school year has concluded, Baalke says (link via Maiocco). Stanford is on the quarters system and finishes later than most schools, so Garnett did not meet up with his teammates until the final minicamp in June. To aid his development, the 49ers will keep Garnett at left guard – his position at Stanford – instead of the right side as initially planned. Garnett also took a little extra time to sign his rookie deal as the two sides only finalized the contract in late July.
- On Wednesday, PFR’s Connor Byrne recapped the 49ers’ offseason and the next step of their rebuilding phase.