Delanie Walker making a position change

According to part of the article that focused on the topic of Crabtree's sore feet, Delanie has lost weight to essentially focus solely on playing wide receiver. I know this move may not change too much, but this could be a significant deal.

Quote:
NOTES: How vigilant is minicamp organizer Alex Smith? Tight end Delanie Walker said he must have received 50 calls and texts from Smith imploring him to attend workouts. ... Walker lost 15 pounds from last season and expects to work more as a slot receiver this year.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/ninerinsider/detail?entry_id=90538#ixzz1Oe5HxA3F

Previously listed at 6-0 242, this would now put him at about 6-0 227, still a very big receiver, but likely more agile and probably at least a little faster as well. Considering how fast he already was at 242, that's scary -- in a good way. With little need for him be another blocking TE on plays or to play H-back since we have Byham, this move sort of makes sense.

I also believe that perhaps carrying around less weight could possibly help with the prevention of injury, like Walker has had at various points early in his career.

The only downside one could gather from this move is, perhaps this means the battle at WR will be tighter than we think if they consider Walker a good enough utility player to carry one less WR.

VD should play slot too.

He played WR in college

this is awesome, put delanie in the starting lineup with Gore, VD, etc..... and we have a good offense brewing.

maybe its me

but doesnt he have problems holding onto the ball?

Sounds good to me, considering he played wr in college and was not that good a blocker at TE.

Interesting. We've always moved him around a lot, and I know Harbaugh likes to use a ton of different looks, so this could work out very nicely.

Originally posted by ads_2006:
maybe its me

but doesnt he have problems holding onto the ball?

he definitely does

I'd love to see what Delanie would do in an andy reid/sean payton offense. People eriously underestimate him IMO because of how inept we've been on offense since he's been here, but I think he's a freak. 6'0 240, can run in the 4.5, and i know he fumbles here and there, he has great hands. shame we've had singletary and nolan to coach our weapons, hopefully harbaugh can use this guy like he should.

oh, i like the sound of this. D-Love is a playmaker.

I like it.

Mr. Fumbles

Originally posted by TheGoldenState:

Originally posted by ads_2006:
maybe its me

but doesnt he have problems holding onto the ball?

he definitely does

saints game

I am excited by this move. It shows that the coaching staff has the creativity to utilize the player strengths to create favorable mismatches. The staff took what he did best and now will ask him to do more of it. He's gone from being an undersized situational TE on passing downs to a big & fast WR to threaten defenses on a more regular basis. This is a good sign.

If Walker can run 4.47 at 242, he might be running in the 4.3s at 227! Pretty exciting for a guy who is probably the most natural RAC receiver on the roster.

The lockout needs to end soon so our coaching staff can really get to work!

Originally posted by FredFlintstone:

Originally posted by TheGoldenState:

Originally posted by ads_2006:
maybe its me

but doesnt he have problems holding onto the ball?

he definitely does

saints game