Darius Fleming, Trenton Robinson and Cam Johnson

The most intriguing player from this trio is Fleming. If he is healthy again, he has a good a chance as any of these three to grab a roster spot. Since he got injured so early in camp, he should be ready for minicamps and OTA's to show what he is all about.

Robinson made the 53 man roster, but I can't remember him doing anything special during preseason or training camp. Johnson just hung around long enough on the practice squad to get picked up when Haggans got hurt. These guys may or may not make it.

Originally posted by tatdwolf49:

Haralson is a waste of good money N a spot don't even remember tha last time I've seen him make a difference in a play or game

Lol, woow. I don't know bout post-injury but pre-injury wow.

Originally posted by m_brockalexander:
The most intriguing player from this trio is Fleming. If he is healthy again, he has a good a chance as any of these three to grab a roster spot. Since he got injured so early in camp, he should be ready for minicamps and OTA's to show what he is all about.

Robinson made the 53 man roster, but I can't remember him doing anything special during preseason or training camp. Johnson just hung around long enough on the practice squad to get picked up when Haggans got hurt. These guys may or may not make it.

It's really strange that Baalke picked so many players last draft that needed to add bulk/get stronger. Robinson and Johnson were two of them, IIRC.

It's like every rookie needed to add bulk or got injured and that's why the class didn't have any impact (outside James... who was one that was supposed to add bulk ).

Fleming is the only guy I see that maybe will some playing time.

Originally posted by NCommand:

I see a serious battle this year with Spillman, Culliver and Robinson as well as Fleming/Johnson. Then you add additional draft picks to this mix and you've got a fight on your hands and competition at the highest level and Baalke/Harbaugh are all about, best-man-wins. Period. This will be one of the most intriguing camps yet given the few real holes we have and ALL of the battles within!

As to your original question, absolutely, any of these guys have the talent to not only take the reigns but IMPROVE our defense next year.

I do believe these guys will have a great chance to see what they can do this off-season. May the best guy step up and take those spots!

Originally posted by smithc28:

Do we see them move into bigger roles for this team in 2013?

Trenton Robinson is getting a few mentions since Goldson has left but this guy was a 3rd round grade for a lot of experts that we picked up in the 6th round. He's had a year to settle in, learn the NFL and learn from Goldson, is it possible that he could be our starter at FS and Dahl was just brought in as backup in case he wasn't as good as predicted?

Fifth-round draft pick Darius Fleming suffered an ACL tear within the first 10 minutes of the team's rookie minicamp in May and was lost for the season. A lot of mocks have us taking OLB in the 4th and 5th rounds, why? We already have one he was just injured, he's been sat in classrooms all year learning game tapes and what to look for. Darius could step up and offer rotation for Brooks and Smith. He's had a year to learn game tapes, style etc

Cam Johnson 7th round pick but predicted to go between 3rd and 5th rounds. He's believed to have dropped because of a sickle cell trait which can be damaging to a player in physical exertion. This one improved a lot last season moving from practice squad to being suited and replacing a tired Aldon Smith at the end of the season. Another for OLB rotation maybe?


I'm just bringing these guys up as there was a lot of hype about them last year when they were drafted and all of a sudden mock drafts galore have us taking a Free Safety and an OLB. Baalke doesn't like starting rookies we know that so what if the next round of starters are already on the roster?

Baalke doesn't decide who starts. With that being said, nice post. I agree and gives me more reason to believe, like in the past couple of drafts, we haven't a clue what will happen and that's the way we want our offseason to seem, to all other teams, unpredictable. Love it.

Hopefully Fleming is Healthy and Trenton can play! If these twon can contribute this 2013 season, it will give us Huge Depth

Isn't Robinson a midget? If so whitner and Robinson would be terrible combo. As it sits right now I think spill man is the guy easily over robinson

Originally posted by fan49:

Isn't Robinson a midget? If so whitner and Robinson would be terrible combo. As it sits right now I think spill man is the guy easily over robinson

Yeah he's 5'10 but quite a few free safeties are around that height. But that's what I mean, we keep looking in the draft or at FA for players when they could already be on the roster. Only player I can think of that was drafted and was immediate starter at his position in the last couple of years was Bruce Miller. So why would we look for immediate starters in the draft when history shows they are bit part players for the first season and contribute more or become starters in their second season.

These guys will have some competition with the rookies

Originally posted by Phoenix49ers:

Originally posted by tatdwolf49:

When hasn't he been injured say what u will but let tha rookies N 2nd yr guys fight it out they're probably hunger N want it more ...

I hate when people say something just to say something and completely ignoring reality in the process.

Tha reality is we're pay a Guy almost 3mill to be a backup that hasn't shown he's worth it yet we ask manningham to take a bigg pay cut when manningham did more to help us then haralson has done in his 7yrs with us

Let's face it. We just don't know much o nothing about some of the backups. We are not there to see how they are developing every day... so we are left in the dark to wonder and speculate. Yay for forums to do that on, right? Some of the FAs we are bringing in to look at leave me less assured that HarBaalke are sold on the progression of our backup safeties... but whateverz.. So far, I don't have any major gripes about our FA.

My hope was with Flemming, He was a really good linebacker at ND. Matter of fact he was a stud. He is a year removed from his injury and should be ready to go. Robinson always will have the Bob Sanders stigma to me. Talented player but undersized, how long he can hold up is a question. He looks so small, but he has a bunch of talent. I think flemming can be really good for us.

It'll be a straight competition. If Robinson beats out Dahl, Spillman, and whomever we draft in the early rounds, then he'll be the starter. If he lags behind and Seely doesn't see him as a valuable STer, he may get cut. No sentiment or entitlement based on the fact that he was a draft pick.

Same thing with Fleming and Johnson. I could see Johnson staying on the PS again this year, and Fleming getting the 4th OLB spot. Or I could see us cutting Haralson and drafting an OLB in the first five rounds to compete with Fleming, and bringing in a vet option as well.

Looking at the holes on our roster, it is clear that we're drafting for more than just depth: TE, WR, DE, NT, FS, and K all have chances to be on the 45, a few maybe even to start, and depth at OLB, CB, and RB could find themselves on the 45 as well.

I'm on record as saying Robinson comes out of camp as #1 FS. Fleming and Johnson will also compete well for backup/depth spots. Who knows what Haralson will look like after his injury? Haggans? Grant? Gooden? Grant is the only one I'd bring back of those 3. Get young, get healthy, get competitive - win a few Super Bowls. There's a lot more depth on this roster already than most people realize. The biggest issue is that most of us haven't seen anything more than some practice tape and/or a few in-game snaps. Let's get through the Draft, OTAs, Mini camps and maybe 2 weeks of pre-season before we all go nuts, okie dokie?