Patrick Willis will play for 49ers despite hand injury

NFL insiders hear so much information about team interests leading up to the NFL Draft, making it challenging to discern fact from fiction—or smoke screens. A few weeks before the draft, Tony Pauline of Sportskeeda reported an intriguing tidbit about a former Louisville running back—the San Francisco 49ers were not just interested, but very interested. Pauline took to social media to share that, according to what he was hearing, the 49ers had a third-round grade on Isaac Guerendo and were considering drafting him if he was still available at the end of the second day of the draft. Shortly afterward, Pauline's social media post mysteriously

San Francisco 49ers tackle Trent Williams has had ample time to reflect on the Super Bowl 58 defeat in Las Vegas. Looking back on his 2023 campaign, he refuses to label the season a failure, instead focusing on the positives of his team's valiant effort. "That's the biggest loss you can take, but at the end of the day, you look at it for what it is," Williams said on "The Shop" podcast, according to Tristi Rodriguez of NBC Sports Bay Area. "I'm a realist. There were two teams left out of 32 teams. Two teams fighting for that one trophy. Yeah, it sucks, but you got to look back and say, at the end of the day, it was a successful season. I used to think,

Former NFL quarterback Alex Smith, who spent his first eight seasons with the San Francisco 49ers, joined Bay Area radio station KNBR on Friday morning and was asked about the team's current signal-caller, Brock Purdy. Smith also spent five seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs. During his last season there, he helped mentor a young quarterback by the name of Patrick Mahomes, who went on to win three Super Bowls. While Mahomes is widely seen as the best quarterback in the NFL, Smith does see at least one similarity between Purdy and the Chiefs' star. "Both these guys are football players," Smith said on the "Murph and Markus" show. "These guys are just tough, do whatever it takes to win. They love the moment. That's what's so rare, certainly about Pat,

The San Francisco 49ers selected wide receiver Jacob Cowing in the fourth round of the draft, adding him to a wideout group that includes Brandon Aiyuk, Deebo Samuel, Jauan Jennings, and first-round pick Ricky Pearsall. Following his selection, Cowing spoke with reporters and revealed his admiration for a receiver within the division—Seattle Seahawks veteran Tyler Lockett—whom he's modeled his game after. "As I was growing up on my football journey, I looked at Tyler Lockett a lot," Cowing told reporters via Zoom. "Very similar in stature. I kind of resembled my game after him a