NFL News & Rumors Digest

Alex Smith doesn’t have to be concerned about the San Francisco 49ers creating a run at Peyton Manning, a team supply told NFL Network insider Jason La Canfora earlier this week, and Smith remains confident a new deal will get completed to maintain him in San Francisco.

“I feel so,” Smith told The Arizona Republic, through the Sacramento Bee, on Saturday. “It’s just a method. It takes some time. It will get carried out.”

Smith is set to become a totally free agent next Tuesday and is coming off the finest year of his profession, leading the 49ers to an NFC West title and a trip to the conference championship game. Smith, who threw for a career-high three,144 yards with 17 touchdowns to five interceptions in 2011, did not indicate disappointment that a new deal has not but been reached.

The Bee reported Wednesday that the Niners have an supply on the table for Smith, but the two sides at present can’t agree to the length of the contract nor the income involved.

“You know, it’s going. I’m not disappointed about something,” said Smith, although in Arizona for former Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner’s annual charity football game. “It type of is what it is right now. I’m not worried about something. I’ll just leave it at that.”

(About:) This report was distributed by Syndicated Sports news wire and aggregation service, For more NFL news see: Niners’ Smith on new contract: ‘It will get done’.

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The San Francisco 49ers denied secondary coach Ed Donatell permission to interview for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ vacant defensive coordinator position, according to a league supply.

Donatell is at least the third coaching candidate who has been blocked from speaking with Tampa Bay by present employers.

Previously, the Buccaneers had been denied permission to speak with the Packers’ Ben McAdoo, who was lately named Green Bay’s quarterbacks coach, and the Cardinals’ John McNulty, who was lately named Arizona’s quarterbacks coach. Tampa Bay had been thinking about McAdoo and McNulty to fill its offensive coordinator position.

On Friday, the team ended that search, hiring New York Giants quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan.

Comply with Jason La Canfora on Twitter @JasonLaCanfora

(About:) This post was distributed by Syndicated Sports news wire and aggregation service, For a lot more NFL news see: Bucs blocked from talking to Niners secondary coach Donatell.

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The pressure was on the San Francisco 49ers to find a quarterback this offseason to fill the team’s greatest need. They landed one Friday night.

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The San Francisco 49ers are moving swiftly under new coach Jim Harbaugh to find a quarterback now and for the future. The 49ers traded up in the second round Friday night to take Nevada quarterback Colin Kaepernick with the 36th overall pick in the NFL draft. They gave Denver their second-round (45th overall), third-round (108th) and fifth-round (141st) picks to move up.

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The San Francisco 49ers would welcome back quarterback Alex Smith and say it’s up to the 2005 No. 1 overall draft pick to decide if he wants to return.

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The San Francisco 49ers would welcome back quarterback Alex Smith if the 2005 first overall pick wants to return. General manager Trent Baalke said Wednesday that the 49ers have extended an “olive branch” to Smith to come back to the only NFL team he has ever known. All that started before the NFL locked out the players in the ongoing labor dispute.

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On Nov. 29, the news was grim for San Francisco 49ers running back Frank Gore when he went down with a hip injury. On Jan. 26, the news has become a bit brighter. According to Matt Barrows of the Sacarmento Bee, Gore is ahead of schedule in his rehab of a fractured hip. Barrows tweets that Gore has already been running for two weeks. He should be able to participate in offseason workouts and practices and should be ready to go full bore by the start of training camp — whenever that is.
Gore, who will turn 28 in May, injured the hip early in a Monday night game at Arizona and it cost him the final five games of the season. He finished 2010 with 1,305 yards from scrimmage and five total touchdowns — two receiving. Gore is scheduled to become a free agent after the 2011 season. FANTASY ANALYSIS: Gore’s yards-per-carry average fell back to 2007 territory of 4.2 after posting 4.9 in 2009. He’s missed at least two games in each of the past three seasons, but he’s still extremely valuable in fantasy because of his pass-catching skills. Despite missing five games, he still recorded his second-best receiving yardage total. New Niners head coach Jim Harbaugh said he wants to install a West Coast offense, which would be a definite fit for Gore. We’ll just have to see what quarterback will play alongside him next season. That will have a lot of influence on how I perceive Frank Gore in fantasy.

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The Cleveland Browns will have a new head coach, a new offensive coordinator, a new defensive coordinator, and a new special-teams coordinator in 2011. Joining Brian Daboll and Rob Ryan as former coordinators with the club is special-teams coordinator Brad Seely, who has taken the same position with the 49ers, according to multiple reports. Seely…

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