Early reports on Monday stated that Mike Nolan would be fired as head coach of the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday after they play the Seattle Seahawks. Now it appears that Nolan has been fired this afternoon and that Mike Singletary will be the interim head coach.

Nolan was 18-37 as head coach of the 49ers. Not what management was expecting when they hired Nolan. Nolan was in the fourth year of a five-year, $8.5 million contract. Nolan will always be remembered for wanting to draft Alex Smith who the 49ers did draft but later turned out to be a bust. The busy of Smith sure didn’t help Nolan out that is for sure.

Now the 49ers will see what Singletary can do for the team. Maybe a change at the top will help the team get going and start winning some games. What does everyone thing?

Shortly after announced the team cut players to get down to the 53 man limit, the 49ers signed Ahmad Brooks off of the waiver wire. To make room for Brooks on the roster, they released Dontarrious Thomas.

Brooks was a third round draft pick by the Cincinnati Bengals in the 2006 draft. Many people around the league said that Brookes had first round play making capabilities but he did have some character issues that caused his draft stock to drop. He played in 11 games as a rookie and just two last season due to a torn groin muscle.

The 49ers named RB Thomas Clayton, DL Atiyyah Ellison, TE J.J. Finley, LB Larry Grant, DL Louis Holmes and WR Dominique Zeigler to the practice squad. The team has two practice squads remaining to fill.

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The San Francisco 49ers have trimmed down their roster to get to the 53 man limit. Transactions could still happen however so even though a player made the cut, they could see themselves being cut or moved to the practice squad if management picks up another player via the waiver wire.

Players that did not make the cut:

WR Ashley Lelie
WR Jerard Rabb
WR Cam Colvin
WR Dominique Zeigler
WR Robert Ortiz
RB Thomas Clayton
FB Moran Norris
TE J.J. Finley
OG Brian de la Puente
OT Alan Reuber
OT Joe Toledo
OT Chris Patrick
DE Walter Curry
NT Atiyyah Ellison
DE LaJuan Ramse
DE Louis Holmes
LB Larry Grant
LB Dennis Haley
CB Markus Curry
S D.J. Parker
K/P Ricky Schmitt

OLB Jay Moore was also added to the injured reserved and will be out for the season. This was the second straight season that Moore was injured in the last preseason game of the year and will have to miss another full season.

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The San Francisco 49ers have signed another wide receiver.  Bryant Johnson is the newest member of the 49ers after agreeing to a one year contract with the team.

Even with the Johnson signing I expect the 49ers to draft atleast one receiver, and probably two of them in the upcoming NFL draft.

The 49ers also made a move by cutting Darrel Jackson off the roster.  Jackson was thought to be a great signee during last off season but he never did anything for the team after putting up good numbers with the Seattle Seahawks.

The San Francisco 49ers have cut ties with veteran quarterback Trent Dilfer.  Dilfer wouldn’t have seen as much as action that he did last year if Alex Smith would not have got hurt.  The 49ers would rather go with a younger group of qb’s and must not feel that Dilfer is that great of a teacher for the young guys to keep him around.

The 49ers have also signed wide receiver Bryant Johnson.  Terms of the deal have not been released as of Friday morning.

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The San Francisco 49ers are hitting the free agent market hard this offseason and really spending the dollars to show for it.  On Friday, the 49ers signed Isaac Bruce and Justin Smith to multi-year  contracts for total of $52 million dollars.

Bruce signed a two year contract and will be paid $6 million.  He will make $4 million of that in 2008 and $2 million in 2009.  He can still play the game even though he is getting up there in age.  He can also help out some of the younger receivers to get better.  It doesn’t hurt that his ex headcoach Mike Martz is on the 49ers staff either.

Justin Smith is a big time signing for the 49ers.   Smith was the fourth overall pick in the 2001 draft to the Cincinnati Bengals.  He has played all 16 games every year of his career except his rookie year when he only played in 15.  That is great production year in and year out.  I think he will really help out the 49ers defensive line, and get pressure on the quarterback.  Smith will be paid $45 million dollars with $20 million of that being guranteed money.

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The San Francisco 49ers have signed DeShaun Foster to a two year contract that will be worth $1.8 million dollars.  Foster will serve as the primary backup at the running position.  Frank Gore is still the number one guy, and unless he get hurt, Foster will just be used as a backup every game.

Foster is a better option then Michael Robinson or Mark Clayton so I like this signing.  Foster is capable of having some nice runs and I think he will fit into the offense nicely.

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Isaac Sopoaga and the San Francisco 49ers have agreed and signed a new five year contract.  Sopoaga will earn between 15-20 million dollars in the deal I believe.  That is a lot of money for a player that hasn’t contributed too much with the team, but he does help out in the 3-4 defense.

With the 49ers on the heels of a couple of free agent defensive linemen, they could really be spending a lot of money on the defensive side of the ball in the next week or so.  C’mon down Lance Briggs!

After losing his starting role with the 49ers, Derek Smith has  now been released by the 49ers.  Smith had signed a three year contract before the 2006 season, and was on pace to earn $3.28 million in 2009.

With Patrick Willis taking over his position, Smith was once again not going to receive any playing time.  Plenty of 49ers fans new that this move would be coming, and a lot of them had wished it would of happened during the season.

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Quarterback Shaun Hill and the San Francisco 49ers have agreed on a three year contract that is believed to be worth around $2 million per season.  Hill looked decent as he played the last three games of the season for the 49ers.  Right now he is recovering from finger surgers, but is expected to be 100% once mini camps start up.

Hill could battle Alex Smith for the starting position, but Smith is the clear leader as long as he comes back healthy after shoulder surgery.  Hill is a decent backup, that is about it if you ask me.

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