49ers Practice Squad rounding into shape

Fooch — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 20:29:47 -0000

I was originally going to include this in the post regarding Dontarrious Thomas's release. However, while related to roster cuts, I wanted to keep comments about the practice squad separate.

The 49ers announced that RB Thomas Clayton, DT Atiyyah Ellison, TE J.J. Finley, LB Larry Grant, DE Louis Holmes and WR Dominique Zeigler all were signed to the practice squad. For those who don't know, any player on the practice squad is similar to a free agent, in that any team can sign the player at any time. However, if a team signs somebody off another practice squad, the player is guaranteed to remain on the 53-man roster for at least three games (and a bye week counts as a game).

One player who did not make it through waivers was Brian De La Puente, the former Cal offensive guard. De La Puente was claimed by the Kansas City Chiefs. I have to admit I'm a little disappointed he didn't make it through waivers. He got a chance to start one game at guard and seemed to play quite well. Had the 49ers suffered an injury on the o-line this season, he would have been perfect to come off the practice squad.

While you want every player to get a chance to play in the NFL, I'm happy that our practice squad players made it through waivers. The 49ers are only carrying 4 running backs, so if one of them went down Clayton gives the team an interesting option in reserve.

Also, assuming the team doesn't sign a wide receiver in the coming days, I would not be surprised to see Dominique Zeigler suiting up at some point this season. The Martz offense really utilizes those wide receivers and the team seemed close to keeping 6 of them. As has already been discussed, there is not much out there to claim, so maybe Zeigler gets a shot sooner rather than later.

In the meantime, the 49ers have two spots left for the practice squad. Ramiro Pruneda is on as part of the International Practice Squad program, but he doesn't count against the eight man limit.

SB Nation - Louis Holmes

49ers Practice Squad rounding into shape