Before training camp starts, the big news coming out of Niner minicamp is the struggles of first round pick A.J. Jenkins. The rest of the Niners are looking great according to reports, but A.J. is learning how tough the Niner defense really is. The problem with A.J. has been press coverage and one of the ways to correct the problem is to bulk up. Currently A.J. is weighing just over 190lbs, it is believed that if he can bulk up to 200lb that he should have more strength to fight off the press coverage. But should this really be a concern for Niner fans and the team?

My answer is no. A.J. was all academic at the University of Illinois, so the young man has the smarts to figure out press coverage in the NFL. The obvious is that its only minicamp and he has all of training camp to improve as well as the regular season. The Niners have depth at the wide receiver position, which was not the case last season. The Niners still have Randy Moss, Michael Crabtree, Mario Manningham, and Kyle Williams. He will have more than enough time to watch and learn during games and practices.

The only question that’s on the mind of many Niners fans or the media is why not draft a bigger receiver? The Niners had a chance to draft a bigger receiver such as, Stephen Hill, Brian Quick, or Rueben Randall. Instead the Niners chose a smaller receiver in A.J. Jenkins. But I trust the decision made by Jim Harbaugh and Trent Baalke. As I have stated in previous blogs, the reason in taking A.J was because he was much more experienced and polished than the other receivers previously mentioned.

The struggles should not be a problem. Other than his press coverage troubles, reports say that A.J. has made some spectacular catches during minicamp. Injuries happen in the NFL; if a receiver/s goes down and A.J.’s number is called, hopefully he will be ready.
One last reminder, now this is an extreme example but Jerry Rice had many troubles in his rookie year and we all know how that turned out. Just a thought. GO NINERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Niner fans let me know what you think. A.J.’s troulbes are a big deal, little deal, or no deal?

The mini-camp workouts this past weekend were a series of sprints, change of direction and conditioning drills. At one point players were lined up randomly with lineman, kickers, linebackers and running backs outracing each other in sprints. Bass in one race had to go up against RB Michael Robinson. Singletary is wasting no time in getting his players ready for training camp this summer.