Mining the Gold Rush

49ers release Derek Smith

By Samuel Lam | February 19th, 2008

The 49ers have cut ties with linebacker Derek Smith.

I had always liked Smith not as a great linebacker, but as an emotional leader. He was a great face of the team’s success in the early 2000s. But with this move, the team is clearly looking to establish more freedom for Patrick Willis. Not only that, this will give opportunities for either a new linebacker signing or bringing a chance for players like Tully Banta-Cain to step up.

This is a tough move for a team that needs a lot of veteran experience on defense. Bryant Young’s retirement and the release of Smith now forces a new leader to step up. Willis may be looked on to be a leader right from the start, and if that’s the case, it will be a huge steo for the second-year linebacker.

Can the team build off this new look for the team? How much different will the 3-4 defense be now? We’ll have to see.

But until then, we’ll see how the team will try to fill in the empty spots.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 19th, 2008 at 1:22 pm and is filed under Derek Smith, 49ers, Cuts, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “49ers release Derek Smith”

Nicholas Tammaro says:

February 19th, 2008 at 1:50 pm

Does this make way for Briggs?
Samuel Lam says:

February 19th, 2008 at 3:29 pm

It could land Briggs. Smith has helped groomed Willis into a powerful linebacker and I wouldn’t be surprised if Briggs would want to join forces with him. The only thing I am worried about is if the team has enough money to offer Briggs. Briggs will be asking for a big contract, so we’ll see. It’s still very early, but we can speculate that Briggs might be a very good option.
With the way the 3-4 defense worked out last season, it really forced a lot of teams to run, so finding a linebacker who can withstand a lot of plays will be someone the team should get.
Gays run Derek Smith out of San Francisco | Niner Noise | A San Francisco 49ers Blog says:

February 19th, 2008 at 3:33 pm

[…] people even think that this will be good because it might elevate Tully Banta-Cain’s importance to th…. If you watched TBC play at all this year you’ve got one on me, since I can’t remember […]
Pete Dorchak says:

February 19th, 2008 at 7:50 pm

Derek was a great leader and example for the 49ers franchise. It’s ashame him and BY are leaving this season.