Roger Craig’s path from kickball to Hall of Fame, with a lifelong teammate along for the ride (paywall)
“Bill Walsh saw no reason to wait. Never mind that players were still in their tuxedo jackets on the night they received their Super Bowl rings after winning it all in 1984.
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The San Francisco 49ers coach pulled Roger Craig aside during the gala and looked him in the eyes. “Roger, we’re going to need 1,000 yards from you next season,” the running back remembered him saying.
This inspired Craig but also befuddled him. He was coming off a year in which he amassed 600-plus yards as a runner and as a receiver.
“I was fired up. I knew I couldn’t let him down,” Craig once said. “But then I started to wonder if he meant he needed 1,000 yards rushing or receiving.
“I wanted to cover my ass, so I figured I better shoot for both.”
Craig did as instructed, delivering the first 1,000-1,000 season in NFL history in 1985, a milestone matched only by Marshall Faulk (1999) and Christian McCaffrey (2019). That distinction goes a long way toward explaining why Craig will be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday.”
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Williams will stand onstage with his best friend when Craig’s bust is unveiled. What will he feel in that moment? Williams said he didn’t know.
Then he became emotional.
“You can’t write the script,” he said. “Facts get stranger than fiction. Somebody lives half a block from you, and you start out down by the docks trying to catch catfish. Then you both go on this long journey in life.”
Montana wasn’t the first future Hall of Fame player who wondered what was up with Craig and Williams. In 1983, at the Hula Bowl in Honolulu, Pittsburgh quarterback Dan Marino and SMU running back Eric Dickerson were fascinated by the inseparable Nebraska teammates.
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“They couldn’t get their heads around the fact that we were two Black guys from Iowa,” Williams said. “Marino was like, ‘Man that sounds so boring. What did you all do?’ Then I started going down the list and they got jealous.”
They rode horses. Fished. Roller-skated. Blasted the Jackson Five. They hid Roger in the trunk on trips to the drive-in, saving the admission money for candy.
….In the offseasons, Craig worked out five days a week, starting at 6:30 a.m., beginning four weeks after the 49ers’ season ended. Track work. Weight room. Three days of hill work. Craig’s trainer, Raymond Farris, calls Craig “Mr. Football” due to his devotion. Craig would be so eager to start their early morning sessions that Farris would often need to remind him: “Roger, you have to stretch.”
Jerry Rice is synonymous with “The Hill,” but he learned how to conquer it from Craig, a 1983 second-round pick who arrived two years before Rice was drafted.
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“I’ll never forget the first day Jerry showed up and he couldn’t do it,” Farris said. “He hurt so badly afterward that he didn’t come back for the rest of that offseason.”…..”Roger was the only guy who loved training camp and looked forward to it,” wide receiver Mike Wilson said. “I dreaded going to Rocklin. I would be like, ‘Roger, really? You’ve got to be kidding me, man.'”
How Romello Height’s winding path to the 49ers made him no ordinary rookie (paywall)
I would go up against some good really good players at Auburn — I was on the scout team — and I got scout team player of the year my freshman year. So that’s honestly when I realized, ‘Man, I got it. All I gotta do is just continue to stack the days, work hard and my time will come.’ “
He transferred to USC, where … well, let’s not criticize a young man too much for having fun, but Height began having trouble showing up on time for classes and team meetings.
“I was just all over the place, and I knew I had to change and mature in so many ways,” Height said.
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He often thought of his dad, Ronnie, the ex-Marine.
“If he could have gotten his hands on me around that time, he probably would’ve strangled me,” Height said. “I got caught up in a lot of stuff, and that wasn’t how I was raised. I had to find myself, and once I did, man, I was on the right road.”
The next stop was Georgia Tech, close to home in Dublin, Ga. Height loved it there.
“They told me as soon as I came in the building, like, ‘Mello, just get off of the ball and play how you want. Go get the quarterback or whoever has the ball,’ ” Height said. “They fit the scheme around me.”
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He would have stayed at Georgia Tech, but like a far-off dinner bell, the pull of NIL was drool-inducing.
So, Height became a Texas Tech Red Raider, and the school got its money’s worth — a player who was the product of his father and his previous three stops.
“Four schools is a lot, and I was just trying to find myself,” Height said. “All those stops came with maturing. And by the time I got to Texas Tech, I was a totally different person.
“I was taking care of my body. I was living in the building. I was creating bonds with my teammates. I was finally the best version of myself.”
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…..
“I’ve never seen a (rookie) come in and get the scheme as quickly and seamlessly as he has,” Bosa told KNBR radio. “Even when vets come in who haven’t played in this scheme. He’s gotten it even quicker than I did.
“He’s super explosive. He’s got a bag of tricks in pass rush that you could tell he’s been coached well. He’s a little older for a rookie, so that might be part of it, but I think he’s going to contribute pretty quick.”
Height credits the staff at Texas Tech with stuffing his bag full of pass-rush moves, especially the chop. During training camp, he has been focused on making blockers pay for being on their heels waiting for a speed rush.
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“I’ve been just trying to throw power in my tool bag,” he said. “That makes tackles more vulnerable to inside moves, more vulnerable to the speed that I’m gonna use because they’re just gonna sit on speed if I’m just showing continuous speed.”
49ers DC Raheem Morris explains the term ‘fever backer’ in his defense
“Morris also referenced the term “spinner,” which is something Pete Carroll did with the Seahawks when they had a bunch of pass rushers early in the LOB days. Their “spinner” was mainly Bruce Irvin. To me, that’s who I envision the 49ers think Romello Height will be.
More recently, that was Jalon Walker for the Falcons last season. A spinner is an edge rusher in name, but the defensive lineman who will move around the line of scrimmage. The uber-athlete who will line up everywhere, whether it’s over the left guard, right tackle, or blitzing from the stacked linebacker spot…..The 49ers won’t be nearly as static as they’ve been if they are anything like the Falcons from a season ago. There are several benefits to late movement or crowding the line of scrimmage with different body types.
You can manipulate protections, create confusion, and get the offensive line to set or slide the wrong way. It’s a way to create free runners. It also gives the defense a way to tee off on the running back in 1-on-1 situations. Occasionally, we’ll see Height drop into coverage, but if his usage is anything like Walker’s last season, he’ll be one of the key pieces to the 49ers’ defense in 2026.”
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Five bright spots from 49ers training camp inspire optimism amid glut of injuries (paywall)
“Rookies tend to err on the quieter side. Defensive tackle Gracen Halton has been in pads only for the past couple of days, returning from a knee bone bruise that sidelined him for five practices. Loud and proud is more his style.
The 49ers drafted Halton, listed at 6-foot-2 and 293 pounds, in the fourth round out of Oklahoma. He started his college career as a defensive end and boasts noticeable explosiveness off the snap for an interior lineman. Starting center Jake Brendel, among others, saw as much firsthand during the last couple of 1-on-1 practice periods for offensive and defensive linemen. Halton would blow by someone and let everyone know about it with a hoot on his way back.”
Hutchinson: 49ers Stock Report: Training Camp (paywall)
“Jordan Watkins: Every ball looks like it catches him off guard. He seems to catch everything in his armpit, if he does catch it….
Nick Martin: I’m a known critic. I have nothing against Martin, just the tape I’ve evaluated. Nothing I’ve seen from him has changed my opinion. Without Dre Greenlaw in, Fred Warner looked a hell of a lot happier next to Garret Wallow. Martin is great at running fast in a straight line. He’s also great at getting blocked out of the play by anyone climbing to the second level. I watched a play-action when he flashed a B-gap pressure, dropped into coverage, and completely forgot to cover the tight end for a major gain. Maybe it’ll click and I’ll be wrong. It’ll be fun to watch if it does.
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Dominick Puni: When Colton McKivitz got whooped by Height, Puni was there. He was proactively scanning and immediately jumped over to help and punish the rookie. There’s just too much solid-to-good play from him. If he’s healthy all year, there’s a lot to be excited about. I highly recommend watching his tape after the first game, because he’s got a fascinating ability to lose a rep in the first step, then recover in an ugly way. It looks rough, but is functional.
Jack Jones: He’s the hypebeast award winner of camp, and deservedly so. There’s a lot of shit talking coming from him. But he’s backed it up. Tight coverage. Pass breakups. Driving on the ball aggressively. It’s fun to watch. He’s earned a roster spot, and probably keeps Renardo Green’s seat warm all year.”
49ers work out three offensive linemen, reach injury settlement with D-lineman
“C Doug Kramer, G Joe Michalski, C Lecitus Smith.”
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