Call off the search, we’ve found Vernon Davis! And it turns it, Colin Kaepernick knew where he was the entire time. Just when we were ready to write off Davis for good, he comes out with a monster performance against the Monsters of the Midway.

The San Francisco 49ers host the Chicago Bears in a highly anticipated matchup among two of the league’s best teams. Both teams are coming off of disappointing performances in their prior outing; San Francisco is coming off of a frustrating tie against St. Louis, and Chicago lost a sloppy 13-6 slugfest against Houston. With Alex Smith out, it becomes especially important that the 49ers gets their ground game on track to make things easier on second-year QB Colin Kaepernick as he makes his first NFL start. Behind Frank Gore and Kendall Hunter, the 49ers lead the NFL averaging 170.2 rushing yards per game on a staggering 5.61 yards per carry, and look to exploit a Bears defense that has had […]

Well, this motivation poster clearly isn’t doing its job in New Orleans. You almost expect a new poster this week, maybe Sean Payton hanging from a branch with the inscription, “Hang in there, baby!”

Happy Wednesday, everybody. Are you ready to do this thing? We’re talking Alex Smith.

Happy Monday everybody. Now that your NCAA tournament brackets are worthless, let’s turn your attention back to football.

Despite talk that the 49ers QB job was open, Jim Harbaugh indicated that Alex Smith had the complete support of the organization.

With several teams seemingly uncertain about their status behind center and the fact that six quarterbacks were drafted in the first 36 picks in April — including four in the first round — we could be getting ready to see something in Week 1 that we’ve never seen before.

When the NFL lockout ends, Super Bowl XLII hero Plaxico Burress can begin his search for a new team in earnest. In the meantime, he’ll make an appearance Thursday at the NFL Network and NFL.com offices to talk about his new ventures with the National Urban League and the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

NFL.com analyst Bucky Brooks got some feathers rattled recently in a column he wrote suggesting that Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers shouldn’t be crowned among the league’s elite quarterbacks (Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Tom Brady) yet. Some of those emotions might get stirred up again as we broached the subject in the Cover Two podcast with Brooks and NFL.com senior writer Steve Wyche.

While coaches wait for the lockout to end, there understandably exists some anxiety regarding the learning and assimilation time incoming rookies are missing. In theory, all of these coaches and their respective organizations are in the same boat.

It’s been a conclusion for many throughout the offseason that Alex Smith would return for a chance to win back his starting job with the 49ers under new coach Jim Harbaugh, who openly campaigned on the idea.

The top seven quarterback prospects all went early in the 2011 NFL Draft, many of them earlier than expected. But each quarterback enters a different scenario with his new team, with unique circumstances determining how early they will be expected to contribute.

As far as teams that should be pleasantly surprised, I’d say the Bears were shocked to see Oregon State DT Stephen Paea sitting there for them at No. 53. Some analysts believed Chicago would draft Paea in the first round.

Nevada QB Colin Kaepernick is headed to San Francisco. Explaining how it happened shows the wheelin’-and-dealin’ side of the NFL draft.

It’s not easy keeping Shannon Sharpe quiet for too long, but the loquacious new member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame was kept off the Radio City Music Hall stage — at least temporarily — when the 49ers traded up to take QB Colin Kaepernick with the fourth pick in the second round.