With a host of key players going down for the count with injuries lasting at least a week, head coach Mike Singletary has become an easy target recently for the Bay Area media due to his consistently physical practices.

But daily sources on the scene contend Singletary might be getting a bit of a bum rap for refusing to lighten up on the heavy hitting that has been dished out on a daily basis.

“Yeah, there have been some injuries,” one source said of the carnage that has afflicted the likes of starting “Mike” LB Patrick Willis (foot), starting “Will” LB Parys Haralson (hip flexor) starting OLG David Baas (foot), starting RCB candidate Tarell Brown (toe) and WR Brandon Jones (fractured shoulder), among others. “But the injury to Jones is the only one that is expected to linger beyond training camp.

“There’s a tendency here for anything different than what (former Niners legend) Bill Walsh did to catch some flak, but if you really take a close look around the rest of the league, this camp isn’t any more intense than a lot of camps. The Rams are making the Niners look tame within the division. At the same time, the Seahawks didn’t hit hard at all in Mike Holmgren’s final training camp last season, and they just got killed.”

Singletary has all but curtailed his eyebrow-raising “nutcracker” drills, which essentially called for two players of equal size to run through one another, after one such drill sidelined Baas. But the intensity of the Niners’ practices have remained at a fever pitch.

“I don’t know what’s typical in the NFL,” said Singletary when asked about the hefty number of injuries suffered by his troops. ”All I know is that football is a contact sport. It’s a collision sport. Injuries happen. The most important thing is, when they happen, you’ve done the right things in the offseason to bring them back quicker.”

While our sources have chosen to cut Singletary some slack in this regard, they have come down hard on his apparent insistence on making TE Vernon Davis, whom he kicked off the field in his head-coaching debut last season, a team leader.

“He’s overburdening him,” said one source. “Davis is still too volatile and needs to establish himself as a more reliable player first. Singletary has plenty of other capable leaders."

Kickoff is coming! Be sure to buy copies of the Pro Football Weekly/Yahoo! Sports 2009 NFL preview magazine, as well as the Pro Football Weekly/Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football Guide 2009, both of which are now available at bookstores, newsstands and retail outlets where magazines are sold. Or order your copies online at PFWStore.com.