Aug. 1, 2008

It’s been a “good news, not-so-good news” situation” at offensive tackle so far in the Niners’ training camp. Team insiders stopped short of calling the foot infection that forced second-year OLT Joe Staley to miss the Niners’ first 10 practices a flat-out “bad” situation — a sentiment shared by head coach Mike Nolan, who believes Staley will still get sufficient practice time at his new position after having started at right tackle as a rookie last season. But there has no doubt been some concern, considering that Staley is a relative newcomer at protecting the quarterback’s blind side. It’s also worth noting that Staley didn’t miss a single snap at right tackle his rookie season, which makes his foot infection — which was initially thought to be caused by a bug bite — a bad omen in the eyes of some. Meanwhile, the good news has been the very encouraging early training-camp efforts of projected starting ORT Jonas Jennings, who is coming off an erratic, injury-plagued 2007 campaign. “He has looked very polished, winning at least 80 percent of his matchups in pass-protection drills,” a longtime team insider said of Jennings, who is being limited to just one practice per day as a precautionary measure. “He’s made a seamless switch to the right side, and so far, he looks like the best player on the line.”