Golden Nuggets: Seahawks cut Aldon Smith for off the field matter

Your daily San Francisco 49ers links for Thursday, August 12, 2021

Congrats to Alex Smith, who will be on TV a lot more as he’ll be an NFL analyst. I’d love to hear the reasoning for Fox deciding to go with Mark Sanchez instead.

Alex Smith joining ESPN as NFL analyst

ESPN is adding another quarterback, The Post has learned.

The recently retired Alex Smith has signed on to be an analyst across ESPN NFL shows. For his rookie TV season, Smith will just be dipping his toes in the analyst game as opposed to taking on a full-time role.

He will appear on shows like “Monday Night NFL Countdown”, among others. However, if both sides like how it goes, it could lead to a larger commitment.

Smith had tryouts to become a Sunday game analyst for both Fox and CBS. Fox decided to sign Mark Sanchez, while CBS will not replace Rich Gannon.

Seattle Seahawks cut DE Aldon Smith for off-the-field matter, sources say

The team waived the veteran defensive end, it announced, with sources telling ESPN the move was made because of an off-the-field matter. The decision is not football-related but rather the result of Smith violating the team’s trust, according to a source.

Smith is scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 24 in connection to his April arrest in Louisiana. He is accused of choking a man unconscious during an altercation that began inside a New Orleans-area coffee shop. According to the police report obtained by WWL-TV, Smith had confronted the man about marital issues the man was having with one of Smith’s relatives.

49ers Practice Report: The best defensive play of camp, and some not-so-great offensive plays

This was not a particularly impressive day for Jimmy Garoppolo. I had him at 12-of-21, or 14-of-24 with two completions on clear sacks and one interception which was negated by another obvious sack.

That would have been Garoppolo’s second interception of the day had it stood. And realistically, it should have been his third. He threw a sitting duck to K’Waun Williams, who would have been sure to come up with the interception had Dre Greenlaw not clocked him immediately. Greenlaw promptly apologized to Williams, having saved Garoppolo the embarrassment of a three interception day.

Oh, and as for the one interception that stood? That was atrocious.

Garoppolo waited, I guess checked his investment portfolio, waited some more, then gifted Jason Verrett at least his second interception of camp on Garoppolo. He stared down Deebo Samuel, who was never open, and waited until Verrett had gotten position on Samuel to throw the ball; Verrett shrugged Samuel off, jumping clear in front of him the moment the ball left Garoppolo’s hand. It was an inexcusable throw with pick-six potential in a game situation.

Rookie Hufanga impresses in 49ers’ strong safety competition

Rookie safety Talanoa Hufanga, a fifth-round pick from USC, made a leaping interception of a Josh Rosen pass 35 yards down the field.

Hufanga said his goal was to make the Pro Bowl on special teams as a rookie. But, now, the door is open for him to make his contribution on defense, too.

“I was really excited to see the play Huff made,” 49ers defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans said. “It was an awesome play. I was excited for him to make that play and continue to build confidence. He’s getting better and better each day.”

“Adding Ha Ha, we needed more depth, more bodies,” Ryans said. “Ha Ha is a guy who’s competed in this league, started in this league and played good ball in this league, so looking to add some depth at that position.”

George Kittle confident Ross Dwelley is ‘going to be an asset’ to the 49ers offense in 2021

“You know, one of the biggest changes I’ve seen in Ross is just his mindset this camp,” Kittle shared with Greg Papa and John Lund. “He’s been very aggressive with all of his route running. He’s not second-guessing himself. He’s just attacking, and that’s what I love to see.

“He’s ripping through edges. He’s getting open in all of his routes. He’s making all the hard catches, which he’s always made all the hard catches. He has fantastic hands. He has a very good natural feel for where he needs to be in routes, in zones, and stuff like that.

“And he continually gets better in the run game. Like, he came in, I think, at 230, and I know that he’s like 245-ish right now, and so he can hold his own in the run game. He can be a solo-wide, go actually block the edge.”