Niner Nuggets: Combine Press Conferences

So the combine is underway and both head coach Jim Harbaugh and Trent Baalke have held press conferences in the past two days.

Here I go through some highlights of what Harbaugh and Baalke had to say.

San Francisco fans will undoubtedly be desperate for the team to re-sign prospective free-agent wide receiver Anquan Boldin.

And Harbaugh offered supporters hope on that front, indicating that negotiations are progressing in a "positive direction"after describing the issue of keeping Boldin as his "top priority."

However, there was less positive news on the situation of linebacker NaVorro Bowman, who tore his ACL in the NFC Championship game loss to the Seattle Seahawks.

Accoring to Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee, Harbaugh believes that "halfway through the season" is a realistic projection for Bowman's return.

Meanwhile, Harbaugh revealed that defensive end Tank Carradine, the second round draft pick in 2013 who missed all of this past season with a torn ACL, had surgery to clean out the mass on his knee and is expecting the former Florida State Seminole to make great strides ahead of the 2014 campaign.

"He wasn't able to straighten out his leg before that, and then they took that [mass] out and his leg went straight," Harbaugh said in quotes reported by ESPN. 

"He looks like a different guy now since that procedure. I think he's going to have a great offseason and look forward to his progress very, very much."

Among the non-49ers issues discussed, Harbaugh reportedly re-iterated his view that offensive lineman Jonathan Martin, whose career has been disrupted by the well-documented Miami Dolphins bullying scandal, can have a successful NFL career. Martin played for Harbaugh at Stanford.

Harbaugh also said that he respected the honesty of draft prospect Michael Sam, who will become the NFL's first openly-gay player if he is selected in May's draft, and backed Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel to have a successful career.

GM Baalke re-iterated Harbaugh's "top priority" stance on Boldin.

"We're just getting into that."

"We've always maintained that our No. 1 objective in the offseason is to take care of our own guys – to identify the guys we feel we need on our football team moving forward and then find a way to make it work and make it fit from a financial standpoint. It's no different this season."

Baalke also suggested that the 49ers could move forward with the salaries of running-backs Frank Gore, Kendall Hunter and LaMichael James as they are.

"We're in good shape from the cap's standpoint, so the decision on that (is) there's really no decision to be made. We can move forward exactly as is, if that’s what we choose to do."

On the matter of Bowman, Baalke suggested that Nick Moody and Michael Wilhoite could split time in his stead.

"Michael Wilhoite and Nick Moody are both on the football team and both have done a nice job. Nick, obviously, is a young guy, still developing at the linebacker position. And Michael Wilhoite is a guy who has stepped in and played well when called upon.

"We're going to address that. We're going to take a hard look to see if we need to infuse a little more competition into that position and the No. 1 thing regarding NaVorro is making sure he’s 100 percent before we bring him back. He's not an individual – nor is any individual on our football team – that we want to rush back into action.

"When he's ready to go, he’s ready to go. And if that's mid-season or middle-to-late part of the season, whenever that is, that’s when we're bringing him back to the field."

Baalke addressed a number of other issues, such as the roles of receiver Quinton Patton and tight end Vance McDonald; LaMichael James' lack of playing time; the future of back-up QB Colt McCoy and the expectations surrounding Carradine

On Patton: "I think you saw toward the end of the year he already started to make a leap. And we've always maintained the most growth that takes places is between the year 1 and the year 2. And we'll expect that to happen in Quinton's case."

On Carradine: "Tank's in a good place. He really is. He's worked awfully hard. Tank is pushing 290 pounds right now. He's had a great offseason that really started at the beginning of this year. He got on the active for a little while then was put back down. He's done an outstanding job. We expect big things from Tank."

On LaMichael James' lack of playing time: "All I can say is it's a crowded backfield. And with Frank having an awfully good football season. I think coach (Harbaugh) mentioned yesterday, A-plus-plus. Frank (Gore) had that kind of year. And it's tough. There are certain game plans where LaMichael was meant to play a little bit bigger role than he ended up playing, but that's the game. Every game you go in with a plan and sometimes that plan changes based on what you're seeing and what the other team is doing. So you got to be flexible. It's up to LaMichael and it's up to every play. We tell every one of our players this: 'It's up to you to earn time on the field.' So it's not as much about what he hasn't been doing, it's as much about what Frank has been doing."

On TE Vance McDonald: "If you watched us play, you understand how complicated that position is, and how many different hats Vance had to wear this year as a rookie. It's a very difficult thing. When you have as much volume as we have and he's put in as many positions that he’s put in, it’s such a learning curve. It takes away from your physicality, your physical traits because you're thinking your way through the game. So I think there's going to be a big jump with Vance next year and what he’s able to bring to this football team. The game is going to slow down for him. We felt very good about how he played this year and performed, especially when you consider all of things we we're asking him to do."

The transcript from Baalke's presser can found be on the 49ers' official website.