Tony Pashos to IR - The 49ers announced yesterday that they placed veteran tackle Tony Pashos on injured reserve. Pashos was signed in early September as a free agent after being cut by the Jaguars due to a contract dispute. Pashos received his first start of the season last Sunday at Houston and suffered a fractured scapula early in the game. His replacement at RT is going to be Adam Snyder, whom Pashos had recently beat out for the starting job. Snyder’s assignment last Sunday was to rotate with Chilo Rachal at the RG position.

The team also went out and signed T Chris Patrick from the Kansas City Chiefs practice squad but he doesn’t look to factor into the game plan anytime soon. The offensive line has been a real issue this season for the 49ers after receiving much praise from Mike Singletary during both the offseason and the preseason. They haven’t given up as many sacks as say, the Packers but that is likely because every time Aaron Rodgers is pressured he takes a sack. San Francisco’s offensive line, however, is statistically the worst offensive line in the league when you factor in sacks, pressures and hurry-ups.  The team and its fans are getting ready to hit the panic button as far as the offensive line is concerned.

The only thing to consider as a bright spot as far as the sack category is the change at quarterback. When Shaun Hill was the QB he never really looked evasive. When the pressure came in it always seemed like Hill’s instinct was to go into the fetal position and let a defender fall on top of him. With Alex Smith stepping in as the starting quarterback we have a more athletic signal caller who certainly showed signs of avoiding pressure in his half of play last Sunday. Just something else to look forward to.

LB Marques Harris Released - Marques Harris was released six games into the season to make way for LB Diyral Briggs who is likely one of the 49ers only hopes this season at a pure pass rusher. Briggs saw significant playing time in the 49ers final preseason game at San Diego and played very well but there wasn’t any room for him on the roster. Now that Harris is gone, Briggs can step in, but one has to wonder if and when he’ll even be activated for game days.

Safety… Last - It seems plenty of caution has already been exercised for S Michael Lewis as the team announced yesterday that he would be making the start on Sunday against the Colts. There were question marks concerning Lewis after he suffered his third concussion this year a few weeks back and with 49ers LB Jeff Ulbrich placed on IR after his concussion, the feeling was that Mark Roman would get the start but it seems he’s ready to go.

In other safety news starting FS Dashon Goldson is going to be wearing the radio helmet this Sunday. The helmet previously was worn by Patrick Willis, before that it was Mark Roman. Willis wore it before then as well, and because of issues gave it back to Roman. On what Dashon Goldson can bring with the helmet that Willis couldn’t, Singletary had to say:

“I think what happens is that you have responsibilities. There’s one guy that’s responsible for the ‘Close’ call which is [LB] Takeo [Spikes] and another guy that’s responsible for making the calls, that’s [LB] Patrick [Willis]. Then you’ve got a guy that’s got to relay the information on the back end to the defensive backs, and sometimes when Pat gets it, sometimes he’s in his game here and you’re talking to the D-line and the DB’s are so far back and then maybe on the headset the last thing the guy sending the call in said is, ‘make sure you watch this, make sure you watch for the bang-8, make sure you watch for the deep route and that’s the one bit of information that you don’t get out. I think it makes it difficult, so I think that it’s one less thing that Pat will have to think about. I think he understands the importance of those guys having it back there because if there’s a mistake back there, then nine times out of ten it’s going to reveal itself on the scoreboard. If there’s a mistake on the front line, hopefully somebody can go and make a play and make a tackle and we’ll talk about it. If it’s on the back end, then it’s hard to recover.”

Brown Gets An Extension - CB Tarrell Brown got a contract extension yesterday. The 49ers extended him 3 years for a $7.125 million contract which included a $2.5 million signing bonus. The team figures that Brown will be a big part of their secondary in the future. Brown was injured in training camp and part of the preseason and thus couldn’t beat CB Dre’ Bly for the nickel corner job. Still, the team has, on more than one occasion, called him the most athletic player on the team. I’ll be the first to admit I love the guy since last season. Bly has been barely serviceable and Brown hopes to factor more and more into the team as the season progresses.

Couple Last Things… - The 49ers filled their practice squad vacancy with TE Carson Butler. Butler figures to just be another body on the squad and doesn’t look to factor into many plans for the Niners in the future. One last tidbit is WR Brandon Jones, who has been recently quoted as being a little upset with his playing time, will be active against the Colts on Sunday. He will be playing behind Michael Crabtree at split end. If Jones is active I’m going to guess the inactives will be WR Jason Hill, WR Micheal Spurlock, LB Diyral Briggs, C Cody Wallace, DE Ricky Jean-Francois  S Curtis Taylor and T Chris Patrick.

Lastly, I’m just letting all of you who read my articles know that I plan to start writing for here on a daily basis if at all possible. I constantly find myself finding news before most other places and I’ve since decided it wouldn’t hurt if I broke a story or two. I’ve also started a Twitter account specifically for 49ers updates so if you feel up to it (literally just started it) follow it at http://twitter.com/JamesBrady49 . That’s all for now.