As fans, we of the 49ers faith have successfully made it through the bye week. It was tough, I’ll admit, not having a game to look forward to. In that, as opposed to putting the Atlanta game behind ourselves and concentrating on the opponent at hand, we were sort of forced to sit and reflect on it throughout the week. Today marks my first look ahead, to next Sunday and the 49ers matchup against the Houston Texans.

More so than exactly how the game will turn out, the hot ticket for discussion these days in 49erland is WR Michael Crabtree and his potential impact on the San Francisco 49ers this season. Crabtree signed a 6-year, 32 million dollar contract with 17 million guaranteed on October 7th after setting a 49ers franchise record by holding out longer than any Niners draftee in history.

More so again than Crabtree’s impact on the entire season is his impact on the Niners game this Sunday against the Texans. He is expected to see his first NFL action though it will likely be in a very limited capacity. He will line up as a slot receiver and should only have a handful of routes to choose from and run. Still, I want to see what he can do. Maybe he wont be burning defensive backs all day but what I’m eager to see is what happens when he gets the ball in his hand. We all know who Michael was in college, but none of us know who he’ll be in the NFL.

What kind of impact can he have? This is something that is hard to gauge and I don’t think anybody will be able to effectively guess until we see number 15 reeling in a pass from QB Shaun Hill. Most are of the opinion that Crabtree wont be a huge factor this season at all or even a factor at all when the 49ers play on Sunday. Where do I stand on this? Well…

Michael Crabtree is likely going to be in on at least 10 offensive snaps and figures to play anywhere from that number to a max of something like 15-17. I won’t be surprised at all if Michael comes out there and stuns a lot of people, maybe it’ll be on one reception or maybe he’ll show that his natural talent is the real deal and bring in a couple more passes than say, Josh Morgan or Arnaz Battle would make in the same situations, regardless of number of routes he knows at this point.

No, I’m not saying the Crabtree Effect (defined as: “a supremely talented receiver factoring in largely to the success of a franchise by playing at a high level) will kick in immediately on Sunday, but I am saying do not write this kid off. Do not underestimate someone who is potentially one of the best receiver prospects in the past couple decades. He has a lot of doubters and a lot of reason to perform well. I would not be surprised to see that Crabtree proves a lot of people wrong. Lets hope one of those people isn’t me.