Golden Nuggets: Congrats and good luck to new 49ers TE coach, Cameron… — and more

Dueling 49ers mock drafts: Who drafted better? (Paywall)
“Barrows: Cashius Howell, edge, Texas A&M: Yeah, yeah, I know — he has short arms. Howell’s levers measured just 30 1/4  inches at the combine, meaning he’d have the stubbiest arms of any Round 1 edge defender this century if the 49ers took him here. His arms weren’t a problem in the competitive SEC, however. He overwhelmed opponents with quickness and relentlessness, finished with 11.5 sacks and was the conference’s defensive player of the year. Defensive coordinator Raheem Morris likes flexible speed rushers, which describes Howell to a tee. Also: I’d bet cash money his arms are longer at his pro day this month; the guy at the combine is notoriously stingy with the tape measure.”  

49ers to meet with Missouri LB after NFL Combine snub 
“Jacobs turned in some of his best advanced metrics in 2025. He posted a 74.5 overall defensive grade from Pro Football Focus, along with a 78.0 run-defense grade and a 78.7 tackling grade — all career highs. While his pass-rush grade dipped slightly from 77.7 in 2024 to 75.3 in 2025, Jacobs earned at least a 65.2 coverage grade in each of the past three seasons.” 

Report: 49ers, Trent Williams remain at impasse amid contract talks  
“”From my understanding, there’s been no progress since last week, when the 49ers talked about the optimism that they would get a new deal with Williams to remain with the 49ers heading into this upcoming season,” Garafolo said. “So there’s still work that needs to be done there in the next couple of days to make sure that Williams does not hit the market.”

49ers linked to free agent linebacker with 20.5 career sacks “Over the last two seasons, 18 players have logged 250+ tackles,” Okada wrote. “Only one of those 18 players has logged at least 8.0 sacks, 20 QB hits or 60 QB pressures in that span … and he hit all three. Falcons linebacker Kaden Elliss is, as Gregg Rosenthal put it, ‘one of the most underrated players of his generation … [and] one of the best pass-rushing linebackers in football….And of course, Elliss’ head coach the last two years was blitz-wizard Raheem Morris, who is now the defensive coordinator in San Francisco,” Okada noted.” 

49ers promote Cameron Clemmons to tight ends coach, replacing Brian Fleury (paywall)
“Before serving as an assistant to 49ers offensive line coach Chris Foerster over the past two seasons, Clemmons spent four years in Las Vegas. His first NFL coaching gig with the Raiders came in an offensive quality control role. He specifically worked with a tight ends group led by Darren Waller, who was named to his first and only Pro Bowl in 2020, before Clemmons was promoted to assistant offensive line coach. The Raiders offensive line averaged the fewest penalties (4.41) in the NFL during his final season in Vegas.”

With each passing iteration, the World Baseball Classic gets bigger and bigger – in crowd size, attendance, cultural currency and participants.

Yet the world within it keeps shrinking.

As the sixth WBC gets underway this month, the pool play portion of the event will bear faint resemblance to the earliest iterations of the event, an apparent marker of its growth and the game’s elevated level of play worldwide:

Closer games. Fewer run-rule victories and shutouts. And the more than occasional upset of a perceived global power.

“Everyone can see that there’s so much talent all over the world,” San Diego Padres and Dominican Republic third baseman Manny Machado tells USA TODAY Sports. “It’s not just here, but all over the world. It means a lot to be the last team standing. I hope it’s us.

“It’s just such a cool event. You’re playing for not just your country, not for the fans, but the people in their countries and across the world. I get goosebumps just talking about it because it’s such a special event."

The inaugural WBC was a little lighter on goosebumps. Pool play games were contested not in big league stadiums but rather spring training sites, Scottsdale and Lake Buena Vista among the locales to determine quarterfinalists.

 And the games were, well, often over before they started.

In 2006, the nine countries and territories that supply the most major league talent – Japan, South Korea, USA, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Cuba and Canada – went a combined 15-0 against less-renowned baseball countries in pool play, with four shutouts and three run-rule wins.

Average score: 9-3, kicked off by Team USA’s 17-0 shellacking of South Africa behind Ken Griffey Jr.’s 4-for-4, two-homer performance.

Yet the gap has been shrinking in almost every iteration of the event since.

Have glove, will travel

In 2009, the less-heralded countries managed three victories in 13 games, including Australia turning the tables and run-ruling Mexico. The Netherlands, powered by a handful of major leaguers hailing from Curacao, scored the first big tourney upset, toppling the mighty Dominican Republic and bouncing them from the tournament.

And suddenly, the average margin of victory shrank from 9-3 to 7-3.

The trend continued through 2013 – when the average score between haves and have-nots shrank to 6-4 - and 2017, when the baseball-poorer countries endured just one shutout. Colombia knocked off Canada and took Team USA to 10 innings, while Australia fell in 10 innings to Venezuela.

China, which lost its first six WBC games against global powers from 2006 to 2013 by a combined score of 64-5, was suddenly playing baseball games in 2017, losing 6-0 to Cuba and 7-1 to China.

Meanwhile, players are seeing the upside of playing in a global event by representing homelands with which they have strong or even faint connections. Italy this year will feature Kansas City Royals sluggers Vinnie Pasquantino and Jac Caglianone as it aims to repeat – or exceed - its quarterfinal showing from 2023.

Israel, with major league old heads like Sam Fuld, Jason Marquis, Ike Davis and Ty Kelly alongside its “Mensch On The Bench,” made a startling 2017 run to the quarterfinals.

And stars spurned by their country of birth are nonetheless still pining to play. Eight-time All-Star Nolan Arenado, who starred for Team USA in 2017 and 2023, didn’t hear his phone ring this time as a star-studded group of American-born commitments poured in.

Instead, Puerto Rico manager Yadier Molina, his old St. Louis Cardinals teammate, called him up, asking to galvanize a squad beset by injury and insurance woes. Arenado, whose mother Millie is of Puerto Rican and Cuban descent, was all in.

“I didn’t expect (Team USA) to call coming off last year,” says Arenado, who produced a career-low .666 OPS for St. Louis before an off-season trade to Arizona. “I wasn’t going to play this year, but Yadi called me and my mom wanted me to do it.

“I love the tournament. The talent is sick. It just gets better and better.’’

Speaking ahead of Bayern Munich’s clash against Borussia Mönchengladbach, Vincent Kompany confirmed that Harry Kane would be absent after picking up a calf injury.

“Harry Kane is out tomorrow,” said the Belgian. “He took a knock to his calf and hasn’t recovered yet. It’s just a knock. Nothing serious for the foreseeable future, but we might be a day short of him being able to join us. Of course, we would have liked Harry, but these things happen.”

Harry Kane chases Robert Lewandowski’s record

With 30 Bundesliga goals already this season, Kane has surpassed last season’s 26 goal tally and is 11 strikes away from matching Robert Lewandowski’s single-season 41-goal haul, with 10 games remaining.

The Englishman has struck nine goals in his last five games and although needing to average more than a goal per game, Germany’s record champions have a favourable run-in, with games against Mainz, Heidenheim, Wolfsburg and Cologne.

GGFN | Daniel Pinder

Liverpool manager Arne Slot claimed that Florian Wirtz “could be available for a few minutes” during the FA Cup tie against Wolves on Friday, while suggesting that the Germany international is key to the team’s overall “balance”.

Wirtz has been out of the squad since picking up an injury in the warm-up ahead of the win over Nottingham Forest on 22 February, and the 22-year-old has missed three games in that time, including the 2-1 loss to Wolves in the league earlier this week.

However, he could feature against Wolves in the FA Cup fifth-round tie this week, in what would be a welcome boost to Liverpool’s attacking options.

“He trained half and half with the team yesterday. He made the next step in rehab. Let's see where he is today. He could be available for a few minutes tomorrow in the best scenario,” explained Slot, before adding that “everyone else [is] fine”.

The absence of Wirtz has coincided with Liverpool struggling in attack at times, and while the Reds did beat West Ham 5-2 over that spell, there are still questions over the attacking output and chance creation, with Cody Gakpo and Mohamed Salah coming under criticism for not offering enough from the wings.

And while Slot highlighted that “attacking isn't just down to Cody [Gakpo] and Mo [Salah],” the Dutchman did seem to admit that Wirtz is a key cog in his side’s attack.

“One of the players who creates is Florian Wirtz. He got injured three games ago. Before that the team had a certain balance and we've had to adjust again. That's happened a lot this season,” explained the Liverpool boss.

“Not all the games have improved in terms of creating chances. But we're not the only team that finds it hard to create from open play. It's the qualify of the league that makes it more complicated.

“We are not in terms of chance creation last in the league. We're not doing that bad. We're also the team with most ball possession so you'd expect us to create more.

“Cody and Mo we expect and they expect from themselves to score more. But attacking isn't just down to Cody and Mo,” he added.

Liverpool will book a place in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup with a win at Molineux, in what is the first of an important string of games that includes a Champions League last-16 tie against Galatasaray and a Premier League match against Tottenham at Anfield on 15 March.