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The San Francisco 49ers, though unusually healthy in recent seasons, had a hard time recovering from injuries to return specialist Ted Ginn Jr. and top defensive lineman Justin Smith over the past two seasons. Bill Barnwell drives home that point ...

The injury bug has finally caught up with the 49ers, and now they are in the market for a Pro Bowl–caliber receiver.

There will be no shortage of commentary on the devastating, nay, soul-decimating loss suffered by the Golden State Warriors last night. And rightfully so, seeing how it was so epic that even our typically stoic Bill Barnwell tried to find understandi...

Oh dear. Tim Tebow. Do we have to do this? There's way more meaningful stuff happening elsewhere this week, in case you haven't noticed. This isn't going to be fun for you, or for me, or really even for Tim Tebow. Fine. Just know that I think your ob...

Days 2 and 3 of the NFL draft are an exercise in waiting for the players you've heard of to be drafted. Much respect to you if you've broken down tape on the small-school prospects who are coming off the board in the fifth round, but I think the majo...

The surprises from Day 1, breaking down the trades, and what to watch for on Day 2.

In a year that lacks no-brainer franchise saviors, here's how you can add excitement to your night.

Do NFL teams actually have any idea what they're doing at the draft?

"Did they get a fair price for Rickey Henderson? It's kind of like if you're an art collector and you have the Mona Lisa, what's a fair price for it? The idea in building a championship team is to acquire players like Rickey Henderson. It's a sad day...

What do smart NFL teams do in and around draft day that naive, stupid teams don't do? They draft better players, of course, but it's not that simple. They don't "want it more" and will themselves into picking better players. The dregs of the league d...

There's one enormous misconception that keeps cropping up this NFL offseason in the reaction to surprising personnel decisions. In terms of evaluating how much a particular player is worth (to his team or another), one little tidbit matters more than...

You're probably familiar with the "hometown discount," the millions of dollars that a player entering free agency is supposed to leave on the table so he can exhibit loyalty to the piece of laundry that acquired his rights (often with little or no in...

The free-agent market is one week old, and the past three days have seen the flood of new contracts slow to a trickle, but there's still plenty of talent available at virtually every position. The players who were on the market when free agency opene...

The Elvis Dumervil fiasco highlights a wild end to the NFL's first few days of free agency. Plus, the rest of the weekend deals.

Attention, shoppers: The bargains have finally started to make their way into the NFL free-agency marketplace. After two days of average players getting premium contracts, Thursday was really the first day when teams were able to sign players on sign...

Bill talks to Bill Barnwell about Wes Welker's departure from the New England Patriots and other NFL free-agency moves. To listen to this podcast, you can download it on iTunes here or go to the ESPN.com PodCenter here....