The 49ers added another leg to the mix on Friday, signing punter Jack Bouwmeester to a three-year deal.
Bouwmeester now joins Corliss Waitman as the other punter on the active roster, giving San Francisco a little more competition at the position heading into camp.
The team also moved undrafted free agent Khalil Dinkins to the Active/Non-Football Injury List. If Dinkins is not activated or is unable to play by the final roster cutdown at the end of August, he will shift to the reserve/NFI list and miss at least four games. Even then, he would not count against the 53-man active roster.
Elsewhere in the Bay Area orbit, one NFL quarterback hopeful is using Omaha as more than just a place to train. The reporting notes that Martinez married a Nebraskan last summer, settled with his wife, Marisa, in the Omaha area, and has spent time giving back locally this year.
He recently spoke to football players at Gretna East High about injuries and adversity, and by all accounts he had the room. “They were dialed in and focused,” Gretna East coach Justin Haberman said.
“He was electric. The best thing is, he related to the kids, because he went through struggles.”
Martinez declined payment for the appearance, answered questions directly and, according to Haberman, handled everything with class. That message carried extra weight given what Martinez dealt with in 2021 and throughout his Nebraska career, when critics did not know the extent of his injuries. He played much of that final season with a broken jaw.
Martinez also explained why he likes connecting with younger players. “I’m not asking a high school kid to run a 10- to 12-yard out at the same pace as Mike Evans,” Martinez said.
“But I think they enjoy catching NFL balls. There are a lot of kids here who want to play at the next level.
It’s cool to integrate myself into that.”
The Omaha base, along with the relationships he has built there, has helped him stay steady through the NFL grind. “It’s cliche, but get comfortable being uncomfortable,” he said.
“I’ve had plenty of quarterback battles and competitions throughout my career. There’s the understanding that every year, you’re going to fight.
If you want to be in this thing, you have to work. You have to be willing to compete and be willing to fail and learn and understand it’s a process.
It’s not about surviving the first day of training camp. It’s the collective effort that will get you over the hump.”
And in another bit of 49ers-adjacent news, Paraag Marathe has pulled out of the running to become Major League Soccer’s next commissioner. Marathe, the president of 49ers Enterprises and chairman of Leeds United, had been one of three finalists before withdrawing his name Friday morning, according to Sportico. The outlet also reported that Marathe was still notifying league officials as the initial reports surfaced.
In Other News...
Brandon Aiyuk Just Took His 49ers Breakup To Another Level
Brandon Aiyuk has taken his split from San Francisco from messy to openly combative, using social media to air out his frustration with the 49ers and make it clear he does not see a reunion coming. The posts landed as another sharp turn in a saga that has already stretched well beyond the field, with Aiyuk publicly taking aim at the organizations direction and even leaning into the local fan joke about the electrical substation near the team facility.
For the 49ers, the bigger issue now is not just the tone of the breakup but the lingering business side of it. Aiyuk remains on the reserve/left squad list and has not filed for league reinstatement, leaving his status unresolved even as the public comments continue to shape how the rest of the league views him. What once looked like a contract standoff has become something harder to repair, and the longer it drags on, the more it appears to be costing him in reputation and leverage. [Read more 🡒]
Kyle Shanahan's Super Bowl Legacy Just Took Another Brutal Hit
Kyle Shanahans rsum now carries another reminder of how often his teams have come close to the sports biggest prize without getting there. ESPN recently stacked three of his clubs among the top 10 best Super Bowl-less teams of the last 20 years, a list that includes the 2016 Falcons and both the 2019 and 2023 49ers. For San Francisco, it is a familiar and frustrating theme: a roster good enough to reach the final stage, but not quite good enough to finish the job.
The latest entry only deepens the conversation around Shanahans legacy, because the 49ers again had a chance to put a championship run away and came up short in the game that mattered most. Even with that history hanging over him, Shanahan remains in place and still has the same task ahead of him in Santa Clara. The question now is whether he can finally turn all those near-misses into the one result that has eluded him. [Read more 🡒]
49ers Could Be Headed For Their Biggest Offensive Shakeup In Years
The 49ers spent the offseason trying to sharpen an offense that has long leaned on flexibility, and the next round of decisions could change the look of the unit in a meaningful way. One of the biggest questions sits at wide receiver, where the team is weighing how to line up its starting group around Mike Evans and whether Ricky Pearsall or rookie DeZhaun Stribling can seize the job opposite him.
There is also movement at tight end, where Jake Tonges new extension suggests the 49ers see a real role for him alongside George Kittle rather than treating him as a simple backup. If that usage grows, it could ripple through the rest of the formation and leave Kyle Juszczyk with a smaller slice of the offense, another sign that San Francisco may be headed for a broader shakeup than it has made in years. [Read more 🡒]