Special teams ace and locker-room mentor Rock Cartwright is apparently leaving the Raiders for the 49ers, having agreed to a one-year contract pending a physical, the NFL Network first reported Thursday.

In a long expected move, the 49ers released veteran cornerback Shawntae Spencer, who made 72 starts in eight seasons in San Francisco but none last year. He was due to make $3.3 million in 2012.

In each of the past two seasons, Cartwright won the Raiders' Commitment to Excellence Award for his leadership and work ethic.

His on-field impact for the 49ers' likely will come on special teams, filling a void created Tuesday when Blake Costanzo left for the Chicago Bears. Cartwright, 32, also could be an option as a kickoff returner and a fullback. He had four carries for 45 yards last season, highlighted by a 35-yard run on a fake punt to secure a 25-20 win at Houston on Oct. 9.

The Washington Redskins selected Cartwright in the seventh round of the 2002 draft, when their national scout was current 49ers general manager Trent Baalke. Cartwright, who spent his first eight NFL seasons in Washington, did not return a call Thursday seeking comment.

At Saturday's ceremony for his Commitment to Excellence Award, Cartwright told this newspaper of his plans: "I love it here. I would like to spend the rest of my career here. How long is that, who knows?"

By Ron Kroichick / San Francisco Chronicle

Andy Lee once pictured himself flinging fastballs, not launching punts. Lee was a standout pitcher and center fielder at West-Oak High in Westminster, S.C. - a major-league scout once clocked his fastball at 91 mph - and hoped to play baseball in college.

Then, as his punts soared farther and higher, he imagined a two-sport career at the University of Pittsburgh. That vision ended when he entered the all-consuming world of Division I football.

He misses baseball, but not enough to bemoan the path he chose.

"I don't think I could have a better job than I have right now," Lee said.

It's a sweet gig, no question: punter for the 49ers, newly crowned NFC West champions. And Lee is no ordinary punter, standing second in the NFL (behind only Shane Lechler of the Raiders) with an average of 50.4 yards this season. Lee also ranks second in the league in net average, at 43.3.

These numbers offer tangible evidence of his long, steady climb. It started in eighth grade, when Lee spurned a chance to play quarterback mostly because he didn't want to risk getting hurt and jeopardizing his burgeoning baseball ambitions.

The decision made sense, especially when Lee hit almost .460 as a high school senior and earned all-state honors in baseball. He also became an accomplished punter, more than merely the lean kid with a strong leg who "dropped the ball like a watermelon," as he put it.

Lee began to understand the mechanics of the position by working with Kenny Gordon, an electrical engineer and volunteer kicking coach at West-Oak High. Gordon - whose son, Ryan, was the school's placekicker - brought some knowledge about the fundamentals of punting, and he found an eager student in Lee.

By the time Lee was a sophomore, Gordon sensed he had a future college punter, and possibly a pro, in his midst. Lee's leg strength and speed were that good, and so was his desire to improve.

"He really worked at it every day," Gordon said last week from South Carolina. "It wasn't just something he would do once a week. He put in the time. You have to have some sort of talent, but his practice and effort paid off for him."

The commitment came with social sacrifice. Lee grew up in a region flowing with lakes and rivers, and his high school friends spent most of their summers tubing and boating and jet skiing. He spent most of his summers playing American Legion baseball and working on his punting.

Gordon recalled one kicking camp where Lee immediately began lofting punts of 45-plus yards with good hang time. Dick Pierce, a noted kicking coach who ran the camp, initially suggested the kicks might be wind-aided. "No, that's Andy Lee," Gordon replied.

The next day, when Lee unleashed more booming punts, Pierce started calling college coaches - including Walt Harris at Pittsburgh - to let them know about Lee.

He quickly made an impact at Pitt, where he started all four seasons. He also attended a Ray Guy camp in Pittsburgh, and the gold standard for NFL punters couldn't help but notice Lee's smooth motion - much like Lechler's at another camp a few years earlier.

"I remember Andy when he first came in as a youngster; he was very attentive," Guy said. "Andy and Shane are both naturals. They pretty well had the motion down."

Lee, for all his natural athletic ability, still seems more a product of his work over the years. Just check out his ever-rising numbers in eight seasons with the 49ers: His average gradually has improved nearly every year, from 41.6 as a rookie to this year's 50.4.

Or ponder these numbers: In 703 career punts, Lee has had only two blocked and two others returned for touchdowns.

Lee credited the 49ers for displaying patience with him as he developed in his early seasons in the NFL. Bryan Deal, who coached Pitt's specialists when Lee was there, pointed to another factor: his background as a multi-sport athlete.

"He had a different mind-set and demeanor than many college punters and kickers, because he's a really good athlete," Deal said. "He liked the pressure. Bottom of the ninth, he wanted the ball hit to him - and he wanted the pressure of a big kick."

Deal also raved about Lee's reliable hands. That skill shows in his other vital job, as the holder for field goals and extra points. The 49ers don't need a dropped snap in the closing moments of a playoff game (just ask Tony Romo).

Lee, an easygoing sort with a soft South Carolina drawl, doesn't get caught up in his gaudy punting numbers.

"I've hit some not-very-great punts this year: 48, 50, 52 yards," he said. "That's good, but it's not great like 58 or 59. So there's a mis-hit there, even if it's not much. Those have just been coming a little less often, and I think it's from having confidence in myself and my teammates."

Still, it's easy to imagine some good-natured banter between Lee and Lechler if they keep grappling for the league's highest punting average. They're friends, occasionally trade text messages and have talked of playing golf together.

Lechler plays often during training camp in Napa, but he should know in advance: Lee lowered his handicap index to 1.4 last offseason. He might not fling fastballs these days, but he's more than a punter.

Bob Grotz / The Mercury Journal

PHILADELPHIA – Whatever David Akers had, Alex Henery has it.

Andy Reid, too.

The Eagles thought they resolved their kicking issues when they parted ways with Akers, who last January missed two big field goal attempts in the 5-point playoff loss to – all together now – the defending Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers.

Akers was a mess Sunday. He pushed a 44-yard field goal attempt wide left and had a 45-yard attempt snuffed by King Dunlap after sneaking in a 37-yarder, the only points of the first half for the San Francisco 49ers.

Fourth-round pick Henery had to be wondering if that kicker across the field really was the all-time Eagles leader in points, field goals and scientific explanations that visceral fans explain in four-letter words.

Henery had made 8 of 9 field goal attempts, including three against the Niners, before lining up a 39-yarder in the final frame.

That one, however, went wide right.

Before Henery knew it he was looking at a 33-yarder that would have provided the Eagles a 26-17 lead.

Wide right again.

“I’ve never missed two in a game,” Henery said. “They were on different hashes and I thought I had the second one but I pushed it and didn’t get my hip through.”

Before you could say, we can all count, those field goals would have helped, the Niners marched the ball 77 yards in eight plays for the decisive touchdown, a 12-yard run by Frank Gore.

Guess who put up the winning point?

“This win with this team just shows the grit of this team,” Akers said of the Niners, now 3-1. “We lost a close game with the Cowboys and then to be able to pound the ball and win this one is special.”

By Ron Kroichick / San Francisco Chronicle

As the football soars through the sky, often forcing him to retreat into the end zone, 49ers kick returner Ted Ginn Jr. does not contemplate the wisdom of NFL rules changes on kickoffs.

He does not fear the 11 players racing toward him, intent on crashing into him and knocking him to the ground. He does not bemoan the possibility of reluctantly taking a touchback.

Ginn simply covets the tantalizing sight of the ball sailing his way. That means he's about to run the show, if only briefly.

"It's one thing I can control," Ginn said of returning kickoffs. "I feel like I'm the quarterback, the running back, the snapper - everybody who touches the ball on a play from scrimmage."

Kickoffs offer distinctive mayhem, a curious blend of speed, grace and brutal, bone-rattling violence. Ginn showed off his speed and grace in the 49ers' season-opening victory over Seattle, dashing 102 yards to score a touchdown (he added a punt-return touchdown 59 seconds later).

Ellis Hobbs, then Philadelphia's kick returner, absorbed the brutal violence in a November 2010 game against the New York Giants. Hobbs got crunched on a kickoff, temporarily lost feeling in his body and was carted off the field. He sustained a serious neck injury, the second of his career, and retired from football this summer.

By then, the NFL had adopted rules changes designed to make kickoffs safer. The league moved the kick from the 30-yard-line to the 35 and required players on the kicking team to line up no more than 5 yards back (previously, there was no limit on how far back they started).

As expected, the result has been a steady parade of kickoffs flying deep into the end zone or out of play. Nearly 50 percent of kickoffs in the season's first two weeks ended in touchbacks, compared with only 21 percent through Week 2 last season.

At the same time, Ginn, Green Bay's Randall Cobb and Minnesota's Percy Harvin returned kickoffs for touchdowns in Week 1, all covering more than 100 yards. Ginn doesn't think the new rules changed kickoffs as much as widely expected, beyond forcing return men to make more decisions on whether to run out of the end zone.

"You still have an opportunity to make plays," he said.

It's a small sample size, but the average kickoff return increased in the first two weeks of the season, from 22.4 yards last year to 25.4 in 2011 (boosted by those three long returns). That doesn't translate to improved field position: The average drive this season has started at the 22-yard line, compared with the 25.5 through Week 2 last year.

Clearly, it pays to have a kicker with a strong leg. Look no further than the Raiders' Sebastian Janikowski, whose 11 kickoffs have resulted in 11 touchbacks. David Akers of the 49ers is 7-for-13 on touchbacks.

Akers, at 36, counts as a seasoned observer of the kicking game, with 13 years in the league and five Pro Bowl appearances. He stood at his locker in Santa Clara one day last week, scholarly glasses in place, and thoughtfully answered a wave of questions about the reshaped world of NFL kickoffs.

His first, salient point: All these touchbacks will dwindle to some extent as the weather worsens and the ball stops carrying. Or, put another way, he's not expecting ideal kicking conditions when the 49ers play at Washington and Baltimore in November and Seattle on Dec. 24.

"Ultimately, we need to wait the full year to see the true impact, because the weather has been warm," Akers said. "It doesn't really get windy until later in the season, and then it gets really nasty. You're not going to see balls flying nearly as far (later). Weather is a big factor."

Akers, not surprisingly, echoed the sentiments of many NFL players since the rules were changed in March. They argued the league is watering down one of the game's key elements - and high entertainment for spectators, through electrifying returns or jarring collisions.

The league didn't offer statistics illustrating an increased injury risk on kickoffs, but it requires no sixth sense to spot the lurking danger. Players - bigger, stronger and faster than in previous generations - collide at extraordinarily high speeds on kickoffs. The competition committee previously sought to reduce the risk in 2009, limiting the blocking wedge to no more than two players.

The NFL's efforts hardly diminish Blake Costanzo's unbridled enthusiasm for throwing his body into the middle of the fray. Costanzo is a 27-year-old backup linebacker for the 49ers, known throughout the locker room for his special-teams zeal.

He, like Akers, sees nearly as much risk in wide receivers crossing the middle on pass plays, exposing themselves to waiting defensive backs.

"I don't think kickoffs are that much more dangerous than other plays," Costanzo said. "Obviously, they're a little more high-impact - but they've been playing football for, what, 100 years? Football is football, man. It's a physical game. There's risk and danger on every play."

Costanzo zooms toward the danger from both sides, on kick coverage and returns. The mind-set is dramatically different.

"Kickoff coverage, you're going down there 1,000 mph, everything is a blur and you're trying to get to that ball - you can let loose," Costanzo said. "Kickoff return is a lot different, because you're trying to stop those guys from penetrating and making plays. So you have to be a little more patient and relaxed."

The patience of Ginn and other swift return men will be tested in the weeks ahead, especially if the weather holds. They will station themselves near the goal line, hoping for the momentary control Ginn relishes, and then the ball will float overhead into the end zone.

That will leave them with the choice: Take a knee or take a chance. As the season unfolds, Akers figures more and more return men will come out, hoping to weave their way downfield.

"I just think you're going to see guys taking them out from farther back," Akers said. "They don't want a touchback. They want to play."

First published by David Fucillo- This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Today's 2011 NFL Pro Days are fairly quiet. Arizona State, Ball State, and Wofford players will be putting on a display hoping to impress scouts as we move towards the 2011 NFL Draft. None of the players appears to be rated in Top 100 lists so there's not a whole lot to work with here.

I thought instead that we could look at the kicker position. There aren't any significant kickers on today's Pro Day schedule, but the 49ers do apparently have plans to work out a kicker. According to National Football Post, the 49ers will conduct a workout today with UCLA kicker Kai Forbath. Scouts Inc rates him as the number two kicker behind Nebraska's Alex Henery.

Forbath put up some solid numbers at UCLA his first three season before struggling his senior season. Do any of our UCLA fans have any thoughts on why Forbath struggled as a senior. He can hit deep field goals fairly well, but those senior season numbers don't exactly inspire a lot of confidence.

The real question at this point is whether or not you'd actually invest a draft choice in a kicker. Joe Nedney is solid when healthy but his age is catching up with him. Jeff Reed is an option, as is practice squad man Fabrizio Scaccia. Do you draft a kicker to bring some competition to camp, or do you hope for an undrafted free agent to mix in? 

See more: www.ninersnation.com/2011/3/25/2071086/2011-nfl-pro-days-schedule-kickers-that-arent-on-todays-schedule

ERIC BRANCH / Santa Rosa Press Democrat

After its record-breaking flight two years ago, the ball finally stopped traveling.

And Fabrizio Scaccia’s improbable journey to the NFL was just beginning.

Scaccia, 26, a placekicker who was signed to the 49ers’ practice squad with two weeks left in the 2010 season, has traveled the road never taken to the big time — from the semi-pro Fort Pierce (Fla.) Fire to the St. Lucie Bobcats to the new Arena Football League’s Arizona Rattlers to the UFL’s Sacramento Mountain Lions.

After the Niners signed him to a futures contract in January, he became one of two players on an NFL offseason roster who never played college football (Eagles punter Sav Rocca of Australia is the other).

So how, exactly, did Scaccia get from the boonies to the big time? It all began when he blasted a 68-yard field goal, which is believed to be the second-longest in organized football history and the longest without a kicking tee.

That kick, or, rather, That Kick, took Scaccia to places he’d never imagined. Three weeks later, he was mentioned in Sports Illustrated (he and his mom bought 50 copies). And nine months later, he was in Arizona working with Gary Zauner, a kicking guru and veteran ex-NFL special teams coach whose clients include current kickers such as the Raiders’ Sebastian Janikowski.

Finally, in late December, Scaccia found himself walking into a locker room that included Pro Bowlers Patrick Willis and Vernon Davis. He was a long way from Port St. Lucie.

“The first thing I thought was “Wow. I made it,’” said Scaccia, a veteran of six semi-pro seasons. “ ... Everyone always told me ‘You’re good enough to make it to the NFL’ and back then I didn’t think anything of it. I just played semi-pro football. And then after that 68-yarder it just blew up from there.”

An all-state kicker and all-American soccer player at St. Lucie (Fla.) Centennial West High, the 6-foot-1, 210-pound Scaccia was offered a full-ride football scholarship from South Carolina. But he couldn’t accept it, he said, after his mom was involved in a serious car accident and required his care (she has since fully recovered).

He became a star kicker on southern Florida’s semi-pro circuit — he is a member of the Minor League Football Hall of Fame — but he was destined for local-legend status until his 68-yarder kicked off a string of phone calls and opened doors.

On March 29, 2009, in a Florida Football Alliance game between St. Lucie and Brevard, Scaccia drilled his record-breaker just before halftime.

Shortly thereafter, Doug Bercu, a successful businessman in Marietta, Ga., and a former USFL kicker, got a you-won’t-believe-this phone call from his friend, Charles Lee, the head coach of the FFA’s Bradenton team and a former kicker at Nevada.

Bercu, intrigued and willing to help finance an anonymous kicker with a golden leg, arranged a meeting with Scaccia in Orlando. Bercu was stunned (he swears Scaccia made a 75-yard field goal during their get-together) and made a DVD of Scaccia in action, which he sent to colleges across the country. Ohio State, he said, was very interested, but couldn’t offer a scholarship due to eligibility issues stemming from Scaccia’s semi-pro career.

“I thought he was just too good to walk away from him,” Bercu said. “I couldn’t look the guy in the eye and say ‘OK, good luck with your career.’ I could tell he had the potential, but I didn’t think he knew what direction to go in.”

So Bercu went to Plan B. Bercu, like Zauner, had been a kicker at Wisconsin-La Crosse. And based on that tenuous connection, Bercu contacted the esteemed kicking specialist who, as a general rule, didn’t work with semi-pro kickers. The phone call led to a three-day coaching session between Zauner and Scaccia outside Phoenix 14 months ago.

Zauner, who was initially quite skeptical, saw the necessary raw materials from which he could mold a professional kicker. But he knew it would take some serious work. He told Scaccia that 68-yard field goals would get him into Sports Illustrated. But accuracy — that is, consistently making 40-yarders — would get him into the NFL.

“He had a legitimate leg, but his technique wasn’t very good,” Zauner said. “It’s kind of like a guy who can hit a golf ball 400 yards, but he can’t chip or putt.”

Zauner has since spent at least 70 hours — 35 two-hour sessions — refining Scaccia’s fundamentals. And he’s logged a few more using his connections to get him professional tryouts.

After Scaccia’s pro debut with the Arizona Rattlers last year, Zauner contacted Sacramento Mountain Lions coach Dennis Green, his former boss with the Minnesota Vikings, to pitch his prospect.

Even with Zauner’s recommendation, Mountain Lions special teams coach Martin Bayless said the team’s interest in Scaccia was initially “lukewarm” based on his lack of college experience.

But Scaccia won the job in training camp, was a two-time UFL Special Teams Player of the Week and made 12 of 16 field-goal attempts, including a 54-yarder which tied the record for the longest field goal in the history of the two-year-old league. Scaccia’s shortest miss was from 48 yards.

“We felt like he earned the opportunity,” Bayless said. “And after we gave it to him, he didn’t let us down at all.”

Bayless, a former defensive back who spent the bulk of his 13-year career with the Chiefs and Chargers, sees an NFL future for Scaccia, particularly with the league’s recent rule change moving kickoffs from the 30 to the 35-yard line. “The kid’s going to knock the ball out of the end zone on a regular basis,” he said.

But there are no guarantees Scaccia’s future will be in San Francisco. The 49ers have a reliable veteran placekicker in Joe Nedney, 38, and they could be looking to use one of their league-high 12 draft picks to bring in competition. On Friday, they had a private workout with UCLA All-American and former Lou Groza Award winner Kai Forbath, according to the Sacramento Bee.

Scaccia, of course, is the anti-Forbath — a semi-pro veteran with zero college experience who has never kicked before anything approximating a Candlestick Park crowd.

Scaccia concedes that he doesn’t know where the next step in his improbable journey will take him.

And he admits that his current spot on the NFL’s fringes — much like his life-changing kick — is still hard to believe.

“All my friends and family will tell me ‘Think about where you’re at’ and it’s still overwhelming to me,” he said. “But I’m ready to go and I’m going to do my best. If it’s not good enough (in San Francisco) hopefully it will be good enough somewhere else.”

For more on the 49ers, go to Instant 49ers at 49ers.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Writer Eric Branch at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and follow him at twitter.com/Eric_Branch.

First published by: Aaron Wilson- RavensInsider on twitter!

The San Francisco 49ers are scheduled to conduct an individual workout with UCLA kicker Kai Forbath on Friday, according to a league source with knowledge of the situation.

The second-team All-Pac 10 Conference selection is graded as a later-round draft target.

He finished with 85 career field goals in 101 tries, tying the school record set by John Lee in the 1980s.

He ranks second in school history with 357 points.

Last season, Forbath connected on 13 of 18 field goals and made all 27 extra points.

As a junior, he won the Lou Groza award and achieved All-American status and first-team All-Pac-10 as he hit 28 of 31 field goal and 24 of 25 extra points. He made all of his kicks under 50 yards.

For more, go to www.nationalfootballpost.com/Kai-Forbath-to-work-out-for-49ers-on-Friday.html

First published by: Ninjames

It's no secret that Joe Nedney versus a robot built for kicking equates to a Joe Nedney win ten times out of ten. That's just how things work. In the ongoing war with man versus machine, it's not often that man gets a win, but Nedney has been a dependable source of robot-beating awesomeness for years now.  Unfortunately, questions about his ability and durability on the football field are beginning to surface, and where they already have surfaced, they began to pick up speed last year.

Nedney has been pretty darn dependable for the 49ers since signing with the team in 2005. He's never went below an 81% field goal percentage, and three of his seasons in San Francisco were 85% and above. His accuracy is not an issue, or at least it hasn't been to this point. He's missed the occasional important kick, but I believe he made a lot more of them in that time frame. 

I've never been impressed with his kickoffs, but at the very least, he's been consistent in that regard. He's not a big touchback kind of guy, and he's not even an "inside the five-yard line" kind of guy. But his kicks have decent hang-time to them at the very least, and the coverage units aren't routinely left out to dry.

Around the league, you see teams struggle with their kickers, you see players go out there and routinely miss field goals, and I start to feel a little selfish about my stance on Nedney. I want a guy to come in and handle kickoffs, but I won't despair if we don't get that. The biggest issue is Nedney's health, as the 49ers had to bring in Jeff Reed to finish out the 2010 season. Reed was solid, but the team has indicated that Nedney is still probably that guy, or at least, insiders have. 

I still wouldn't be adverse to a kickoff specialist, but let's get to confidence levels. You all know what a '10' implies. You are 100% confident that Nedney will handle all duties as the kicker admirably. Let's go with '6' being somewhere around serviceable, but with large question marks. Anything below that is varying degrees of "he's just not that good at this point, or ever."