Frank Gore ended his lockout and will return to the San Francisco 49ers training facility on Monday. He could be entering some empty hallways. The Niners are cancelling their Monday practice. Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee reports that this is due to the new labor agreement, stipulating that a team must take a day off practice within the first six days of training camp. Jim Harbaugh and the 49ers organization picked Monday, because seriously, who wants to work on a Monday anyway? Lunatics, that's who. And the 49ers are clearly not wielding flamethrowers with icepicks during football games.
Today's practice seemed to be an intriguing one as there ever was for a Sunday in training camp. First round draft pick Aldon Smith appeared to perform quite well against the Niners offensive linemen, including Joe Staley. Smith said that he'll be playing a lot of defensive end on third down situations. Keep that in mind when you're tracking third down performance this fall in your notebooks.
For more on 49ers practice, check out Niners Nation.