The San Francisco 49ers are certainly making moves during this free agency period, though many of them have been pretty unexpected. Largely dominating the headlines is the news about Peyton Manning, but just underneath has been the search for a wide receiver, which has been mostly spoiled by the Washington Redskins and some other teams. Guys like Pierre Garcon and Chaz Schilens signed elsewhere, but the 49ers waited patiently and got their guy in Mario Manningham.
He's not a player that inspires a ton of confidence given his recent level of play, but he seems to have more "boom" potential than some of the other aforementioned receivers, and probably didn't come with a high price tag. In short, it's a good signing at face value.
And now the 49ers can move on to something more important. No, not Manning - though that is definitely more important. What the 49ers need to move on to right now is the signing of a right guard. Why is that more important than the wide receiver position, you might ask? Because the 49ers have Michael Crabtree, Kyle Williams and Randy Moss. Sure, the latter isn't much of anything right now, and as big an unknown commodity as a Mr. Irrelevant pick at this point, but there's bodies there.
There's nobody to play right guard. There's not even a guy who fans are lukewarm about who could potentially play if need be. Daniel Kilgore is the closest to fitting that mold and he just ... really doesn't. He's not ready, he's not even approaching the potential of possibly being ready some day. It's not often a team goes through free agency this long without having a starter or backup at an actual position.
Look for the 49ers to really make a push for someone like Geoff Schwartz when he visits on Monday.