Reports out of the Bay Area last week had the 49ers shopping running back LaMichael James in a trade and James seemed to welcome the opportunity to try on a different uniform when referencing them in a later tweet.
It looks like there will be more fuel for that fire this week. Matt Maiocco of CSNBayArea.com reports that James will not attend the team’s voluntary offseason workouts, which begin on Monday, and will instead work out on his own in Texas.
James will forfeit a $50,000 workout bonus if he does that, but may see it as a small price to pay if it leads to him playing somewhere else in 2014. Per Maiocco, James would welcome a fresh start after playing in just 14 games for the 49ers in two seasons after they made him a second-round pick in the 2012 draft.
The 49ers have Kendall Hunter, Marcus Lattimore and Jewel Hampton at running back along with Frank Gore and James, so his absence from workouts isn’t going to help him earn more playing time in the backfield. Whether they’ll be able to trade him is unclear, but it looks increasingly unlikely that James will have any role with the Niners in the coming season.