As the holdout of receiver Michael Crabtree approaches the midpoint of August, Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News reports (as mentioned earlier this afternoon by Gregg Rosenthal) that the impasse will last into September.
And we’re now hearing that the ongoing discrepancy between Crabtree and the 49ers might soon prompt the guys picked before and after Crabtree to go ahead and do their deals.
It has been believed that Packers defensive lineman B.J. Raji, the ninth overall pick, and Bills defensive end Aaron Maybin, the eleventh selection, were waiting for Crabtree’s deal to be finalized. Then, if Crabtree had successfully blown the curve on the slotting system, Raji and Maybin will argue that the slotting system should be respected — and that the extra money should be applied to them, too.
But now that it appears that Crabtree will continue to sit indefinitely (and at least into September), Raji and Maybin might box Crabtree in by doing their deals and giving the 49ers even more ammunition in connection with their efforts to force Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker to respect the slotting system.
That said, Raji’s recent departure from Green Bay might be viewed as evidence that a deal isn’t coming. Still, as one league insider explained it, Raji shouldn’t have been so close to camp in the first place. Now that he’s gone, Raji’s agents might be in much better position to force this thing toward an agreement.