San Francisco hasn’t closed the door on a possible Julius Peppers addition this off-season, but for the time being they’re content to develop their pass rush in house with players that have thus far underachieved.

According to the Sacramento Bee, the Niners will be using LBs Parys Haralson and Manny Lawson in a hybrid pass rushing role within their 3-4 defense this season, and so far that move looks good on the practice field. Getting it to work in a real game situation is entirely different though, so the team still has their phone lines open to a potential trade to acquire Peppers from Carolina and may seek to bring free agent DE Jason Taylor into the mix as the summer progresses.

Getting Peppers would be extremely tricky, as San Fran would likely have to cough up a first round pick and more to pry him loose, but the return on such an investment would be huge. In Peppers, the 49ers would have a relatively young pass rusher that is experienced, determined, and has superstar caliber talent. That addition alone could vault the team into the race for NFC West supremacy, although it seems that the Cardinals currently have a stranglehold on that division.

As always, we’ll keep an eye out for anything we see on this and all the other news from around the league.