Michael Crabtree is not a loud man, but he has presence, no doubt.

Whether it’s during a mysterious holdout, on the field against Houston, in Jimmy Raye’s game plans or in the middle of the 49ers’ locker room Thursday, the rookie wide receiver is impossible to ignore.
Some guys fade into the scenery, especially amid large and rumbling men. Crabtree is not one of those guys.
He joined the 49ers, and only seemed to get bigger.
“Crabtree, he’s come in and acted like he’s been here from Day One, and that’s a good thing,” running back Frank Gore said.
“He can’t do anything but get better. And that can’t do anything but help the running game.”
My opinion: Crabtree already has pulled Alex Smith into his gravitational force, to the betterment of both men.
That’s how it works with the large-presence guys. They show up, and things change.
Can the Crabtree-Smith team-up alter the 49ers’ devotion to running the ball early and often against defenses stacked to stop the early often run game?
There are hints. The 49ers are 3-3 and no longer in first place. They need a changeup.
“We’re not going to be stubborn and try to jam a square peg into a round hole,” Raye said of the struggling run game.
There Crabtree was on Thursday, propped up on a cabinet by his locker, surrounded by a cluster of reporters, and closely examined by his curious teammates.
That included former starter Josh Morgan, who ambled behind Crabtree and whispered joking prompts, like a stray ventriloquist with an extremely famous dummy.
We’re all just getting to know Crabtree, 49ers personnel included. But we already knew not to be surprised: Crabtree took it all in stride.
“To tell you the truth, I don’t worry about it,” Crabtree said of the attention he continues to draw. “I just stay in my own lane, and do what I’m supposed to do.”
“As soon as I leave the facility, I’m going to sleep or something. . . . I really don’t have too much time to watch TV .”
“I get up at 7, go over my playbook, come to practice. I can’t really count how many hours I’m doing, because as soon as I go home, I’m in the playbook again.”
It starts with Crabtree, who caught five passes for 56 yards in Houston and looked as if he could repeat that performance in his sleep.
Add that to the recent Vernon Davis touchdown rampage and Smith’s revival.
So yes, some large concepts are starting to come together for the 49ers as they get set to play Indianapolis on Sunday.
They’re not going to get to the playoffs strictly playing smash-mouth offensive football. They need Smith at QB, if he can maintain a high level of play.
And their defense will continue to wear down if the offense continues to struggle.
So maybe Raye and Mike Singletary will veer from the Stone Age offense. Maybe they’ll consider spreading the formation, putting Smith into the shotgun, and start throwing the football more often.
“We can be whatever we want to be,” Crabtree said. “I feel like we have the talent to do it.
“We have running backs, we have receivers. I think we have the full package.”
Raye, naturally, was not ready to say that the 49ers will go pass-crazy from now until January.
He logically pointed out that the success in the second half against Houston came when the 49ers were down 21-0 and had to throw the ball.
“I think the illusion of what happened the second half of the Houston game has everybody, or most people thinking that we’ve discussed this new mecca or utopia kind of deal,” Raye said.
The 49ers still want to set the stage for Gore to win games for them, and that’s not dumb and never was.
But how do you win with Gore if defenses are set to stop him? You have to throw it. You have to want to throw it.
Seems so obvious now, with Crabtree in the lineup, changing almost everything.