The 49ers made him the seventh quarterback taken -- a fifth-round pick. It is pretty easy for him to pinpoint what occurred.

"I think it's because I have a learning disability," Davis told the San Francisco media, just moments after he was selected with the No. 171st overall pick. "(But) I really don't have a learning disability in football."

The 49ers knew about the learning disability in the weeks prior to the draft. That is why they brought him in for a visit. Coach Mike Singletary said Davis helped ease any concerns during that trip to Santa Clara, Calif.

"If someone has a learning disability, the most important thing for the coach that's going to be coaching him is to make sure that you find out," Singletary said. "I think the most important thing that happened in this whole process was Nate was open about it.

"I was very impressed with his openness. He's the guy that brought it up. He said, 'Coach, I'm going to tell you up front. I have a learning disability.'"

Davis spent a lot of time with 49ers quarterbacks coach Mike Johnson, who had Davis at the grease board to go over some X's and O's.

"I'm very excited to have him, and to have Mike Johnson work with him and bring him along," Singletary said.

Singletary said he spoke with one of Davis' former coaches. He was told that Davis needs to be brought along slowly.

"But that's like we do with most quarterbacks anyway, you start them slowly and gradually, they continue to progress, and you should be fine," Singletary said.

And the 49ers figure to have plenty of time to develop Davis.

Shaun Hill and Alex Smith are scheduled to compete for the 49ers' start

ing job this offseason. The 49ers also have a reliable No. 3 quarterback, veteran Damon Huard. Davis appears to be at least one year away from competing for a job with the 49ers.