SANTA CLARA, Calif. — And so Vernon Davis and Mike Singletary can live happily ever after.

Or at least through Week 1 of the regular season.
If there were any lingering doubts that Davis would have trouble with his strong-minded coach after a stormy opening act, they were eclipsed Friday when Singletary named Davis as one of the 49ers’ six team captains heading into Sunday’s opener against the Arizona Cardinals.
“It’s nice to know that,” Davis said. “It says I’ve matured, that coach really thinks a lot of me and he thinks I have a chance to be a leader on this team.”
The other captains — all season-long appointments — were linebackers Patrick Willis and Takeo Spikes, defensive lineman Justin Smith, center Eric Heitman and running back Michael Robinson.
None were a major a surprise, in part because they weren’t banished to the locker room by an angry Singletary in his first game as head coach.
Singletary cited Davis for his willingness to communicate, his work ethic and ability to get others to work along with him.
During minicamp, Singletary was pushing his team through various work stations at a furious pace and considered taking a break, only to be talked out of it by Davis.
“Vernon said, ’No. We started it. We’re going to finish it,”’ Singletary said. He set the tempo for me, for the rest of the minicamp.”
Davis downplayed the fiery opening act and said he quickly warmed to Singletary as his coach.
“It was his first game. We had to get on the same page,” Davis said. “We had to understand one another. I had to understand what he expected. I really didn’t know that much about coach Singletary at the time. He had just jumped into the head coaching position.”
— Free safety Dashon Goldson won the starting job from Mark Roman at free safety, and as a reward finds himself playing center field against the NFL equivalent of Murderer’s Row.
Arizona became the fifth team in NFL history to have three receivers break 1,000 yards — Larry Fitzgerald (96 receptions, 1,431 yards, 12 TDs), Anquan Boldin (89 receptions, 1,038 yards, 11 TDs) and Steve Breaston (77 receptions, 1,006 yards, three TDs) — and Goldson will be the last line of defense.
“We’ll have our hands full for sure,” Goldson said. “It’s not just me. It will take all of us, working together.”
Boldin was second in the NFL in yards after catch with 595 yards.
“He’s more of a screen and gadget guy, Fitzgerald is more of their deep guy, but they’re all very tough,” Goldson said.
— Rather than pipe in crowd noise through speakers, which Singletary called “annoying” and not totally effective, the 49ers are wearing ear plugs.
“I felt that if we could have the earplugs, we couldn’t hear anything and it forces you to really communicate and be aware that you can’t hear and the person next to you can’t hear,” Singletary said. “It doesn’t matter how loud the stadium is, we can communicate in spite of how noisy it gets.”
— No surprise, but Singletary named Alex Smith as the backup quarterback with Nate Davis at No. 3.
— Brandon Jones (knee) and Ahmad Brooks (shoulder) missed practice and will not face Arizona. The Cardinals listed Boldin as questionable with a hamstring injury. Singletary said Arnaz Battle and Michael Spurlock were the slot receivers and would go “back and forth depending on the situation of the game.”