KNBR’s own Sam Hustis
Ahh, organized team activities. It’s sort of like pre-college orientation, when everyone meets up for the first time in a massive group, but it’s not actually the first day of school… and you might not run into all of those people again.
Monday was the start of the 49ers’ first week of OTAs, which return after being nixed due to COVID-19 restrictions last year. They aren’t yet back in full force, but for a team which just drafted a rookie quarterback and is seeking to get ahead of the curve, in order to avoid losing a war of attrition like last season, every early rep is meaningful.
This was the first time we got a glimpse of Jimmy Garoppolo and Trey Lance on the field together, and while there were three other quarterbacks — Nate Sudfeld, Josh Rosen and Josh Johnson — limitations meant it was just Garoppolo and Lance getting reps with the ones and twos, respectively.
And for all the concern about players potentially sitting out these voluntary workouts and team activities, well, the 49ers had everyone in attendance. Only Dee Ford and Nick Bosa, who are both home with the 49ers’ blessing, were not there. That’s significant, and could be, if only in small part, be a whiplash response to former Broncos offense tackle Ja’Wuan James, who tore his Achilles while working out outside of the team facility and effectively forfeited $20 million, due to it being categorized as a non-football injury.
Were James to have sustained that at the Broncos’ facility, that money would be his. Maybe that changed some minds, maybe it didn’t, but it’s clear that 49ers players were eager to be back in the building.
Injury Notes: Bosa, Ford, Hurd’s rehab
Among the 49ers players who were not present at Tuesday’s practice were Jeff Wilson Jr., Jalen Hurd, Weston Richburg, Ford, Bosa, Marcell Harris and Nate Gerry.
Both Bosa and Ford are home. Kyle Shanahan confirmed Weston Richburg is retiring (likely official after June 1). Jeff Wilson Jr. tore his meniscus, and will miss the start of the season, according to NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo. Jaquiski Tartt was doing work along the sideline, and Hurd was briefly spotted there, too. It’s unclear why Harris and Gerry did not participate.
Shanahan provided updates on Bosa, Ford and Hurd.
Nick Bosa: Bosa is at home in Florida. The 49ers wanted him to stay there for the time being so his routine isn’t disturbed. They expect that he’ll return at some point during the OTA/minicamp portion of the offseason, and that he’ll be ready to go for training camp.
Jalen Hurd: Hurd was seen briefly on the sideline and is working back from the ACL tear he suffered last training camp after missing his rookie season with a stress reaction (similar to a stress fracture) in his back.
Shanahan said that he expects to “be ready to go by camp.”
Dee Ford: Ford was at the 49ers’ facility since February. The team sent him back home to see his doctor and get some time away. It’s still unclear what to expect from him, if anything, but the team has been pleased with his progress.
“Everyone knows the sensitivity of his injury with his back,” Shanahan said. “But he’s been putting in a lot of work here and we feel it’s going the right direction. Last week, we sent him home because he had been here so long, to go back to his hometown, see his doctor. And I plan on him coming back here in the next couple weeks. But don’t expect to see until training camp on the field.”
Garoppolo and Lance
This was our first opportunity to watch both Garoppolo and Lance on the field together, which was from any standpoint, a pretty cool spectacle. We got to watch Lance’s footwork, which is head and shoulders above where most rookies are, and his cannon of an arm.
Garoppolo, obviously, is far more polished. Lance has had a few occasions of overthrows and lasering the ball on short throws that would be better suited for touch passes. Again, he’s 21, and it’s way too early to get into any meaningful critiques. It’s just entertaining to see the future and the present on the field simultaneously.
For the first time since the trade up for and selection of Lance, Garoppolo spoke to the local media. He didn’t get into the weeds, but acknowledged, if only indirectly, that he wasn’t overjoyed by the move.
“When it initially happened, there’s a million emotions that go on throughout your head and you think of all the possible scenarios and things like that,” Garoppolo said. “But at the end of the day, I want to play football. I want to go out there and win games. That’s what I do. It wasn’t anything too crazy. It took a little while to process everything. But once I did, it was just, go out there and ball. You’ve just got to attack it. NFL is a crazy business, things happen, but you’ve just got to attack it day by day and make the best of it.”
There’s been some concern among fans and media about how Garoppolo and Lance will work together which, yeah, that’s a very reasonable concern. But for anyone who’s observed Garoppolo, you know he’s exceedingly low maintenance.
That doesn’t mean Garoppolo is just going to accept losing his job or that he’s going to coddle or go out of his way to become best friends with Lance, but it does mean that he’s probably not going to go scorched earth. He’s a well-liked guy because he’s mild mannered, confident, and hey, that chin line. He said he’s enjoyed spending time with Lance thus far, but won’t try and make the relationship something artificial. Make of that what you will.
“The relationship between me and Trey, I think it’ll just happen naturally,” Garoppolo said. “It’s not something that you want to force too much. You don’t want to make it fake. Things will happen and that stuff takes time. But, I think it’s one of those situations where you don’t want to go out of your normalcy and do something that’s not you… I don’t want to make it a weird relationship between me and Trey. I don’t want to do something that’s not me. I just want it to happen naturally and it has been. Trey’s a cool dude. We’ve hung out a couple of times and it’s one of those relationships that it’ll come over time. It just takes a little time.”
Julio Jones, high attendance and other notes
- Julio talk: Kyle Shanahan can’t talk about Julio Jones. But he really wanted to talk about Julio Jones, who the Falcons are trying to trade, and who wants to be traded. He has a propensity to do that when asked about former players he’s enamored with. While Shanahan didn’t talk about the trade possibility explicitly, he said the 49ers are always looking to improve.
“Anyone I’ve coached in the past that I have relationships with, especially a great dude like Julio, obviously I have a ton of respect for,” Shanahan said. “We’re always interested in improving our team. We’ll never just say, ‘Hey, we’re done, we can’t improve our team.’ You always try to make that happen. But yeah, it makes it harder when you’ve already given up some stuff to make some moves and things like that. Everything’s got to fit in. It’s got to make sense. But, I would never say we’re just done.”
- High attendance: The fact that the only two absentees were guys that the 49ers encouraged to be home in Bosa and Ford speaks volumes about the eagerness of this team. There were very legitimate concerns that players would abstain from OTAs and workouts due to COVID-19 concerns and to give the NFLPA leverage in talks with the league. But that didn’t happen. After a year in which a shortened training camp and lack of an elongated ramp up crushed them, it’s clear everyone is excited to be back.
- Garoppolo healthy: Oh yeah. That guy, Jimmy Garoppolo, who’s been injured way too often over the last few years is fully healthy. There are no lingering concerns about his ankle. He said he’ll throw on the knee brace from time to time, but that seems to be based largely on personal comfortability.
“His ankle seems totally healed,” Shanahan said. “I haven’t even asked him about it because it looks so good. So, I’d be surprised if there’s anything lingering from it. He’s had a good two days of practice and hopefully we’ll give him a few more reps as we get going here and get everyone else in better shape.”