Three days have come and gone, concluding the 49ers’ first window of training camp practices. This first window is always the most lean for information and storylines, with pads not coming on until the next set of practices.
Taylor Swift’s domineering arrival at Levi’s Stadium — and the pomp and circumstance surrounding her two performances there on Friday and Saturday — was the lead storyline. The second-most substantial topic was the number of reps 49ers quarterbacks took.
QB reps
Kyle Shanahan said from the outset that divvying up reps would be a tricky proposition. He had quietly expected Brock Purdy to take another week, or weeks, to be a full go in camp. Instead, he’s already been fully cleared.
As positive as that is for the offense, it means the other three quarterbacks at camp — Trey Lance, Sam Darnold and Brandon Allen — are all, in a sense, picking at the leftovers.
It’s that last name on the list that offers the most confusion. There is a clear battle between Darnold and Lance for the backup job, with Lance obviously in need of the most reps of any quarterback on the roster. But then there’s Allen, getting only a few less than the other two.
Purdy won’t practice once in every block of three practices, as was the case Wednesday. That leaves at least one day of decent run for the others. But on a day like Friday, Pudy’s 20 reps of 11-on-11s cut a sizable chunk out of the total, leaving 32 for the other three.
Darnold took 12 reps. Lance had 11. Allen had 9.
Lance has had a few very ugly misses, though he’s not alone in that regard. He’s struggled with shorter throws outside the numbers, and leading players to their outside shoulder.
Lance opts for optimism
It’s not been all that inspiring of a camp so far, and it would be completely reasonable for Lance to feel frustrated with skint opportunities.
He opted for a more optimistic tone to reporters, saying he feels “night and day,” better than he has in year’s past.
“[I’ve improved] in all the ways,” Lance said. “The game has slowed down a lot.”
The third-year quarterback lost his starting job due to injury, but admitted that his footwork was less than impressive in his first two seasons.
He said he doesn’t like looking at old tape of himself, and credited offseason with quarterbacks coach Jeff Christensen this offseason.
“It’s more my feet, honestly, than anything from the last couple of years,” Lance said. “But yeah, no, I don’t find myself liking to watch the mechanics side of the last couple of years reps. I feel like I’m in a much, much better place now.”
Friday’s performance
Lance, like every quarterback on Friday, was a mixed bag.
He had one terrible overthrow of Jordan Mason to the flat. It’s the sort of throw he’s visibly struggled with. He looked natural on a bootleg completion to Brayden Willis and found a wide open Tay Martin, but also overthrew Martin — who didn’t appear to separate, anyway — later on a deep ball.
There have been quite a few missed connections on deep balls so far in camp. Brandon Allen was nearly intercepted by Tayler Hawkins on a 50-50 ball that Hawkins almost poached, before Willie Snead IV knocked it free.
Brock Purdy had one embarrassingly bad moment under pressure, when he threw dangerously off his back foot towards Willis and was nearly picked off by Isaiah Oliver over the middle. It’s hard to tell how seriously to take those bad decisions in practices, especially non-padded ones.
Purdy had probably the second-best throw of the day. He wasn’t exactly splitting the atom, but he felt pressure coming from an Oliver blitz off the right side, then fired on time to Christian McCaffrey’s outside shoulder, just as he was separating against Talanoa Hufanga towards the left sideline. The rhythm felt as game-like as you’ll get in these practices.
The best throw of the day goes to Sam Darnold, who put it in the bread basket for a streaking Elijah Mitchell in a tight window.
Darnold also came close to a deep ball connection with Ray-Ray McCloud down the left sideline, but McCloud didn’t look like he could get enough of the ball to come down with it. It should also be mentioned that in Darnold’s first series of reps, he fumbled a snap and backup fullback Jack Colletto pounced on it and took off for a positive gain.
Aside from the quarterbacks, the defense also got home quite a few times and closed space consistently in the secondary.
Arik Armstead — who has been outstanding so far, albeit without pads — looked like he beat Trent Williams for a clear, would-be sack on Brock Purdy. Clelin Ferrell has also found himself around the quarterback a few times, and Robert Beal had a definite would-be sack on Allen, who then badly overthrew Jauan Jennings.
Jennings, by the way, had the catch of the day to end practice. He reached up like he had a go-go gadget arm for an outrageous one-handed grab high over the middle of the field.
You can get a look at it at the end of the clip above. Practice will resume on Sunday.