The return to practice for the 49ers was a relatively understated one, as the team had a “low” day, as Kyle Shanahan called it.
San Francisco structures its practice in a way intended to protect player health, which means the first practice back after a day off is “low.” The following day — Friday in this case — will be an intense, “high,” day, followed by a “medium” day to close out the three-day slate.
There were no one-on-ones, no reps for Brandon Allen and multiple vet days for stars like Trent Williams, Christian McCaffrey, Dre Greenlaw and George Kittle. There were some injury absences, too, detailed here.
The highlight of the light practice — if it can be called that — was an inconsistent move-the-ball period.
Brock Purdy
Purdy’s day started off with a deep incompletion to Deebo Samuel on a play the quarterback almost certainly would’ve been sacked amidst a collapsing pocket.
On his next set, Purdy completed an inch-perfect pass to Brandon Aiyuk, just as he crossed the face of Oren Burks. He was perfect on these reps, offering a short screen to Jordan Mason, who cut back well across the defense. Then Purdy found Aiyuk again on a short, quick ball over the middle. He finished that series with a Jauan Jennings connection.
In move-the-ball drills, Purdy’s group got off to a rough start with a fumbled snap exchange. Then Purdy missed Aiyuk. He got back on track with a hitch to Jordan Mason to his left before a slant over the middle to Aiyuk was negated by a false start. His drill ended with a deep incompletion, a slightly underthrown ball down the right sideline to Deebo Samuel, covered by Samuel Womack.
Trey Lance
Lance opened with a stellar, tight window throw to Willie Snead IV. His next attempt was a completion, thrown with excellent touch on an out route to Tay Martin.
He followed that up by trying to force a short throw to Brayden Willis over the middle while under pressure, but it was broken up. Before move-the-ball drills, he completed a screen to Samuel and a short curl to Aiyuk.
His final period, though, was rough.
On his first rep, Lance tried to hit Martin over the middle, but failed to see Dee Winters underneath. Winters sagged back in coverage, leaping up a nice interception. He recovered by hitting Willis on a play action, but finished the drill with a necessary throwaway under pressure, with two defensive players in his face.
Here was Kyle Shanahan’s interpretation of the interception:
Just tried to throw it over the hooker and the hooker got under it. So it’s a high-low and he was too deep and he wanted the deep throw and he’s got to check it down.
Sam Darnold
Darnold completed a dump screen to Charlie Woerner to start his day, then found a pair to Aiyuk and Ronnie Bell in the same spot over the middle of the field. He tried to find Willis in his next set of drills, but the tight end didn’t separate from his mark.
In move-the-ball drills, Darnold found Danny Gray for the best catch of the day, a leaping, high grab on a crosser. A couple plays later, he found Cameron Latu for a short completion. He came back to Gray after that on another bootleg completion with room for Gray to scoot for the first down. It ended with an ugly throw over the head of Willis in the back of the end zone.
Other notes
- Marcelino-McCrary Ball has been impressive, perhaps the most exciting linebacker outside of Fred Warner and Dre Greenlaw. He opened the day by stuffing Ty Davis-Price at the line of scrimmage and has flashed substantial range and athleticism. There’s a lot of intriguing names in the linebacker group, with Oren Burks a pretty steady presence, Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles a favored special teamer, and a host of young names fighting for spots like Curtis Robinson, Dee Winters, Kyahva Tezino and Jalen Graham.
- The tight end room is confounding. Woerner and Ross Dwelley get praised for knowing the team’s system because Woerner has shown himself to be an unreliable receiver and Dwelley and unreliable blocker, without either having traits that warrant them being on the field next to George Kittle. Brayden Willis has found substantially more targets than Cam Latu, who made a rare catch on Thursday, but Willis has looked like he’s still finding his footing, too. Kyle Shanahan didn’t exactly rave about either:
I think it’s hard. I mean we got, everyone knows [TE] George [Kittle] and then when you look at [TE] Charlie [Woerner] and [TE Ross] Dwelley, they’re consistent with what they do and they’ve been here for so long. And the tight ends, we ask our tight ends probably to do more than any other position because how involved they’re in the run game and the pass game. And those guys are getting thrown in it big. We just finished really our whole install and hopefully it slows down a little bit for both of them as we get going here.