At the commencing of 49ers coaching camp, head coach Kyle Shanahan declared that there was no levels of competition for the starting up quarterback task. Jimmy Garoppolo was the starter, Trey Lance was his backup. No more issues.
A week in, and that might even now be the circumstance.
But potentially there should be a conversation about it.
Certainly, the studies ended up genuine: Garoppolo looked wonderful in the early days of camp.
But then, Saturday, he appeared pedestrian, throwing two interceptions, which includes a 40-garden-plus deep ball that had the similar balance as a frat pledge at the start out-of-college kegger, ending up a very good 5 yards short of Deebo Samuel in the vicinity of the objective-line.
It seems as if Garoppolo is not a new quarterback, right after all.
Meanwhile, when Garoppolo seemed like exact-aged-Jimmy, Lance appeared like the long run on Saturday. Not only was he throwing laser beams all above the subject, for every typical, but he started tucking the ball and working, too. There were even a couple of read through-option performs that Shanahan dusted out of his old Washington playbook on Saturday.
“We ran a few or 4 go through zones right now, which is a few or 4 more than my job here — it is exciting,” Mike McGlinchey mentioned just after observe.
Lance looked great to start off instruction camp, but he took his activity to a new amount to cap off the 7 days.
If the Niners have been to make a quarterback choice on pure talent, there would be no level of competition — Lance would be the man.
And potentially it will come down to that in a thirty day period.
But if Garoppolo can rediscover that crispness he started off camp with, he’s additional than able of helming a productive NFL offense.
Inevitably, Lance will be the male in Santa Clara. Just like in rookie mini-camp, the No. 3 in general choose appears like an excellent fashionable-day quarterback. There should really never have been a question, but all skepticism requires to be erased just after these previous couple of practices.
And though that may possibly create additional scuttlebutt than Shanahan preferred all around the Niners heading into this time, I feel that should really be viewed as wonderful news for the crew.
Due to the fact when Shanahan decides that Lance is ready to start — whether that is Week 1 of this season, 7 days 1 of 2022, or someplace in between— there will not be a solitary participant or mentor who will problem if that’s the suitable final decision. Lance is simple.
And confirming that the Niners didn’t trade absent a few initial-round picks in vain is an superb start out to education camp, no?
• Into the much more granular stuff:
A big dilemma heading into camp was, “who is the No. 3 receiver?” There’s no issue now that it is Mohamed Sanu.
The veteran wideout, who performed for San Francisco and Detroit previous year, catching 17 passes, seems several years more youthful than the last time we saw him in Santa Clara — a simple fact that took a few of days to completely grasp. (There had been a lot more than a few “who was that?” feedback — the answer was often Sanu.)
The emergence (re-emergence) of Sanu has been a considerable enhancement for the Niners. Sure, the veteran divided himself from a significant pack of gamers hunting for that No. 3 receiver career, but reality be advised, no 1 is really pushing him.
I have not noted everything Richie James has carried out. The identical factor with Kevin White. Trent Sherfield and River Cracraft have looked wonderful, but that’s about all I can say. Travis Benjamin, to place it nicely, has not experienced a excellent 7 days.
Increase in the absences of Jalen Hurd, who has missed the previous two procedures, and Jauan Jennings (Covid protocol), and Sanu has been a godsend in these oh-so-early days — though I’m confident Shanahan would prefer the veteran to be pushed a little bit.
• Raheem Mostert has been a single of the much better functioning backs in the NFL the past two seasons, but the 49ers are plainly prepared to move on from him following this campaign, as they drafted not one particular but two operating backs this past spring.
But Mostert does not seem to be at all all set to relinquish his starting off task just still. We’re however to see total get in touch with — the Niners have not put on shoulder pads in camp — but the one particular-cut-and-go back has appeared huge as a move-catcher in 1-on-1, 7-on-7, and 11-on-11 drills.
It’s no solution that Shanahan would adore to have a jogging back again who can catch the ball out of the backfield on all a few downs, but Mostert has not been that dude the past two seasons, catching 36 passes in his job. There’s a prolonged way to go in camp nevertheless — this may just be an early-camp aberration, a byproduct of simple zone defenses — but if he has, which is just yet another achievable wrinkle in a 49ers offense that could be considerably far more dynamic than in years previous. (And it was a quite dynamic offense.)
• The player that has most stood out to me in the first 7 days of camp? Defensive tackle Zach Kerr.
Or has it been D.J. Jones?
Actually, scratch that — I imagine it could be Kevin Givens.
I swear, I do not have a bias to defensive tackles. In actuality, I dislike them — they are the kinds who applied to embarrass me on the industry.
The Niners have a challenge on their hands. It is the best kind of issue, but a trouble however: They have far too a lot of fantastic gamers at defensive tackle.
Kerr and Jones have been unquestionably superb so significantly. It is probable a failure in scouting on my end, but I experienced no notion Kerr, who the 49ers signed from Carolina, was this excellent.
In the meantime, Jones seems like a dice — he’s as broad as he is tall as he is deep — with two springs less than it. It is jarring seeing a gentleman that huge appear off the line that speedy.
And Givens seems to be just about exactly like him.
The Niners also have Mo Hurst and Darrien Daniels, who have also been spectacular, profitable a ton of a single-on-1 reps and impressing in total-group scrimmages.
This, when Javon Kinlaw, who, in idea, is the most talented of all of the team’s inside defensive linemen, is sidelined with a nonetheless-mysterious leg injuries that the participant says doesn’t exist. (That is a thing to retain an eye on for following week.)
The Niners want their defensive id to be their defensive line, and they like depth up front, but they are heading to have to get rid of at the very least one particular actually superior player at the stop of camp.
Given how perfectly everyone has been playing, that is likely to be a difficult choice.
