Testing, testing, for Super Bowl return

Training camp offers a hopeful sign that a NFL season actually will ensue, and, potentially, the 49ers’ sweet shot at Super Bowl revenge. Great tests await.

There will be COVID-19 swabs tickling players’ noses. Then comes more virtual learning, teamsupervised conditioning and, somehow, summertime bonding.

Not until mid-August will the 49ers’ Santa Clara training fields again see sweat drip, footballs fly and Jimmy Garoppolo bark a comforting cadence in a full-team practice.

Storylines are plentiful as ever, though, as the 49ers reconvene for training camp after a virtually-driven offseason and a five-month separation from their Levi’s Stadium locker room. In this safety-first society, let’s start with the topic at the forefront of everyone’s lives:

1. Health check — A parking-lot trailer greets players for COVID-19 testing upon their arrival, which comes Thursday for about a third of the team (four quarterbacks, 15 rookies, plus rehabilitating players) and July 28 for the remainder.

Before anyone can access the facility as early as Day 5, two negative tests are required, starting on Days 1 and 4 while players self-quarantine and virtually meet over 72 hours in between. Daily tests will ensue over two weeks before an everyother-day scenario if less than 5% of tests are positive, according to the NFL Network.

More safety parameters are being hashed out, including full-time masks, social distancing in meetings, take-out only at the cafeteria. The 49ers also must brace for those who test positive or simply opt out of the coming season.

Santa Clara County officials have kept in contact with the 49ers, whose protocol and testing should clear the way for camp. Players likely won’t be sequestered at a nearby hotel, though some can stay there if they choose while others bunker in at their private homes.

Mitigating the risk of infection is the goal, and players are cognizant how this might impact not

only their health and that of their families, but also the longterm potential effects to lungs and other organs. Remember the good old days when hamstring pulls and ankle sprains were training camp’s health hurdles?

2. Money talk — Exactly how much longer will the 49ers wait to award a new contract to George Kittle, and how will that deal reset the market for tight ends?

Excuses abound on a delay, the primary one being the salary cap’s likely liquefaction in 2021 due to lost revenue from the pandemic. Rigorous offseasons helped build Kittle into the NFL’s premier tight end, and he’s continued that this year from his Nashville garage.

With a year left on his rookie deal at a $2 million salary, Kittle could and maybe should hold out, though he’s already intimated he wants to be present as a two-time captain. If the cap number comes into focus, there is a better chance at a moderate extension for the 49ers’ conga line of 2021 free agents.

It’s not just running back Raheem Mostert who wants a raise, though he went rogue and had his agent publicly request a trade. Among the potential starters not signed beyond this season: Richard Sherman, Kyle Juszczyk, Trent Williams, K’Waun Williams, Jaquiski Tartt, Trent Taylor, Kendrick Bourne and Tevin Coleman. These times may call for a pennypinching mentality, but it’s not an ideal reputation to gain, especially after this past March’s quiet market and DeForest Buckner’s cost-saving trade.

3. Rookies arrive — Firstround draft picks Javon Kinlaw and Brandon Aiyuk are signed, so there is no financial worry there, and only tight end Charlie Woerner (sixth round) needs to sign from their five-man class.

Kinlaw joins the 49ers’ most coveted unit, their defensive line, and must make an immediate impact in place of Buckner as an interior force. Aiyuk joins the 49ers’ most curious unit, with Deebo Samuel recovering from foot surgery while Trent Taylor and Jalen Hurd return from their 2019 stints on injured reserve.

Not since the 2011 lockout have rookies waited this long to descend upon the 49ers’ facility.

Trimming 10 from the 90-man roster means more woes for underdogs, especially the 10-man undrafted class. But the 49ers liked these players for a reason, and with no exhibition film, other teams may not claim them off the waiver wire ahead of the regular season, so the 49ers could stash them on the practice squad.