Rookie Foster an instant hit with the 49ers
Reuben Foster’s smile absolutely lights up a room. The 49ers keep seeing it over and over, only 31/2 months into a career bound to serve over a billion smiles.
Inside the cramped visiting locker room at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium, Foster beamed Friday night after debuting in uniform No. 56, an exhibition win he started at weak-side linebacker.
“It went well, it went great, it went awesome,” Foster said, his enthusiasm building with each second. “It’s wonderful just to be back in game mode, and go fast, hit and thump.”
The 49ers can only hope Foster’s love of the game is infectious. They need his positive vibe to go viral. They need a new look, and Foster is the front-runner to champion that cause for a franchise with a new coach, general manager and myriad players.
“Anytime you’ve got people like that it becomes contagious,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said. “Reuben is a guy who really enjoys playing football. You guys can tell that anytime you talk to him about football, you can see it on his face.”
See: smile.
“And when he gets out there (on the field), you can tell by his actions, too,” Shanahan added. “The way he flies around, he enjoys hitting, he enjoys running. And, I think he enjoys talking.”
Heaping praise on a rookie is typically an artificial endeavor. First-round draft picks are always great, until they prove they’re not.
Pre-draft fears about Foster centered on his rotator cuff surgery and his social circle in Alabama. However his career turns out, it’s starting out hot.
He gets it, too, about embracing team culture rather than one’s brand.
“I hope I did great,” Foster said of his debut. “We’ll find out (Saturday) when we watch that film. But overall as a team, we fought and overcame some adversity and did great.”
Shanahan said Foster played hard, played admirably, but wasn’t perfect on his assignments. He started at weak-side linebacker, moved to middle linebacker and played 52 percent of the snaps in this first quiz.
“He showed definitely why we wanted him,” Shanahan said. “He definitely flies to the ball. He’s a square hitter, a good tackler. Got a chance to get his hands on the ball in that (first series) pass play .”
Winning is great, and a 27-17 comeback win over the Chiefs allowed the 49ers to gloss over their early pitfalls. Way more work awaits before the regular season opens Sept. 10, and, truthfully, before September 2018 when the 49ers might be ripe to contend in the NFC West.
Foster is key to the franchise’s development. So is defensive lineman Solomon Thomas, who was drafted No. 3 overall (28 spots above Foster) out of Stanford. The dynamic defensive duo played well into the second half Friday night.
“It’s definitely good to get that chemistry down, get some reps and get ready for the season,” Thomas said of Foster, his training camp roommate. “This is the time to get better.”
When it came to Foster’s best play of the night, he grimaced how breaking up a pass in the end zone could have gone better. It could have produced his first interception in a game — any game, tracing back to his high school and college days in Alabama.
“I was mad at myself. I could have caught a pick,” Foster said. “But it’s best to do what’s best for a team, and a pass break-up is better than (an opponent’s) catch.”
Foster, surely you’ve heard, has been the buzz of training camp, particularly with four interceptions and a fumble recovery out of mid-air.
“A lot of guys were teasing me about the pass break-up,” Foster said. “I catch all these picks at practice and I can’t catch one in the game when the lights come on.
An eager, ball-hawking playmaker is an ideal wingman for NaVorro Bowman, the on-again, off-again All-Pro who must rediscover his range after last October’s Achilles tear.
“The more we get him out there with Bo and the rest of the guys, the more he’ll communicate and be one of the leaders out there,” Shanahan said.
Foster’s introductory press conference was a riot in April, as he told the story about receiving John Lynch’s congratulatory call on draft night and leaving the New Orleans Saints hanging on the other line.
“I’ll just be honest, at times, he’s just my kind of player,” Lynch said April 28. “He plays sideline-to-sideline and he’ll hit anything that moves. That’s contagious for teammates.”
When Foster opened training camp with three interceptions in the first four practices, he played to the cameras, flashed his smile and uttered a line he repeated Friday night:
“I guess the ball has a thing for me. I don’t have a thing for the ball.”
Put it on a T-shirt. The 49ers and their fans have a thing for Foster.
“It’s wonderful just to be back in game mode, and go fast, hit and thump.” — Reuben Foster