Conditioning issue for rookie, but his talent appeals to 49ers
OK, it’s an unofficial prize, but sixth-round pick Kalia Davis earned the A-for-honesty award at the San Francisco 49ers’ rookie minicamp last week.
Davis made an unusual position switch at Central Florida, moving from linebacker to defensive tackle, and he was asked Friday how he transformed his body to handle the rigors of playing in the trenches.
The implication: Davis bulked up by lifting weights. The reality: Davis beefed up by lifting utensils.
“Well, really, I moved from linebacker to D-line because my body was changing,” Davis said, smiling. “I was gaining a little too much weight.”
Davis, who measured 6-foot-1 and 302 pounds at the NFL combine, probably needs to have his weight better distributed in the NFL.
The pre-draft scouting report from NFL.com noted Davis’ “conditioning issues” showed up in the second half of games and quoted an AFC scouting director, who struck the same note: “A team needs to get him on a good nutrition and conditioning plan so he can be a 60-minute pro. That’s the next step, because he’s got plenty of talent.”
That talent is why the 49ers took something of a sixth-round flier on Davis, the 220th pick who is rehabbing from a torn ACL he suffered in October after he opted out of the 2020 season due to the pandemic.
Perhaps a big-man appetite forced Davis’ switch, but the 49ers were intrigued because he retained his smaller-man movement skills at his new spot. Davis suggested the transition would have been seamless if he didn’t have to get in a three-point stance for the first time in his football career.
“I had the athletic ability and I had the physicality already,” Davis said. “So just getting that stance together, that’s what really made me into the D-lineman I am today.”
Davis was rehabbing on a side field, running with a resistance band, during Friday’s practice, the only one of three sessions that was open to the media during the rookie minicamp. However, general manager John Lynch has said Davis could begin the regular season on the physicallyunable-to-perform list. That makes sense given the severity of his injury, the depth of the 49ers’ defensive line and the need for Davis to transform his body, far differently than he did in college.
Other notes and observations from rookie minicamp:
Exhausted edge rusher: Fifteen
and two.
That wasn’t a great combination for the 49ers’ first draft pick, USC edge rusher Drake Jackson, who crisscrossed the country visiting 15 teams before the draft.
That travel schedule presumably affected his workout schedule. And that appeared to be the case Friday when Jackson was one of just two defensive linemen being put through the paces in individual drills by highintensity position coach Kris Kocurek.
With few breathers, the secondround pick was clearly gassed at the end, repeatedly putting his hands on his helmet to catch his breath.
Big back: Rookie third-round pick Danny Gray is the 49ers’ fastest wide receiver. And the 49ers’ other thirdround selection, Tyrion Davis-Price, is their biggest running back.
Davis-Price, who played at 225 pounds last year at LSU and weighed 211 pounds at the combine, expects to hover around 222 pounds as a rookie.
Davis-Price highlighted his physicality and size.
“I just love contact,” he said. “Defenders, they don’t want that. They don’t like that. So I’m just ready to bring that to this next level and show what I can do.”
Standing tall: The 49ers invited 13 players to minicamp on a tryout basis. An invitee who stood out: Missouri wide receiver Keke Chism.
Chism, 6-foot-5 and 214 pounds, looks the part of NFL wideout. And he resembled one when he made the most impressive catch during Friday’s practice: He soared to snag an apparently overthrown deep pass at its apex along the right sideline.
Chism’s height is combined with an impressive vertical jump (36.5 inches at his pro day), but his unimpressive 40-yard dash (4.69 seconds) helps explain why he didn’t land a free-agent contract after the draft. Chism had 71 catches for 905 yards and three touchdowns in his two seasons at Missouri.
The road back: Only one of the 49ers’ 13 tryout players was a former draft pick: Tight end Troy Fumagalli, 27, was selected in the fifth round by the Broncos in 2018.
Fumagalli spent last season on the Patriots’ injured-reserve list after he had 14 catches for 118 yards and two touchdowns in 19 games with the Broncos from 2019-20.
He’ll need to beat odds to get back onto a 53-man roster, but he’s accustomed to overcoming. Fumagalli’s left index finger was amputated a few days after he was born due to a condition known as amniotic band syndrome.
“It happened at birth, so I don’t know any better,” Fumagalli said to ESPN in 2016. “If you were to ask me if I imagined a finger on my left hand, I feel like that’s in the way of things. I wouldn’t want it there.”
Two of the other 49ers’ tryout players have NFL playing experience: tight end Dan Brown, 29, and safety Doug Middleton, 28.
Coach returns: The most encouraging news from Friday’s practice: Linebackers coach Johnny Holland, 57, was back on the field.
Holland has returned to his role after stepping away shortly before last year’s season opener due to a return of multiple myeloma. Holland was first diagnosed with the cancer of the plasma cells in September 2019.
Holland was at the facility late in the 2021 season and participated in meetings, but he didn’t take part in practices.
“In sharing the details of my diagnosis,” Holland said shortly before he left the team last year, “my desire is that I can be an advocate and beacon of hope for those who are battling cancer to help remind them that we’re all in this together.”
Ex-coach returns: The most intriguing news from Friday’s practice: Vic Fangio was a spectator.
The former 49ers defensive coordinator (2011-2014) and Broncos head coach (2019-2021) doesn’t have an official role with the team after he reportedly discussed serving as a consultant in February. Fangio, 63, periodically visits the Bay Area and could drop by Santa Clara on occasion this offseason to stay connected to football during his first season not coaching at the NFL or college level since 1982.
Fangio is still being paid by the Broncos after he was fired three years into his four-year, $20 million contract. If he’s interested in returning to the NFL as a coordinator, he would be a logical candidate to fill the vacancy if 49ers defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans became a head coach after the season. Ryans declined a second interview for the Vikings’ head-coach opening this year.
In 2017, head coach Kyle Shanahan wanted to interview Fangio for his defensive-coordinator opening, but Fangio couldn’t get out of his contract with the Bears.