Team gets a scare when linebacker gets hurt at practice
SANTA CLARA >> Here are the top sights and sounds Monday as the 49ers, after a day off, prepared for today’s first practice in full pads:
QB BATTLE/INTERCEPTIONS >> Jimmy Garoppolo’s first-team reps are not in jeopardy.
Not yet, anyhow. Not after back-toback practices in which Trey Lance again showed off slick moves on the run and in the passing game at his debut training camp.
“There’s always competition, but we’re not splitting the reps up going against the ones,” coach Kyle Shanahan said. “Trey had one of his better days on Saturday but it wasn’t to move him up there and start talking differently with Jimmy.”
Lance, Shanahan said, will have to show a lot more in practices and the 49ers’ three exhibitions to overtake Garoppolo, the incumbent who’s injury history is his biggest liability.
“That would be pretty tough to do. I’m not trying to put that pressure on Trey,” Shanahan added. “Jimmy’s played too good of football and is too good of a player, and Trey is trying to learn everything right now. That’s why’d I’d be very surprised.”
Lance threw his first interception of camp — after only one in 318 career passes at North Dakota State — and it came on a pass over the middle into the end zone, where linebacker Jonas Griffith snagged it.
Lance overthrew George Kittle on his next attempt for a 7-of-11 passing line in team drills, then finished practice with a read-zone touchdown run to the right pylon. Lance ran on keepers and zone-read snaps five other times as well.
“I always love that play,” Shanahan said. “It’s a good part of football . ... If it works schematically, you dabble in it, to keep defenses off beat. If your quarterback can major in it a little bit, you can try to mix it in every week.”
Shanahan could not confirm a report by NBC Sports’ Peter King that Lance is logging the most time on the 49ers’ iPad playbooks. Shanahan said that wouldn’t surprise him based on how prepared Lance looks daily.
“With him moving his eyes, making reads, you can tell he’s putting time in his playbook,” guard Laken Tomlinson said.
As for Garoppolo, he got intercepted for a second straight practice by linebacker Fred Warner, also on a pass over the middle into the end zone. Garoppolo hesitated on his ensuing throws but finished stronger, including touchdown passes to Mohamed Sanu and Kevin White, while right tackle Mike McGlinchey blocked Dee Ford. Garoppolo was 13 of 18 in team drills.
Keeping the Garoppolo-Lance tandem in place remains the most likely path for 2021, although rumors are sure to fly anytime another team needs a quarterback, such as the Indianapolis Colts after Carson Wentz’s foot surgery.
The 49ers’ quarterback dynamic is not showing signs of becoming a divisive topic in the locker room.
“Half the time I don’t know who’s at quarterback, I run the route or do my block,” tight end Ross Dwelley said. “They’re both going to give it everything they’ve got when they’re in there.”
FIRST INJURY SCARE >> Weakside linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair appeared to sustain an injury to his right knee during a red-zone running drill. Al-Shaair walked off the field a few minutes later accompanied by the 49ers’ medical staff and fellow linebacker Warner.
“They need to take tests but the doctors were pretty optimistic though,” Shanahan said.
Al-Shaair tore the anterior and medial collateral ligaments in his left knee in October 2018 to end his college career as Florida Atlantic’s alltime leading tackler. Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles replaced Al-Shaair in Monday’s ensuing drills.
FORD/EBUKAM ROLE REVERSAL >> Ford entered 11-on-11 action for the first time in camp as the 49ers practiced red zone plays for the first time. He had been working on the side and only in defensive line drills the first four practices, because of a back condition that kept him out the final 15 games last season.
“He had about six reps. It was nice. I felt him off the edge go right by me,” Shanahan said.
Not participating in practice for the first time this camp was Samson Ebukam. It was a rest day for leg soreness, Shanahan said.
KINLAW’S PLANS >> Defensive tackle Javon Kinlaw saw sparse action on the red zone defense, his first team drills of camp. He estimated he played about eight snaps and wish he could have played all of them, that his surgically repaired knee is fully healthy.
Last week in camp, Kinlaw participated in defensive line drills, then worked (and learned) on the side with Ford and Nick Bosa, who’ve tutored him about pass-rush moves and situations.
“Honestly I’ve been learning the whole time; more learning that work,” Kinlaw said. “Especially on pass rush, to get with those two and pick their brains. I always pick brains, looking to get better at what I do
“I want to one day look back and say I’m one of the best guys to do this.” HURD STILL X-FACTOR >> If Trey Lance’s debut camp isn’t what 49ers fans are most curious about, then Jalen Hurd’s latest comeback is it. He remains the team’s most mysterious man, for three camps running. Hurd worked out with fellow wide receivers in offensive drills again Monday, after resting the previous two practices in his knee recovery.
“He’s out there doing routes on air, and just within reason with his back stuff,” Shanahan said. “We’re trying to ease him in and we have a plan to get him into team drill soon.”
OTHER NOTES >> Tim Harris Jr. had a wrap around his left quadriceps/hamstring and watched while the firststring spot at left cornerback was initially occupied by Dontae Johnson, then Ambry Thomas, then Ken Webster.
• Veteran cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick was expected to leave the 49ers’ facility without a contract after working out for them, NFL reporter Josina Anderson reported.
• Tight end Ross Dwelley has had a very active camp, including a reception Saturday that deflected off wide receiver Sanu.
“I beat my guy on a choice route and was upset I didn’t get the ball right away, then it went to Mo and the ball fell in my lap so I took off running with it,” Dwelley said. “On other contested catches, my mindset is that when the ball’s in the air, it’s my ball and I’m going to come down with it no matter what.”