Tag: San Francisco 49ers

49ers add 2 more players to COVID-19 list

Jauan Jennings and Jaquiski Tartt both landed on the Reserve/COVID-19 list ahead of the 49ers’ first practice of training camp.

The 49ers on Wednesday before they took the field for their first practice of training camp placed two more players on the Reserve/COVID-19 list. The additions of wide receiver Jauan Jennings and safety Jaquiski Tartt to the list bring the club’s total to three players on the list. Cornerback Emmanuel Moseley was placed there Tuesday.

There’s no word on whether the players on the list contracted the virus or whether they’d received their COVID-19 vaccinations.

Jennings was a seventh-round pick last season and figures to be in the mix as one of the last couple receivers to make the club. An extended absence for the University of Tennessee alum wouldn’t help his chances to of making the active roster out of camp.

Tartt after Tarvarius Moore’s Achilles injury looked to be in line for the starting strong safety job. He’ll still be the front runner once he returns, but a prolonged absence may close the gap between him and some of the players competing for that job like veterans Tony Jefferson and Tavon Wilson.

Trey Lance signs rookie contract with 49ers

Trey Lance and the 49ers finally hammered out the details on the 2021 draft pick’s rookie contract.

The details have been finalized on Trey Lance’s rookie contract, and the No. 3 overall pick will join the 49ers to open training camp practices Wednesday. His agency CAA announced the signing.

Lance’s four-year deal will come with the standard fifth-year club option extended to all first-round picks. The salary for the No. 3 pick is a fully guaranteed $34.1 million. Matt Barrows of the Athletic reported the deal was completed around midnight Wednesday, Lance just had to get in the building to sign the contract.

Getting Lance in practice as soon as possible was one of the keys for the 49ers’ offseason given that he has an outside shot to start the year as the team’s QB1, but there’s long-term development at play too. Any day of missed practice is ostensibly a setback for a player who started only 17 games in college.

That won’t be a concern though now that his contract is done. He’ll be in camp with San Francisco and competing for the No. 2 quarterback job before setting his sights on the starting spot.

Training camp preview: 6 49ers to watch on defense

The 49ers defense could be great in 2021. These are the six players from that unit we’re watching closest in camp.

All eyes were on the 49ers’ offense this offseason while the club ensured they provided some stability on that side of the ball. Their defense will be the unit with more question marks though, and the team will need that side of the ball to get to a level close to the one it reached in 2019.

Health is a concern for their defensive front, which spearheads that entire group, but their secondary has myriad question marks as well. The entire defense under new coordinator DeMeco Ryans will be worth watching going into the 2021 campaign, but these are the six players we’re watching closest in camp:

Training camp preview: 6 49ers to watch on offense

The six players we’re watching closest when the 49ers offense is on the field for training camp.

The 49ers open training camp practices Wednesday, and head coach Kyle Shanahan’s offense appears to be more talented than its ever been during his four-year stint with the club. That offense will start taking shape during the preseason, and there’ll be more to watch than just what’s going on under center.

With new faces and players looking to bounce back after a rough 2021, there’s plenty to keep an eye on when the 49ers begin their training camp practices. These are the six players we’ll be keeping close tabs on:

Fantasy football draft: Where to target San Francisco 49ers RB Raheem Mostert

Analyzing San Francisco 49ers RB Raheem Mostert’s 2021 fantasy football ADP and where you should target him in your drafts.

San Francisco 49ers RB Raheem Mostert had somewhat of a breakout season in 2019 with 772 rushing yards and 8 touchdowns. He also had a memorable 220-yard, 4-touchdown game in the playoffs against the Green Bay Packers.

However, he struggled with his health in 2020, playing in only eight games.

Entering 2021, he hopes to stay healthy and be the 49ers’ main running back, staving off rookie RB Trey Sermon.

What can we expect out of Mostert in the upcoming season in terms of fantasy production? Below, we look at Raheem Mostert‘s 2021 fantasy football average draft position (ADP) and where you should draft him.

Mostert’s ADP: 86.86

(ADP data courtesy of MyFantasyLeague.com)

Mostert ranks 138th among all offensive players. He is owned in only 32% of leagues and is selected as high as 16th and as low as 240th.

He is 45th among running backs, just ahead of New England Patriots RB Damien Harris (46th).

WIN YOUR FANTASY FOOTBALL LEAGUE!

For 25 years, TheHuddle.com has been helping fantasy players just like you win. This year, it’s your turn! Custom player rankings, tools and more to give you the edge over your competition.

Use code SBW21 to take 20% OFF a new subscription. Join now!

Mostert’s 2020 stats

Rushing: 104 carries, 521 yards

Receiving: 16 receptions, 156 yards

Touchdowns: 2 rushing, 1 receiving

Where should you take Mostert in your fantasy football draft?

Mostert’s career-high in rushing attempts is 137, which he had in 2019. It’s his only season in which he has not missed a game.

49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan prefers to rotate running backs and Mostert doesn’t offer anything in the passing game, so his value is limited. Plus, San Francisco drafted Sermon, who is more suited to be a featured back than Mostert is.

If healthy, Mostert can be dynamic. The problem is he has had 15 carries or more in only five games in his career, including the playoffs.

He isn’t your RB1. He is a guy to have on the bench after you have filled almost all your slots. I won’t even consider him until at least the eighth round.

Play our new free daily Pick’em Challenge and win! Play now!

Follow Jess Root on Twitter. Follow SportsbookWire on Twitter and like us on Facebook.

Gannett may earn revenue from audience referrals to betting services. Newsrooms are independent of this relationship and there is no influence on news coverage. This information is for entertainment purposes only. We make no representations or warranties as to the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any content.

[lawrence-newsletter]

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1369]

Ranking the NFC West offensive lines: Is the Cardinals’ unit the best?

We check out how the projected starting offensive lines in the NFC West stack up against one another.

We continue to look at the NFC West and rank both players at their positions and teams with their position groups. Next up are the teams’ offensive lines.

We looked at the tackles in the division and the San Francisco 49ers have the top tackle in the West with Trent Williams.

But which team has the best unit?

Listen to the latest from Cards Wire’s Jess Root on his podcast, Rise Up, See Red. Subscribe on Apple podcasts or Spotify.

Latest show:


Previous shows:


and


and


49ers QB competition may not be open to start camp, but it will be eventually

49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said there’s no QB competition between Jimmy Garoppolo and Trey Lance … for now.

49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan was clear in his assessment of his team’s quarterback situation. Incumbent Jimmy Garoppolo is the starter. No. 3 overall pick Trey Lance is the backup. Garoppolo will work with the first team, and Lance will work with the second team. He pooh-poohed the notion of an open quarterback competition, but he didn’t shut the door with such verve that we can pencil in Garoppolo to start Week 1 in Detroit.

Shanahan on Tuesday in his press conference spelled it out in plain terms when pressed on whether there was a quarterback competition in Santa Clara.

“There’s no open competition right now in terms of they’re getting equal reps with the same group,” he said. “Jimmy’s coming in as the one and Trey’s coming in as the two.”

That’s undoubtedly the case. The 49ers will go into camp with Garoppolo taking all the first-team reps and Lance working with the second unit. Lance will have to earn his shot with the starters, but what Shanahan said prior to that makes it abundantly clear that the rookie is in the mix for the starting job (emphasis added).

“Jimmy, going through OTAs, what he’s done, he’s our best quarterback in the building right now,” Shanahan said. “So, he’ll start out training camp that way. And we’ve got three other guys behind him. Now we’re going to give Trey the first chance, obviously, as the backup. And anytime a guy is playing a lot better than the guy in front of them is when you start to split reps up with that team and start to talk about it. Trey has had seven practices with us. And I haven’t seen him for 40 days, so I’m not thinking about that right now. Just having Jimmy going, he’s our starter. And we’re going to give all those guys every opportunity to improve. And if someone ever looks like they give us a better chance to win, we’ll make that decision.”

This may not be an open competition for the 49ers’ starting quarterback job, but Garoppolo doesn’t have a stranglehold on the top of the depth chart either.

San Francisco dished out three first-round picks to move up and acquire Lance. He’s a big, fast, strong-armed quarterback who could transform the 49ers’ offense into the type of unstoppable force that makes a club a perennial Super Bowl contender. He’s the type of talent a team wants to get on the field more often than not.

There is very much a path to Lance starting in Week 1 of his rookie campaign, even if it includes a host of obstacles going into camp. Lance is going to get a chance to prove he’s the team’s No. 2 quarterback, and once he’s done that, the coaching staff will assess if he gives them a better shot to win a Super Bowl than Garoppolo.

When Shanahan spoke on July 27 that most certainly isn’t the case. Garoppolo has been to a Super Bowl and came within a few minutes of winning it. He’s an above average NFL starter. Lance has 17 college starts under his belt at the FCS level. If the 49ers had to play a game Sunday there’s no chance Lance would start.

There is a month and a half until the season opener though with three preseason games and a bunch of practices and meetings mixed in between them. If the 49ers are truly open to evaluating whether Garoppolo is their best option to win games in a setting where the mega-talented No. 3 overall pick is sharing a roster with him, then the unopen competition is eventually going to have the door kicked off its hinges.

[lawrence-related id=667822]

Trey Lance won’t need to start to see the field in rookie season

Trey Lance won’t need to start to see the field in his rookie season, and head coach Kyle Shanahan didn’t rule out special packages for the QB.

There’s a very real scenario where 49ers rookie QB Trey Lance doesn’t start at all in his first season. That doesn’t mean he won’t see the field though.

Lance’s multifaceted skill set makes him a weapon head coach Kyle Shanahan can deploy in a variety of ways without making him a starter. Lance during his 17 starts for North Dakota State threw 207 passes and notched 184 rushing attempts. It stands to reason the 49ers could aim to utilize him in packages specifically designed to throw a curveball at defenses throughout the season.

While the prospect of Lance flashing his high-level physical tools as early as possible is enticing, the club has to ensure they’re keeping his long-term development in mind. Shanahan on Tuesday in a press conference said that fitting Lance in on some run plays wouldn’t be difficult to balance against growing other areas of his game.

“I don’t think it’s as hard as it seems. It’s not like you need to practice running the ball a lot,” Shanahan said. “It’s not like he’s going to practice bouncing off guys and stuff in practice. When you put a quarterback run in it is more based off of an element of the defenses and accounting for them. So you just run it until they account for it, then you go to other stuff. So you take what they give you. And if you watch his college tape, he’s gotten plenty of runs. So we don’t need to go out there and run him in practice and stuff like that.

“But you do need to make sure that you’re O-Line and running backs know how to do it. And that usually ties into every single other run that you do. Just, you’ve got an element of maybe the quarterback keeps it or there might be some runs that, ‘Hey, we might have the quarterback do that this week, where the running back to the last week.’ But the O-Line doesn’t know the difference. So as long as you’re developing a system, it’s interchangeable who you put in there. You’re never going to put a guy in who is not ready for it, but I don’t think you’re not trying to put in a running game that a quarterback has to practice every single day.”

That sounds an awful lot like a coach who’s thought about how to use his rookie quarterback without starting him. However, Shanahan pumped the brakes some when asked directly about widening the playbook to include the No. 3 overall pick even when he’s not the starter.

“It’s too early to make that. I mean, obviously you want to use anyone who can help in situations,” Shanahan said. “And when you do have a quarterback who has the threat to run and who can make throws that’s something I would love to use. But that’s something that will be based off of whether he’s ready, how it looks that week based off the schemes we’re going against and how he fits in our offense overall based off what we’ve seen in practice.”

It’s hard to imagine the 49ers aren’t itching to plug Lance in as soon as possible, and given what Shanahan said, it sounds like the only way he won’t see the field early in his rookie campaign is if he’s a complete disaster in camp. At that point San Francisco would have a much bigger problem on their hands, and all signs early in Lance’s career point to it not being a concern.

Should Lance continue on his current trajectory and hold onto the backup quarterback job, chances are we see him sooner rather than later, even if he never moves into a starting role in 2021.

[listicle id=667113]

Good injury news for 49ers: Nick Bosa, Dee Ford, Jalen Hurd all active to start camp

Good news for the 49ers: Nick Bosa, Dee Ford and Jalen Hurd are all active to start training camp.

The 49ers started training camp off with a bit of good news on the injury front. Defensive ends Nick Bosa and Dee Ford, and wide receiver Jalen Hurd all passed their physicals upon reporting for camp and will be active to start their preseason work.

That doesn’t necessarily mean all three will be full participants out of the gate. Head coach Kyle Shanahan on Tuesday in his press conference said he expects the trio will ease their way in with individual drills before moving onto team work.

“They’re all starting out, I believe, with individual tomorrow. I think that’s, we’re not going to put any of them in team situations for a little bit. I’d say at least this first block of days,” Shanahan said. “I think we’ve got four practices, a day off, and then I believe we’ve got three more again and then a day off. I think we’ll look into it in about a week. It’s the first time they’ll be out there with the D-Line and stuff and doing things like that. Jalen with the receivers. I’d be surprised if they got into team drills within a week. But as soon as they’re ready, they’ll be out there.”

It’s not a surprise to see the 49ers exercising extreme caution with their players returning from injury given their tribulations on that front last season.

Bosa is returning from a torn ACL he suffered in Week 2. Ford only played in Week 1 before a back injury sidelined him for the final 15 games, and Hurd tore his ACL early in training camp.

They’ve all had a lot of time to recover and receive treatment, but given how important all three of them will be to the 49ers’ success, the club won’t be in a rush to put them back into full-time work.

49ers sign pair of DEs, waive WR in flurry of roster moves

A quick rundown of the roster moves the 49ers made upon reporting to training camp.

The San Francisco 49ers on Tuesday reported for training camp, which paved the way for a slew of roster moves.

Arrival for camp means players took physicals and got COVID-19 tests done and saw coaches for the first time since OTAs ended 40 days ago. It’s also a chance for the team to make a couple more roster tweaks before players take the field Wednesday for their first practice.

Here’s a quick rundown of all the moves the 49ers announced Tuesday: