Your daily San Francisco 49ers news for Tuesday, August 29th, 2023
Rapoport reveals where 49ers-Bosa contract talks currently stand
““Their offer is substantial. And there’s been kind of back-and-forth. [He’s] going to make a lot of money. It’s just how high, and when Nick Bosa and his agent go, ‘All right, this is proper.’”
49ers camp observations: Brock Purdy limited on ‘pitch count’
“After practice, a team representative shared that Purdy’s limited warm-ups were because of the predetermined pitch count that was part of his rehab process. The second-year play caller reportedly practiced after the session was closed to media.”
Deommodore Lenoir has vaulted to top option for the 49ers at nickelback (paywall)
“[Wilks] is like a thesaurus for us,” Lenoir said. “He’s got all the answers. He’s teaching us to read the chest plate, whether it’s back shoulder, shoulder still square, going down the field — just that aspect of playing.
“I’ve learned a lot, just being who I am. I’m being a sponge, just going at it every day, trying to get better.”
49ers 53-man roster prediction: Too many linebackers, and a kicking conundrum
“Javon Kinlaw makes it as a pass-rush insurance policy for Javon Hargrave, and because he’s finally healthy. The rest of the interior defensive line isn’t compelling enough to not give him a chance. He cannot play the run, though, which is where T.Y. McGill holds plenty of value. Kalia Davis hasn’t been on the field enough to warrant holding a roster spot.”
49ers work out pair of kickers after Moody, Gonzalez injuries [report]
“Vizcaino previously spent time with the 49ers after being cut by the Minnesota Vikings. That was during a stretch in which Robbie Gould was injured.
He has since played for the Chargers, Cardinals and Patriots, with an 11-of-12 field goal record and 15-of-20 extra point record in his career.
Russolino, meanwhile, is much more experienced, but not in the NFL. The 34-year-old has one career appearance, for the Denver Broncos in 2020. He missed his lone field goal, a 42-yard attempt, and went 1-for-3 on extra points.”
49ers might have hard time landing players on waivers after cuts
“The waiver order is set via the NFL draft order without any trades. Since the 49ers lost in the NFC championship game last season, they landed at No. 29 in the waiver order.”
Barrows: One lesson from 49ers’ Trey Lance saga: 2021 was a bad year to gamble on a QB (paywall)
“The 49ers never saw Lance run. The combine was wiped out and he chose to do position work only at his two pro-day events in Fargo. As a result, he never ran a 40-yard dash, which now seems like a massive omission given how much the 49ers planned to use Lance as a runner early on.”
Hutchinson: What to make of Trey Lance’s failure to launch with 49ers
“In that cursed 2020 season, standing at 5-6, the 49ers were convinced that they were capable of mounting a second-half playoff push. That ended when Josh Allen went scorched earth on them in a 34-24 loss to the Bills with Nick Mullens at the helm.The team was shell-shocked.
The 49ers had a “longer than usual” Monday meeting to follow, with Shanahan admitting the result cut deep.
That was a defining moment. Shanahan saw the reality of trying to compete for a Super Bowl against a well-rounded team with a human moose at quarterback on a rookie contract. They drafted Lance five months later.
When Lance broke his ankle on a carry, and Shanahan was asked about running him up the middle, he countered that it wass something the Bills “do all the time,” with Allen.”
“That’s the thing about Shanahan’s system: It’s a floor raiser. It takes quarterbacks who would otherwise be fine but unspectacular and creates incredible offense with them. That’s why we call it QB friendly. Lance represented not just a change in the system—he represented a breaking away from it. Shanahan had spent all that draft capital because Lance was supposed to raise the ceiling of the offense, not the floor. The same logic was at the heart of the decision Rams head coach Sean McVay made to trade Jared Goff for Matthew Stafford (a quarterback Shanahan was also hotly pursuing)….Purdy does not represent the tectonic shift that Lance did, but he does bring a new flavor of mobility to what had previously been an inert quarterback room in Shanahan’s 49ers history: Brian Hoyer, Garoppolo, Nick Mullens, C.J. Beathard. Perhaps Purdy’s pocket management and escapability will be enough to vault this offense forward, push the ceiling to Super Bowl levels. Or perhaps it won’t be the mobility, but the unique arm talent of Sam Darnold, the new QB2 who ousted Lance. Pocket passers with high-end arm talent have found career resurgences in this offense (Ryan Tannehill, Stafford), and Darnold has remarkably more arm talent than any quarterback who has played in San Francisco during Shanahan’s tenure, including Purdy. Save, perhaps, for Lance.
Either way, while the gamble on Lance failed, the theory behind it is neither disproven nor abandoned. Shanahan’s offense must continue to evolve. And, as it does, new demands will be placed on its quarterback. The old prototype will fall away. Lance might be done as a 49er, but Shanahan’s experiment at the quarterback position is far from over.”