Your daily San Francisco 49ers links for Tuesday, August 24, 2021
The 49ers have Tuesday off but Kyle Shanahan and select players will speak around 12:25 p.m. PT. We should expect a few roster moves before 1 p.m. PT as San Francisco must get to 80 players on the roster. The team returns to practice Wednesday and will practice through Friday before a walk-thru practice on Saturday.
Oh, and Josh Rosen is now a Falcon.
With news that backup quarterback A.J. McCarron would miss the rest of the 2021 NFL season due to a torn ACL he suffered on Saturday against the Miami Dolphins, the Atlanta Falcons were faced with no choice but to add another quarterback to the roster. Ahead of Sunday’s preseason finale with the Cleveland Browns it was reported that the team would be working out quarterbacks on Monday with the goal of signing one to compete with undrafted rookie Feleipe Franks.
The Falcons have reportedly found their guy, as the team is expected to sign former first round pick Josh Rosen.
And yet I’m not sure I would want to be in his position right now, given the decision he faces.
In a few days Shanahan will need to decide on a starting quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers. Will he ride with veteran Jimmy Garoppolo, who helped lead the organization to an appearance in Super Bowl LIV? Or will Shanahan go with rookie Trey Lance, the player San Francisco traded up to the third-overall spot to select at the top of the 2021 NFL draft?
If he is going to ride with the rookie, Shanahan will need to be convinced that Lance is ready to operate the offense and deliver on the promise of transcending Shanahan’s playbook, which was the idea behind drafting Lance when they did (and giving up future draft assets to do so). But is Lance ready?
49ers’ Kyle Shanahan liked how Trey Lance handled throwing only his second INT since high school
“That’s something he isn’t used to,” he said. “And I know it got him down pretty bad. But to watch him go out there and recover was nice for me to see. Because I haven’t seen him have to play through stuff like that in watching all of his college tape.”
“Some of the big-armed quarterbacks that I’ve had have had very similar issues,” Shanahan said Monday. “That’s why you’ve got to have guys with good hands. But you also want to make it easier on them and it’s stuff that I think he’ll get better at the more he plays.”
Lance improving fundamentals vs. Chargers evident to Shanahan
“I know it got him down pretty bad,” Shanahan said Monday. “But to watch him go out there and recover was nice for me to see. I haven’t seen him have to play through too much stuff like that watching all of his college tape.”
“I think anytime you get thrown into the heat of the battle, especially these young guys who haven’t played a lot, you always kind of resort to what you’ve done and your technique is off a lot,” Shanahan said.
“He did that a ton in the first game and was much better in the second game. I hope he will continue to get better in this third game.”
49ers risers and fallers: JaMycal Hasty, Jaylon Moore up; Maurice Hurst nicked
Risers
DT Kentavius Street: Starter Maurice Hurst’s early ankle injury led to more snaps than expected for Street and Zach Kerr, and both took advantage of the extended playing time. Throughout training camp, the 49ers’ backup defensive line has dominated its offensive counterparts and that was the case against the Chargers, too. Street, who received a plug from defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans early this summer, has lived up to that praise. The Chargers only stopped him when they double-teamed him. He finished with three tackles, a sack, a quarterback hit and two tackles behind the line of scrimmage. Kerr was nearly as disruptive with two tackles and a quarterback hit.
Kyle Shanahan provides injury updates, assessment of Trey Lance
Shanahan said Lance was “better” generally and in terms of sticking to the technique the 49ers worked with him to amend, he was “much better in the second game.”
He also said that Lance made some adjustment both before and during the game related to mistakes he made against the Chiefs. It was the in-game adjustments which stood out. While he acknowledged Lance is probably throwing the ball a bit too hard on some shorter passes and needs to make it easier on his receivers, Shanahan said the receiving group needs to adjust.
“Some things he missed in the Chiefs game he definitely was focused on and corrected them in this game,” Shanahan said. “I also saw him make some corrections throughout the game, too, which was nice to see. Not having to wait till he got to the film and saw some things that he was aware of that he did, stuff I thought he cleaned up the more comfortable he got in there.”