Your daily San Francisco 49ers news for Saturday, August 3rd, 2024
49ers’ Patrick Willis seemed destined for Hall of Fame from the start: ‘He was everything’ (paywall)
“As nasty as Willis was on the field, he was as gentle off it. He was so soft-spoken that his first position coach, Mike Singletary, wanted to employ a vocal coach to help him project the defensive calls to his teammates. As a rookie, Smith was struck by how the consensus All-American carried himself like an undrafted rookie, radiating humility and hunger.
That rookie became a leader who tenderly shared parts of his painful past during locker-room speeches. And he became an everyman superstar who hung with second-stringers and relished chasing his teammates’ young children around the facility…….
“He was getting us to understand the special opportunity we have to play this game,” Snyder said. “He spoke a lot about losing his brother and he made it so real. There’s a lot of culture, rah-rah stuff. You can put it on T-shirts and you can put it on walls. But that’s not what builds culture. It’s not something you can see. And Patrick made us feel it.”
Kyle Shanahan provides updates after 49ers’ eighth training camp practice
“San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan spoke to reporters on Friday after the team’s eighth training camp practice. Here is everything he said.”
Purdy reveals why interceptions increase during 49ers training camp
“It’s a fine line,” Purdy told Papa and Lund. “You want to go out, you want to be efficient, you want to go through reads and protect the ball and what not, but now is the time for us to go out and, you always hear quarterbacks say ‘experiment,’ but that’s really what it is. Can I fit it in this window on this hitch? Can I look off Fred [Warner] or [49ers linebacker Demetrius Flannagan-Fowles], or De’Vondre [Campbell] in a certain way and make that throw backside? You got to try it out.
“In the game and in the season, it comes down to protecting the ball every snap, every play. So, you can’t necessarily try those things out, [but] right now we can. So, my mindset is, ‘Protect the ball, but let’s be aggressive. Let’s try this out, lets figure it out.’ Obviously, I want to go through my reads, check the ball down and work on that as well because that’s real-life football. But there’s a time and a place where I’m like, ‘You know what? This is practice, and I’m going to drop back and try this out.’ Then you figure out if it can be a part of your game or not for the season.”
49ers training camp: Ricky Pearsall has impressed the staff over 3 practices (paywall)
“Friday’s practice marked a change of pace for Pearsall because he had to perform entirely without the ball in his hands. During the relatively light session, the 49ers didn’t target Pearsall once, but Shanahan emphasized that the practice still contained plenty of opportunities to evaluate him.
“Just because the ball gets thrown to them doesn’t mean they did good or bad,” Shanahan said. “You get zoned 80 percent of the time out there. I’m going to watch him run at least 16 routes during plays.
“You expect everyone to catch it when it comes to you, so that really doesn’t affect me in terms of what we see from a practice, but it’s been cool watching him in the run game. He definitely understands our standard. It’s not someone we have to call him in and be like, ‘We need more.’ He gets it.”
Pearsall said he’s absorbing information from receiver Brandon Aiyuk, who was also his teammate at Arizona State (where Pearsall played before transferring to Florida). Aiyuk is attending team meetings even though he isn’t practicing during his ongoing hold-in amid contract negotiations.”
49ers enjoying Ricky Pearsall’s panache: ‘He knows he’s pretty good’ (paywall)
“He knows it — he knows he’s pretty good,” Yiadom said. “And I just hope that he continues to work. That’s the thing I like about him: He just shuts up and goes to work. Whether it’s a (bad) play or a good play, he just goes to work. He doesn’t hang his head. He just keeps going. I love that about him.”
49ers’ Kyle Shanahan explains meaning of viral hug with Brandon Aiyuk (paywall)
“If nothing else, Aiyuk’s dealings with Lynch and Shanahan suggest contract negotiations have been amicable despite his request to be dealt. Aiyuk previously has watched practice alongside Lynch this summer and has been attending team meetings.”
Elliott: Why 49ers players’ NFL Top 100 rankings are fair or unfair
“Did the voters — which are the players themselves — get it right?”
“Kyle Shanahan said after practice that center Pat Elflein, a veteran who has struggled with injuries his entire career since being drafted 70th overall in 2017, suffered a calf injury. Shanahan said it’s likely a pulled calf.”