The camp battles continue in the 49ers secondary
With pads going on at training camp, the San Francisco 49ers and Robert Saleh have some questions to answer and battles to monitor. Dee Winters has made waves while attempting to lock down the linebacker spot next to Fred Warner. Eli Apple was brought in, following a hamstring injury to second-year starter Renardo Green, which opened the door for rookie Upton Stout to get some run with the starters at nickel. Mykel Williams drew praise from Saleh, who spoke to the media and stated, “Williams is going to be a hell of a football player.”
The secondary is interesting considering the injury to Malik Mustapha and now Green. Dallis Flowers is generating some buzz at training camp at the outside corner position, but Stout received a lengthy response from Saleh when asked about the rookie.
“He’s a sharp kid. It’s definitely not too big for him. We’ve got to be careful as a coaching staff, you know, you’ve still got to slow play it. Regardless of how smart you feel like they are, there are still a lot of things that they’re still learning, so you just want to, we’ll push the envelope, but never too far to where he can’t execute his job. But that’s stuff we’re learning, trying to figure out who he is and what he’s capable of. That’s really for everybody on the defense. It’s finding out what they’re capable of and pushing the envelope to meet that line of their ability to execute to their God-given ability.”
“Like I said on Stout, he’s doing a really good job. The biggest thing for all these rookies is just do your job, be 100 in that regard. And I think he’s doing a really nice job. He’s been beat a few times, obviously there’s a couple of coverage things that he’s been beat on, but it’s all learning,” Saleh continued.
The 49ers’ defensive coordinator referred to the 49ers’ rookie class as all “sponges,” and went on to say about Flowers, “that third corner spot’s wide open, so everyone’s going to get a turn. Everyone’s going to get a shot at it, and he’s definitely been doing good things and improving daily.”
The safety and cornerback battle will continue to be a hot-button topic at training camp in the coming weeks.