49ers training camp report: Day 6

SANTA CLARA – Here are the highlights from the 49ers’ third padded practice of training camp.

THE GOOD

1. TE Vernon Davis. His best day of training camp, and the best receiver on the field. Made four catches during team drills, including a 50-yard touchdown catch. On the touchdown Davis ran straight down the middle of the field, straight past the second-team defense’s safeties, and third-string quarterback hit Davis perfectly in stride.

2. WR Jerome Simpson. The only person who scored during the two-minute drill. Simpson was playing with the second team offense (the first-team offense didn’t score during this drill). On the first play of the drive, quarterback Blaine Gabbert hit Simpson who was wide open running a fade route down the left sideline. Simpson caught the ball, cut back to the middle of the field and sprinted into the end zone untouched.

3. CB Shareece Wright. Intercepted a deep pass intended for wide receiver Quinton Patton. Quarterback Colin Kaepernick put too much air under the pass, which allowed Wright to stop, turn around, jump and catch the ball in front of Patton. For a guy who has made just two interceptions since high school, Wright seems to intercept a lot of passes.

4. WR DeAndrew White. Made four catches during team drills, including two third-down catches that resulted in first downs.

5. QB Colin Kaepernick’s short passes. The past few days Kaepernick struggled throwing short passes, particularly when targeting receivers running slant routes or drag routes. Not today. Kaepernick’s short passes Friday afternoon were as accurate as I’ve ever seen them. He missed only two, and both of those passes were dropped.

THE NOT SO GOOD

1. QB Colin Kaepernick’s deep passes. His first deep pass looked like a pop up or a punt – it was in the air forever. And it got intercepted by Shareece Wright. Kaepernick’s next three deep passes looked like line drives, and all three of them sailed past the intended target.

1. C/G Ian Silberman. Played center for the second-team offense today, and couldn’t snap the ball to a quarterback standing in the shotgun. I counted six groundball snaps from Silberman during team drills.

This article has 77 Comments

  1. Back to football. Looks like Lemonier is a lock to make the 53, and Baalke looks like a genius to have selected Harold, and Jed is getting smarter because shut up and allowed Tomsula to deliver a masterpiece. I admire Coach Tomsula even more. I bet the team would be willing to run through a brick wall after he took a bullet for the team by standing tall. I could feel his pain.

    1. How many O-Lineman have to mysteriously disappear from the Roster the following year or two before the Short Term Memory Kool Aide drinkers realize Baalke needs help offensively on draft day…That goes for many of Baalke’s offensive draft picks. They don’t stick around long for lack of talent…Silberman drafted to play center and can’t snap a football…Maybe I should be hired as a weather reporter because I can’t call the weather on picnic days.

  2. Hi Grant
    – Is the defense still lining up in a vanilla 2-gap 3-4?
    – Did the defense blitz as much as they did a few days ago?
    – How did Brandon Thomas look today?

  3. Hey Grant, I just wanted to mention that completely unprofessional tweet you sent out today. I would think that a guy that was handed his job entirely due to nepotism would have enough sense to try to make up for that by not acting like an entitled troll. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. You are objectively speaking, a pretty terrible person. Good thing for you that you lack the type of empathy or compassion it would take to manufacture enough introspection to be ashamed of yourself. In other words, your such a terrible person, that being a terrible person doesn’t bother you. Hold on to that, you’re likely to need it one day.

    I imagine you’re still pretty ecstatic that you were right about the over-under on Anthony Davis’ career. You genuinely make me want to vomit.

  4. Dylan Thompson seems to be the unsung player making his share of plays thus far.
    Good to see him making his mark, but will it be enough to make the PS.

    Remembering young QB’s like Nate Davis and B.J. Daniels making some noise as rookies yet not sticking has me asking ‘what exactly is it the 49ers want to see in a rookie QB?’

    In any case, glad to hear VD had one on the GOOD ledger today.
    Could Shareece Wright be this years Carlos Rodgers who came to us with a label of not being able to catch sure Int’s?
    Also nice to see a De. White appearance.
    I say this with absolute trepidation (while holding a rabbits foot), but any news on Kendall Hunter (sorry, B2W couldn’t help myself)?

    1. I like Thompson’s accuracy. Grant just called him the third string QB.
      Gotta remember he is throwing against the third stringers, too.

  5. I’m reading from a couple of articles that Brooks spent some time at Aldon’s former position. Interesting development.

    1. Let’s hope he doesn’t spend some time in the same jail cell as ALLDONE Smith.

  6. Tomsula came across to the media today as a very good man who can feel others pain. That is a very important trait for a any manager, supervisor, or head coach to possess.

  7. Grant how is Hayne doing after a week of real ball?
    Is Gabbert holding his improvement?

  8. Aldon Smith….
    Jim Minick…
    It seems that Coach Jim Harbaw is still
    scratching his head, trying to cope.
    Did he really change or learn anything
    via that DUI arrest in San Diego in 10/2005?
    The confluence of alcohol-related player/staff
    problems which continue to occur in such
    close proximity to Mr. Harbaw suggest that either
    (a) he himself has not yet fully rehabbed/recovered
    and/or
    (b) he just does not care about the personal lives of his
    colleagues in the sports world. One or both.
    For a little background on this issue, try reading
    the book about Billings, Montana. Did booze play a role up there?

    1. Obviously you have it figured out. You do know he doesn’t work here anymore right?

  9. Even ESPN (Extreme Seahawks Promotion Network) is coming around to the fact that the Seahawks are running into cap trouble. They had a report this morning on how the Seahawks are getting squeezed cap wise.

    Also, Bennett is openly bitching about how the Seahawks pay certain players, but not others. He was saying that stars are important, but the Seahawks have forgotten about the “middle men” (his words – meaning non-star, core players). He went on to say the middle men are important, too, and need to get paid, etc.

    Bennett will be like an ingested radio active particle, constantly giving off harmful energy from inside. On top of that, you know other players are saying the same thing, and the ones that aren’t saying it, are thinking it. Go Hawks!

    Chancellor, will be seen by some Seahawks as a bad teammate for not living up to his contract. Go Hawks!

    The Seahawks have thrived because they made a small cluster of good / lucky draft picks and scrap heap pick ups, all in a very small window of time. Having a small group of stars on low contracts, made it possible to cover up bad draft picks with FA’s.

    Seahawk fans and ESPN (Extreme Seahawks Promotion Network) may think that’s repeatable, but it’s not. Now these players want to be paid, and so far, many of them have been.

    Here is a list of stars with the approximate reduction of cap space their new deals resulted in:

    Wilson $20M (Wilson made sure he got paid! Go Hawks!)
    Lynch $5M
    Okung $5M
    Bennett $2.5M (got a raise, but now he’s decided it’s not enough and he’s bitching, Go Hawks!)
    Graham $7.5M
    Wagner $10M
    Chancellor $5M (under contract, but still holding out, anyway. Go Hawks!)
    Sherman $12.5M
    Thomas $12.5M

    Total $80M (rough estimate, but pretty close, I think).

    Remember, that’s not their salary, that’s the difference in their old and new salaries (for Graham, it’s the difference between what the Seahawks paid their TE last year and what they’re paying Graham this year).

    If the Seahawks don’t win another Super Bowl this year, their run as a dominant team is over. They’ll be good, but not great.

    They could already be done, they’re whole offense is based on an aging back, who runs to contact. At some point, Lynch will hit his expiration date. Does anyone remember Earl Campbell? One year he was great, the next year he was done. Over 1300 yards rushing one year and under 500 the next (both totals over 14 games). This probably isn’t that year for Lynch, but it’s coming, and sooner, rather than later.

    1. That’s a welcome change of topics. They’re and 8-8 or 9-7 team without Lynch. They do have a problem paying all those egos. Even Wagner’s little dig “about not being able to keep everyone” shows the cracks forming in that locker room.

      1. There’s also the misperception that the Seahawks consistently draft well. That’s just not true. I don’t think they’ve come up with much since their 2012 draft.

  10. Kawakami is a legend in his own mind. He will focus on one outrageous delusion and make things up to try and justify it. He even brought up the JH interview to try and show that JH did not treat him like some piece of crap under his shoe. Yet I remember him asking JH several times if he was serious about talking to him, not understanding that JH was just using him to slam JY one last time. Jh did not need to raise his voice at him, the contempt was palpable when he face palmed Kawakami with -Oh I bet you thought long and hard about that question.
    TK just slammed JY again, even though Jed was out of town at Canton. He slammed Baalke for coddling AS, yet forgot that they structured his contract in case something did go wrong.
    Kawakami is a hack, a dipwad who people run from because they do not want to be even near him. He is so wrong, I almost pity him.

      1. Let me bore you with another post.
        Kaep should not worry and obsess on winning and losing. Concentrate on proper game management, but also just make a goal of scoring at least 7 times a game. That means he could score only 21 points, but also possibly score 49 points.
        In other words, do not worry about winning, just focus on scoring. If he scores enough, winning will be the end result.

    1. I was just going to post that. Hurley at Niners Nation says $12.8 million and MM says $13.3 million. I’m wondering if they are going to get anyone. I have this nagging voice that keeps telling me that the Yorks are cheap b*st*rds and are trying to save money. I very much hope I’m wrong.

      1. And then, of course, the question is who is left. I think we need help on the OL. I could see Mathis at RG and Boone moving out to RT. But I’m not aware of any good tackles that are still available.

      2. Please, they were saving that cap space to pay AS and injuries, but now that he is gone, they now have a goodly amount to spend. You make it sound like they anticipated AS to fail and were cheap for not wasting it.
        So your hope has come through, and they now have money for Mathis (even tho I do not want him).

        1. I know they were saving some of that cap space for AS. The about $13 million in current cap savings includes the $1.6 million in dead money for AS. They gained just under $4 million in cap space which means that they had at least about $9 million with AS on the team.

          I don’t know how you got from my post that I anticipated AS would fail. What I wanted was for them to spend money to bring in OL help. What I was anticipating was that Aldon would have a big season and I was looking forward to it.

              1. You got to admit that JY was smart when he shut up and let Coach Tomsula stand in front of the microphones.

              2. The less Jed says the better. But I suspect this was hierarchy driven. Tomsula would be the person to announce player departures (for whatever reason). Baalke would announce coach departures and others who report to him. Jed would announce departures of front office people who do not report to Baalke. That’s my guess – but it doesn’t mean there couldn’t be some overlap from adjacent levels. But for York to make the announcement for individuals two or more levels below him, would seem odd to me at least.

              3. Let me correct that. Tomsula would probably announce the departures of his coaches. I was thinking Baalke would make the initial announcement of a departure by the HC. Having said that, I don’t recall exactly who actually made the official announcement at the 49ers press conference when Harbaugh left. I think it was Baalke with Jed chiming in.

              4. As GM, Baalke does handle the personnel department, and you could say it was his job to do it, but Coach Tomsula had a personal attachment to Aldon, and that PC just made me admire him even more.

              5. What Tomsula has to say was outstanding and important, but the fact that Aldon Smith was still on the team is a team policy issue which should involve Jed and his GM answering policy questions. They just don’t do that in a crisis.

    2. Extend Iupati. Then we can move Boone to RT. Assuming Kilgore’s OK long term, Martin, Thomas, Looney will compete to fill the only open spot at RG.

      That would still leave us with lots cap space for 2016. Then we could…

      What? Its August? Iupati is a Cardinal? Never mind.

      1. B2W,

        I know you don’t think they can extend iupati, but I’m wondering who you were referring to? Boone?

  11. As much fun as this off-season has been for us fans (NOT!!!!!), it has to be harder on TB. All the non-producing high picks for various reasons, and screwing with planned longevity of his roster.
    Iupati: departures happen, particularly at OC & OG, so this was accounted for.
    PWilly: Sooner than expected, and replacement (Borland) gone too.
    ADavis: Sooner than expected; waayyy sooner. Talent not replaced.
    Aldon: Geat talent, not on the field enough prior to 2015, now gone w/out comp and leaving dead money on the books (and may end up playing for somebody else in a year. Think Dallas.)
    Crabtree: Loss addressed.
    Gore: Lost a legend, but Hyde and Bush to mitigate.
    Lack of quality depth at OT and QB = problem.
    All of it puts a lot of pressure on Trent to patch up the current and future roster.
    Speaking of pressure, if Niners go 9-7 or better, which I think is still possible, JimT should be a candidate for CoY.

    1. It is really really hard to stay optimistic, and Aldon just made it even harder.
      Still, with Kaep as the QB and Tomsula as coach, They could go ALL THE WAY.
      GO NINERS !!!!!! SIX !!!!!!.

        1. That’s a funny looking glass if 3-13 is half empty and winning the Superbowl is a glass half full. ;-}

      1. I will still be optimistic and love my team. Those glory years were magical and their joyous memories will sustain me through the lean times. With Tomsula fixing problems, the absence of Roman, the improvement of Kaep and a breath of fresh air, i still expect the Niners to go 10-6, even with the loss of Aldon. Next man up, and they have reloaded for another SB run.
        Being a defeatist or pessimist just means you are a Debbie Downer, and you are a loser before even one game has been played. That does not sound fun to me. I prefer the sunny side of the street.

          1. That’s a great attitude if you’re a true fan. Not some old hack who is angry at the world. You’re something else! Why are you even here? Talk about glass half full or empty. You’re outlook isn’t even a shot glass. And I’m talking to yoda!

  12. I think Trent may look at what contracts can be extended first with the cap space and then see what holes to fill (Boone, maybe Wright since they are happy with him to date apparently and you can never have too many corners, Ian Williams, Dorsey……… I think Jed has had a poor off-season too, but he knows that winning will take the heat off of himself and management and is committed to winning, so I don’t see a problem with spending money to bring someone in.

    I am curious if the 6.5 o/u took a hit……….

    1. Yes, I hope they look to extend some contracts as well, particularly Williams – but given his injury history, maybe they should wait to see how he fares this season.

      1. I hope they move Boone to RT and redo his contract, now they have the dough, and they can set the O line positions.

          1. Gotta give B2W credit. He mentioned that first. I wanted Pears at RT, but once TC started, Pears seemed to be sitting down on the job…..

        1. There’s a strong possibility that they may be grooming Boone to eventually replace Staley at LT since they moved him over to the left side.

          1. Staley is in his prime and stashing Boone at guard does not utilize his full potential. Thomas was drafted to play LG, and Boone is the second best line man. Bookend your 2 best players at tackle.
            Also, the line is in trouble, and needs firming up quickly.Get the line set and let them work on teamwork and cohesiveness.

            1. As a fan, I agree with you. But, on the other hand, I’m one of those “know nothing” fans.

  13. My concerns at this point are that it seems that that hype for MM and Brandon Thomas has faded……… updates or insight would be welcomed. Any not much being hard about Reaser as Wright seems to be looking good opposite Brock.

    I imagine that maybe Mathis would consider getting back the 3yr $15 million remaining he had due from PHI……….

    1. Yeah, I noticed that the Reaser chatter has really died down now that pads are on. However it does sound like S. Wright is fitting in nicely with the defense and the new schemes.

  14. Here’s a picture of Lawrence Okoye standing next to Eric Reid taken in January of this year. As many of you know, he’s 6’6″ and mostly muscle. Might make one hell of a situational pass rusher. I hope they keep and use him. One of you guys had the idea of running him at Sherman when we play the Hawks. Good idea too. After a big glass of wine I could think of that one for a long time.

    https://twitter.com/Okoye/status/552918111104430081/photo/1

    1. That was me. I hoped Okoye would line up as fullback, lead a sweep to the right, and crumple Dick like a soda can.

  15. OT, but I want to propose another play. It is really simple and Frank Gore ran it really well, but Hyde or Hunter should also excel with it.
    I would line up Hyde deep in the I and let him choose the hole, or bounce to the outside. This should be the standard first down play. He should be able to build up a head of steam, but also have room for a misdirection play. Once defenses start trying to key on it, change up and do a swing pass or some other play to get the ball in the hands of his play makers. I want the ball carrier to be deep in the eye so he can read the blocks, and Kaep might even have time to do a quick pump fake.

    1. Also, there are 3 directions to run, left center right, so the defense must defend all 3, and the Niners should have determined ahead of time which will be run so there is no hesitation in execution.

  16. Apparently the 49ers like their Lemonier stronger, because they just added more Lemon….

  17. I don’t know about you guys, but so far not too impressed with Kap. He still stares down receivers (Bowman picking him off). Wright picking off Kap multiple times thus far? Says more about Kap than Wright if its true. Maybe we’ll see a more polished Kap come the preseason when they let the first string play a good chunk. But so far doesn’t sound like working with warner is making alot of difference.

    1. Chill.. This is training camp. Interceptions dont count. They just want tape to see what works, and what doesn’t work. He will be more careful with the rock in real games.

    2. I’m a little irked when I hear that Kap is throwing Int’s too, but then again its practice and this the time to make the appropriate corrections.
      News coming out of Green Bay is that Rodgers has had a spate with Int’s yet no one is in panic mode.

      CK will be alright. I’m sure there are some new wrinkles in the offense that Kap and the O-line are having to adjust to.

      My hope is that CK can develop a very good chemistry with Torry Smith in TC and preseason.
      I see no reason why TS, AB, and VD can’t each have over 50 – 60 catches apiece this upcoming season.

      Throw in Reggie, C.Hyde, and Bruce Miller making catches out of the backfield and this offense just might be the surprise team in 2015.

      1. West Coast offense will be resurrected, and Bo’s 3 yards and a cloud of dust will be retired.

Comments are closed.