Notes and observations from this morning’s practice in, believe it or not, Seaside…
• Chilo Rachal, who went face down in practice two days ago and was diagnosed with dehydration, was back in action today as the 49ers practiced on the marine-layered Cal State University Monterey Bay soccer field. (More on the ambience later.) In fact, Rachal seemed to come back with a vengeance. He was very physical today, putting DE Ray McDonald on the ground at one point. TE Nate Byham was back, too, by the way.
• Sitting out practice were C Eric Heitmann (stinger), LG David Baas (concussion), TE Delanie Walker (concussion), ILB Scott McKillop (knee) and G Chris Patrick (shoulder). Rookie Mike Iupati again stood in for Baas, while Tony Wragge replaced Heitmann. Rookie NaVorro Bowman got second-team reps in McKillop’s absence.
• DL Derek Walker twisted his knee when he got run over by LT Joe Staley and limped out of the nutcracker drill (which was a 4-on-4 clustercuss with a ball carrier this time). Walker later returned to action. OLB Travis LaBoy, meanwhile, left near the end of practice and may have a concussion. He sure looked that way as he pulled his hoodie over his head and walked slowly to the team bus after practice.
• FB Jehuu Caulcrick has been playing well, but backtracked a little in the nutcracker today. LaBoy and Diyral Briggs both beat him to the ball carrier by taking inside angles, and running backs coach Tom Rathman told Caulcrick all about it.
• Impressive moment for DL Isaac Sopoaga in the nutcracker. He pretty much threw Cody Wallace like a bag of cement and greeted Glen Coffee with a bear hug.
• Rookie Anthony Davis worked with the first team at RT during a walk-through early in practice, but Adam Snyder got most of the starting reps in team period.
• The defense began team period strong. Justin Smith sneaked in from the RDE position and would have sacked Alex Smith on the first play. That was followed by OLB Manny Lawson, DE Kentwan Balmer and CB Shawntae Spencer blowing up a handoff to Frank Gore, and then OLB Parys Haralson waiting for Gore at the line of scrimmage. Haralson had another nice play late in practice, racing past Iupati to “sack” Smith.
• Vernon Davis later did his best to even the score, beating Matt Wilhelm down the middle of the field to reel in a nice under-pressure pass from Smith. Davis got Bowman in 7-on-7 period; someday they’ll learn that inside linebackers can’t cover this guy. Davis also dropped a ball in 7-on-7, an event that always draws huge whoops from the defense when it happens to the Mr. Fantastic.
• Spencer jumped a pass from Carr to Ted Ginn and intercepted near the sideline. I think that’s Spencer’s third pick of camp already.
• Ginn got a lot of throws today and looked very solid.
• Back deep for kickoffs were Ginn, LeRoy Vann, Kyle Williams and Dominique Zeigler. Vann biffed one.
Comments are closed.