49ers open joint practices with Raiders; Observations from day 12 of training camp

Posted By on August 10, 2023

Here is what stood out from the 49ers twelfth day of training camp.

Thursday was the first of two joint practices for San Francisco in Las Vegas with the Raiders.

Brock Purdy

Purdy had some good and some bad during his first action against a different team.

After opening practice with a short throw to Willie Snead while on the move to his left, Purdy took a shot downfield off play action to Deebo Samuel for a gain of 20.

The next reps for Purdy came in a redzone session. He missed Brandon Aiyuk on a slant to the left side but bounced back with a short completion to Ty Davis-Price. On the following play, Purdy hit Christian McCaffrey in the left flat for a touchdown.

Purdy opened a move the ball session with a completion to Brandon Aiyuk on a deep out to the right side. The velocity needed to throw a deep out makes this a good demonstration of Purdy’s arm strength following UCL surgery to his throwing elbow during the offseason.

Following the solid throw on first down, Purdy missed on his next one. Trying to get the ball over the middle to McCaffrey, the quarterbacks throw was off the mark and Raiders defensive back Duke Shelley came away with an interception.

Purdy and the 49ers first team offense finished up their practice by having one shot to move the ball in a hurry up situation.

A couple of completions to Jauan Jennings, a short checkdown and completion over the middle picked up 18. Purdy followed up with misses to Jennings and McCaffrey leaving the offense facing third and ten. The quarterback was able to convert when he found Deebo Samuel on a curl to the left side for a gain of 12. Another 12-yard completion followed, this one to Ross Dwelley over the middle. From there the possession stalled. Purdy was forced to spike the ball on first down to stop the clock, then missed a pair of throws to Jennings to end the possession.

Overall Purdy finished the day 10-17 with one touchdown and one interception.

Trey Lance

Lance had a rough start to the day as a fumbled snap and false start wiped out his first series and he missed badly on two of his first four attempts. Despite the rough start, the completion was a nice one as Lance found Deebo Samuel over the middle for a gain of 15. The other incompletion came on an accurate throw to Khalan Laborn which the running back dropped.

Despite the early struggles, Lance looked sharp while leading the second team offense in a hurry up move the ball situation.

Lance opened the drive with a short completion to Chris Conley. From there he took a deep shot down the right sideline but the throw to Tay Martin sailed long.

Lance then settled in, connecting with Willie Snead, Jordan Mason once each and Ronnie Bell twice. The second connect to Bell was terrific with Lance hitting the rookie wideout with a dart on a deep in route.

The drive stalled deep in the redzone when the Raiders defense forced Lance to throw the ball away on first and goal. With only two seconds remaining, Lance dropped back to pass again. Pressure forced the quarterback out to his left where he fired a shot to Cameron Latu in the endzone. The pass hit Latu in the hands before falling to the ground incomplete.

Lance was 6=12 on the day.

Sam Darnold

Darnold had only three pass attempts during team drills, his lone completion coming on a short throw to Jauan Jennings in the flat while rolling to his left.

The veteran backup completed three of four attempts during a brief seven-on-seven period.

Offensive line

A big question coming into these joint practices was how the 49ers offensive line would look against a different team. The good news is they held up well.

Colton McKivitz and Spencer Burford each looked good while winning their one-on-one reps. The duo followed this up by showing they could handle stunts during a two-on-two session.

It was much the same on the other side for Trent Williams and Aaron Banks. Williams won both reps against Maxx Crosby while Banks looked immovable.

Jauan Jennings

Jennings was targeted a team high eight times on Thursday and brought in everything he as able to get his hands on.

Christian McCaffrey

In addition to catching a touchdown pass from Brock Purdy, McCaffrey had success on the ground. The back was able to slice through and run around the Raiders defense for several big gains.

Defense

The defense practiced two fields away from the media viewing area making it difficult to see much of their action. However, they did move to the middle field late in practice. From there we were able to see them allow a seven-play scoring drive during a hurry up move the ball period.

Former teammate Jimmy Garoppolo hit on six of seven pass attempts and wrapped the drive up with a touchdown throw to Austin Hooper.

Taylor Hawkins

The backup safety intercepted a pass over the middle from Brian Hoyer and took it the other way for a touchdown. Hawkins has been impressive throughout this camp.

Austin Bryant

Bryant blew around the Raiders backup right tackle for a sack of Brian Hoyer.

Ray-Ray McCloud

McCloud suffered a fractured wrist during practice on Monday. The veteran receiver and return specialist will be out for about eight weeks as a result.

Injury Report

Drake Jackson, Robert Beal, Kalia Davis, and Dre Greenlaw all missed practice with hamstring injuries. George Kittle was out due to a thigh injury and Jaylon Moore continues to miss time after suffering a knee injury last week.

This article has 33 Comments

  1. Colton McKivitz over McFloppy should be an upgrade factoring in his lower salary. Glad to hear he practiced well. I think this team’s success will be defined by the play of the right side of the line. We seem pretty solid everywhere else.

    1. Gav,
      Right OT and swing OT are the two biggest question marks. Replacing Ray-Ray as a returner shouldn’t be too difficult, Danny Gray as KR and Ronnie Bell or D. Jamison at PR. We also have the best returner in the league if KS ever decides to use him.

  2. Recent practice reports seem to be favoring Lance with a slight lead over Darnold. I always go back to the fact that we have not seen enough of Lance to make a fair conclusion.

    But, if Trey does beat out Darnold, the 49ers may use his good TC performances to move him for a mid-rd, draft pick.

    That leaves Darnold as the QB2. A concern with me is that I have seen enough of SD to know that he can be erratic and inconsistent. Keeping SD as QB2 saves big money, but….
    TBD

    1. I must admit that Darnold doesn’t appear to be doing as well as I thought he would. He might be having trouble incorporating the playbook, but who knows from where I sit. And what do you do with a qb who can’t be relied on to make short passes? To me, the way things stand is that we’re not getting consistency from either of them, and right now neither seems worth the money they’ll be paid.

      1. Unless the 49ers really like Brandon Allen, I just don’t see them keeping both Darnold and Lance. Allen, may have been signed with the plan to be QB3 when the dust settles.

        Purdy is golden, but who does the team trust more between Darnold and Lance if Purdy is injured? I believe that the preseason games will provide the answer.

    2. AES,
      My guess is the 9ers end up with Purdy QB1, Lance QB2 and Allen QB3 with Darnold going to the Vikings or Raiders for a 5th or 6th round pick. Trading Darnold doesn’t save as much cap room as trading Lance but it still saves 5 mill.

        1. The only way a team will take on Lance’s salary is if he plays well in the preseason. If thats the case I think they will get a 2nd or 3rd and 4th.

          1. OC, It sounds like the Raiders found a good QB.
            I wonder why we never can find someone like that….

      2. Totally agree old coach. Darnold is more of a known commodity (erratic) . We just got to see what Lance can bring, give the kid a shot. Brandon Allen is a solid third.

  4. For a guy who has no professional football playing experience, who owes his NFL career to his father, and who squandered big leads in two epic Super Bowl losses, Kyle Shanahan is the most arrogant and dismissive coach in the NFL today. No wonder certain media and players are turned off.

      1. Honestly Coach I think there are about 18 good head coaches off the top of my head. As far as how many are better than Shanahan? Maybe 5?

        1. Gav,
          I pretty much agree with you. I was going to say 15 good HCs but 18 sounds pretty good. The point I was going to make is when you find a competent one you probably should hold on to him even if he is getting you to the playoffs but losing in the conference championships or super bowl. If not you may run into a decade of Ericksons, Nolans Singletarys, Tomsulas orKellys.

          1. You spend 80% of your posts criticizing others and you can’t take the heat, lol? 😂

    3. 49ersunder,
      As of last Nov only 9 NFL HCs had any NFL playing experience they were. Dennis Allen, Todd Bowles, Dan Campbell, Kliff Kingsbury, Kevin O’Connell, Doug Pederson, Frank Reich, Ron Rivera,
      Zac Taylor not a really impressive list. The 49ers have had some pretty bad luck with HCs without NFL playing experience. Two come to mind, you might not remember these two crappy coaches there was this guy named Walsh and another guy named Seifert.

  5. Jack ~

    An informative summary of the session with the Raiders, but one caveat. I looked for you to offer your thoughts on what was learned today and how that might affect the Niners’ future. Pleae take the time to analyze as well as report, since your are very thoughtful

  6. When do we start worrying about Bosa? I know it’s somewhat mitigated by the guy’s professionalism and dedication to staying in shape. But still there has to be a date, where it’s going to be an issue for at least the first 4 games.

    1. Deadlines always dictate these things. As they get within days of the cutoff for him to play week 1, it’ll get done.

      1. No doubt you are right. I can’t cite statistics, but I seem to remember a number of players (not all 49ers) who took a fair amount of time to come up-to-speed with these types of negotiations (i.e waiting until the deadline). I wonder if, in the end, it makes a difference in the final negotiations; of course, we’ll never know.

    1. Two totally opposite points of view.
      For now, I’m going with Lombardi’s report. But, I’m open to seeing a video if someone can provide it.

  8. Kreug reporting that Purdy had 3 Int’s in today’s practice with Raiders.
    This is beginning to become more of bad habit than kinks to work on in practice.

    This should be a concern going forward. If these bad habits are carried into the regular season, this will get Shanahan’s ire no doubt – and it should.

    1. I had two concerns about Purdy coming into this season, number one arm strength and number two Ints. After 2 weeks of camp I am less concerned about his arm strength, there have been a number of reports of him throwing very nice deep outs . My second concern has gone from concern to out right worry. If his performance continues how long will KS go with him. I would hate to see another bad start guaranteeing another NFCCG road loss . if we can even make it that far. If Purdy proves to be a one year flash in the pan my next concern is, is Lance the real thing. Nothing he has done so far has given me any confidence in his ability to be a playoff QB yet. I wonder If Jimmy G is available in a trade?

  9. Matt Maiocco:
    In addition to Brock Purdy’s one interception in 11-on-11, he had a couple other near picks and two more interceptions in usually-passer-friendly 7-on-7 drills.

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