The good and not so good from Week 3 of OTAs

Posted By on June 4, 2019

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo drops back to pass at the team’s NFL football headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif., Tuesday, June 4, 2019. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

SANTA CLARA — Check out my Periscope report from Week 3 of OTAs.

THE GOOD

  1. WR Trent Taylor. Made seven catches — far more than any other player. Consistently was open, especially on third down. Seems to be regaining his form from 2017, when he was Jimmy Garoppolo’s third-down go-to guy.
  2. WR Kendrick Bourne. Made the two best catches of the day: A 20-yard jumping, spinning catch on a pass thrown behind him, and a 50-yard touchdown catch over the middle. Bourne beat Richard Sherman with a post route for the touchdown. Bourne should make the 49ers final roster.
  3. WR Marquise Goodwin. Beat Richard Sherman with a go route up the sideline, but C.J. Beathard overthrew the pass. Goodwin also beat Dontae Johnson with a 15-yard stop route, and made a catch over the middle while taking a diving hit from Adrian Colbert. Goodwin, Bourne and Taylor were the best receivers on the field.
  4. RB Tevin Coleman. Received two targets during the 7-on-7 red-zone drill, and made one touchdown catch. Kyle Shanahan clearly likes calling passes for Coleman in the red zone.
  5. QB Nick Mullens. Completed nine of 10 pass attempts, including a beauty when he rolled to his left, stopped, flipped his hips, set his feet and fired a missile to Taylor over the middle.
  6. DT Sheldon Day. The starting nose tackle. Technically, he’s a 2i, meaning he lines up on the inside shade of the guard, rather than the outside shade of the center. This is a new position for Day. He may not be a stout run defender, but he’s a good pass rusher. He was the only player who recorded a sack during 11-on-11 team drills today.
  7. CB Ahkello Witherspoon. Allowed zero catches and broke up one intended for Dante Pettis. Witherspoon has been the 49ers’ best cornerback during OTAs. He hasn’t given up any long plays.
  8. FS Tavarius Moore. The former cornerback played exclusively safety on Tuesday, and broke up a Garoppolo pass intended for Jordan Matthews. Moore may be the 49ers’ best safety in terms of coverage, but he may not be big enough to defend the run. He looks skinny.
  9. SLB Dre Greenlaw. Ran stride-for-stride with Kyle Juszczyk on a wheel route up the sideline. Greenlaw clearly is the 49ers’ best strong-side linebacker in terms of coverage, but he may not be big enough to fill the C-gap in the run game. He seems too small.
  10. MLB Elijah Lee. Started in place of Fred Warner, who’s injured, and recorded a tackle for loss during 11 on 11s.

THE NOT SO GOOD

  1. CB Richard Sherman. Got beaten deep by Goodwin (the throw was overthrown). Also gave up a 50-yard touchdown catch to Bourne. Sherman ran as fast as he could to catch Bourne, but still seemed slow. He even seemed to limp at the end of the play, then he walked off the field. He returned shortly after and finished practice. Teams may target Sherman more aggressively next season, especially if Witherspoon plays well.
  2. NCB K’Waun Williams. Gave up two touchdown catches in the red zone: One to Kittle, and one to Richie James.
  3. DE Solomon Thomas. Faced undrafted rookie guard Ross Reynolds three times during 1-on-1 pass-rush drills and beat him zero times. Thomas still lacks pass-rush technique.
  4. SLB Mark Nzeocha. Gave up a three-yard touchdown catch in the flat to Coleman. Nzeocha clearly is the 49ers’ best strong-side linebacker in terms of run defense, but he may not be fast enough to cover running backs man-to-man  in the red zone. The 49ers don’t have a true three-down Sam linebacker.
  5. FS Adrian Colbert. Dove into Goodwin to break up a pass. Fortunately for the 49ers, neither player got injured.
  6. WR Dante Pettis. Dropped a poorly thrown pass near the sideline he should have caught. Garoppolo threw the ball too high. Pettis still managed to jump and get both hands on it, but he heard Witherspoon’s footsteps and dropped the ball. After practice, wide receivers coach Wes Welker said he wants Pettis to start believing he can make every play, not just some of them. Right on.
  7. WR Deebo Samuel. Sat out practice with a tweaked muscle. The 49ers didn’t say which muscle he tweaked. Samuel has a long history of injuries.
  8. WR Jalen Hurd. Missed the third straight week of OTAs after participating in rookie minicamp. The 49ers say his surgically-repaired knee still bothers him. All of the 49ers’ top-three draft picks, including Nick Bosa, currently are injured. Not ideal.
  9. TE George Kittle. Caught a touchdown pass in the red zone over K’Waun Williams head. This was good, but expected — Williams is 5’9″ and Kittle is 6’4″. A few plays later, Kittle ran a seam route in the red zone against middle linebacker David Mayo, who’s 6’2″. This time, Kittle dropped the ball. He must improve making contested catches and he knows it.
  10. QB C.J. Beathard. Completed six of 10 throws.
  11. QB Jimmy Garoppolo. Completed only eight of 14 passes (57 percent) in the middle of the field during 7 on 7s. He should complete at least 75 percent of his throws in this drill, because he doesn’t face a pass rush. In the red zone, though, Garoppolo completed four of six throws.

This article has 44 Comments

  1. Really like when these are written up instead. Don’t always have the time to listen to the periscope version.

    Maybe include this with the other videos and then a written version also?

    1. I’ll write it up before I drive home. Have to write my article for the paper first. Sorry.

  3. Agree like the white up better. I can wait until you finish your paying job.

  4. Grant… When you write all this up, please use clay tablets, and make the letters big.

  5. Receiver competition is going to be tough. Would they keep as many as 7 and cut back at TE? The way Taylor was playing last year made me think he might be on the way out, but sounds like he is getting back to form based on this report. Richie James is going to have a tough time making the squad.

    1. I think we shld cut Mathews and let the young recievers continue too grow the will be good richie Bourne and taylor.Samuel Hurd Goodwin are locks

  7. Thanks Grant…..nice report.

    How is the rest of the Dline? Any clear favorites there? Who do you think will get cut?

  9. Haha..Soloman Thomas..dude sucks..Worse pick than AJ Jenkins.Lynch should get fired for that pick alone not to mention almost every other horrible pick he has made..Let’s not panic though at least Levi’s has a new curry chicken and veagen menu and also the first recognized fan club for it’s gay fan base…It’s Fabulous!..lol this Franchise gets worse by the day thanks to the Yorks
    Can’t win more than 6 games ,but hey the rainbow colored Niner flags and veagen hot dogs are well worth the price of admission

    1. Calm down .You remind of Deniro’s character in the fan,a total whack job.

    2. Yes until Dork er York sells the team its going to be dreadful….will the price of beer ever go down at Levi’s?……Maybe they ought to have an injury day where if your injured you get half price off tickets…then you go sit with the injured players watch the game, take some oxy with them, eat curry chicken and vegan hot dogs while they linger in last place and stink the place up…..go Nick Mullens!!!

    3. Dude calm down, it’s just OTA. Thomas will be just fine. Dont let these articles hype you up. Its practice and its early. Warner and kwon arent even out there yet. This is the beginning of year 3 on rebuild were they completely gutted the team. How many teams have done that to this extent as of late? Of course theres gonna be mistakes. As long as they admit it and fix it, what more do you want.

  10. That’s a bad sign that Hurd’s knee isn’t responding to the meniscus procedure he had in December. Meniscus repairs can be tricky, depends on where the tear or worn cartilage is for the surgery to be successful. But the 49ers medical staff did their homework…. Right?

  11. Nice OTA report. Looks like some players are taking advantage of their opportunities to play, while others are rehabbing injuries.
    .
    Maybe this practice will help convince the Niners to move Sherman to safety. Tarvarius Moore may be better suited at CB, if he is as skinny as Grant says.
    .
    Wonder if Ross Reynolds has a chance to win the RG position, if he can shut down Thomas.
    .
    Bosa, Deebo and Hurd all injured? Hope the Niners draft fully healthy players in the future.
    .
    If Taylor, Goodwin, James and Bourne are doing well, it will make the 53 WR cuts painful.

    1. No it want we keep 7wrs cut Mathews even tho he is a good savy veteran

      1. * Won’t.
        .
        Instead of want, it makes your comment more understandable, imho.
        .
        I disagree. Mathews is a battle tested and battle hardened WR, who can high point the ball, and Grant mentioned his impressive wingspan, for a large catch radius.
        .
        Of those 3, Richie James may make the squad because of his Kick off return value.
        .
        I wonder if they might keep only 2 TEs, in order to keep an additional WR.
        .
        Kendrick Bourne, Richie James and Max McCaffrey are 7th, 8th and 9th on the depth chart.

    2. Bosa injured hammy, big surprise! Josh Allen gonna be a pro bowl sack artist! While Bosa nurses multitude of injuries! Hum what type of year do think Q Williams will have. DeeBo when Metcalf was still there. I’m up here in WA a suffering Niner fan watching Metcalf look like Megatron! Wow go Niners

  13. nice read…thank you.

    diving hit from Adrian Colbert

    – again i blame the coaches……why are they allowing this….especially with the high number of injuries….

  14. Progress report on those other 2nd pick prospects, you know the ones that didn’t have Bosa’s “injury history”.

    DT Quinnen Williams: Williams hasn’t practiced because of a calf-muscle injury that occurred on the first day of OTAs

    OLB Josh Allen: Allen suffered a bruised knee in the first OTA and hasn’t participated since.

    https://www.espn.com/nfl/draft2019/story/_/id/26858034/progress-reports-all-32-nfl-first-round-picks

    Hopefully there is a local Grant Cohn taking these teams to task for allowing injuries to their star picks.

  15. No it want we keep 7wrs cut Mathews even tho he is a good savy veteran

  16. WR Trent Taylor. Made seven catches — far more than any other player. Consistently was open, especially on third down. Seems to be regaining his form from 2017, when he was Jimmy Garoppolo’s third-down go-to guy.

    WR Kendrick Bourne. Made the two best catches of the day: A 20-yard jumping, spinning catch on a pass thrown behind him, and a 50-yard touchdown catch over the middle. Bourne beat Richard Sherman with a post route for the touchdown. Bourne should make the 49ers final roster.
    ——————————
    Expecting good things from these two this year.

    1. I find it hard to get excited about Bourne. I just haven’t seen anything from him that really made me think he was more than a competent backup WR.

      1. We get so excited about these guys in the pre-season and then they play the games.

        Bourne is a strong secondary contributor but would be about as exciting and game transforming as Jeremy Kerley.

      2. I’m suggesting he’s just a step above that. He’s a reliable starter. Not someone to get excited about but someone who at the end of the year could be the #3 guy in production.

        1. “someone who at the end of the year could be the #3 guy in production.”

          Like he was last year.

            1. For WR’s, yes but he also got the most targets due to being the only one healthy every week.

    2. Meh.
      I expect Taylor to be back to the level he was in 2017, which was good.
      But if Bournes wasn’t able to step up his game last year despite a very depleted WR corp, I won’t expect anything from him more than what he already showed.

  17. Very nice write up….crisp and to the point. Greatly appreciated….spot on.

  18. Draft injured players or those with injury history and what do you expect? Come the regular reason, 1/3 of the roster will be on IR.

  19. Grant

    I am not sure if you have seen anything on him through this much of OTAs, but has there been aany Wilton Speight sightings….How is he showing ? He looks fairly fast in the few clips you have shown…I like how the ball leaves his hand in trajectory….could he be our PS #3 or 4 QB ? I like CJB and Mullens,, but neither has the height (field vision) as Speight…How accurate is he…’having played for ‘Chip’…I’m sure he has good qualities…basically, what are his chances…Thanks

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