Day 6: The good and not so good from training camp

Posted By on August 1, 2018

San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Richie James (82) stretches during NFL football practice at the team’s headquarters Saturday, July 28, 2018, in Santa Clara, Calif. (AP Photo/Tony Avelar)

SANTA CLARA – Here’s who stood out during the fourth padded practice of training camp.

THE GOOD

1. QB Jimmy Garoppolo. Completed 15 of 25 passes (60 percent), and didn’t turn the ball over. Didn’t have his two favorite targets – Marquise Goodwin and Trent Taylor. So, Garoppolo threw to George Kittle, who had a big day. More on him below. Kittle and Garoppolo work well together.

2. DE/DT Jullian Taylor. Replaced Arik Armstead as the starting big end in the base defense and already seems to be an upgrade. Beat guard Jonathan Cooper during one on ones, and beat starting right tackle Mike McGlinchey for a sack in team drills.

3. WR Dante Pettis. By far his best day of practice. Beat Richard Sherman with a 12-yard out route. Beat Ahkello Witherspoon with a 17-yard out route. Then, beat Witherspoon one more time with a go route for a 40-yard touchdown. Pettis is terrific when he can focus on beating one defender, and doesn’t have to worry about linebackers and safeties.

4. TE George Kittle. Made three long catches in the middle of the field. Beat Malcolm Smith, Adrian Colbert and Korey Toomer to make those catches. Seems healthier, faster and more agile than last season. None of the 49ers linebackers or safeties can cover him man to man.

5. SS Jaquiski Tartt. Made a nice pass breakup as a curl/flat defender in a Cover 3 zone. Read Garoppolo’s eyes, backpedaled and almost intercepted a pass intended for Pierre Garcon.

THE NOT SO GOOD

1. CB Ahkello Witherspoon. Gave up a 17-yard catch to Pettis on third-and-15. And a few plays later, gave up a 40-yard touchdown catch to Pettis on the final play of practice. Tried to jam Pettis, whiffed and got beat by 10 yards. Didn’t hustle to get back in the play. Dontae Johnson couldn’t have played those passes worse.

2. FS Adrian Colbert. Gave up the long catch to Kittle I mentioned above, and gave up a touchdown catch in the red zone to Kendrick Bourne. Bourne ran directly at Colbert, turned around, boxed him out and caught the pass from Garoppolo. After the play, defensive backs coach Jeff Hafley walked directly to Colbert and gave him instruction.

3. WR Pierre Garcon. Caught one pass – a five-yard curl. Couldn’t get open the rest of the morning. Lined up in the slot and couldn’t beat K’Waun Williams. Doesn’t seem to separate as well as last season.

4. C Weston Richburg. Beaten twice by nose tackle Earl Mitchell during one on ones. Mitchell is not a pass-rushing threat.

5. RG Erik Magnuson. Started in place of Mike Person at right guard, and played worse than him. Neither of those two should start a game next season. The 49ers need Jonathan Cooper to make a full recovery pronto.

6. RT Mike McGlinchey. Gave up a sack to Cassius Marsh in one on ones, and to Jullian Taylor in team drills. Has given up a sack every day of camp since the players started wearing pads.

This article has 19 Comments

  1. Jullian Taylor is quieting all those moans when they selected him. I’m encouraged that Cooper is participating in drills. Means he’s not too far off.

    1. It was only a 7th round pick. The moaning shouldn’t have been too loud.

      He has very little YouTube footage because he was out injured much of his college career. But what the scant highlights show is an explosive player with size and (different from Armstead) good ball carrier location.

      2. I agree. Taylor has the size speed and quickness to do well. Just needs more experience.
        .
        The Guy who I moaned about was Kentavious Street, an ACL pick.

    1. It used to be my personal policy to under-react to all training camp reports.

      I’ve recently upgraded this policy. From now on I’ll continue to under-react to negative training camp reports. But I’ll over-react to positive training camp news. I get to do this because I’m a 49ers fan, not a paid sports reporter. I’m under no obligation to make complete sense.

      Pettis catches 3 long bombs? He’s a pro bowler for sure.
      McGlinchy gives up 3 sacks? It’s only training camp. He’s probably using unfamiliar pass pro techniques just to try them out.

      This new policy should keep me happy for at least six weeks.

  3. It appears Pettis is quickly working up the depth charts, the Bourne chatter has subsided…..should be interesting to watch this play out. The rest of the wr corp has been put on notice, this Pettis kid is the real deal…..

  4. Mcglinchey is going to bust out(As in out of the leauge)
    and whats up with Richburg?He’s supposed to be top flight.Brown probably makes 1st team All pro with the Pats and Kilgore gets voted to the Pro Bowl with Miami.

  5. https://www.nbcsports.com/bayarea/49ers/former-49er-derrick-deese-explains-cause-poor-o-line-play

    “I think when you come down to practice, offensive line needs more practice time than a defensive lineman does because there’s so much stuff to learn – so many more variables we have to understand,”

    “For one defense, sometimes there might be three different ways to block that play. So when you start cutting down practice schedules and say you only have this amount of time per week, and this amount of time per day, it’s hard to get all of that in. It’s hard to get all the reps you actually need to be successful. When they cut that down, something’s going to suffer and you see what suffers.”

  6. I’m fairly certain the sky is falling.lets get a couple preseason games in before we over react.

  7. The Official Grant Cohn Offensive Line Good/Not So Good Tracker

    Offensive Line
    Day 1: Good -0 // Not So Good – 0
    Day 2: Good -0 // Not So Good – 1
    Day 3: Good -1 // Not So Good – 2
    Day 4: Good -1 // Not So Good – 1
    Day 5: Good -0 // Not So Good – 5
    Day 6: Good -0 // Not So Good – 3

    Total: Good -2 // Not So Good – 12

    Not looking good for Jimmy G rt now.

    1. Not too worried atm. If we can run the football, we can play action. If we can play action, we can throw. That brief indecision by the defense, that quick release and processing speed of JRG, should mitigate some of the issues we’re anticipating on the right side of the offensive line….

      1. It’s all in good fun Grant. No one can draw serious conclusions about the potential of a position group based on a few pre-season practices. Having said that, IMO every position along the o-line other than Staley is a giant question mark. Tomlinson has had checkered success to say the very least. Richburg potentially has a concussion worry and his play has been sporadic. Garnett/Cooper might be a colossal disaster. McGlinchy looks like he has talent but he’s a rookie playing a very tough position so we can expect mistakes. The 49ers could potentially have one of the worst o-lines in the NFL this year. OR they might gel and do a respectable job. We really won’t know until around the quarter mark of the season how this unit is shaping up.

  8. My goodness. It appears we need to immediately get rid of all the players that make mistakes in practice or get beat in
    one on ones. We must have been in an alternate dimension when the team won 6 straight last year. How could these total clowns that we’re seeing in practice have won any games at all. All of the important free agents and draft choices
    we got in the offseason are just going to gum things up worse.

    I wonder if anyone has noticed that all the other beat writers, columnists and others who cover the 49ers- and i read them all every day- have completely different views than Grant? I do like to read you Grant -to see what bizarre conspiracy theories you come up with. I do think you’re completely right about our first round draft draft choice Mike McGlinchey. 6 days of practice has yielded plenty of information and proof to get rid of the incompetent stumblebum. Maybe we could get a 7th round draft choice from some team stupid enough to the him?

  9. Every good offensive play means the defense failed. Every touchdown means the defense failed.
    .
    Therefor, according to some who fly off the handle, half the team should be cut after every practice.
    .
    It happens. Maybe posters want the media to just post rainbows and unicorns. Then wonder why the team went 2-14.
    .
    Grant, last season, pointed out how Bowman was struggling. Posters then defended Bowman and criticized Grant’s football acumen. Then we saw how other teams were targeting Bowman, and he ends up being cut mid season.
    .
    KS should stop whining. He just admitted they read the blogs, and let possible criticism affect their play. He should sternly tell the players AND coaches to ignore the media because they have more important things to concentrate on. Never let them see you sweat. KS should not act like the media is the enemy. They are part of football, and are just doing their job. He should be open, honest, accessible and answer every question, but also give out as little information as possible. KS should go into ‘coach speech mode’.
    .
    KS should read IF, by Rudyard Kipling, and act accordingly. Here are some salient phrases.
    .
    ‘ If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
    But make allowance for their doubting, too;
    If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
    And treat those two impostors just the same.
    If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
    …. You will be a man.’

    1. That was well said!

      Go about your business. Concentrate on getting better each day.
      It’s still early days. Especially for the OL which, by nature, needs more work together than every other position on a team.
      That’s certainly what KS should get his players to focus on. It’s too early to take criticism seriously.

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