The 49ers held their second practice Wednesday afternoon as they prepare to face the Seattle Seahawks in the opening game of Super Wild Card weekend. Here is what stood out.
The weather
A light drizzle at the beginning of practice turned into hard rain with wind making it come down sideways. Considering forecasts call for over half an inch of rain to hit Santa Clara on Saturday this should help the team prepare for what’s to come.
San Francisco has only dealt with rain throughout a game only once this season. On opening weekend in Chicago, both teams dealt with heavy rain. San Francisco struggled throughout, scoring only ten points.
Brock Purdy is a good wet ball thrower
Purdy has been terrific over the last six games, checking off questions every week. His next challenge, manage the game in poor weather conditions.
Based on how Purdy threw the ball in the wind and rain today the impact of weather should be minimal.
The wet football did not appear to bother Purdy. The rookie quarterback was able to accurately make all the throws. Most importantly he was putting the ball on the body of his receivers, making it easier for them to hold on to it.
49ers are healthy
After dealing with injuries throughout the regular season San Francisco is healthy for the start of what they hope will be a long playoff run. Emmanuel Moseley is the only week one starter who will not be available to the 49ers.
San Francisco has just two players miss practice, backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo and backup cornerback Ambry Thomas.
Aaron Banks returned to practice yesterday. The left guard appeared to be moving well during today’s practice as he returns from a knee injury sustained against Washington on December 24.
Kevin Givens has returned to practice in full. The defensive tackle has not played since suffering a knee injury on December 11 against Tampa Bay. A solid part of the 49ers interior defensive line rotation, Givens has recorded 20 tackles with seven for loss and two sacks this season.
I’m betting either Givens or Kalia Davis will be starting next to Armstead next year with Ridgeway rotating in. I hope Kinlaw can stay healthy and productive during the playoffs. That will create a possible trade partner for him before the draft. I imagine with a year at Seattle under his belt that G. Smith will handle the rain OK.
Ian Rapoport
@RapSheet
2h
One of the most coveted GM candidates, #49ers Assistant GM Adam Peters has declined requests to interview with the #Titans and #AZCardinals, per source.
Praise the lord..that’s good news
Well said!
Kalia is intriguing and I hope we can see him at some point in the playoffs. Givens is also a gem. The line looks good.
Big unanswered question: will Jimmy G return to backup Purdy in the playoffs? I hope so. Jimmy is still a solid QB and a starter in the NFL next year.
Best luck to our team.
Allie,
I think the best we can hope for is Jimmy G gets back for the NFCCG but its more likely he returns for the SB if we make it that far.
I hope we can make it to the SB but we need to remember we lost our two front-line QBs and survived. Purdy is a fine player but is he ready for the playoffs? He shows calm but we need our best defense. CMC will be all over the place..our MVP.
Coach, I understand where you’re coming from, but frankly having a decent QB as a backup is a luxury in today’s league.
Honestly, if any playoff team loses their starter, they’re screwed (maybe with the exception of the 49ers with Jimmy G).
I think there are bigger worries than Garoppolo for the 49ers. But to be honest, assuming Purdy is somewhat of a decent quarterback, what team do you think has a better shot than the 49ers to win the whole enchilada?
Philly (slight edge due to home field advantage), KC (always a tough matchup on defense), Buffalo (maybe), Cincy (maybe)?
I’d take this team with a fair shot at beating any of those teams now that we have a quarterback that is capable of marching the team down the field. If Purdy can maintain his success, this team is quite lethal.
Kalia Davis was not activated, so we have to wait until next year for him. But he did get three good weeks of practice in!
Not just one. Trey Lance was also a week-one starter.
Sportswriter Steven Ruiz on The Ringer puts Purdy dead last in his playoff rankings of 14 postseason quarterbacks. Ruiz ranks Purdy 33 overall among the NFL’s 32 teams.
Ouch!
He says Purdy “probably looks pretty good in practice” but that “the arm strength issue stands out under pressure. And that’s also when his decision making becomes a bit erratic.”
Saturday can’t come soon enough. Guess we’ll start to find out then whether he’s for real or not.
You don’t need to throw the out if you’re not afraid to fit the ball in the seams, Brock is a gamer, he started for 4 years in Ames, bad weather ain’t gonna stop him and Ruiz may have to eat those words when all said and done.
I think Purdy showed he is able to throw the outs as well. I don’t recall too many dangerous throws he’s made on an out route. He makes up for a lack of arm strength with precision and relatively decent release time and gives the defender little chance to make a play. There are several ways to play QB in this league and his escapability (buy time), pinpoint accuracy, ability to make quick decisions, a decent release, and not make mistakes is a huge plus side.
Also, every quarterback sucks under constant pressure. If anything, Purdy is making the right reads or buying extra time when pressure comes and getting the ball out effectively. This is also where CMC and Mitchell (and really Aiyuk, Samuels and Kittle as well) can gash the defense bad so I doubt you’ll be seeing much of the Cover 0 Miami tried to pull. Also, Shanahan is excellent at scheming against the blitz. If the quarterback is able to execute his plan, the extra rushers for a defense is a poison pill in terms of giving up game changing chunk plays.
Finally, pressure tends to come on third downs on obvious passing situations. That’s where Third & Jauan has been a monster. He’s a big target and when his head is in the game, he burns the defense regularly on critical downs. While not excessively fast he gets into his shallow routes quickly and is tough to bring down, which is like icing on the cake for a team on third downs with so many weapons.
Steven Ruiz can shove off. He sees nothing, He hears nothing ,He KNOWS nothing ! Come on back after the game and we’ll talk.
These out of town guys that write BS like this guy, (never heard of him before) don’t really watch the games or follow the team. They just got a have something to write about to get the click bait going like right now with this conversation .
I truly dislike bad weather games. The 49ers are much better than the Seahawks. It isn’t close. But bad weather is what kept a terrible Chicago team in the game this year and it kept a terrible Washington team in the game in 2019. Bad weather is a great equalizer for bad teams. Makes me much more nervous about this game.
Pat,
I agree and a hard rain is much worse than snow.
Don’t forget that Levi’s has held up really well under heavy rains. I don’t recall guys slipping and sliding much at all. Totally different than what we experienced in the playoffs against the Giants in the Harbaugh era out in the lake at Candlestick. Thankfully we don’t play below sea level anymore and the turf is top notch.
Obviously there is the QB aspect to this in terms of being able to throw the ball. Generally we hear talk about arm strength being important but I think timing, accuracy and touch are more important in this type of weather and that favors Purdy, although Geno is no slouch this year.
There was steady rain last week and I noticed the field held up well. I saw no big divots from players’ spikes, which means the field drains well. The same is likely on Saturday.
Purdy’s arm strenth keeps coming up, and it’s not critical. He handles the short pass scheme very well and Shanahan builds his offense around that. We can expect Purdy to throw short ones to players who are excellent with yards after catch.
agree
Jack,
A different subject here. I recently saw a video of a Colts official leading up to the 2021 draft describing Trey Lance as a “Blue Card” player. I’m a little late on this, but can you educate me on what this means.
The colts official was a little vague.
Thank you.
Could he have meant Blue Chip?
Definition of a blue-chip player
» Player demonstrates rare abilities and can create mismatches that have an obvious impact on the game
» Is a premier player in the league and a weapon on the field
» Combines competitiveness and skill to have a consistent championship-level performance
Thanks David,
That makes sense, although I am familiar with the Blue Chip term.
Perhaps the Blue Card term means the same.
Hi AES,
For the Colts, a “Blue Card” player is one who fits what they are looking for in a potential draft pick. They have the all the names on the draft board and those they are most interested in have a blue mark next to their name.
The 49ers do this as well, they call them “Gold Helmet” guys.
Thanks Jack,
That explains the Blue Card term. David wasn’t far off from the same explanation.
Now, this opens up another question. Could the Colts be interested in making a trade for Lance given their high regard for him?
The off-season could be very interesting.
I really don’t believe there would be any interest in trading Lance. They gave up a lot of draft capital to get him and he’s on a rookie contract so he’s affordable. You just can’t have enough good QBs as the Niners surely know. Any quality backup is going to cost Money but the Niners are going to be sitting pretty with Lance and Purdy at a combined very low salary.
Agree with that premise. But if Purdy wins the SB, he will be the heavy favorite to be the Starter going forward.
This puts Lance in a holding position regarding being a starter with the 49ers.
He may have a better chance to start for another team in a trade scenario. This could also help the 49ers gain back some draft capital lost in the heavy Trey draft deal.
I’d love to see Trey stick around, but if he has an opportunity to start on another team, it could be a win, win for him and the 49ers.