49ers Practice Report: First meeting with the Chargers, and plenty of the other Bosa | KNBR
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49ers Practice Report: First meeting with the Chargers, and plenty of the other Bosa

Aug 19, 2021 | 2:28 PM

Photo Credit: KNBR

We’ve officially reached the best part of training camp: joint practices. These are the days that coaches absolutely relish, when players finally get to exorcise their pent-up aggression and direct it towards a non-teammate. Thursday certainly did not disappoint.

One note before getting into the goings-on from practice; the Chargers’ practice setup prevents non-team staff from walking around the field, so you essentially have to choose a side for the day; you can watch the 49ers’ offense against the Los Angeles defense or vice versa. That means there are almost no notes on the defense from Thursday’s practice.

Where to start? Maybe the best part of these practices is the jawing which goes on between players on either side, and one-on-ones certainly did not disappoint. I’ve saved some of the more quotable moments from practice at the end.

The first thing that was noticeable was a new addition to the 49ers’ coaching staff for the next few days: Joe Staley. Staley — who was always one of those linemen who had to fight to keep weight on — looks he went on the reverse Mike McGlinchey and Jordan Matthews diet; he said he’s lost at least 60 pounds since his retirement and sure as hell looked like it. He stepped in for some of the one-on-ones as the stand-in quarterback, and had to move out of the way on a handful of occasions.

Staley, who lives near Costa Mesa, where the Chargers’ practice facility is, started spending time with the 49ers on Wednesday and will stick around with the team through the weekend. Kyle Shanahan said after practice that Staley — who worked with some of the top offensive line prospects in this year’s draft — has an affinity for coaching, but is trying to assess whether it’s worth the long hours so shortly after retiring from the sport.

As for the quarterbacks… Jimmy Garoppolo got off to a hot start, going 7-of-8 included a roughly 40-yard touchdown pass over the middle to Travis Benjamin, which he caught towards the back of the end zone. Joey Bosa was — as mentioned below — not a fan. Garoppolo finished his first two sets strong with completions to Kyle Juszczyk on a wheel route to his left, two completions to Brandon Aiyuk, and one to Deebo Samuel. One of the highlights of that set was George Kittle absolutely stonewalling Joey Bosa one-on-one in pass protection.

On his next set, though, Garoppolo went 0-for-3, all on deep balls. He couldn’t connect with Kyle Juszczyk while under immediate pressure from Joey Bosa, just missed Deebo Samuel, then badly underthrew Trent Sherfield to his left; the ball came out late, and Sherfield had to prevent an interception. In a game situation, Garoppolo would’ve taken a bad shot and barely have gotten the pass off.

On Garoppolo’s next set in the red zone, things did not go smoothly. He finished with a wide open touchdown to Charlie Woerner, which was as easy as it gets. I’m not sure who the Chargers thought was playing quarterback, but at the start of the play, they kept only one linebacker near the middle of the field, who gave up his inside leverage, to cover Woerner, leaving the entire middle of the field open. Garoppolo, as you might know, likes to throw the ball there, and Woerner made a decent move to cut inside and find himself open with ease.

But in the rest of that set, Garoppolo nearly got picked off by Derwin James when he overthrew Kyle Juszczyk, and then he actually was picked off by Asante Samuel Jr., who was drafted 47th overall, a spot before Aaron Banks. He was available for the 49ers at 43 if they had not traded back, and there’s an argument to be made that he would have been a better pick. It’s too early in both players’ careers to know. We’ll see.

The next throw was a drop by Woerner, but was a difficult catch with safety Alohi Gillman nearly tipping it, and blocking Woerner’s sight line. The last pass was the touchdown throw.

Garoppolo finished the day badly in a two-minute drill, getting sacked once, then getting strip-sacked by Joey Bosa (on McGlinchey), and finishing off with an overthrown ball. He was 9-for-17 with two touchdowns (one in red zone), an interception, a strip-sack, two total sacks, and two near interceptions.

Trey Lance, meanwhile, was under fire pretty much constantly. In the first part of drills, he was 5-for-7, but underthrew Benjamin slightly on his deep ball, wasting the opportunity Garoppolo converted on. It was a throw to the deep left sideline, though, not over the middle like Garoppolo’s.

Lance’s couple of zone reads didn’t work all that effectively, which is more an issue with the blocking than a fault of his own. Most importantly, he treated runs like a game situation and got out of bounds a couple times to protect himself.

His biggest problem on Thursday was taking sacks. Much of that is the fault of the second-team offensive line, but he definitely stood in the pocket too long on a few occasions. By my count, Lance was sacked five times, and threw an interception well after the whistle on one of those occasions. He stepped into one sack in his second set of drills, and possibly would have been strip-sacked in the second period. He took another sack — a coverage sack, this time — directly after for his third of the day.

Another coverage sack opened his fourth set of drills, in the red zone, but he was excellent after that. He hit Ross Dwelley high over the middle for a touchdown over linebacker Amen Ogbongbemiga, then found Jauan Jennings on an out route towards the right pylon for his second touchdown. He also made sure to protect himself and run out of bounds when there wasn’t any open lane on a zone read.

Lance’s last set, in two-minute drills, may have been his best, even if it wasn’t statistically. It opened with an incompletion to JaMycal Hasty, with Tevaughn Campbell making a nice play on Hasty to break it up. Then Lance completed the ball to Hasty on the right against the very vocal Kyzir White. He nearly followed it up with a nice completion to Jordan Matthews on the right sideline, but Matthews ran himself out of bounds on the route, only getting perhaps one foot in.

But Lance hit MyCole Pruitt over the middle for a big gain before taking a very quick sack from Kyler Fackrell on Corbin Kaufusi. He followed that up with a crisp completion to Jauan Jennings, then another one to River Cracraft to his right. The drill ended with a spike, quick run and another spike. Lance finished the day 12-of-17 with two red zone touchdowns, five sacks and a couple of spikes (not counting those as incompletions even though they do in a game, because I think that should be changed).

Garoppolo threw far more dangerous passes, while Lance probably failed to release the ball quick enough in certain situations. On the whole, Lance threw fewer bad passes, but no one was a clear winner on Thursday.

Here’s what Shanahan said about Lance and the pressure he’s under to get the ball out quickly.

“I’m also going to challenge him to get rid of the ball, and you’ve got to know where those outlets are and how to get red of it,” Shanahan said. “He didn’t have the most time in everything, but that’s kind of our standard with things on how fast you’ve got to play — not just athletically, but your mind. You can’t hesitate, you have to get rid of it. If you get a sack in two-minute, looking at the percentages, it’s pretty much over. There’s not going to be a lot of great protection there, so it’s good to get him some of this experience without it being in a game. We’re going to keep challenging him hard.”

There were no first-team reps for Lance on Thursday, but that may change on Friday.

“I’d like him to get some reps with the ones eventually,” Shanahan said. “I reevaluate that after every practice not just so he can go with our ones, but so he can go against some of the one defenses. So we’ll see if we do some of that tomorrow. If we do, it’ll be more of getting him reps versus Bosa and Derwin and some of those other guys too, because it’s definitely a difference.”

It was hard to keep track of all the one-on-ones going on, but McGlinchey definitely had his hands full with Bosa; that was an entertaining battle to watch. Meanwhile, Jake Brendel, the backup center who I’ve been critical of, was impressive in one-on-ones.

In receiving one-on-ones, Kyle Juszczyk broke someone’s ankle, and Ross Dwelley made this catch.

Also — again, I wasn’t able to see the 49ers’ defense — Dee Ford apparently had a hell of a day. It’s tough to say whether he’s looked like his old self, but even being close to what he was may be enough for this defense. He’s absolutely been impressive in recent days, so seeing clips like the one below isn’t a massive surprise. The problem with Ford is that there’s no way to know what to expect from him. He could play every game, or one. It’s probably best to appreciate him while he’s out there and hope he stays out there.

Practice absences/injuries:

None of Shon Coleman (knee), Emmanuel Moseley (hamstring “tweak”), Javon Kinlaw (shoulder), Aaron Banks (shoulder), Elijah Mitchell (adductor), Jalen Hurd (knee) or Trent Williams (knee swelling) practiced on Thursday. Nick Bosa remained relegated to individual drills.

Shanahan provided updates on Williams, Hurd and Banks, saying Williams was going to practice on Thursday, but had some swelling in his knee. He had his knee drained, and the expectation is for him to be ready for next week against the Raiders. They’ve avoided long-term concerns with him, thankfully.

Jalen Hurd, meanwhile, has knee tendinitis, and the 49ers decided to rest him this week. Shanahan said he’s hoping he’ll get out there next week. As for Banks, Shanahan gave a lighthearted assessment, not totally remembering what the injury was. He called it a “shoulder something,” before saying he thinks it’s a minor AC joint sprain with a 1-2 week timetable.

“Bruise, AC sprain, I’m not a doctor,” Shanahan said. He did point out that Banks needs reps. “He needs to play too. Hopefully we’ll get him back here in this last week of preseason.”

Funny notes from practice:

  • Nick Bosa thanks a fan: Bosa is expected to begin practicing in 11-on-11s starting next week. While special teams drills were going on, he was doing some solo drills with staffers “on air” and as he jogged towards the sideline, winded, after one rep, there was a fan there clapping for him. Bosa, in his hilariously quiet, almost monotone sort of voice, gave the fan a point and said, “Hey, thanks.” This is one of those moments that’s funnier in person, and helps if you picture Bosa’s voice saying it.
  • Kyzir White stirring it up: Chargers linebacker Kyzir White was a real agitator on Thursday. You could hear him talking all over the field, and he almost got into a scuffle with Kyle Juszczyk and again after one play in 11-on-11s. Kyle Shanahan laughed about it after practice, saying he chatted with White and actually found him pretty cool, but just had to let him know the 49ers don’t tackle to the ground.
  • Keenan Allen and grandma’s cooking: As Chargers QBs were throwing to receiver Keenan Allen, Justin Herbert fired a bullet to Allen. Allen responded with an “Ahh!” like it stung his hands. Backup quarterback Chase Daniel followed up and threw Allen a ball that was much more palatable. Allen smiled and pointed to Daniel, saying, “There’s my guy” and then, “Grandma’s biscuits versus mom’s dinner.” Again, this is the funny notes section, not an anti-Chase Daniel post
  • Joey Bosa, not happy about deep balls: After Garoppolo’s best play of the day, his deep touchdown to Travis Benjamin, Joey Bosa was, uh, let’s say, less than enthused. This is one quote I’ll leave out, but he made clear that if it happened in the game on Sunday, he would be even more upset than he was on Thursday.
  • Garoppolo meets the other Bosa: If Bosa wasn’t happy about Garoppolo deep touchdown, the favor was returned when Bosa got too close for comfort and stripped the ball from Garoppolo on a sack. He was, uh, not supposed to touch Garoppolo. Garoppolo said he was initially upset, then heard a familiar-sounding Bosa voice say, “Sorry, Jim.”
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