Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports
Organized team activities (OTAs) are voluntary. Players don’t have to attend. Some teams have seen a significant amount of their rosters opt to attend virtually, skipping the on-field work and even being in the buildings due to continued and understandable concerns surrounding COVID-19.
The Seattle Seahawks were among the teams that saw a limited number of players report to the team’s facility for this phase of the offseason program. When asked about the reduced attendance this week, head coach Pete Carroll downplayed the lower turnout compared to the rest of the division.
“I don’t manage anything on what’s going on around the rest of the league,” Carroll said. “We’re just doing what’s best for us, what our guys need to do. We’re making terrific progress, we’ve been here before with what we can get done virtually and it’s going great.”
San Francisco had nearly perfect attendance when players reported last week. Most are vaccinated too, which makes things safer for everyone involved.
“I did get vaccinated,” quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo said on 95.7 The Game. “I’d say the majority of [the players] are. I know a couple aren’t, but the majority are.”
Added Garoppolo: “We had so many guys come back for OTAs. I think we had damn near the whole team, and it was a lot of fun to just be with them, be around them, and just get some normalcy.”
That’s important for the 49ers, as the team hopes to bounce back from its six-win season in 2020.
“I’m pretty sure we have everybody, but two guys here,” tight end
George Kittle said this week. “And I think
Dee Ford was here the entire offseason, so he’s just taking some time at home. Nick’s (Bosa) still recovering, doing his rehab stuff. So the fact that we have our entire team here, other than those two guys, it’s awesome.”
Center Weston Richburg, who plans to retire, and kicker Robbie Gould also are not present.
“And what it says about this team is that we want to be here, we want to get better, and we want to be able to bond as a team and take those steps forward,” Kittle continued. “I know there’s not games on Sundays, but those four days of practice, or three days of practice in a Phase Two day, you use those, and you stack those days up, and you’re going to get better.”
Due to stricter COVID protocols and the lack of a vaccine, the 49ers didn’t participate in on-field work last offseason until training camp. Every NFL team was impacted, in fact, making for one of the strangest offseasons in recent memory, aside from a lockout year in 2011.
“These weeks of OTAs are big for our entire team and it’s big for our coaches too,” Kittle added, “because they can learn better ways to install plays for this [summer] camp, and they’re just learning the best way to coach guys, really. So, the whole team is really taking a step forward.”
Head coach Kyle Shanahan was concerned that he might only get the mandatory minicamp in June with his entire team and have to once again deal with a limited offseason. He was relieved when most of his players reported, even though they were not required to. However, even with nearly perfect attendance, there were some hurdles to overcome due to restrictions leading up to the start of OTAs.
“I was really happy. You know what I mean?” Shanahan told reporters this week. “You hear a lot of that stuff, but for our guys to show up like they did—my biggest concern was only getting a week with the guys. I think this is my 18th OTA since we didn’t have one last year. I’ve never had OTAs without being around the guys for five weeks prior, so you’ve got a very good idea of where they’re at.
“We’ve only been around these guys for four days until our first OTA. So that’s what made me really nervous in terms of just putting these guys out there. That’s why we’ve had to take some reps away, and hopefully, we’ll get to normal OTAs next week. But our guys came in, and we got guys who really enjoy football.”
Maybe — just maybe — this will give San Francisco an edge over other teams like the Seahawks, who may be playing catchup this offseason.
“I know there’s a lot of different opinions on all that stuff,” Shanahan added, “but it’s hard to get better at football if you don’t practice it. It’s hard to get better at any sport if you don’t practice playing the game. There’s lots of ways to improve yourself, but you’ve really got to practice the sport get better at it.”
In a media session on Tuesday, San Francisco 49ers star tight end George Kittle was asked about the wide receivers room after losing Kendrick Bourne.
Kittle noted the significant loss of Bourne, who was a locker room stalwart, and acknowledged that to make up for Bourne’s absence, the entire receivers room needs to step up if the team wants to improve from last year.
Top receiver Deebo Samuel only played in seven games last year after a strong rookie season, accumulating just under 400 yards for the season. With quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo back under center, Samuel will look to bounce back to be the threat he was in his rookie year, during which he caught 57 passes for 802 yards.
While Kittle mentioned that the receivers room needs to step up,
Jimmy Garoppolo probably wasn’t too happy at first when the 49ers decided to pursue a quarterback in the NFL Draft, but he seems to have moved well past that and is now focused on making the best of the situation he currently finds himself in.
The 49ers let Garoppolo know in late March they would be trading up to select a quarterback in the NFL Draft, which turned out to be Trey Lance of North Dakota State. The move came just over a year after Garoppolo helped the 49ers to a spot in Super Bowl LIV, but an injury-plagued season from him in 2020 led the 49ers to invest heavily in the quarterback position over the offseason. 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters in March that Garoppolo
Jimmy Garoppolo figures to be the starting quarterback when the San Francisco 49ers take the field against the Detroit Lions in Week 1. At some point, though, whether it be this year or in the more distant future, Trey Lance will take the reins. After all, the Niners traded up to the No. 3 overall pick in this year’s draft to acquire the former North Dakota State star quarterback.
The 49ers are holding a three-day rookie minicamp this weekend. Lance is the only quarterback participating. Garoppolo will enter the mix on May 24, when the team begins organized team activities.
While Kyle Shanahan acknowledges it would be a tall order for Lance to beat out Garoppolo for the starting job, the 49ers head coach welcomes competition at all positions.
“[I]f
You’ll often get a debate when it comes to the subject of the best tight end in football. San Francisco 49ers fans will be quick to vote for All-Pro George Kittle. Kansas City Chiefs fans will side with Travis Kelce.
There’s no real bad answer with those choices. Kelce has played much longer, and his resume is superb. The six-time Pro Bowler has been doing it for eight years and has racked up over 1,000 receiving yards in each of the past five seasons, including a tight-end record of 1,416 receiving yards last season. That record broke the one set by the 27-year-old Kittle just two years earlier.
Kittle has two seasons with over 1,000 receiving yards on his resume. He was limited to eight games last season but still recorded 634 yards. Kittle is seen as the
