The San Francisco 49ers won’t have mandatory minicamp next week. They were scheduled to hold a pair of practices on June 9 and 10, but Kyle Shanahan canceled those sessions next week to reward the team’s perfect attendance.
The World Cup is also three days later, so you have to imagine the Niners were getting pressure to think twice about practicing when one of the biggest sporting events in the world is taking place at Levi’s Stadium.
Let’s talk about what happened at the 49ers OTA practice on Wednesday, in what was an eventful afternoon despite notable names like Trent Williams, Fred Warner, Christian McCaffrey, and the other “top” players returning from injury.
We did see Brock Purdy and two of his newest targets. Let’s start there.
again and again
Keep in mind that this is a skeleton crew of what the 49ers defense will look like. The majority of the projected starting front seven weren’t in uniform.
However, the secondary was out there. In fairness to them, 7-on-7 periods are built for the offense. Even team periods without pads take away many of the things defenses rely on, like physicality and aggression.
That’s a lot of prefacing to get to the point. The wide receivers won. Handily. Let’s start with the prized free agent, Mike Evans.
Trent Williams called Evans a Hall of Famer and a player youngsters on the roster “fan girl” over. George Kittle called Evans the first veteran wide receiver of this caliber the team has had since Emmanuel Sanders. Kittle mentioned that Evans caught three to five touchdowns in a dominant red zone period last week.
I saw a player who decidedly won in isolated situations. The way Kyle Shanahan can empty a side of the field, creating an easy pitch and catch for Brock Purdy, almost felt too good to be true. If Brock wanted to, he could throw the ball to Evans every time he dropped back. But that would make practice boring, and nobody else would get anything accomplished.
Evans doesn’t look like he’s running fast. Then you realize he’s 6’5″ and how much ground he chews up with his long strides. Just like he did in Tampa Bay, Evans had the cornerbacks terrified he was going to run by him.
Not to give away state secrets, but Evans might have 500 yards on out routes this season because of that. He does this thing where he gives the defensive back a nod like he’s going up the field, only to break outside. He did it last year:
And the second you get aggressive and jump it, you come back and run a double move. That nod with a quick 1-2 steps up the field is nasty and makes Evans running an out route unguardable.
Shanahan can use all the attention Evans will command as a decoy. On one play he was isolated from a condensed split and ran a “glance” route, which is a five-step slant. Purdy looked his way, and that side of the defense collapsed on Evans. But they forgot about Demarcus Robinson, who was streaking down the sideline on a double move.
That kind of gravity from your WR1 will go a long way, especially when he’s surrounded by speed. And let me tell you, Evans is surrounded by speed.
I asked Evans what he’s seen from Cowing this offseason, and the first thing he mentioned was how much juice Cowing brings to the offense. You could see how quick Cowing is when he was returning punts and kicks. You couldn’t help but notice how much faster he is than everybody else when it came time for crossing routes.
The 49ers offense looked different last year because they did not have the speed threats to run away from defenders. They couldn’t stretch the field horizontally. Think about that. A Kyle Shanahan offense, one built around high-low concepts, had to scrap a large chunk of what they do because of the personnel.
Cowing was locked into the “F” spot, or slot receiver. He paired with Evans a couple of times when the team ran two-tight end sets, but most of his damage came from the slot. The defense had no answers. Cowing was anywhere from two to four steps in front of whoever was covering him.
And just when you think all Cowing can do is run over the middle, he uses your leverage against you and breaks to the outside. Cowing can live in the intermediate range, and that is something that the 49ers will lean on heavily.
Late on in practice, Cowing scored a touchdown on a post route after running right by Darrell Luter on the outside—no double move. No tricks. Just a pure speed route. Purdy hit him in stride. It was impossible not to come away impressed with Cowing. Deep overs with Cowing are the free square for this offense. It was open. Every. Time.
Ricky Pearsall didn’t practice, so Stribling got the start. Purdy has to be licking his chops at the speed around him. Multiple players can win downfield. Stribling caught a couple of vertical passes. One was early on against Deommodore Lenoir.
They were isolated, and, again, nothing fancy, just a go-ball down the sideline. Lenoir couldn’t keep up, and Purdy hit Stribling in the window before the safety could get over in time to break the pass up.
It looked a lot like how Ole Miss used Stribling in two-minute situations when they would try to steal yards early in the down. Coincidentally enough, this came on first down.
So Stribling won as the X receiver in an isolated situation against the 49ers “top” cornerback. Later on in the session, Stribling ran by both the cornerback and safety on a post route. Purdy threw a moon ball, and Stribling was on the receiving end with the defenders in white jerseys trailing in the dust.
After the play, Dre Greenlaw, who was watching off to the side, walked over to his partner in crime and said, “That boy 15 can fly, can’t he?” Greenlaw, Warner, and K.J. Wright spent the next minute or so hyping up the 49ers’ first pick of the 2026 draft.
It’s one practice, but the personnel suggests the 49ers will have a vertical passing game in 2026. That was not the case last year. When you cannot push the ball downfield, everything becomes more difficult. When you can, well, 2022 and 2023 happen. No pressure.
One of my favorite things to do is look at Shanahan’s expressions after something goes wrong.
Luke Ferrell false starts on 2nd & 5 after you just picked up five yards on the ground, and you would think the Seahawks just scored again. Adrian Martinez underthrows a pass by 10 yards, and he starts looking around wondering, “Where’s Kurtis?”
Shanahan also understands it’s the offseason. The offense is trying new things. On one play, they tried this misdirection play-action pass. Garret Wallow made an incredible play to recover, get into the throwing window, and tip Purdy’s pass. It landed in Luter’s hands for an interception.
All Shanahan could do was laugh. It was a hell of a play.
Donte Whitner would’ve had a field day at Wednesday’s practice. The offense bested Ji’Ayir Brown on a high-low concept on one of the first plays of 7-on-7 where Brown didn’t get enough depth. Then they got him deep.
To Malik Mustapha‘s credit, he did a great job of sinking into the second window for an interception on a crossing route to Cowing — another play where if Cowing catches it, he’s off to the races.
But there were also teaching moments. Later on in the session, the defensive coordinator was seen talking to Mustapha after he gave up a big play. Mustapha took the cheese and fell for the trap the offense set.
“That was a setup. That was one of those plays we talked about. You put those guys out there in some of those hard situations, and it’s about being visual, and it’s about not seeing so much and being able to be that angel over the top to be able to help us play the right way, to be able to save a tough play that could have been a tough play. He covered a lot of grass and could almost get there in that setting when you’re not touching the quarterback. So, if you can get close in those situations, that’s a good thing, because hopefully you’ve got Bosa and some of those guys that can save you on some of those.”
Brown and Mustapha are relatively interchangeable. One play Malik is in the box, and the next play Brown is stacked over the tight end. But, to me, it’s pretty clear that Mustapha is going to be the key to unlocking the ceiling of this defense.
Morris is coming from a team whose starting safeties had 8 interceptions last season. It might take three seasons for the 49ers safeties to reach eight interceptions if they play the ball the way they did last season.
We remember Malik as a rookie. He lived around the ball. I think Morris is going to put a ton on his plate this year and put him in positions to make plays, just like on Wednesday. The question will be whether Mustapha can rise to the challenge. If he trusts what he sees and can process what’s going on in front of him, Mustapha should have a big year playing behind the 49ers’ much-improved pass rush.
Jordan Watkins and Cowing are getting the first cracks at being the returners. There’s a heavy emphasis on “ball first.” The coach screamed it every time, whether there was a punt or a kick. Will Pauling was after them, which tells me the former two is where the real competition is. Cowing and Pauling both had a muff.
With Trent Williams out, Enrique Cruz was the first left tackle up. The bigger news was the left guard. That’s Connor Colby. It seems like it’s his job to lose. It’s June, but veterans Robert Jones and Brett Toth not getting a stab at the job over a seventh-rounder was mildly surprising. That could change once the pads come on, but if the season started today, it’ll be Colby sandwiched between Williams and Jake Brendel. We’ll be paying close attention to that training camp battle in a couple of months.
Cruz at left tackle is how I caught wind of Jaden Dugger. There was no tackling, but you can see how the linebackers are reading plays, like Wallow’s interception. Dugger beat Cruz and Colby on a couple of occasions to the spot when the offense ran left. Coming in with no expectations, I came away relatively impressed by what Dugger could be playing alongside Warner and Greenlaw.
He didn’t participate in team drills, but watching Osa Odighizuwa in individual drills compared to literally anybody else was eye-opening. He was running the “hoop drill” like an edge rusher. If you didn’t know any better, No. 92 played on the outside. He’s also on the all-get-off-the-bus team. He’s yoked. Odighizuwa looks the part.
The same cannot be said for Gracen Halton. He looked like he was carrying some bad weight. Again, it’s June, so we’re not going to make any grand proclamations about players, but, in my mind, this is what put Alfred Collins behind the 8-ball last season. An offseason injury that lingered into training camp, causing him to miss reps.
Halton isn’t hurt, but lined up next to James Thompson and Odighizuwa, it didn’t look like Halton spent the last six months working like you’d expect a player who was fighting for a roster spot to work. We’ll see how different he looks come August.
I was thinking, “Who is this 29?” Kaelon Black might get the brunt of the receiving work with McCaffrey out, but Jordan James looks to be the better runner. It’s like Alfred Morris — and if you remember him under Shanahan, you know that is a huge compliment.
James has a natural feel as a runner with impressive vision. Don’t expect him to break off 20 to 30-yard gains, but he’s going to add singles and doubles every time he’s up to bat. That’s a big improvement from the pop outs and ground balls the 49ers were hitting last year. One practice of OTAs has me thinking RB2 is James’ to lose.
