The 49ers offense appears to be finding its footing a little bit as training camp enters its third week. That’s good news for San Francisco with less than a week until the preseason opener.
Saturday’s session had some interesting notes on Trey Lance and some others who are flying under-the-radar through camp:
Jimmie gets Trey
Trey Lance tossed an interception to free safety Jimmie Ward that Ward took back for a defensive touchdown. ESPN’s Nick Wagoner wrote that the 49ers defense brought the house on a blitz and Lance’s throw didn’t come out quick enough, which allowed Ward to undercut it for a house call. Lance tossing a pick in this spot isn’t great, but it is good seeing Ward come up with a splash play. He got himself on the map with a couple interceptions against the Rams on Monday Night Football last year. Now he needs to put together a season where he has a few games with game-changing plays. That’s the next step for him to go from very good to great.
Lance post-INT
The best news of the day for San Francisco is how Lance responded to the Ward INT. Wagoner had Lance down at five-for-six on the ensuing two-minute drive, which included a TD pass to Ray-Ray McCloud. David Lombardi from the Athletic noted an area of clock management that could’ve gone better for Lance, but bouncing back from interceptions is a huge key for a young quarterback. There are going to be mistakes by the first-time starter. Eliminating them will be the goal, but for now he just can’t let one bad play affect the rest of his game. That wasn’t the case in Saturday’s practice. He’ll just need to translate that into game action.
Jason Poe show
Don’t sleep on the undrafted offensive lineman from Mercer. Almost every reporter at Saturday’s practice noted how well Poe is holding up in one-on-one drills. He was a fascinating prospect, but his lack of size pushed him out of the draft. The 49ers bet on his athleticism playing well and it has so far in camp. He’ll need to show he can play in game situations in order to make the team, but he seems as likely as anyone on the interior to land a roster spot out of camp. Even if he’s inactive each week, it would be a huge win for him and the 49ers, especially if he develops into a playable piece on the interior at some point.
Strong safety by committee?
The 49ers continue playing out their strong safety battle with Tarvarius Moore working as the starter there per Lombardi. Talanoa Hufanga rotated in with the first-team though. It appears San Francisco will take advantage of the varying talents of their safeties by playing them all and utilizing three-safety personnel at times. We saw defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans do that some last season as well. His ability to mix up coverages and looks and his willingness to do things like play all three of his capable safeties makes Ryans one of the best coordinators in the league. San Francisco’s defense could wind up being very fun this season.
Nick Bosa rests
It was another day off for Bosa. Given his talent and penchant for being in shape, he could probably skip all of camp and be ready to go for Week 1.
