San Francisco 49ers wide receivers coach Leonard Hankerson, rear, watches as De’Zhaun Stribling runs during the NFL football team’s rookie minicamp Friday, May 8, 2026, in Santa Clara, Calif. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Jeff Chiu/Associated Press
Among quarterback Brock Purdy’s initial takeaways from the San Francisco 49ers’ offseason workouts: Sticky handed Pro Bowl wide receiver Mike Evans has a mind to match his mitts.
“I’m so excited,” Purdy said, “because this guy sees the game like a quarterback does.”
Purdy gushed about his new teammate’s on-field acumen last week at the annual Dwight Clark Legacy Series event in San Jose. Purdy discussed how Evans, 32, worked to form what became an almost telepathic connection with QB Tom Brady during their three seasons (2020-22) together in Tampa Bay.
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This spring, Purdy asked Evans about a specific route he ran with the Buccaneers that resembled a “concept” in the 49ers’ playbook. Evans explained the route wasn’t in Tampa Bay’s playbook: Brady and Evans had an understanding that Evans could alter his route based on how the secondary was aligned.
“He’s like, ‘Actually, it’s not that concept,’” Purdy said. “‘I had a choice to go around the (defensive back) a certain way, and Tom knew to put the ball there. And that’s something that we talked and worked through.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, shoot, so that’s stuff that we’re going to have to talk through and work through.’”
Starting this week, the media can begin forming its own initial impressions of the 2026 49ers. After three weeks of on-field workouts during Phase 2 of the NFL’s offseason program, the 49ers began Phase 3 on Wednesday with their first OTA practice.
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On Thursday, the 49ers will have their first offseason practice that’s open to media. Here are the top storylines reporters will be monitoring.
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How does the top pick look?
To be clear, non-contact, no-pads OTA practices don’t come close to replicating real football. When it comes to wide receivers, for example, they are running routes against defensive backs who can’t thwart them with press coverage.
That’s an advantage for the pass catchers, which will include wideout De’Zhaun Stribling, the 49ers’ first pick (No. 33) in last month’s draft.
In 2024, rookie first-round wideout Ricky Pearsall flourished in an OTA setting, showing off his slick route-running, before he quickly got injured. That’s been a theme of a brief career in which the oft-sidelined Pearsall has produced when he’s been healthy. In 2012, rookie first-round wideout A.J. Jenkins foreshadowed his disastrous one-season, zero-catch tenure in OTAs: Jenkins didn’t catch many passes, but he fell frequently.
That is, it’s a mistake to read too much into a May practice. But these sessions can provide clues.
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Purdy has been struck by Stribling’s “raw talent.” Stribling, 6-foot-2 and 207 pounds, boosted his draft stock by running a 4.36-second 40-yard dash.
“Once we get him in the playbook, and get a lot of reps with each other on the field, I feel like he’s going to be a guy that can come in and make an instant impact,” Purdy said.
How does the rookie running back catch?
Head coach Kyle Shanahan has said he’s serious this season about lightening workhorse running back Christian McCaffrey’s load. And he’s said a reason that’s been a problem in the past is the 49ers haven’t had a backup who could come close to replicating McCaffrey’s elite pass-catching skills.
Given that, the 49ers’ third-round selection of Kaelon Black was surprising: Black didn’t do much pass-catching in college. He had eight receptions in his final two seasons and 52 in his four-year career.
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The 49ers have said they aren’t concerned about Black’s hands. General manager John Lynch said Black impressed in that area during Senior Bowl practices. For his part, Black has expressed similar confidence. He’s said his lack of receptions in his two years at Indiana was a reflection of the Hoosiers’ offense, which featured two wide receivers, Omar Cooper and Elijah Sarratt, who were selected in the first and fourth round, respectively, in April. Indiana’s running backs had 23 of the team’s 292 catches in 2025.
“There wasn’t really too much of a use for us in the pass game,” Black said. “But we could do it. The ability is there.”
How do they handle McCaffrey?
In 2023, which was McCaffrey’s first offseason with the 49ers, he wowed observers with his full-speed work ethic. Did the All-Pro realize these were OTAs?
“He sets the tone,” quarterback Trey Lance said at the time.
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McCaffrey, who didn’t participate in OTAs in 2024 while working on a contract extension, did dial back his spring activity last year. Is it now time for McCaffrey to step aside and serve as an unofficial coach during spring practices, as All-Pro linebacker Fred Warner has done in recent seasons?
Three years ago, McCaffrey’s full-throttle participation made some sense. He’d been acquired in a midseason trade the previous year and was still working to master the playbook. However, McCaffrey has since added to his bulky medical file, is now coming off a season with an NFL-high 413 touches and he’ll turn 30 on June 7.
In addition, the snaps McCaffrey doesn’t take in 7-on-7 or 11-on-11 work would go to three unproven recent draft picks who could use the reps: Black, Jordan James (fifth round, 2025) and Isaac Guerendo (fourth, 2024).
More snaps for a third-string QB?
The 49ers are intrigued by No. 3 QB Kurtis Rourke, a big-armed 2025 seventh-round pick who was sidelined last year by a knee injury from college. Are they intrigued enough to give Rourke more practice snaps than they typically give third-stringers to see if he can serve as Purdy’s backup, sooner than expected?
The 49ers were willing to trade QB Mac Jones before the draft, but no team met their reportedly steep asking price. If an injury to a starter prompts a team to pony up, would the 49ers deal Jones at some point before the trade deadline on Nov. 3? They likely would if Rourke, like Purdy in 2022, resembles a seventh-round steal.
Who is injured?
There are often some unexpected omissions when reporters take practice roll call for the first time.
Last year, for example, Shanahan revealed that safety Ji’Ayir Brown was sidelined because he had offseason ankle surgery, Pearsall had strained his hamstring earlier in the spring and rookie safety Marques Sigle wasn’t practicing due to an injury he suffered before the draft.