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Young wideouts show up in shape: Jordan Watkins caught two passes as a rookie last season. Jacob Cowing spent all of last year on injured reserve due to a torn hamstring after only four catches his rookie season. Both young wide receivers were taken in the fourth round.<\/p>\n
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Looking to take a step up, Shanahan noticed they arrived for offseason workouts already in shape. No time to waste.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was really excited with how Jordan and Jake came back,\u201d Shanahan said. \u201cYou can tell they came back, it wasn\u2019t just healthy, you can tell they\u2019ve been putting work in, and coming in here in shape has allowed them to get a lot farther ahead in these five weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Top draft pick De\u2019Zhaun Stribling adds to the 49ers\u2019 youth at wide receiver. Like any other rookie wideout, Shanahan, a former college wide receiver, plans to put him through the usual gantlet.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve only been out there two days, but he\u2019s done all our drills for the two weeks we had him in phase two,\u201d Shanahan said. \u201cHe\u2019s been awesome in the meeting rooms, works his tail off, and it\u2019s been good to watch him in two practices. But that\u2019s what they\u2019re going through right now. We throw a ton of stuff at them. They usually do well the first couple days. They usually melt the second week. And they usually come back in training camp a little bit better for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hands test: Rookie running back Kaelon Black had three catches in team drills, including a nifty outstretched snag of an off-target screen pass from Purdy.<\/p>\n
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Black\u2019s three receptions were one fewer than he had last season at Indiana, where he combined for eight catches in two years. The third-round pick\u2019s 52 receptions in his four-year college career invited questions about his effectiveness as a pass catcher. After\u00a0Shanahan and general manager John Lynch dismissed those concerns after the draft, Shanahan described Black as a work in progress in that area Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see a guy that I think can be developed in the pass game,\u201d Shanahan said. \u201cWe definitely were excited about him (primarily) as a runner. But we’ve gotten a lot of guys here who didn’t start out great in the pass game. They have the skill set to do it \u2014 they just haven’t worked at it that much.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shanahan likened Black to former 49ers running backs Elijah Mitchell and Jordan Mason. Mitchell had 49 catches in college and Mason had 25.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know those guys got a lot better,\u201d Shanahan said. \u201cAnd I see Kaelon being the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Running back sidelined: Isaac Guerendo likely would have assured himself a spot on the 53-man roster with a strong training camp. Bad news for the 2024 fourth-round pick: He will miss most, if not all, of training camp.<\/p>\n
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Shanahan said Guerendo suffered a torn pectoral lifting weights about a month ago and could return \u201cright around the end\u201d of camp in August.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes this game is super unfortunate,\u201d McCaffrey said. \u201cHe was working his butt off all offseason and sometimes it\u2019s that freak stuff that happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before the injury, the forecast appeared gloomy for Guerendo, who showed promise while rushing for 420 yards and averaging 5 yards a carry as a rookie. Last year, Guerendo suffered a separated shoulder in camp and was buried on the depth chart after the 49ers subsequently traded for running back Brian Robinson. Guerendo appeared in 14 games, but his 173 snaps all came on special teams.<\/p>\n
The 49ers typically keep four running backs on their roster. McCaffrey, Black and 2025 fifth-round pick Jordan James are locks. Guerendo could battle Patrick Taylor, a core special-teams player, for the final spot.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
With Guerendo sidelined, the 49ers signed running backs Jermar Jefferson and Jordan Mims. They waived running back Sincere McCormick, who was signed on April 28, and placed safety Darrick Forrest on injured reserve.<\/p>\n
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Left guard competition: The 49ers lost two of the three offensive linemen who made starts at left guard last season to free agency. Former seventh-round draft pick Connor Colby is the only one left. Colby made six starts after season-opening starter Ben Bartch suffered an early injury but was ultimately benched for Spencer Burford.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, with Bartch and Burford in different jerseys, Colby is back in the mix.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Connor Colby has come a long way,\u201d McKivitz said. \u201cYou never know how your rookie season\u2019s going to go. It can be really good or really bad. You learn a lot. You\u2019re kind of flying by the seat of your pants and you don\u2019t really have a whole lot of technique. You\u2019re just thrown in and it\u2019s a whirlwind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fourth-round draft pick Carver Willis, a college tackle looking to transition inside, and veteran pickup Robert Jones also appear in line to compete for the vacancy.<\/p>\n
Joint practices: Shanahan said the 49ers are planning to have joint practices against the Titans (in Santa Clara) and Chargers (El Segundo, Los Angeles County) before their preseason games against each team in August.<\/p>\n
Shanahan, of course, has a close relationship with first-year Tennessee head coach Robert Saleh, whose second stint as the 49ers defensive coordinator ended after the 2025 season. The 49ers and Chargers held joint practices in Orange County in 2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 49ers returned to the field Thursday during\u00a0OTAs\u00a0at the Levi\u2019s Stadium practice field in Santa Clara. Santiago Mejia\/S.F.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[1818,139096,122171,296,88,90,89,127],"class_list":["post-337019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-49ers","tag-dezhuan-stribling","tag-kaelon-black","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}