{"id":813697,"date":"2026-08-14T19:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T19:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/813697\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T19:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T19:56:09","slug":"6-winners-and-4-losers-from-the-49ers-preseason-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/813697\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Winners and 4 losers from the 49ers\u2019 preseason opener"},"content":{"rendered":"

The San Francisco 49ers had their first preseason game, where we witnessed Adrian Martinez throw the ball 30 times and the running backs show us what three yards and a cloud of dust looks like. The scoreboard doesn\u2019t matter in the preseason. You want to see players making plays. The box score can be deceiving, as not all tackles are created equally. Let\u2019s get into the winners and losers from Week 1 of the preseason.<\/p>\n

Bethune had the biggest highlight of the evening when he ran through rookie running back Nicholas Singleton\u2019s face for a sack. Bethune was the aggressor all night and likely cemented himself onto the roster.<\/p>\n

Most of his tackles came near the line of scrimmage. Bethune wasn\u2019t hesitant and was flying around. He should be a core special-teamer for the 49ers this season. He was impressive.<\/p>\n

Eason can play. He was on the field for 24 snaps and left an impression. Eason made an impact without showing up in the box score with plays like this:<\/p>\n

Eason had a play where he sniffed out a screen and forced an incompletion. Kris Kocurek will appreciate that, as defensive line coaches are always saying something along the lines of, \u201cIf you\u2019re getting after the quarterback for the first time all game, it\u2019s probably because they want you to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eason stood his ground against double teams, pushed the pocket against rookie Jackson Slater, and looked like he belonged in his debut.<\/p>\n

Stribling didn\u2019t start too hot: he missed a block against edge rusher Jermaine Johnson, resulting in a tackle for loss; then, technically, dropped a pass; and followed that up by stumbling on a route on fourth down.<\/p>\n

The jitters wore off after that as Stribling caught his final six targets and continued to get open cleanly even when the ball wasn\u2019t thrown in his direction. It\u2019s refreshing to see a wide receiver have zero issues catching the ball. Stribling still needs to evolve as a route runner, but he\u2019s winning down the field already against starters.<\/p>\n

If Brandon Lloyd shaved off two tenths from his 40 and played in a Kyle Shanahan offense. That\u2019s Stribling. That\u2019s a compliment.<\/p>\n

Rourke ran out of multiple sacks and avoided the negative plays behind a second-string offensive line. Talk about impressive. He was a tick late on a couple of throws early on, but the more Rourke dropped back, the more he threw with anticipation.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll see if the 49ers feel like he made Mac Jones expendable<\/a> a couple of months from now, but Rourke looked comfortable in muddy pockets and never panicked. I was most impressed with his scrambling ability and encouraged by Rourke\u2019s willingness to push the ball down the field.<\/p>\n

Martinez stepping out of bounds then throwing it underhand before the half for what would have been an easy interception had he stayed in bounds is enough to land him here. Thirty attempts with an average of 5.3 yards is comical. He took a pair of sacks he shouldn\u2019t have. Martinez overthrew wide receivers left and right. He missed Jordan Watkins and Malik Turner on sure-fire touchdowns down the field. It was a rough watch for a quarterback who probably shouldn\u2019t take another snap in the preseason for this team.<\/p>\n

Oy. Martin looks like a player who has no idea what\u2019s happening in front of him. Watching him side by side with Tatum Bethune further proves this. Bethune would be at the line of scrimmage throwing his body into an offensive lineman, while Martin is still bouncing up and down in the same spot.<\/p>\n

Martin led the team with eight tackles, but even the ones at the line of scrimmage deserve an asterisk. For example, he had a clean shot on Will Levis, but he fell off the tackle as the whistle blew.<\/p>\n

Early on in the game, Martin came off the field on passing downs for Garret Wallow.<\/p>\n

A personal foul won\u2019t help his cause, nor will running into the middle of a blocker after you\u2019re late triggering, leading to a big play.<\/p>\n

Martin gave the team no reason to move forward with this charade.<\/p>\n

Height wasn\u2019t gunshy, which is what you want to see, but he also looked like a one-trick pony against the Titans starting left tackle. He actually got put on his backside and was handled rather easily. When Height was on the move, he was at his best. Still, in 1-on-1 situations, he left a lot to be desired. It\u2019s early, but it wasn\u2019t a great first impression for the first defender the 49ers drafted this year. Having a penalty doesn\u2019t help, either.<\/p>\n

It was the same Sigle from Kansas State and the same Sigle from his rookie year on Thursday. Leaving his feet to tackle, a step late as he\u2019s determining whether he should trust what he sees, bracing for blocks instead of running through the block.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s funny to hear the defensive backs all say, \u201cWe like this scheme because there isn\u2019t much thinking and we can just play,\u201d when in reality, they\u2019re doing the same things as last year and playing similar coverages.<\/p>\n

Ashtyn Davis did all of the things we needed to see from Sigle at safety.<\/p>\n

Turner was great. He only caught two of his six targets for 23 yards, but he could\u2019ve easily had close to 80 yards had he received accurate throws. Turner was wide open on a couple of passes that went to Stribling on the other side. He also won down the field. It was an impressive showing for the big-bodied receiver fighting for a roster spot.<\/p>\n

Halton\u2019s effort stood out. He chased down a screen that went for 12 yards, and that alone would\u2019ve been enough to land him here. Having a sack where he worked to the half of man — something Martin should take note of — had to bring a smile to Kocurek\u2019s face, even if the play was nullified because of a penalty. Halton had a tackle for loss, another stop after a clean win, and was feisty against double teams, not giving up after initially losing. That\u2019s the fight you want to see from an undersized defensive tackle.<\/p>\n

James Thompson Jr.Jordan WatkinsSebastian ValdezAshtyn Davis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The San Francisco 49ers had their first preseason game, where we witnessed Adrian Martinez throw the ball 30…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":813698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[2745,37188,99],"class_list":["post-813697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-san-francisco-49ers-news","tag-san-francisco-49ers-preseason","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=813697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/813698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=813697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=813697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=813697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}