It was in the high 90s for the first day of minicamp for the San Francisco 49ers. That’s hot. Here are a few other Fangirl Takeaways from Santa Clara.
Injuries
Since OTAs, the 49ers have been without a large number of players, and there were two more absences to start minicamp.
Offensive lineman Mike McGlinchey was out due to a Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) injection on his knee. Head coach Kyle Shanahan said it is minor, but they decided to do it now, as McGlinchey will have to stay off the knee for three weeks.
Rookie wide receiver Deebo Samuel was out with a tweaked hip.
Butterfingers
The 49ers wide receivers had a hard time holding onto passes today, no matter who was throwing the ball. That being said, it’s June, so there’s not a big reason for concern just yet.
“Yeah, we’ve got to change everybody that had drops today,” joked Shanahan after practice. “No. Yeah, don’t want them to drop it. A few had some drops today. I think a couple were contested, got them out, too, but it wasn’t clean there at the end.”
Marquise Goodwin’s Only Competition is Marquise Goodwin
Due to injuries to the wide receiving corps, Marquise Goodwin has had a lot put on his shoulders in his first couple seasons with the 49ers. Shanahan is hoping that won’t be the case this season.
“…[W]e always have a pretty good idea of who ‘Quise will be and what he can do,” Shanahan said. “The benefit this year is that there’s other people to take some pressure off…[S]ince we’ve gotten him here, he’s had to play a lot more than you would like. He’s had to do some routes a lot more than you would like. He’s capable of doing it all, but you like to put people on what they’re best at and things like that. We haven’t had the necessary depth here and some players to take off that. That’s what we tried to do more this offseason. It’s what we tried to do last offseason. We drafted a receiver two years in a row in the second round hoping that can take some of the pressure off of ‘Quise.”
As far as Goodwin is concerned, he’s happy to be anywhere he’s needed.
“…[A]ll I can focus on is doing what I need to do as a player to help the team win, and that’s what I’m going to do moving forward,” said Goodwin.
Part of that is doing what he can to stay in shape and staying healthy, two things he’s trying to help the young wide receiver group learn to do.
“It’s self-preservation, it’s key,” Goodwin said. “Making it through all these days can be tough, but you got to find a way to get in the training room, hydrate, get your body right, do treatments outside of what’s provided here within the organization. If you want to take it to the next level. If you want to be on the field nonstop, if you want to be a starter, you got to find ways to kind of make sure that your body is ready to go.”
Goodwin said he does want to compete in the 2020 Olympics in Track & Field, but right now, it’s all football.
“I’m here to help the 49ers. I’m not here for Marquise Goodwin’s ego. I’m not here for myself, I’m here to lay it out on the line for my team.”
The Battle for QB2
While Jimmy Garoppolo is back on the field as QB1, C.J. Beathard and Nick Mullens are competing to be his backup. Although that battle will heat up in late July, it’s still been prevalent in the offseason program.
“…They’ve both been doing a real good job, both playing at a high level, so that’s been exciting,” Shanahan said. “But, to sit there and really stress over, from a coaching standpoint, trying to make the decision, we’re not there yet because a lot could change. These guys have both proven that they can play in this league and we’re going to have to make a tough decision at the end of preseason to which one we want to give that number two job to…”
Beathard, who is happy with his performance in the offseason program thus far, welcomes the competition.
“I think anytime you have competition, especially from guys that are in the room, good players, it makes you better, it really does,” he said.
When practice ends, the two quarterbacks go back to the friend zone.
“We pretty much hang out every night in the hotel, because we’re in a hotel only a couple rooms down the hall. On the weekends we golf pretty much every weekend with a group of four guys. We’re real close off the field for sure,” Beathard said. “…[A]ctually we’re pretty competitive on that, but it’s pretty even. Most of the time we’ll go with four guys and [QB] Wilton Speight is actually a really good golfer. We found out he’s really good. So, it will be me and Nick playing best ball versus Wilton and someone who’s not as good but he’s decent, don’t want to drop any names, [WR] Max McCaffrey.”