We are a full week into training camp for the San Francisco 49ers, and day seven saw some nice plays from the rookies, QB1, and the defense.
Brian Hoyer continues to have a great training camp, and dare I say it, he just might surprise some people. Let’s take a look at some other highlights of the day.
Reuben Foster
You could have heard a pin drop, even with the music, when rookie linebacker Reuben Foster went down with what looked like an ankle injury. But, the football gods smiled on Santa Clara, and after shaking it off for one play, Foster was back in action.
Foster had two interceptions today. The first was in one-on-one drills. For the second, Foster can thank Prince Charles Iworah who delivered a huge hit on Matt Breida, who lost the ball and Foster found it.
The One-Man Highlight Reel
Rookie wide receiver Trent Taylor is having a fantastic camp and is currently the stand out player. It seems that every day he has a highlight, and today was no exception. He and quarterback Brian Hoyer connected on a pass juuuuust before Taylor went out of bounds. He has an uncanny ability to keep his toes and his feet inbounds for the catch.
“Trent’s not scared of anything,” said head coach Kyle Shanahan. “He’s not a huge guy, but he’s not going to turn anything down. He’s going to do his job. He’s going to get in front of a guy and he’s going to bring it as hard as he can. If you don’t do that in our offense, you can’t play it for us. Whether you like contact or not, you still have to do your job.”
Taylor is no doubt doing his job, but that’s not a surprise to his coach.
“Trent’s got a good skill set,” said Shanahan. “He plays well on the inside, he’s good at separating and beating man, but that was one of the things that we liked about him watching him in college. The way he ran with the ball in his hands, he ran physically. He’s trying to go through people. He’s not scared of contact. It’s a very violent game and when you’re playing on the inside all the time and you’re thinking about that stuff it’s hard to perform well. You can tell Trent doesn’t worry about that part of the game.”
Earlier in the day, Foster tipped a Hoyer pass, but Taylor still managed to catch it.
Joe Williams Sees Improvement
Up until yesterday, Joe Williams was having a somewhat disappointing training camp. He wasn’t finishing runs and seemed to playing catch up with the scheme. To Williams’ credit, he knew he wasn’t performing at a high level, as did running backs coach Bobby Turner.
“I saw it in myself, and Coach Bobby T had talked to me, as I wanted him to,” said Williams. “I told him to just keep coaching me, keep staying on me.”
It worked, because yesterday was a much better day and today was even stronger. He is definitely moving in the right direction.
“I thought he’s put two good practices in a row,” said Shanahan. “It takes time with some of these guys, by no means has he arrived with two good practices. That’s why I try not to jump to too many conclusions after each practice. Especially with the younger guys, they’ve got to learn the speed of the game, how to practice. A lot of these guys haven’t hit like that in practice, some guys don’t know how to practice without pads which was more OTAs and earlier on. Joe’s, he got a couple good looks yesterday, which sometimes that’s what they need to spring a little bit of confidence. We’re always hoping it will click because we know he’s got some ability.”
Williams attributes the improvement to a better familiarity with the scheme and, well, practice, but he knows he still has a long way to go.
“The runs were pretty good,” said Williams. “I think I executed on my assignments throughout the team periods, but still didn’t compete that well in pass protection, so [running backs coach Bobby Turner] gonna get on me about that in the film room.”
Secondary to None
After a couple tough days of being leveled by his opponents, rookie cornerback Akhello Witherspoon had a better day, batting a Hoyer pass away from wide receiver Pierre Garçon. Meanwhile, Dontae Johnson and Rashard Robinson had a couple break ups of their own. The secondary is coming together.
Aaron Lynch and his wife welcomed a baby boy last night, Samson John Lynch, so he was not at practice.
Go Niners!
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