With three days off to rest up this past weekend after seven days of on-field work, the 49ers gathered at team headquarters on Monday to start their final two-day voluntary organized team activity.
The players enjoyed the weekend by mostly getting off their feet and appreciating some rest and relaxation.
But some of the players couldn't help but spend their weekend doing a variety of interesting activities.
Quarterbacks Shaun Hill and Alex Smith went out on Friday to film an upcoming segment of TV49 outdoors at a local skeet shooting range.
The 2009 rookie draft class met with fans at the 49ers Family Day at Candlestick Park on Saturday and then took a boat ride around the bay followed by a seafood dinner at Neptune's Palace on Pier 39.
Tackle Barry Sims played in a golf tournament while taking advantage of time away from the team facility.
"It felt good to have a little time off," Sims said. "We're going to have a window of time off before training camp and that will be it, so anytime you can rest your body after working hard – I'm happy."
Michael Spurlock needed the rest as much as anyone on the 49ers roster. With injuries to the 49ers wide receivers, the shifty slot wideout has had a significant increase in his repetitions in practice. He relaxed at the team hotel.
"I just slept," he said. "I haven't taken any time off this offseason, so I just tried to rest my mind and get off my feet."
Several of the players hung out together, like former University of Oklahoma teammates and 49ers secondary members Reggie Smith and Lewis Baker. The two played video games and watched TV.
After taking pleasure in their time away, the 49ers had a productive OTA workout on Monday. The two-day session should serve as one final tune-up before the team reconvenes for training camp at the end of July.
During team sessions, the offense worked on goal line offense and situational clock management. Instead of having to score a winning touchdown or setup a field goal attempt, the offense only had to pick up one first-down. Once their mission was achieved, they only had to kneel on the ball to successfully complete the simulation.
"These two day gives us a chance to finish the offseason strong and I think everybody will be ready to go when training camp starts because of these workouts," Reggie Smith said.
For all of the players hoping to make the final 53-man roster, the chance to make an impression on the coaching staff is extremely important.
"I've always heard 'You're only as good as your last play,'" Spurlock said. "So we're trying to finish our OTAs off on the right not. We had a pretty solid day today and an even better day tomorrow so we have some lasting memories for us to build on while we're gone."
Sights and Sounds
Any observer of Monday's practice most likely
noticed the hair of Dominique Zeigler. For the second time during the offseason, Zeigler had his hair picked out.
At the start of individual drills, defensive coordinator Greg Manusky threw cones at the outside linebackers as they tried to catch passes from their position coach Jason Tarver. One of Manusky's tosses caused Manny Lawson to drop the ball headed his way. As a result, Lawson had to do 10 pushups as a penalty for his drop.
When the team lined up at the 2-yard line to simulate goal line offense, Shaun Hill completed a touchdown pass to Vernon Davis to his left. Davis lined up at the right hashmark and ran a drag route over the middle, before catching Hill's pass for an easy score.
Alex Smith showed impressive speed on his first play from the goal line. Smith faked a handoff to his left, than circled around to the right flat on a bootleg, speeding past defensive end Demetric Evans to the right pylon for a touchdown.
The play of the day occurred during the end of game situational work, as Hill completed a quick-pass to Brandon Jones in the right flat. Once Jones had the ball, he put an impressive move on cornerback Tarell Brown and proceeded to run up field picking up 10-15 yards after the catch. After the play Hill pointed to Jones to give some recognition of the spectacular move.
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