The San Francisco 49ers held their first padded practice of training camp on Monday. General manager John Lynch commenced practice with a moment of silence in honor of those who were involved in Sunday's tragedy in Gilroy. Here are the rest of the observations from a high powered session at the SAP Performance Facility.
1. Fans got their first look of 1-on-1 drills at camp. The receivers and corners went head to head in pass coverage reps with the defense dominating a bulk of the session. Here are a few takeaways:
- Max McCaffrey had a leaping grab on a pass from C.J. Beathard with K'Waun Williams in tight coverage.
- D.J. Reed Jr. was all over Jordan Matthews, and broke up a pass from Jimmy Garoppolo.
- Ahkello Witherspoon jumped the route and intercepted a pass from Beathard intended for Jalen Hurd.
- Richard Sherman had a big pass break up over the top of Marquise Goodwin.
- Malik Henry made a catch against Greg Mabin, who immediately forced and recovered the fumble.
- Jason Verrett also forced a fumble on a pass from Nick Mullens to Kendrick Bourne.
2. The top offensive highlight of the day came on a deep bomb from Garoppolo to Richie James Jr.. During the first pass play of full team drills, Garoppolo stepped up in the pocket and connected with James for a 70-yard touchdown. It's good to note that Garoppolo looked comfortable stepping into his throw on his surgically repaired knee.
3. Garoppolo went 8-of-14 on the day during team drills, connecting with James, Goodwin, Bourne, Matthews, Levine Toilolo, Trent Taylor, Deebo Samuel and Raheem Mostert.
4. DeForest Buckner and the 49ers pass rush stood out during 11-on-11's. Buckner, Sheldon Day and Dee Ford all had "would-be" sacks.
5. Buckner and Ronald Blair III managed to chase Garoppolo out of the pocket during full team drills. The quarterback scrambled up the middle for a 15-yard pick up before giving himself up. Kyle Shanahan was complimentary of the quarterback, saying "I love what I saw today, because no one was open, the seas parted and he turned it into a draw. It was an exciting play."
6. Joe Staley was given a veteran off day, however he was still on the practice field working on run techniques with Nick Bosa. Staley, as well as other veterans over the age of 30 are likely to rotate days off every three practices.
7. Verrett, who has donned No. 34 this offseason, was issued No. 2 on Monday. No. 34 is retired for Hall of Fame running back Joe Perry.
8. Emmanuel Moseley came up with the lone turnover of full team work. On the final play of the session, Beathard was looking for Bourne up the right sideline when Moseley tipped the pass before diving for the interception. Moseley also had several pass breakups during 1-on-1's.
