Day 9 of the San Francisco 49ers training camp is officially over, as it was a light practice, with the energy level lowered after a long practice on Friday, with Brock Purdy taking a rest day, allowing Trey Lance and Sam Darnold to work with the first-team offense.
It was an underwhelming start for the quarterbacks, but Trey Lance finished strong, ending with a deep touchdown pass to Willie Snead on an incredible catch for a touchdown.
Whose stock has dropped after Day 9 of training camp for the 49ers?
Sam Darnold
Sam Darnold makes an appearance on the "stock down" list for the first time during training camp on a day where he completed 7/10 passes with two sacks. On the forefront, the numbers don't look bad, but when diving into each specific decision on dropbacks, you can understand why I graded Darnold at a "C-/C" for his performance Saturday.
Now, with Darnold not necessarily performing awfully, as he did on Day 6 of training camp, why is he on the "stock down" list for Day 9?
Well, while Darnold hasn't necessarily impressed throughout training camp, one thing he has been is consistent. The backup quarterback, apart from one poor performance, has been around the middle of the pack grades-wise, and hasn't really stacked multiple bad days in a row.
But, on a day when he got a bigger chance to prove himself with Brock Purdy not practicing, Darnold's performance waned as the day went on while splitting first-team reps with Trey Lance.
His consistency, which had kept him in the breadth of the backup quarterback conversation, wasn't there, leading to a sub-optimal day, even with a solid completion percentage.
The coaches
I know they aren't players, but sometimes, you have to point to the root of the cause when noticing a disappointing trend.
Where was the energy on Saturday? After an intense practice Friday, Day 9 was almost assuredly going to be a lighter day, but that doesn't mean the energy in the air should've dissipated as it did on Saturday.
The players weren't getting hyped up after big plays or during drills, with the lone notable discrepancy coming on the final play of the day when Willie Snead was met by his receivers for a celebration after an incredible catch over Samuel Womack.
With the energy level low on the field, the dip in energy level with the fans was noticeable. And that falls on the coaches to notice and change that. If the players aren't performing at a high enough level and the energy is low, there needs to be some accountability to improve that, even if it is just practice.
