Day 10 of the San Francisco 49ers training camp is officially over and the team will head to Las Vegas for joint practices with the Raiders prior to their preseason matchup on Sunday.
It was a dominant day for the defense, who recorded a whopping ten sacks on the day, while the 49ers' quarterbacks underwhelmed, leaving a sour taste in fans' mouths as training camp comes to an end.
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Quarterbacks
Running Backs
Throughout training camp, I thought the run game had been the offense's biggest strength, but even the running backs couldn't overcome the offensive struggles, as Christian McCaffrey and Tyrion Davis-Price both started their days with short carries or run stuffs.
Both players ended up just fine on the day, with McCaffrey's highlight coming during the move-the-ball period, where he single-handedly drove the 49ers' offense near the redzone with a trio of consecutive carries that ended in first downs.
A note: Davis-Price was the first of the back-ups to get Carrie's on Monday, a trend that could continue, especially given the amount of praise he's received from coaches and fellow teammates recently.
The edge slightly goes to Mason for training camp, as he proved himself to be a capable pass-catcher, something that should be an integral piece of the 49ers' offense, regardless of whether McCaffrey is on the field, but Davis-Price is catching up and could pose as a serious threat there.
While much of the attention is on the 49ers quarterbacks, and deservedly so, given the issues at the position, I've got a feeling that the run game may play a bigger factor than imagined this season, with the 49ers still being able to maintain their level of offensive efficiency from a year ago if the passing game holds up.
Wide Receivers
Brandon Aiyuk had his first off day of training camp, meaning Deebo Samuel was the top target for the team, while the backups enjoyed increases in rep counts on Monday.
Samuel had three catches on four opportunities, including some plays after sacks, while also seeing reps out of the backfield on jet sweeps, showcasing that the 49ers likely aren't taking away his versatility this year, which should be a huge benefit.
Samuel's lone incompleted target did seem to be his fault, as he had a step on Deommodore Lenoir while running a fade route, but bumped back into the cornerback as the ball was released, potentially thinking that Purdy would underthrow the pass or flat-out misreading the play, which led to an overthrow and incompletion.
Jauan Jennings had a redzone opportunity, working against Charvarius Ward and winning the rep in 11-on-11s on a 10-yard out-route for the score during one of Purdy's three end zone connections of the day.
Danny Gray had what appeared to be his first drop of training camp on a short pass in the redzone, with the wideout clearly frustrated with himself after the missed opportunity.
Willie Snead and Tay Martin each caught touchdowns from Purdy during the redzone period, but, overall, it was a fairly quiet day for the skill position players in the air on a sloppy offensive day.
Tight Ends
Saturday was a quiet day for the tight ends in 11-on-11s, and nothing really changed on Monday, as the lone target to a tight end went to George Kittle, who was targeted on an incompletion that was off-target and broken up by Tashaun Gipson.
Apart from that, Kittle caught a ball from Brock Purdy on a play where he improvised for a long time before firing cross-field to his tight end, but he would've likely been sacked on the play.
Same was the case for Brayden Willis, who caught a deep 45-yard pass from Sam Darnold, but the play came after the quarterback was sacked as well.
The tight end battle should hopefully become more clear during the preseason, where additional reps will help separate the backups.
Offensive Line
It was a day to forget for the offensive line, as the defense took over with ten sacks and dominated the day.
While I would say the responsibility for the sacks should be split evenly between the line and the QBs, you still don't want to see five sacks allowed in a day.
Brock Purdy was sacked four times, with pressure coming from both the interior and the outside, while the backups didn't fare much better.
In the run game, the blocking did look sluggish at times, leading to more run stops than we've seen so far this training camp, but it's always a tough draw against arguably the best run defense in the NFL with the 49ers.
Of the backups, Matt Pryor is consistently getting beaten, even when showing some 1-on-1 promise on reps against Kerry Hyder, which is an issue when focusing on who the swing tackle for the 49ers may be this season.
On the interior, center Keith Ishmael has seen recurring snapping issues, which has led to a few busted plays.
The offensive line is a question mark heading into the season. Similar to last season, I'm not as worried as others about the unit, and do believe they'll begin to mesh more as the season goes along, but I'm not as confident in the group as I was last season, when I projected a top-12 unit.
- Rohan Chakravarthi
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Written by:Writer/Reporter for 49ers Webzone
