Your daily San Francisco 49ers news for Thursday, June 29th, 2023
“The 49ers will have their rookies in the building beginning July 18, with veterans to follow a week later on July 25.
There still aren’t specific practice dates for San Francisco, but they figure to begin camp shortly after reporting with their first preseason game slated for Aug. 13 against the Raiders in Las Vegas. They’ll also hold joint practices with the Raiders in the couple days leading up to their exhibition contest.”
Fowler shares ‘feeling’ Darnold to play meaningful 49ers snaps
“I will say this, and this has persisted for a while, when the 49ers signed Sam Darnold early in free agency and gave him decent money, considering people have always sort of been enamored with him around the league for better or worse despite his struggles, there are a lot of people around the league that think he’ll play meaningful snaps for San Francisco this year based on why they signed him, when they signed him,” Fowler said on “The Rich Eisen Show.” “Just some of the ability, he’s the perfect fit for [49ers coach] Kyle Shanahan’s offense that might actually bring out the best of him for once.
“So I’m curious to see how that plays out. It’s like a choose-your-own-adventure with them, too, because Trey Lance, the issues really seemed to be accuracy in the limited time that he played, but they really still do not know what they have. Even when you talk to people over there, he just has not played enough football to evaluate him. And he is a hard worker and he does a lot of things that [the 49ers] like when [the 49ers] drafted him two years ago, they’re just in a tough spot with it.”
Ranking NFL’s top 10 EDGE rushers of 2023: 49ers’ Nick Bosa Named No 1
“Heading into 2023, Bosa is the best pass rusher in the NFL. The numbers back it up.”
Paraag Marathe, future Leeds chairman: NFL numbers man who rose to the top of 49ers (paywall)
“Change was afoot because control of the 49ers was passing from Eddie DeBartolo Jr to his brother-in-law John York (the father of Jed). Marathe arrived from consultancy firm Bain & Co and his task was to pick through data, dig into the numbers and see if statistics could give the 49ers an edge when it came to nailing the draft. It is a prime area in which any team could find a competitive edge.
Marathe, professionally, had no background in the NFL. He grew up in the Californian city of San Jose, a 45-minute drive south of San Francisco, with parents who ran pizza restaurants. As a kid, he would work in them. It was one of the ways he sells himself to people — that, unlike many people at a high level in professional sport, he is not the scion of a rich or powerful family. He came from fairly humble beginnings and he has held prominent positions in the NFL which taught him to understand and empathise with head coaches and the like. On top of that, it gave him an education in dealing with players and agents, a key aspect of football ownership.”