Your daily San Francisco 49ers links for Friday, July 30, 2021
Thursday was a busy sports day in general, and the 49ers found their way to make the news as two of their top defenders proved to be unvaccinated. The defense won the day, while both quarterbacks struggled. Let’s see if they bounce back on Friday, and if San Francisco ends up signing Dre Kirkpatrick.
JIMMY GAROPPOLO
Not a good day for James. He airmailed his first pass attempt of the morning, and finished practice having completed just 4 of 10 throws during 11-on-11 team drills. This is the James I’ve come to know. The inconsistent, indecisive, inaccurate James. Four of his passes got broken up — two by Jason Verrett, one by K’Waun Williams and one by Dontae Johnson. Garoppolo is lucky one of those throws didn’t get picked. His best throw of 11 on 11s was a 10-yard completion to Deebo Samuel over the middle. Nothing special about that. Garoppolo clearly was the second-best quarterback on the field today.
49ers training camp: The final stages of Nick Bosa’s return and other observations
It’s a fool’s errand to evaluate trench play right now, since the 49ers aren’t scheduled to don pads until Monday. But it is clear that the 49ers believe rookie Aaron Banks, their second-round draft pick, has considerable work to do if he’s to earn the starting spot at right guard by opening day.
On Wednesday, Daniel Brunskill manned the position for the first-team offense. On Thursday, Tom Compton took that spot. Banks has started camp on the second team.
49ers training camp: Trey Lance’s preparation, aggressiveness get high marks early on
The rookie quarterback’s best throw on Thursday came during an 11-on-11 situation when the 49ers offense was backed up deep in its own territory. Lance took the snap, sidestepped a corner blitz by shuffling to one side in the pocket, then threw a deep ball just beyond the reach of cornerback Ambry Thomas that fell into the hands of Deebo Samuel.
One play later, he completed a deep crossing route to receiver Travis Benjamin. When it was Lance’s turn in the rotation again, he connected on another deep crossing route, this time to Brandon Aiyuk.
Former 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh’s massive Bay Area home is for sale
A sprawling, more than 1-acre property in Atherton belonging to former 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh was just listed for $13 million.
The grounds include a main house, a guest home, a swimming pool with a diving board, an outdoor kitchen and a fire pit.
In the main house, which spans 8,500 square feet, there are five bedrooms and eight bathrooms. There’s a mountain house vibe, with tall, beamed ceilings and lots of stone, wood and decorative ironwork.
They are currently holding a strong hand with a great cornerback tandem, but the flop came up and it doesn’t look good. Xavien Howard has requested a trade, even worse he has done so publicly and to pile on he has done it at arguably the worst time of year for the Dolphins to get max value in return for him. Just over one year ago Darius Slay was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles for third and fifth round draft picks. Slay was 29 years old and coming off three consecutive trips to the Pro Bowl along with being a first team All Pro in 2017. Howard is 28-years old, coming off of his second Pro Bowl appearance and his first first-team All Pro selection. This tells me that Howard can be had for second and fourth round draft picks.
THE NOT SO GOOD
1. Guard Aaron Banks.
Got worked by everyone he faced during 1 on 1s. Lost to Street, Jones and Arik Armstead. Each time, Banks got walked backward into the quarterback’s lap. He doesn’t look ready to start yet. Daniel Brunskill is better than him right now.
2. Cornerback Ambry Thomas.
Gave up back-to-back explosive catches during 11 on 11s. First, he gave up a 25-yard catch to Brandon Aiyuk, who was running a deep crossing route. Thomas couldn’t keep up. Then on the next play, Thomas gave up a 20-yard catch over the middle to Benjamin, who ran a dig route. After the second catch, the 49ers defensive backs coach walked onto the field to show Thomas what he was doing wrong. Not a good look.