SANTA CLARA, Calif. — It can go either way, Kyle Shanahan said.
Athletes frequently have their greatest professional advancement as they begin their second NFL season. Or that is their worst year ever.
“They kind of sit back and relax,” he said. “They’re like, ‘All right, I get it now.’ And they don’t realize it, but they don’t go through their offseason the same way they did in getting prepared for the NFL. … That’s why a lot of times you see a sophomore slump.”
For instance, the 49ers’ 2022 draft class did not exactly shine during their sophomore season.
Of the nine selections, only Brock Purdy, selected in the seventh round, was a full-season starter in 2023. The next most productive players were defensive end Drake Jackson, who has not practiced since missing the previous nine games due to a knee injury, and guard Spencer Burford, who lost his starting position to Jon Feliciano for the playoffs.
Running back Tyrion Davis-Price and cornerback Tariq Castro-Fields, two more from 2022, are no longer members of the squad. The remaining classmates, defensive tackle Kalia Davis, guard Nick Zakelj, cornerback Samuel Womack III, and receiver Danny Gray, are battling for spots on the roster this season.
What is the current status of the draft class for 2023?
Although it might not be a huge hit everywhere, early signs point to it having a greater overall influence than its predecessor. The nine former draft picks who are starting their second season are updated here.
Brown’s professional beginnings bear similarities to those of Talanoa Hufanga in 2021. As a rookie that season, Hufanga only started a few games, but it turned out to be a strong preparation for Year 2, when he started 20 games and was selected to the Pro Bowl.
Brown, who started seven games as a rookie, including the Super Bowl, is not guaranteed a Pro Bowl season. However, this summer he has demonstrated the same level of command and consistency that Hufanga did two years prior. Brown, for instance, picked up Purdy twice during practice on Saturday.
Since the spring, Brown has completed every safety rep with the starting squad. And when Hufanga, who is recovering from an ACL, goes back to practice later this month, he is not expected to give up that job. Hufanga is anticipated to start alongside Brown when he is fully recovered, with George Odum serving as his primary backup.
K Jake Moody
In the practices, he has also demonstrated strength, going 27 of 30 on field goals during the training camp. Mitch Wishnowsky was replaced as the holder by Kyle Juszczyk, who completed three long ones measuring 53, 53, and 43 yards.
Preceding his rookie offseason with a series of demanding pre-draft workouts, Moody said he feels better now than he did a year ago.
How the 49ers will manage the new kickoff regulations is one of the preseason narratives. If Moody can get the ball up and down fast and give the returners tough short hops, he will be a major factor in that. In the opening preseason game against the Tennessee Titans on Saturday, he will get his first genuine opportunity to achieve that.
This year is essentially a rookie re-do for Latu, who had a forgettable training camp last year, one that was marked by drops and a knee injury that landed him on injured reserve for the season.
He is a strong blocker who can perform the inline blocking tasks that are crucial to the offense, which is why the 49ers selected him in the third round. It is doubtful that Latu will hold that job this season until he surpasses veteran Eric Saubert.
Although Latu’s drops have decreased from a year ago, he still likely has too much ground to make up to catch Saubert, the team’s No. 2 tight end up to this point. Latu returned to practice on Sunday after missing it on Saturday.
Despite missing the last two practices, Luter has been lining up at outside cornerback for the second-team offense since the spring. Although the injury has not yet been made public by the team, it is not thought to be serious.
When he originally arrived a year ago, the 49ers were encouraged by his maturity and his long, lanky build, which reminded them of Charvarius Ward.
But Luter missed all of training camp due to a bone injury he received on his knee during one of the last OTA practices last season. When he was fully healthy in November, he mostly played special teams. To 49ers fans, he will always be remembered as the player who was hit in the foot by the ball on a pivotal Super Bowl punt.
This season, Luter may find it difficult to receive defensive snaps due to the competition from players like Ward, Deommodore Lenoir, Isaac Yiadom, and Rock Ya-Sin at the position. Nevertheless, in March, those four are expected to become free agents. In other words, the 49ers are depending on rookie Renardo Green and young guys like Luter to come up in upcoming campaigns.
Beal entered the NFL as a bit of a projection after playing outside linebacker for the University of Georgia, where he started just a few games and weighed 245 pounds.
His first season was quite similar to Luter’s. During training camp, he sustained a severe hamstring strain that prevented him from playing until December. His busiest performance occurred in the Week 18 finale vs the Los Angeles Rams, when he played a season-high 24 snaps and recorded his only sack of 2023 while both teams’ starters watched from the sidelines.
To improve his ability to play the run, he put on 15 pounds in the offseason. Through training camp, he has emerged as the team’s fourth defensive end.
The 49ers believe that Beal’s combination of size, length, and speed (4.48-second 40 at the 2023 NFL Scouting Combine) can aid on kickoff coverage, even if he is still far below the top three players at the position, Nick Bosa, Leonard Floyd, and Yetur Gross-Matos. Which defensive linemen are active on game days will surely depend on it.
The 49ers’ top DEs, including Robert Beal Jr. (51), run the arc on Friday. (No Nick Bosa at that practice). pic.twitter.com/Sj8OTvj3OC
— Matt Barrows (@mattbarrows) August 4, 2024
Of all the second-year players, Winters may have the best opportunity to play from the start this season, behind only Brown.
He currently has competition from two veterans, Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles and Curtis Robinson, at strongside linebacker, a position that is played when the 49ers are in their base package.
However, none of them have Winters’ upside, and since they were both left out of Sunday’s practice, Winters had plenty of opportunity to work with the starting lineup. Colleagues have been raving about his offseason progress. Winters claimed that his ability to exploit the speed—4.49 seconds in the 40—that drew the 49ers’ attention prior to the 2023 draft was due to his improved comprehension of the defense.
Should the 49ers be required to provide a depth chart at this time, Willis most likely would be ranked as their third-best tight end, following George Kittle and Saubert.
He fills the same position as last season’s Ross Dwelley, being a “move” tight end with the ability to line up almost anywhere, including fullback in Juszczyk’s absence.
In training camp, Willis has also made catches on a regular basis, including a few deep passes. This includes one on Saturday when Brandon Allen threw to him, and he made a sliding catch near the sideline. During Sunday’s practice, Allen and Willis also made a significant progress.
Willis’s position on game day will probably depend on the 49ers’ decision regarding Logan Thomas. The eight-year veteran’s total last season was 496 yards and 55 catches. He is 33, though, and he is now out due to a hamstring strain.
This summer, the 49ers’ wide receiver corps has been a narrative of how few players they have had on the field. In contrast to Brandon Aiyuk, who has missed every practice due to a contract disagreement, Jauan Jennings, Ricky Pearsall, Jacob Cowing, Tay Martin, and Malik Turner have all missed at least one because of injuries.
Bell has been one of the exceptions.
Similar to Willis, he is been effective with one big catch every session and has also been unsuccessful with multiple challenging receptions in traffic. He leapt to collect a pass from Joshua Dobbs over the center on Sunday, for instance, but Ya-Sin crunched him. Bell stood up gradually but stayed in the practice.
This summer, Bell has been one of the team’s punt returners along with Trent Taylor and Pearsall. During the previous season, he did not stand out as a returner and made a few near-fatal mistakes. But as training camp progresses, the 49ers still lack a certain starter at punt or kick return.
This season, Graham seems and sounds more vicious. Since the pads started “thudding” ball carriers in the middle of the field, he has gained prominence.
Similar to the previous season, Graham has primarily played middle linebacker, a position he has never held.
“With Jalen, he had never really been in the box in college,” defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen said Sunday. “He was a high school cornerback too. He’s a good athlete, he’s smart. So we’re like, ‘OK, let’s see how he is at Mike.’ And he has handled it well.”
Graham plays a few snaps as outside linebacker during each practice. Similar to Winters, he played a few snaps with the first-team defense on Sunday alongside Fred Warner and De’Vondre Campbell.
(Top photo of Ji’Ayir Brown: Jeff Chiu / Associated Press)
