Football is back.
Sort of.
But any football is good, and given the current state of Bay Area professional sports, it’s desperately needed.
The Niners let us take a look at rookie mini-camp practice Friday — a first look at their draft picks and undrafted free agents.
And it was enlightening.
Here’s what I saw and what I think it means moving forward into OTAs, training camp, and the 2024 season.
Ricky Piersall is sudden
Slick Rick looked the part of a first-round pick on Friday. He was heads and shoulders above everyone else on the field, save for Renardo Green (more on him in a moment).
And while Pearsall didn’t do anything surprising, it was good to see the undeniable pop in his game. That’s something only really good players can boast — and it’s necessary to be a contributor in the NFL.
Renardo Green isn’t here to mess around
The 49ers’ second-round draft pick is handsy — he can really jam at the line of scrimmage, flip his hips, and mirror receivers. I saw him to do it to Pearsall a few times on Thursday. It’s exactly what we saw at Florida State, but, again, it’s worthwhile to receive visual confirmation against NFL-caliber players (and others).
Might this ability with the mitts be a problem for Green? Perhaps. But one could argue it’s an issue for Charvarius Ward, and no one is complaining about him these days.
If I had to place a bet today, Green starts at cornerback opposite Ward.
I can’t wait to see him against a steady diet of real NFL players.
Jacob Cowing does what he does
The Arizona receiver had his routes in Tucson, ran them to perfection, and picked up bundles of yards and touchdowns.
The 49ers watched the tape, decided, “That works for us” and will have him doing the same thing for them in the not-too-distant future.
If you need a comp for Cowing, think Julian Edelman.
Yes, that’s high-end play, but it lines up: No one could quite explain how Edelman kept getting open. (Cowing was underwhelming in wide receiver drills, unlike Pearsall, who elicited oohs and ahhs.) And he wasn’t making guys miss in the open field, either. He was a slot guy, but played often as an X or Z receiver with tight splits.
Edelman was just a bit better at catching punts, though.
Cowing was trying to be revolutionary on Friday, catching punts overhand. Like, the same way you’d catch a pass that’s above your shoulders. He, of course, failed at changing the game, because that’s silly tactic. It reached the point where coaches had him pin towels under his arm pits, as to prevent him from doing the overhand method.
So the idea of Cowing making an immediate impact on special teams seems a bit far-fetched for now.
It’s a good thing he has sweet hands and can separate 100 times out of 100 on an out route.
The running backs are going to create (champagne) problems
There is a world where the 49ers had their No. 2 and No. 3 running backs on the field at rookie mini-camp.
And there’s a world where that No. 3 turns out to be the No. 1 for this team.
Let me explain: Issac Guerendo and Cody Schrader are both NFL running backs. It’s frankly absurd Schrader wasn’t drafted.
Guerendo is the second coming of Raheem Mostert. He even has the same upright running style.
He’s not the cleanest receiver out of the backfield (though the quarterbacks weren’t worth the time Friday), and he struck me as a bit tentative on Friday, but he was clearly an elite-level athlete. I’m not worried at all about him being the Niners’ change-of-pace, third-down back in 2024, with big upside down the line.
Schrader, though, needs to make this team.
Let me disclose my bias: I’m a Missouri Tiger, class of 2010 and I watch — and yell at — every Tigers football game no matter if they’re good or bad. It’s a real problem in the Kurtenbach household. My family couldn’t even hang out with me during the Mizzou-Florida game, I was downright unhinged. (Pearsall had 111 yards and a touchdown on three touches in that game.)
So you’re not going to find a bigger fan of Schrader than me. He was the second-best player in America last season and I consider any contrary opinion personal affront.
(Buddy, I’m getting fired up just thinking about his season.)
If the Niners want to carry three running backs and a fullback, then they’d be well served to drop the veterans — Elijah Mitchell and JP Mason — and keep the rookies.
If they want to keep four plus a fullback, Mason is out of a job — the Niners loaded up on special teams players, after all.
Thinking about the future, Schrader is going to be a real problem for John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan. Once the Niners start running drills where he can actually run the ball, it’s going to be obvious he needs to be on the team.
If you play him in the preseason, it’s going to be evident he can help a team win.
So do the Niners get cute and try to hide him from other teams and try to get him to the practice squad?
Or do they take the win and jettison one of two other good running backs for him?
I’m fascinated to find out. And I’m excited for you all to see this guy play. The Niners won big by getting him to Santa Clara.
Drake Nugent is going to hang around for a long time
But the Niners’ best undrafted free agent is center Drake Nugent.
I have one word to describe him: Stallion.
Boy was he impressive in drills Friday. And my goodness is he a stocky lad.
You want a body comp? Jason Kelce. Just a stump of a man with crazy left-to-right speed and a bad attitude in the middle.
I couldn’t take my eyes off him Friday.
Jarrett Kingston and Dominick Puni looked good. Exactly what we saw from their college tape — Kingston is smooth but lacks that power you’d like to see in his hands; Puni takes a bit to get going with his feet, but when he gets his hands on you, they stay on you.
I also liked what I saw from Corey Luciano, who was out there getting some extra work.
But the Niners have something with Nugent. As much as I think Kingston and Puni could be the Niners’ center of the future (or halfway point of 2024), it’s clear (at least to me) now that the true center of the future is Nugent.
I gotta see this guy in live reps, but I’m all in.
A few other quick thoughts:
• Mason Pline has the size and the hands to be an NFL tight end. The question is if he can reasonably block. I’d bet on it.
• Isaiah Avery, an undrafted cornerback out of Portland State who was ranked No. 146 at CB by the Athletic, deserves a shot at training camp. He stacked good reps in 7-on-7 Friday. There’s something there worth exploring — another classic case of a solid player falling through the cracks.
• Timothy Patrick, an undrafted free agent out of Southern Utah, deserves a shot in the summer as well. He might just look really good in drills, but he was markedly better than all but two receivers (Piersall and Cowings) on Friday.
• Fans of the column (and the Dieter and Hutch podcast) have known about Malik Mustapha for a while, but the level of buzz around him at 4949 is off the charts. It took 20 seconds of 7-on-7 drills to see why. He’s going to see the field a lot in 2024 — he’s a game-changer with more range than Talanoa Hufanga.
• I didn’t get to see much of the defensive linemen, but good reports from multiple folks who did catch more of them on Shakel Brown, a second-year player out of Troy. He was injured last year and waived by Tennessee a few days ago, but don’t sleep on him to be a player for this team in 2024. Not only are the Niners weak at defensive tackle, but anyone who played for Jon Sumrall at Troy deserves a serious look. That guy can coach — learn the name now, you’re going to hear it a lot in the years to come.