49ers notebook: New training staff paying dividends, Kwon Alexander feeling ‘legendary’

Depending on the day, the 49ers during the offseason program had 18 to 20 players skipping practice while dealing with injuries.

Those ailments were an offseason theme, and somewhat worrisome, considering San Francisco was among the NFL leader in using injured reserve the past two years since Kyle Shanahan became the head coach.

So after a 4-12 finish to 2018, thanks largely to franchise quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo’s season-ending knee injury in September, the 49ers overhauled their medical and strength and conditioning staffs. Instead of those being separate departments that didn’t operate in lockstep, Shanahan and general manager John Lynch wanted to make a drastic change.

“There’s a culture in the NFL that’s existed for a long time where the strength staff is kind of the strength staff and you don’t tell them what to do, and the training room’s over here,” Lynch said Friday. “We wanted one that was working hand in hand together to allow our players to be at optimal level. That was a goal, and we felt having someone over the top is the best way to do that.”

The team created a new position — head of player health and performance — to oversee both departments and hired Ben Peterson, who spent the past two years working as director of sports science for the Philadelphia Flyers of the NHL.

Peterson’s job is to mesh the responsibilities of the medical and training sides to ensure players’ bodies are optimized for the entire season. Peterson’s team has created individual workload schedules for each player.

The early signs indicate it’s working.

Just four players opened training camp on the physically-unable-to-perform list (Jerick McKinnon, Weston Richburg, Jimmie Ward and Garrett Celek), while many other injured players were cleared at the start of camp, including Garoppolo and Kwon Alexander, two of the team’s highest-paid players returning from ACL tears.

Shanahan likes what he’s seen during the first two pad-less practices over the weekend.

The pads will come on for the first time Monday. Saturday’s practice was just under an hour and a half, and Sunday’s practice was an hour and 45 minutes.

“Eventually, you’ll hit a plateau, but it’s going to be up and down throughout it all,” Shanahan said. “I want to try to figure out the algorithm. ... It’s going to be all over the place, so there is a rhyme or reason, but I don’t have the graphs or the time, or I’m not smart enough to present it.

“Our first offseason with our new strength and conditioning staff and our trainers, I thought it was really good. I think we’ve got a lot of hard workers on our team, so no one came in overweight and everyone’s looked in shape.”

The 49ers entered last season with playoff expectations in their first full campaign with Garoppolo. With another offseason to add to the roster, improved health should have the team thinking about the postseason again.

Alexander feeling ‘legendary’

Alexander, the 49ers’ new, $54-million linebacker, spoke to the media Sunday for the first time since being introduced in the spring and indicated his knee feels well despite being nine months removed from the injury.

He won’t play in the exhibition opener Aug. 10 against the Cowboys, but all signs point toward being ready for Week 1 in six weeks.

Alexander, with bright red twists in his hair and “56” earrings for his new jersey number, had a unique way of explaining how he felt physically after the first two practices with his new team.

“Legendary,” he said. “This is a word I use; it’s better. I don’t like to use the word ‘good.’ I’m trying to be better than that. So I just use that to keep my mindset where it needs to be, and that’s what it is.”

Alexander was cleared for contact by the new-look medical staff when he reported for training camp Friday and said his absence during the offseason program won’t factor when the regular season begins.

“I’ve been in the league for five years. I better know what to do by now,” he said. “I’m playing ‘Will’ now. I used to play ’Mike,’ so even having Lavonte David beside me at Tampa, I used to read him a lot and just know what he does. So now I’m playing ‘Will,’ so all of that is coming together. It’s been cool.”

Goodwin, unpaid, feeling like a million bucks

Marquise Goodwin didn’t have any doubt he’d win the “40 Yards of Golf” sprinting tournament late last month. The video of Goodwin winning the event went viral, including his celebratory dance.

“I feel like a million bucks,” Goodwin said Sunday when asked about winning the event. “It feels great.”

The former Olympic long jumper could be doubting if he’ll get paid his $1 million prize, however. He said he still hasn’t received his winnings, though the event stipulated he would be paid within 30 days.

The problem, of course, was Sunday was exactly 30 days since the event took place.

This story was originally published July 28, 2019 at 5:15 PM.