49ers Practice Recap: Garoppolo hits on long pass early, receivers and DBs go back and forth

The pads were popping for the first time during 49ers training camp Monday as Jimmy Garoppolo received a slew of snaps during full-team drills in his first padded session since returning from his recent ACL injury.

Here are some observations from the sidelines in Santa Clara.

Monday’s standouts

Both the receivers and defensive backs appeared to have strong showings during separate portions of practice. The corners played well during the one-on-one sessions that typically favor receivers, while the receivers made plays during the full-team portion.

Marquise Goodwin, who has been a tough cover early in camp, caught a 15-yard crossing route early in the session. Trent Taylor continued to look strong bouncing back from last year’s back surgery and made multiple catches, as he looks more and more like the player that was among Garoppolo’s favorite targets in 2017.

His biggest play was a long catch and run on a slant from Nick Mullens. He caught another 20-yard pass from Mullens on a route toward the left sideline. Kendrick Bourne, who needs a good summer to make the team despite leading the receivers in yards last season, had a long catch and run up the right sideline on a pass from Garoppolo.

Before team drills were the one-on-one sessions between defensive backs and wideouts. The drill typically favors the offense because the cornerbacks have no safety or linebacker help. But the corners made things tough on the pass catchers. Richard Sherman on one rep was particularly physical with Goodwin off the line of scrimmage and forced an incompletion on an in-breaking route.

Much hay was made last summer when Goodwin beat Sherman deep in the same drill on Sherman’s first rep after being cleared following his Achilles injury. Sherman got a little revenge and referenced it to a few 49ers staffers on the sideline nearby.

During one-on-ones, Ahkello Witherspoon also intercepted a pass intended for Jalen Hurd, who hasn’t made many friends in San Francisco’s secondary in the early gong. Hurd, of course, got into a pair of scuffles in Sunday’s session (more on that later).

Key moment

There were a few loud thumps with the pads on for the first time. Perhaps the loudest came when veteran linebacker Malcolm Smith popped running back Tevin Coleman near the line of scrimmage early during the second portion of full team drills. Smith hasn’t done much to distinguish himself early in camp, and he’s being pushed hard by rookie fifth-round pick Dre Greenlaw and third-year pro Elijah Lee for playing time with the starters, but it was a good play filling his gap on a run to the defense’s right side. Reserve defensive lineman Jullian Taylor also had a nice play behind the line of scrimmage on a run from Matt Breida.

Slot cornerback Emmanuel Moseley ended practice with an interception of C.J. Beathard along the right sideline on a throw intended for Bourne. Moseley jumped and tipped the ball to himself, corralling it as he dove to the ground. It was the defense’s first interception of full team drills since camp began (Fred Warner and Tyree Robinson forced fumbles over the weekend).

DeForest Buckner has looked like the best player on the field more often than not. He made an apparent sack of Garoppolo by sliding past right guard Mike Person. He can’t actually hit Garoppolo, of course, but Garoppolo threw the ball anyway looking for Coleman. Fred Warner had tight coverage on the incompletion.

Garoppolo watch

Speaking of the franchise quarterback, Garoppolo completed 8 of 14 passes and had a more impressive showing than he did Sunday when he struggled to complete throws down field. His big play of the day came on his first pass. He arched a well-placed ball some 50 yards down field to a streaking Richie James, who beat Adrian Colbert for a 60-yard score off play action.

Coach Kyle Shanahan was asked about the play afterwards.

“It’s getting it versus the right coverage and making the right read,” he said. “We run that play a lot, but he got it versus the right coverage today. He made the right read, which is where it starts. We had the right pocket, so he had time to see it and then you’ve got to throw it right. And he did throw it right.”

It was easily Garoppolo’s prettiest, most explosive throw of training camp. And James, who worked primarily as a slot receiver last season, did well to track the ball down and beat Colbert, who’s one of the faster players on the team.

Coaches’ thoughts

Shanahan said Sunday he would need to review the tape of rookie receiver Jalen Hurd’s two skirmishes with defenders to find out exactly who was to blame. He came out of it Monday mostly happy with Hurd, because he wants him to be an irritant for defenses, but he also thought the sequences could be used as a teaching moment for the rest of the team.

“I’m actually glad it happened,” Shanahan said, “because we were allowed to cover a lot of stuff that we hadn’t covered this camp yet that the older guys have heard, but the new guys haven’t. ... For the beginning part of it, I was proud of how Jalen handled himself. That’s why we brought him here. We want him to be physical, we want him to irritate the heck out of every player in that secondary and I hope he pisses people off.

“I hope a lot of guys throw punches at him, and that’s what happened. I looked hard to see if he was doing anything cheap in the play. Didn’t see it on tape, but someone took a shot at him and then that’s where I got upset with Jalen. ... I hope a lot of people take shots at him and I hope he sits there with his helmet on and smiles at them and waves to them as they get ejected and gets us a free 15-yards.

“But he failed in that yesterday. He got the guy irritated enough to lose his composure, the guy hit him and then he fought back, so we lost both of them for the game. We had offsetting penalties, so he didn’t help us. But that was a good thing to point out.”

Injury update

Shanahan sounded confident running back Jerick McKinnon would return from the physically unable to perform list at some point this week after having a minor setback surrounding his surgically repaired knee earlier this month.

The plan, Shanahan said, would be to ease McKinnon back into practice, so it could be some time before he gets reinserted into team drills. The 49ers will practice Tuesday before having a day off Wednesday.

Shanahan didn’t have a prognosis on guard Joshua Garnett, who sat out Monday’s practice with a dislocated finger on his right hand. One could be coming Tuesday.

Veteran tackle Joe Staley was given Monday’s practice off. Shanahan said Staley and the team’s other 30-something players will typically sit out the third straight practice when the team has blocks of four.

This story was originally published July 29, 2019 at 3:51 PM.