Minicamp takeaways: Deebo Samuel is back, Trey Lance improves and the 49ers are at ease
Head coach Kyle Shanahan appears at ease. Quarterback Trey Lance is relaxed. Sure, it’s June. But it’s been a stress-free June, relatively, for an NFL team.
Which is important to note because there are reasons for the 49ers to feel at least some levels of anxiety heading into a season with high expectations and significant unknowns.
The Deebo Samuel and Jimmy Garoppolo situations remain unresolved. There’s the ongoing development of Lance which brings inherent uncertainty at the game’s most important position. Alex Mack retired last week, leaving a significant question mark at center. Defensive end Nick Bosa is eligible for a new contract — but there’s no drama there, for now, either.
The 49ers could be facing turbulence as they near the end of the offseason. Instead, they remain steady. It’s one of the benefits of having a head coach and core pieces of the front office intact for the last six seasons. A coach hasn’t lasted with the team six years since Steve Mariucci (1997-2002). And Shanahan, 42, isn’t going anywhere any time soon.
Deebo Samuel situation
The Samuel situation is tricky and could get stickier. He showed up to mandatory minicamp on Tuesday despite his wave-making trade request earlier in the spring. He avoided a $95,877 fine by attending after skipping the voluntary portion of the offseason program.
Samuel on Tuesday didn’t participate in drills, instead running sprints on the side and working in the weight room. He observed full-team sessions with a play sheet in hand. Overall, Samuel appeared engaged with his teammates, which is a far better sign than if he stood alone on the sidelines — or didn’t show up altogether, like Seahawks receiver D.K. Metcalf, who’s also angling for a new contract.
Shanahan and Samuel developed a strong relationship last year. It was one of the themes of 2021, when Samuel broke out as one of the NFL’s most versatile stars. Samuel’s trade request easily could have put Shanahan on tilt, but that’s not the way Shanahan’s approaching things while Samuel and his representatives square off with the front office over a new contract.
Is it awkward for Shanahan?
“You have to have personal relationships to coach people and to get the most out of people,” Shanahan said. “And not just players, but everyone in the building. So I think everyone does that, but you’re also not just trying to collect friends. You have a job to do and no one’s ever worried about that aspect with me. That’s why, to me, it’s easy for me to be myself with the guys and have a relationship because I also never steer away from what my job is.”
Samuel hasn’t spoken publicly since he made his trade request public in April. The reasons for his trade request remains unknown and it’s unclear if he still wants out. Regardless, Shanahan isn’t sounding the alarm. He remains confident the situation will get resolved with Samuel wearing red and gold when the regular season begins, as general manager John Lynch said last week.
“When I think of a relationship with someone,” Shanahan said, “that has to do with him and me, not statements, not Instagram, not people repeating stuff. It has to do with the words that come out of my mouth to a man and him back to me and nothing else. And that’s never been a problem with me and him.”
Lance looks sharp at practice
Lance lobbed a well-placed pass to Jauan Jennings in the back-left corner of the end zone and then hit Jennings for another touchdown on a short pass to the right. Later, Lance tried to fit one in to receiver Brandon Aiyuk on the far-right side of the end zone, only Aiyuk couldn’t snatch it and it was wrestled away by Ka’dar Holman, a reserve defensive back.
It was a seven-on-seven period in the red zone, and Lance looked as strong as he has during the three practices this offseason that have been open to reporters.
“They had a good day today. It’s always tough down there (in the red zone), especially when we just did seven-on-seven,” Shanahan said. “When you don’t have the threat of a run, it’s very tight in that area, so you want very aggressive precision passing without ever turning it over. Because you already got three points and from the whole group, I thought today was our best day offensively down there.”
Lance also hit tight end Tanner Hudson, who caught the pass with one hand, over the middle between two defenders during a full-team period. Lance also rolled to his right and hit Aiyuk on the run for a big gain along the right sideline. Those two throws rank among the Lance’s best of the spring.
The theme from the quarterback position throughout the offseason has been Lance’s evolution on top of the fact it seems far-fetched that Garoppolo remains in the picture. The more work Lance gets, the less likely Garoppolo will be in the mix when the team reports for training camp in late July.
Trading Garoppolo
The 49ers have maintained their intentions to trade Garoppolo once he’s healthy enough to throw. Garoppolo this week was given an excused absence from minicamp, so I asked Shanahan if he would expect Garoppolo to practice with the team in training camp if he weren’t traded.
“Yes, I do,” Shanahan said.
We’ll have to take Shanahan’s word on that. But all signs point to Shanahan not being willing to risk the awkwardness of having Garoppolo around after doing everything but announcing Lance will start Week 1 in Chicago. And Shanahan has to maintain that Garoppolo could be an option in order to maintain trade leverage.
Shanahan was then asked if Garoppolo would be given an excused absence in training camp like he has been this week.
“I’ll think about that when that day comes,” said Shanahan. “But Jimmy is under contract with us and if he was healthy, right now I would see him coming to practice. Unless we traded him.”
New quarterbacks coach Brian Griese said recently he hasn’t spoken to Garoppolo at all since getting hired. That might be the clearest sign yet that Garoppolo currently doesn’t have a place with the team.
Garoppolo’s next destination? The Carolina Panthers make sense, though Sam Darnold is guaranteed $18.9 million. Might the Cleveland Browns be an option for Garoppolo if Deshaun Watson faces a lengthy suspension for the sexual assault allegations against him? That can’t be ruled out, either.
Regardless, all the 49ers have done is indicate that Lance is their starting quarterback. All that’s left to figure out is if there’s a trade partner that makes sense for Garoppolo or if the team will decide to outright release him and save his $24.2 million in base salary.
What about center?
Mack’s retirement that was made official last week leaves the 49ers with a hole in the middle of their offensive line. Mack, of course, was arguably the NFL’s best center of his generation. And the team did little this offseason to fill the void Mack left.
Rather, San Francisco has signaled trust in Mack’s backup from last season, Jake Brendel, a former undrafted rookie who had cups of coffee with the Cowboys, Dolphins, Broncos and Ravens before joining San Francisco.
Brendel, 29, has gotten all the reps with the starters throughout the spring after working primarily with Lance while both were backups last season.
“Obviously sad, I wanted to play with Alex for sure, but I’m super excited for Jake,” Lance said Tuesday. “Jake’s three lockers down from me. We’re together, one of the first two guys in every morning, Jake is and I know he’s one of the last guys to leave, so he works super hard and his athletic ability is one thing I think that stands out about him.”
Perhaps Brendel’s biggest supporter in the building is offensive line coach Chris Foerster, who was promoted this offseason to run-game coordinator after former offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel took the head coaching job with the Dolphins.
Brendel has appeared in 37 games since 2016, making just three starts with Miami, where he played under Foerster, in 2018.
“Jake made our team last year as our backup center and if you do that, you better believe that all backup guys have the ability to start,” Shahanahn said. “... We had a lot of confidence in Jake last year to make the team. And if Mack would have ever missed a game or something, we wouldn’t have hesitated and we would have gone into that game very confident with him.”
Shanahan also said the team is considering outside options both in free agency and via trade. For now, Brendel is the early favorite to start at center, quickly making him one of the 49ers biggest gambles of 2022.
This story was originally published June 8, 2022 at 10:23 AM.
