Photo by Ryan McGeary

SANTA CLARA – Pads on. Practice, pads off.

For the first time this season, the San Francisco 49ers practiced with pads on. Jimmy Garoppolo had a scintillating first play, the run game was silenced by a dominant defensive line and linebacking performance, and Kyle Shanahan gave his verdict on the “silly” pairs of fights involving Jalen Hurd which took place on Sunday:

Quarterbacks: Garoppolo gets on the move, backups turn it over

Garoppolo didn’t have the most franchise-quarterback-esque day on Sunday, but as Kyle Shanahan and Robert Saleh made abundantly clear, nothing truly matters until the pads come on. That finally happened on Monday, and Garoppolo kick-started the day like a teenager who’s a seasoned Madden veteran playing against an under-qualified opponent.

After a right-side pitch to Tevin Coleman which was shut off by Jaquiski Tartt and ended by Dre Greenlaw (who, as mentioned on Saturday, had the first tackle in OTAs, first tackle on Saturday, and now the first tackle with pads on, and is making his case for the third starting linebacker spot; Kwon Alexander and Fred Warner are all but locks for the other two slots, with a healthy Malcolm Smith among a handful of players in the mix for the third spot). More on that run-stopping below.

On the second play, Garoppolo dropped back on a play-action, waited, waited, and then slung a perfectly-placed ball into the basket of Richie James Jr. for a 75-yard touchdown play. Who was in coverage? Free safety Adrian Colbert, who was infamously beaten over the top on the first play of scrimmage for a touchdown on the first play of a game in Week 5 against the Arizona Cardinals. Colbert, just like on that play, took a woeful angle to the ball, trying to undercut the route, and James made the catch and score with relative ease.

In sum, Garoppolo had a solid, but not overly exciting day aside from the first pass play. He went 8-for-14, with some important caveats:

1. His first incompletion came on a would-be sack by DeForest Buckner (obviously hitting the quarterbacks is, to put it lightly, a no-no); Buckner dropped Tevin Coleman at the line on the third play from scrimmage
2. The next incompletion, a dump pass to Tevin Coleman, was incomplete, but had a flag on the play (penalty flags are thrown, but the calls are not announced, but it was either a blocking or holding penalty on the offense, or holding call on the defense, as no one from the defense jumped off)
3. Garoppolo’s fifth completion, a nice pass on the right sideline again to James with Dontae Johnson in coverage, also came with a flag, the cause of which, again, was unclear
4. His penultimate completion to Deebo Samuel could be argued as a potential in-game sack, as Dee Ford beat Mike McGlinchey around the edge and looked potentially in position for a strip sack; it appeared like Garoppolo got the throw off before that would have come into play, but the fact that rushers can’t come close to touching the quarterback leaves that in question

Garoppolo at least looked better than he did on Sunday, with the obvious highlight coming on his first pass attempt. He hit Jordan Matthews for a couple of passes, a connection that already looks seamless for guys who have never played together. He also looks in-sync with Marquise Goodwin who showed out on a few occasions on Monday. Most notably, Garoppolo got out of the pocket on one occasion when he was pressured, ran for a would-be first down before indicating a slide.

He’s not the least athletic quarterback, but here’s how Tevin Coleman reacted when asked about that burst:

Tevin Coleman on Jimmy Garoppolo’s running ability after he got out of the pocket today: “Man, if he can get out, he can get out.” #49ers pic.twitter.com/EsLTUEmL9k

— Jake Hutchinson (@hutchdiesel) July 29, 2019

With regards to his preseason workload, Shanahan said Garoppolo would not play in the first preseason game against the Dallas Cowboys, but told Greg Papa and John Lund on KNBR 680 after practice on Monday that Garoppolo will play in Game 2 of the preseason against the Denver Broncos on August 19.

As for Nick Mullens and C.J. Beathard, today wasn’t spectacular.

Beathard got the first three reps in the first set after Garoppolo… only to hand the ball off three straight times. Mullens completed his first pass to Trent Taylor, but there was what looked to be holding. Out of their first two sets, Mullens’ negated completion was the only pass play.

The next set saw Beathard complete his only pass of the day to Raheem Mostert in the left flat for a decent, roughly 8-yard gain. His other two plays in the set were handoffs, and his final play of the day (and the 49ers’ final play of practice) was a poorly thrown ball thrown behind Kendrick Bourne.

Bourne tried to get involved and break the play up, which he did, to an extent, but Emmanuel Moseley, who was on coverage, was relentless. He got a hand on the ball initially as Bourne tried to swat it away, but managed to recover and make an athletic dive to secure the interception on the far sideline while staying in bounds.

As for Mullens, he saw more than the two passing plays Beathard got. He completed one of the most exciting plays of the day in his second set to George Kittle over the middle, who shrugged off one defender, and stiff-armed D.J. Reed before wobbling to the sideline where Tarvarius Moore made sure he went out.

Mullens also completed a pass to Bourne, a low throw on a 3rd-and-4 scenario that Bourne did well to snag with good coverage by safety Tyree Robinson. At the start of his final set, Mullens fumbled on a would-be turnover. It was unclear if Mullens or the lineman under center (with starting center Weston Richburg sidelined likely until the start of the season) was at fault, but Mullens appeared displeased with the snap interchange.

His final two throws were solid; the first, a throw over the middle to Goodwin cutting from left to right across the field on a deep crossing route, and the second, a pass over the middle to the always reliable Taylor, who had a great yards pickup after the catch.

To recap (with many caveats considering penalties, here’s what today looked like for the three QBs):

Garoppolo: 8-for-14, with one would-be sack

Mullens: 5-for-5, one fumble turnover

Beathard: 1-for-2, one INT

Kyle Shanahan gives verdict on two Sunday scuffles involving Jalen Hurd

On Sunday, the talk of the town (or, at least the northernmost tip of Santa Clara, California) was the two bust-ups involving Jalen Hurd. Hurd got into one with cornerback Dontae Johnson and a second that quickly became a dog pile, making it difficult to identify who else was involved.

Kyle Shanahan said after that practice that he would essentially withhold judgment until he watched the practice tape, saying that if Hurd was simply blocking hard and players were getting upset with that, he’d have little issue with it. After reviewing the tape, that appeared to be the case, though Shanahan was still unhappy with Hurd for retaliating. He said it was positive in the sense that it provided a necessary early teaching moment.

Here’s why Shanahan said he enjoyed the incidents, and why he didn’t have a problem with Hurd’s blocking:

“I’m actually glad it happened, 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. It led to a lot of good teaching points in our meeting today. 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.”

Shanahan said he wants Hurd to get under players’ skin, and utilize his apparently irksome blocking to get penalties from other teams without retaliating:

“He’s going to piss a lot of people off and 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. We want physical guys, we want to be able to get after it and compete. We want them on the tip of fighting. But, football’s not fighting. Football is football. You get as close as you can to fighting and then you remember it’s football and the play’s over and you go back to the huddle. If you don’t, it’s a selfish act and it’s fake toughness to me. All you’re doing is hurting the team and Jalen’s a tough dude. I think he’ll be real good at this going forward.”

Here’s the full clip of Shanahan talking about the scuffles:

Shanahan on Hurd scuffles: “For the beginning part of it, I was proud of how Jalen handled himself… I hope a lot of people take shots at him and I hope he sits there with his helmet on and smiles… as they get ejected and gets us a free 15yds. But he failed in that yesterday." pic.twitter.com/Co8tLeJlDG

— Jake Hutchinson (@hutchdiesel) July 29, 2019

Lots of running backs, not so many yards

Today was not fun for the 49ers’ running back group. Time and time again, they were met at the line with a tornado of defenders who were hellbent on stopping them as quickly as possible. Below is a recap of every single run play from today’s two periods of 11-on-11s, in order, noted as they happened:

1. Garoppolo pitches right to Coleman, Jaquiski Tartt set the edge, Greenlaw on the tackle for no, or a very short gain
2. Buckner drops Coleman at the line on a run through what looked like the left B gap
3. Coleman run up the middle, short gain, Fred Warner on the tackle
4. Jet sweep to Deebo Samuel to the right, stopped near the line by K’Waun Williams
5. Joe Williams on a run up the middle for a short gain, D.J. Reed on the stop
6. *DeForest Buckner was clearly offsides; Raheem Mostert gets a decent gain to the left, Ahkello Witherspoon on the tackle
7. Breida absolutely stuffed at the line by Julian Taylor for no gain
8. The play Joey Bosa ended up on his rear; Bosa claimed credit for the tackle with Malcolm Smith also meeting Coleman at the line
9. Mostert with a nice gain on the right side, very good tackle by Marcell Harris
10. *Jalen Hurd with a false start; Dontae Johnson and LaRoy Reynolds tackle Breida at the line
11. Breida gets a short gain, tackled by Elijah Lee
12. Smith stuffs Breida at the line on a draw play
13. D.J. Jones makes the tackle on Mostert
14. Kevin Walter runs to the left, D.J. Reed on the stop

The best back of the day, who also had a pair of decent receptions, was Raheem Mostert. Mostert’s likely to make the roster based on his special teams ability, and it’s hard to say whether his ability alone was the reason for the two nice gains he had as opposed to good blocking, or a combination of the two, but he was the only back who was able to get into space today.

The two available backs who are, at least right now, at the top of the pecking order, in Matt Breida and Tevin Coleman, both spoke about how difficult it was to get by the 49ers’ absurd defensive front (with support from an already solid linebacking corps of Fred Warner, Dre Greenlaw and Malcolm Smith, with Kwon Alexander yet to get consistent snaps in 11-on-11s).

“We’re going to have a great defense,” Breida said. “Going against them right now, it’s hard to even run the ball. That just gets us excited because we know how good the defense can be this year. Not only that, but it’s going to make our offensive line and just us better as running backs, learning how to go against good teams like that. So I’m excited, I can’t wait to see our defense this year.”

Matt Breida on a #49ers defense which shut down the run consistently today: “We're going to have a great defense. Going against them right now, it's hard to even run the ball." pic.twitter.com/UlXHJxCBKh

— Jake Hutchinson (@hutchdiesel) July 29, 2019

Coleman’s response when asked about the defensive line, echoed the same force-of-nature style that Breida talked about.

“Pshh, pshhh,” Coleman said, shaking his head. ‘They’re cold, man.”

Bosa’s not getting ahead of himself (but he wants you to know he didn’t get pancaked)

Nick Bosa’s had a hot start to training camp, but as discussed yesterday, the 49ers are trying to temper expectations for him and make him prove it. He needs to “stack the days,” as Dee Ford put it.

He got the better of Joe Staley three times in that first practice, but recognized that it was not too much to brag about, saying that he’s looking forward to going up against Staley, who didn’t practice today as part of the 30-plus-year-old gameplan Kyle Shanahan talked about on Monday (essentially resting those older guys on every third day when there’s a string of four-straight days of practice), in pads.

“Definitely looking forward to it. He’ll tell you it was his first day back, so he was just getting his feet under him, getting his hands right, getting his feet right. I definitely got him a couple times, but he’s definitely going to come back strong on me, I’m sure… It was one practice. You can’t compliment a rookie too much. I had a good day, but it’s going to be a lot of hard work to get to where I need to be.”

While Bosa was well aware that he’ll need to prove himself, he did want to make one thing clear from today; he did not get pancaked by Shon Coleman. On a run play stopped at the line, which was Bosa’s final 11-on-11 rep and which he said he got the tackle on, Bosa ended up on the turf.

“I actually tagged up the running back and then Shon [Coleman] wanted to keep pushing me back, so I just kind of let him have his moment. I was just trying to brace my fall,” Bosa said. “I think I got that one, we’ll see on film.”

Nick Bosa on the play when he ended up on his back:
"I actually tagged up the running back and then Shon [Coleman] wanted to keep pushing me back, so I just kind of let him have his moment. I was just trying to brace my fall… I think I got that one, we'll see on film." pic.twitter.com/s44ztuYrhw

— KNBR (@KNBR) July 29, 2019