Happy Monday, Niner Gang! We continue to inch closer to the regular season and the buzz is palpable! Let’s take a look at updates from the past few days and a preseason game 1 recap:

Weekly Summary

• Still nothing concrete as of today with the Brandon Aiyuk situation. The latest reports were that the 49ers are making renewed efforts to work on a deal, but it’s been quiet since those reports came out last week. The rollercoaster continues…

• The 49ers are dealing with so many injuries right now that they cancelled their week of joint practices with the New Orleans Saints. Joint practices are always a good opportunity for teams to practice against someone aside from themselves, but the 49ers truly don’t have enough healthy bodies right now to warrant these joint practices…yikes

• Speaking of injuries, the 49ers got some bad news today as it was announced that Defensive Tackle Kalia Davis hurt his knee and will have surgery, which will keep him out for half the season

  • Kalia looked really good in the first preseason game and figured to provide some depth at DT (a position where you can never have too much depth, so this is an unfortunate loss. Hopefully Davis will be back and able to contribute in the 2nd half of the season)

• Talanoa Hufanga has a key check-in with his doctor this Thursday, and if that goes well Kyle Shanahan says we can expect Hufanga back at practice soon!

• The 49ers officially signed WR Robbie Anderson today and let go of WR Frank Darby. Anderson is a 31-year-old journeyman receiver who has played for the Jets, Panthers, Cardinals, and Dolphins.

  • Anderson is a notable name, but if he is getting meaningful snaps for the 49ers this season, that probably means things are not going according to plan. Even if Aiyuk continues to hold out or is traded, it’s hard to see Anderson getting consistent snaps over Deebo, Jauan, Pearsall, Conley, etc.

• Cornerback Ambry Thomas broke his forearm in the preseason game.

  • The 49ers finally seem to have good depth at CB this year, so the loss of Ambry for a while doesn’t seem to be too big of a concern. Along with Charvarius Ward & Deommodore Lenoir, Rock Ya-Sin, Isaac Yiadom, and rookie Renardo Green figure to fill out the CB position.

Fan Poll!

Preseason Game 1 Recap:

First and foremost, let’s make it abundantly clear that this is PRE-SEASON! Yes, there are men in 49ers uniforms playing football, but we are not going to draw major conclusions from backups playing against each other in games where the scheming and play-calling looks nothing like it would in the regular season. With that being said…here’s what we saw in preseason game 1 vs the Titans 🙃 

• Ricky Pearsall didn’t play…sad! Slick Rick is still dealing with a shoulder stinger and didn’t end up traveling with the team.

• The backup QBs actually played pretty well. One of the few position battles on this team is going to be for who backs up Purdy. The battle is between Brandon Allen (who was a backup QB on the 49ers roster last season) and Joshua Dobbs (a free agent signing who has started meaningful NFL games). Let’s hope the only snaps these guys play all season is when they come in in the 4th quarter of a 49ers blowout, but they looked solid on Saturday.

  • Brandon Allen started the game and appears to be the frontrunner for the backup QB role right now. While his stats from the game were very pedestrian, Allen impressed out there. He ended 7-13 for 98 yards, but a few drops from 49ers backup WRs didn’t help his case. Allen appeared to show good timing and decision-making, and dare I say he reminded me slightly of Brock Purdy the way he moved around out there (no, I’m not saying he’s Brock Purdy whatsoever..so don’t twist my words, ha! But the way he moves in the pocket reminds me of Brock)

  • The Passtronaut 👨‍🚀 (Joshua Dobbs) had a bit of a sexier stat line as he finished 14-20 for 146 yards and a 6-yard rush TD. Like Allen, Dobbs also showed solid command of the offense.

  • Again, it’s preseason, but it was good to see the backup QBs look solid out there!

• Jordan Mason! The undrafted free agent RB from 2022 looked quite good as he finished with 6 carries for 34 yards and had the 49ers’ first TD of the preseason. Mason has showed real flashes in limited use over the first 2 years in his career, and fans and the organization have always been excited about what they’ve seen out of Mason.

  • Fans have longed for Shanahan to limit Christian McCaffrey’s carries and workload in the regular season, and between Mason and Elijah Mitchell, Shanahan has legitimate RBs who can and SHOULD get a few carries each game.

  • Feels like Shanahan and the staff have really talked up Jordan Mason through training camp, so it will be interesting to see who the true backup RB is when the season begins.

• One of the things I mentioned in last week’s blog that I was most looking forward to in this game was to see how rookie offensive lineman Dominick Puni would look. Well, Puni did nothing but make 49ers fans more excited that we may have found a ~good~ starting caliber offensive lineman in the draft! Again…preseason…but Puni looked really good as he allowed 0 pressures and 0 sacks in 14 pass-blocking opportunities.

  • Puni also gave Jordan Mason the push he needed on his TD run to get into the end zone. We found a name for it: The Puni Push!

• Rookie safety Malik Mustapha was a force out there! Probably the biggest highlight of the game was Mustapha’s run stuff on 4th down. Mustapha is built like a linebacker and he plays with intensity! I saw some comparisons to former 49er safety Donte Whitner, which makes sense. Mustapha also had a very nice tackle on special teams. Can’t wait to watch more of this kid!

• One of the biggest disappointments from preseason game 1 was 2nd-year linebacker Dee Winters’ play. Winters has drawn substantial praise from his teammates and observers during camp, and while he displayed good speed and showed some glimpses, he really struggled in this game. Missed a couple tackles, was out of position on a few plays, and overall just didn’t have a great showing.

• Stop me if you’ve heard this before though….PRESEASON!

4 49ers Facts:

1) The 49ers in 2023 games without Deebo Samuel were 0-3 and averaged 17 points/game. The 49ers in 2023 without Brandon Aiyuk playing were 1-0 and scored 30 points. *This is an extremely small sample size, and there’s other factors that go into it like opponents, other injuries, etc.

2) 49ers overall playoff record is 39-25

3) Fred Warner starred at Brigham Young University before the 49ers drafted him. Warner first came onto the radar of BYU coaches when a die-hard fan sent Warner’s highlight tape to BYU coaches 🤭 

4) Kyle Juszczyk’s pregame meals consist of filet mignon with sweet potatoes and spaghetti with scrambled eggs. Seriously.

4 49ers Graphics

Highlight of the Week

Take a look for yourself the tape that rookie Offensive Lineman Dominick Puni put together in preseason game 1. The door is wide open for him to start at Right Guard, and he seems to be busting through that door!

That’s it for today! See you guys again later this week as we look ahead to preseason game number 2 on Sunday vs the Saints. Bang Bang Niner Gang!