Happy Saturday, Niner Gang! Anyone else watch that final preseason game? Usually preseason games put me to sleep, but that was actually one of the most entertaining preseason games I’ve ever seen. Let’s take a look at this past week and recap the end of the preseason:

Weekly Updates

• You thought we were going to get some finality to the Aiyuk & Trent Williams situations?

• The 49ers re-signed tight end Logan Thomas, who they just released a couple weeks ago after signing him earlier this offseason.

  • I wish we had more insight on what’s going on with that situation…why the release and then the re-sign? 🤔 

• General manager John Lynch confirmed this week that Dominick Puni is the starting RG.

  • We all figured this was the case, but good to hear Lynch confirm it. The rookie Puni has been AWESOME so far!

• 1st round pick Ricky Pearsall sat out the final preseason game, but Kyle Shanahan says they expect to have him practicing this week.

• Both free-agent Defensive End offseason signings Leonard Floyd and Yetur Gross-Matos went down early in this game with knee injuries. Floyd particularly was down for a while before going into the medical tent. After the game Kyle Shanahan said both players will get MRIs to determine the severity.

  • One good sign was we saw both guys on the sidelines later in the game (even though they never came in). Floyd was seen laughing on the sideline with Shanahan, which hopefully means the injury isn’t anything too serious…but we will soon find out 😬 

  • Defensive End is not a particularly deep position for the 49ers, so losing either or both of these guys for an extended period would be a real bummer.

Random Tidbits from the Week

• Surprisingly, Brandon Aiyuk travelled with the team on the road trip to Las Vegas to play the Raiders. Even despite not practicing and liking pictures of him photoshopped into other jerseys..Aiyuk continues to be part of the team and doing nearly all team activities. Go figure 🤷‍♂️ 

• Kyle Shanahan had a hilarious (and probably very accurate) quote this week talking about Christian McCaffrey and whether he will be football ready: “When he is probably walking down the aisle to get married, he’s probably thinking about his feed and how to do routes, no offense to Olivia (Culpo), but he’s obsessed with football. And so when you do get in these situations where you do get hurt and you can’t go do all that stuff, at least he’s put the work in before. So that stuff does come back, fast.”

Preseason Game 3 Recap

Felt fitting that the final preseason game ended in a TIE! Because who cares who wins. 24-24 was the final after the Raiders kicked a late FG to tie the game. This game was a lot more fun than the previous ones as we got to see a lot of the starters play at least for a bit, and the rookies continued to SHINE!

• Rookie 4th rd pick RB Isaac Guerendo had one of the highlights of the night with a 93-yard kickoff return that he almost brought back for a TD. Guerendo has a very rare combination of size and elite speed... he’s exciting!

• Other rookies who continued to impress: WR Jacob Cowing, RG Dominick Puni, & CB Renardo Green.

• Before going down with an injury, Leonard Floyd collected a nice sack in the 1st quarter. The 49ers have lacked any consistent pass-rush threat opposite of Nick Bosa…we would love Floyd to be that guy.

• Brock Purdy looked good in his first couple drives before throwing a ball that got tipped into the air and intercepted. Purdy then ran to tackle the Raiders player returning the INT, and eventually knocked him out of bounds to prevent a pick-6.

  • While I love Brock’s competitiveness, we absolutely do not need our franchise QB trying to tackle guys in the preseason! He’s got to be smarter than that.

One huge potential area the 49ers hope they may have figured out this is preseason is in their return game. Isaac Guerendo is showing he might have the chops to be our kickoff return man, while Jacob Cowing seems like he might be our punt returner. Cowing has looked extremely comfortable (and dangerous) all preseason returning punts. KR/PR has long been a weakness of the 49ers (along with many other special teams positions), so if we have potentially found 2 rookies who can come in and run with those roles, that would be a HUGE upgrade for this team overall. Let’s hope 🙏 

FOUR-ty Niners Graphics

FOUR-ty Niners Facts

1) Only 2 NFL prospects in the last 20 years have weighed 220+ pounds AND ran a 4.33 40-yard dash or faster. 49ers Rookie RB Isaac Guerendo is one of them! (The other is Seahawks WR DK Metcalf)

2) Leonard Floyd has been an iron man of sorts in the NFL (which is likely a big part of the 49ers signing him this offseason). Floyd has played 108 straight NFL games! So of course he went down with an injury in his first preseason game as a 49er 🙃 . Hopefully he will be ok though!

3) After his NFL days, legendary 49ers quarterback John Brodie had a successful second career as a professional golfer on the senior PGA tour! Brodie competed on the senior tour from 1981-1998 and finished in the top-10 in 12 different tournaments. What a talented athlete 🤑 

4) Jerry Rice had tremendous production as a receiver even AFTER he turned 40 years old! After his 40th birthday, Rice still hauled in 185 catches for 2,509 yards and 12 touchdowns. There are only 2 other players in NFL history to record a catch after the age of 40: Tom Brady & Brett Favre (yes, quarterbacks have the only other catches!). The quarterbacks combined for 2 total catches for 4 total yards.

Highlight of the Week

Since I just bragged about Jerry Rice’s receiving records, it’s only right to show that he wasn’t a one-trick pony. How about this absolutely perfect touchdown PASS from Jerry Rice. Rice put it right on the money 50 yards downfield as he was getting hit. He could really do it all!

That’s it for today! I truly can’t believe the preseason is over and the next time we see players in 49ers uniforms will be during week 1 of the regular season! Next week we will be able to see who made the 53-man roster and hopefully have some final clarity on the Aiyuk & Trent situations (although honestly I won’t hold my breath 😅).

I also just want to say I truly appreciate your support and engagement with this blog, and I can’t wait to continue that with you all into the regular season!

Bang Bang Niner Gang!