SANTA CLARA — Four is a crowd?
Brian Griese, who coaches quarterbacks for the 49ers, doesn’t seem to think so.
Players had the day off Wednesday, but through their first six practices the 49ers have given presumptive starter Brock Purdy the most work in full-team periods with 88 snaps (all with the first team), with Trey Lance getting 80, Sam Darnold 76 and — surprise — Brandon Allen 48.
That is with Purdy sitting out two practices as he remains on a “pitch count” following UCL surgery last March 10.
Although players were off, the 49ers made some assistant coaches available to speak with reporters, giving position coaches such as Griese a voice on how their units are faring.
“You’d always want to have more reps,” Griese said. “I think it’s a great challenge that we have a lot of guys that are getting better and we’ll do the best we can with that.”
Although no one has come out and said it, Purdy is the obvious starter with Lance and Darnold battling for the No. 2 spot and Allen a potential practice squad player following a dream season that ended with the nightmare of zero healthy quarterbacks.
Griese conceded he wasn’t sure what he’d get from Purdy at the outset.
“I didn’t really know what to expect with Brock, to be honest with you,” Griese said. “I tempered my expectations as to when he might be back. I knew he was going to do everything he possibly could to get back in time, but you never know. I was genuinely happy to see him out there the first opportunity he had.”
Purdy looked polished beyond all expectations after taking over from the injured Jimmy Garoppolo on Dec. 4 against Miami and winning five starts, then two playoff games. Griese conceded what Purdy accomplished was “not normal” but warned the sample size is small and the quarterback spent the offseason rehabbing his elbow.
“It was not perfect by any stretch,” Griese said. “We went back and looked at it, identifying all the areas Brock could improve off what he did last year. You start to get excited about that. We won 12 games in a row, we get into the NFC Championship Game and there’s still so much room for improvement.”
While Purdy shakes off the rust, Griese is pleased to see a healthy Lance throwing with authority. General manager John Lynch believes working with a single quarterback coach (Jeff Christensen) in the offseason has helped. Griese thinks a broken finger as a rookie and last year’s broken ankle temporarily derailed his progress as a passer.
“It gives him a platform to find his natural rhythm, find his natural motion,” Griese said. “I’m really happy he’s at the point where he’s healthy enough to do that. And he’s put in work on top of that with his motion to give himself a chance to be more accurate. He looks a lot better, there’s no question.”
The biggest test will be preseason games beginning Aug. 13 in Las Vegas as well as joint practices against the Raiders, where Lance can expect to get lots of work to gauge where he’s truly at as a passer.
As for Darnold, who has looked very good one day and then erratic the next, Griese can see progress in terms of learning coach Kyle Shanahan’s system.
“My biggest hope was he’d be able to digest the information and verbiage and the nomenclature to a point where he could go out in camp, be comfortable and execute and play off his instincts,” Griese said. “And he’s getting to that point.”
Griese is heartened that the quarterbacks genuinely seem to like each other and have pushed each other to be better, disregarding speculation about the quarterback pecking order.
“I don’t think that noise as you go through camp impacts quarterbacks at all,” Griese said. “It’s a competitive room. Everybody wants to be out there playing. If they weren’t like that they wouldn’t be in that room.”
Turner on the vanishing running back
Bobby Turner, the 74-year-old assistant who has coached running backs in the NFL since 1995, has watched as philosophies regarding backfields have changed dramatically, coming to a head this offseason.
“Unfortunately the whole running back position isn’t as valuable, and many teams have omitted fullbacks,” Turner said.
While the 49ers bucked the trend in 2022 with an in-season trade for the NFL’s highest-paid back in Christian McCaffrey, other quality backs such as Saquon Barkley of the Giants and Josh Jacobs of the Raiders couldn’t secure long-term deals and were given franchise tags. Jonathan Taylor of the Colts requested a trade, kicking off a spat of sorts with team owner Jim Irsay.
Several NFL running backs — including McCaffrey — participated in a Zoom conference call before camps opened to discuss the issue.
“Selfishly, I’m coaching the position and I want to see everyone make as much as they possibly can,” Turner said. “But those guys are talking and showing why the running back position should be paid. But I’m not going jump on the table one way or the other. I want the position in general to get what it’s worth and every player individually is different.”
With McCaffrey as the lead back, Kyle Juszczyk as a perennial Pro Bowl fullback and returnees Elijah Mitchell, Ty David-Price and Jordan Mason healthy, the 49ers appear stacked with runners to execute Shanahan’s zone running system.
McCaffrey, who along with Marshall Faulk and Roger Craig are the only backs to rush for 1,000 yards and catch passes for 1,000 yards in the same season, appears poised to be the first to do it twice.
“Yes, it’s a possibility, but I’ve never in all my years gotten into the stats,” Turner said. “The bottom line is that we win and not only go to the Super Bowl but win the Super Bowl.”
Kittle could be primed for quick start
Tight end George Kittle hit the ground running in the first six practices in a way that wasn’t possible a year ago when he was rehabbing various injuries. He wound up missing the first two games with a groin strain.
“Last year he didn’t have the chance to do much in the offseason,” tight ends coach Brian Fleury said. “He was getting up to speed during training camp and we were managing his workload and giving him appropriate rest, whereas this past year, his offseason was entirely full-go. He’s said to me over and over again how great he feels and he’s just ready to eat up all the reps he can.”
Aiyuk has taken to hard coaching
Wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk has been a standout during the offseason program and early in training camp in part because he gradually accepted the demands of a staff that wanted him to be at his best every day.
Aiyuk, a first-round pick in 2020, has seen his yearly receiving yardage totals climb from 728 to 826 to 1,015.
“We were still coaching him hard, and as a younger player, you’re like, ‘Why are you coaching me hard if I had 800 or 900 yards?’ ” wide receivers coach Leonard Hankerson said. “He has now realized that the coaching we’re giving him is going to get him over the hump even more, to go from 1,000 yards to 1,400 yards and be that Pro Bowl player.”