Section925 Visits Niners' Camp for "Dwight Clark 87 Day" on 8/7
/
Photo by Terell Lloyd/49ers
Following a season in which the Niners made a unexpectedly deep playoff run that included gutsy road playoff victories at Dallas and Green Bay, 49er Faithful was sure to show up to training camp in good spirits this August. Couple this with Deebo Samuel signing a hefty contract to stay in The Bay and Trey Lance taking over the offense with a year under his belt and you have fans in the red and gold smelling Super Bowl once again.
“Dwight Clark 87 Day” on August 7th began the same way as all of the other practices this week with 49ers second year safety Talanoa Hufanga coming out onto the practice field first at 9:41 AM. At this point, he looks to be their starting strong safety. Hufanga's second-year leadership has helped the 49ers defense dominate at camp. They pressured Trey Lance to throw over the middle which led to a Fred Warner pick on an attempted pass to 49ers tight end Tyler Kroft. Warner read the pass perfectly.
The 2022/23 49ers defense already looks better than last year, when they ranked ninth. Their star studded pass rush is a huge reason why. They selected another dominant edge rusher, Drake Jackson, out of USC to pair with Nick Bosa. Jackson suffered a minor injury to the “groin” at the beginning of practice but seemed to be fine shortly after. 49ers third year Defense Tackle Javon Kinlaw is finally living up to what the 49ers expected of him when he was drafted 13th in the 2020 draft. During 11 on 11’s he threw guard Aaron Banks to the side and sacked Lance. Kinlaw looks to be in the best shape of his life.
There were also some noticeable low moments within the defensive line. They gave up a big run to tailback Jeff Wilson Jr who broke free for 30+ yards, the longest run of the day. He extended the run by juking out safety Tayler Hawkins. Another player the defense can't seem to stop is new signing Ray-Ray McCloud, who seems to be the 49ers go-to deep threat at camp. The defense did seem to contain the Trey Lance/Brandon Aiyuk connection during practice though. Charvaruis Ward knocked down a pass intended for Aiyuk and seemed to think Ward interfered; no flag was thrown.
The 49ers secondary has improved drastically since last year when they ranked 18th. It looks like they’ll be back in the top 10 and repeat their 2019 defense after a great draft and free agency. 49ers longest tendered player, Jimmie Ward is looking like he will have the best season of his career after getting snubbed from the Pro Bowl last year. He is the 49ers main voice on defense along with All Pro linebacker Fred Warner. From Training Camp alone, it seems like this younger and hungrier defense is back to its 2019 form when they led the 49ers to the Super Bowl.
Getting to the 49ers practice isn't easy, but it’s worth it. You need to buy tickets in advance and get there pretty early to get yourself a seat. Seats are in the bleachers and, I can tell you from experience, that not all of us 49ers fans fit easily into bleacher seats. That being said, the experience was still awesome. Fans were interactive with the players and the players gladly reciprocated. At the end of practice 49ers All Pro tight end George Kittle, (who did not practice all day) seemed to appear out of thin air to sign autographs for the fans and smile for pictures. Jimmy G, on the other hand, was nowhere to be found … he was not on the field for practice and not on it after. The 49ers look to have Nate Sudfeld back up Trey Lance all season and in the Green Bay game on Friday. Lance looks to play the 1st quarter with the offensive starters and then expect Nate Sudfeld and Brock Purdy to step in and get some time as the backups. The Niners look to take down the Packers just like they did in last year's playoffs. Despite it being a preseason game, the atmosphere shouldn't feel like one. 49er Faithful will be out in droves.
