The 49ers have two days of OTAs in the books, but head coach Kyle Shanahan isn’t getting too high or low on any players.
At his press conference following Tuesday’s session Shanahan told reporters that none of the team’s newcomers have jumped out to him yet, but that he wouldn’t make it known if they did.
He pointed to the time between the offseason program and training camp as a crucial point for players, and as the reason he doesn’t put too much stock into what he sees in OTAs.
“Not really,” Shanahan said. “It’s just two days, so even if they did I make sure I don’t even say anything to the coaches because I’ve coached too much to get very excited about guys on Day 1, and then not feel the same way on Day 3 and vice versa. So, it’s early out there and it’s what OTAs are like for the most part, but we’ll have a better idea as we get toward the end of this.
“And that’s the best part because we get away for 40 days and I’ve also learned to not make any concrete decisions because you get away for 40 days and you come back and that’s when you really see who got better or worse and who’s really gonna make a play for this team.”
OTAs may play some role in coloring a coach’s image of a player, but ultimately it’s how the player performs with pads on and when the reps are live that will matter.
If a player shines in the OTA portion of the offseason, but slacks off leading up to training camp and then struggles in camp, their OTA performance isn’t going to hold much weight. That’s part of the reason Shanahan scoffed at the idea of first team reps in this part of the offseason.
For now it’s health and getting new players familiarized with the coaching staff and schemes. Once the lights come on and the reps are real in camp, then we’ll start to see the coaching staff making the real decisions that’ll determine the team’s outlook moving into the 2023 season.
