Nothing but good vibrations at 49ers training camp, in contrast to 2024
SANTA CLARA — Cue up The Beach Boys. It’s nothing but “Good Vibrations” in the early days of training camp.
A drama-infused and injury-laden summer that preceded a 6-11 season a year ago has given way to a new-look 49ers roster and a new-look camp. That was after three straight trips to the NFC Championship Game and one painful loss in Super Bowl LVIII following the 2023 season.
You could hardly blame the 49ers for expunging last year’s camp from their memory. Not only were the 49ers’ minds still reeling from an overtime loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Las Vegas, but their bodies hadn’t quite recovered either.
I never really bought into the whole concept of Super Bowl hangovers until I saw one up close last year.
Christian McCaffrey was fighting bilateral Achilles tendinitis. Brandon Aiyuk was a “hold-in” awaiting a multi-year contract, meaning he showed up to the facility to avoid fines but wasn’t a practice participant. Trent Williams was a “holdout,” realizing that whatever fines he accrued would be made up on the back end.
The 49ers racked up so many injuries they had to cancel joint practice sessions with the New Orleans Saints scheduled for mid-August. Not enough healthy bodies.
At the conclusion of camp and the preseason, first-round draft pick Ricky Pearsall survived a gunshot wound to the chest in a robbery attempt in San Francisco.
It was gloom and doom from the outset.
Fast forward to 2025, with Monday being the first padded practice after four days of preparation.
Brock Purdy is the proud owner of a five-year, $265 million extension. McCaffrey will be on a semi-limited schedule along with some other veterans, but looked full-go Monday. Both are floating on what McCaffrey called “Cloud 9” after becoming recent girl dads.
George Kittle got an extension and a raise. Fred Warner got an extension and a raise. Aiyuk is still rehabbing a serious knee injury, but appears in good spirits and is present in meetings and position group drills offering support.
Jauan Jennings is hoping for an extension and may get it. He took the field and looked like his usual self in terms of zeal and enthusiasm until felled by a calf injury that dogged him in the offseason program.
All training camps have injuries, and this one is no different, with the most concerning being hamstring strains to cornerback Renardo Green and wide receiver Jacob Cowing, although both are expected back before the 49ers’ second preseason game against the Raiders.
The news was good regarding defensive end Tarron Jackson, who was back in the building a day after being transported by ambulance to Stanford Hospital with a scary neck injury. He’ll continue to be evaluated.
The additions of Robert Saleh to run the defense and Brant Boyer on special teams, at first glance, look like huge upgrades in place of Nick Sorensen and Brian Schneider and whatever it was defensive assistant Brandon Staley was doing.
The dark cloud that hovered over the 49ers a year ago was masked by a season-opening 32-19 win over Saleh’s New York Jets, creating the illusion that they would be just fine after all.
They weren’t.
Aiyuk and Williams practiced four times each going into the season. The 49ers never looked like the top-seeded juggernaut that rolled through the regular season, earned come-from-behind playoff wins over Green Bay and Detroit and ultimately lost the Super Bowl in overtime.
Even the training camp setup this year is different, with the 49ers rearranging their fields at the SAP Performance Center to get a full 100-yard field, plus endzones. It’s not great for fans, given they’re often forced to watch their heroes from considerable distances.
Initially, Shanahan found it disorienting. The 49ers have practiced at their facility since 2003 after being at Sierra College in Rocklin from 1981-97 and University of Pacific in Stockton from 1998-2002.
“It was the first time it was different for me in nine years, so I felt nauseous out there,” Shanahan said. “I was dizzy the whole time. We’re creatures of habit. I’ve stood in the same place all the time. I didn’t know where to go.”
But changing the layout is another instance of wiping the slate clean, a process that sent several veterans packing either via free agency or release. The 49ers are giving lip service to how much they’ll be missed, but in almost every case it was a necessary cleansing of a roster that needed it.
Defensive end Nick Bosa shrugged off a question about the changes in atmosphere from last year to this year, with the team presently fairly healthy and with everyone present and accounted for.
“Drama is from the outside,” Bosa said. “There’s really no drama. … It’s just work. Everybody’s here. We’re all friends. No drama.”
Yet Williams, who has pretty much been on his own schedule since his arrival in 2020, can see the good in having all hands on deck.
“Everybody has business decisions to make, but it’s always good when you can have everybody in attendance,” Williams said. “I like the camaraderie with your teammates. That was my first time playing football without a training camp.”
There are a lot of new faces. Younger faces. But still enough established veterans to provide a guide to how the 49ers do things.
“We have a new team, we have a young team,” Purdy told KNBR-680 after the 49ers’ first practice. “A lot of guys left in free agency but that’s the business. We have our core group, the guys that hold the standard and what our culture looks like and it’s up to us to continue to bring these new guys along.”
The 49ers will rely heavily on those tone-setters — Purdy, Williams, Warner, Kittle, Jennings and cornerback Deommodore Lenoir.
“They have to decide what they want this team to be,” general manager John Lynch said. “And a lot of things have to fall into place.”
It’s a season full of possibilities, and so far, there’s not a dark cloud in sight.