Game overview:
What a barnburner *insert eyeroll here*! The 49ers win a classic at the buzzer with a last second field goal, and they get a win over the vaunted 2023 Denver Broncos!
What I saw was a 49ers 1st-team that could’ve done whatever it wanted against Denver, but they left the game quickly and then a Sam Darnold v. Jarrett Stidham broke out for most of this game, and it ended up just a garden variety, sloppy/choppy preseason game to the finish with guys you’re not that FF-excited about.
However, we did get the 2023 debut of Brock Purdy…the further chronicles of Trey Lance…the Javonte Williams 2023 debut…and more, so let’s get into the player analysis…
Scouting Notes from the game:
-- The Brock Purdy (4-5 for 65 yards, 0 TDs/0 INT) post-serious arm surgery 2023 debut review… If I didn’t know he had the elbow surgery, I would have not guessed or sensed he ever had any problems watching him here. He looked like regular Brock Purdy.
It’s stunning how much modern surgery and rehab, and ‘medical advantages’ you can get shot up with, have come. This Purdy injury would have ruined careers 10+ years ago. Now, it’s just a minor offseason procedure and simple return the very next season like nothing happened. Amazing.
We (FFM) will operate like Purdy is 100% fine going forward…and all the things related to him fall in line as such.
Sam Darnold (11-14 for 109 yards, 1 TD/1 INT) came in quickly after Purdy and ran things for a while…because Darnold is the #2 for the 49ers right now.
#3 QB Trey Lance (12-18 for 173 yards, 1 TD/1 INT) entered the game in the 2nd-half…like a schmuck. The #3 overall pick in the draft, one the 49ers traded away their future for…and he’s now a 3rd-string QB playing with the soon-to-be cut (mostly).
I’m all but giving up on a Lance future here or anywhere. I was always skeptical, but always intrigued with the physical tools (nothing revolutionary about that stance). I wanted this to work for him. I wondered if he’d take a Josh Allen path of growth. He hasn’t. He’s still just a shaky lower-level college playmaker still having trouble adjusting to the NFL…he can do some damage scrambling around and will make some laser beam throws, but he looks up-and-down doing so and looked that way here…in the 4th-quarter of a ‘who cares’ game against ‘who cares’ defenders.
Lance still looks confused/hesitant half the time…and he really isn’t that great of a runner, but he’s mobile. He looks like his confidence is totally shattered…his bubble burst. Kyle Shanahan is a QB guru who failed with this project. It’s time for me to fold this hand. Where I’m vested in Dynasty, I can hold and wait and see if he’s traded or what, but this looks like it’s going nowhere fast.
SF can’t trade him because who wants to acquire a guy who the media is crushing AND is making #3 pick in the draft BIG money that keeps getting bigger this year and next? He’s a project for a team to pick up in 2025 for a league minimum and see what they can do…like a Brian Daboll, perhaps. The 49ers have sunk costs through 2024, so SF might as well keep him as a #3…and not let him go to another team who might actually fix him, and thus embarrass the QB guru Kyle.
-- Denver’s QB review…
This is a bad team. Not the worst team in the NFL, but one of the worst. And within that Russell Wilson (3-6 for 24 yards, 0 TD/0 INT, 3-25-0) is in a bad situation and he’s either lost his mojo for-sure or the surroundings are too much to overcome. Russ looks about as confident as Trey Lance does right now.
When all the TV commentators can do is remark about how much weight Russ lost and that he’s quicker, and then he scrambles for some yards, and they act like Michael Vick has come back to life -- you know this is a problem when ‘how slim he looks’ is the lead story, and not how crappy his passing game and this team looks.
Losing weight to scramble downfield better is not helping his passing game a ton. It helps the team overall because it’s their best running play…or overall play…Russ scrambling for his life and gaining 5-10 yards -- but we all know it’s not sustainable. This passing game is trash.
Jarrett Stidham (12-17 for 130 yards, 0 TD/0 INT) entered the game after the one Russ series…and Stidham was playing with the ones. Sean Payton downplayed that, but I think he is preparing for the worst…and I think he knows it’s coming. They’re gonna move on from Russ and embark on a total fire sale and total rebuild…the GM will be fired in-season. All hell is about to break loose.
This whole Denver situation is bad-bad-bad.
-- The Javonte Williams (3-12-0, 4-18-0/5) debut, post-major ACL surgery happened here…he's stunningly back with a full medical release already/less than a year. Again, I’m not listening to any player injury fears or theories for this player or that player…and I am not buying or using an app that predicts a players long-term injury risk for Dynasty…modern medical technology and methods are moving way too fast for 10+ year FF injury studies to yield relevant data. I assume they (the players) are all fine unless they are not/out. If you want to worry and guess about injury probabilities…go enjoy. I’ll assume every player is healthy until they aren’t. If I can see them on tape moving around fine…I assume they’ll be fine, until they aren’t. Any player is susceptible to anything at any time.
Worrying about every player possibly getting hurt and trying to guess which ones most likely will and won’t is as foolhardy as me assuming they are fine if they are currently moving around fine. But my way is easier to deal with.
But back to Javonte…
Didn’t look great. Didn’t look bad. Didn’t look explosive. It’s early in his return. He’s just getting back. We’ll see what we see if he plays again next week. He’s fully cleared, and he wasn’t that hesitant (as you’d expect anyone to be hesitant in that situation). But I didn’t see anything amazing here. And I worry that his O-Line and offense is more of an issue than anything…and then if he is going to be a slow start coming off the injury, slow to trust himself fully on top of that…then even worse.
Samaje Perine (3-22-0) was in on 3rd-downs and random other times, and honestly looks better than Williams right now. Again, it’s early. Just giving off the cuff reactions to this one slice of time/viewing. Keep the context in mind (Javonte’s first real contact action post-surgery).
Jaleel McLaughlin (7-45-1, 2-8-1/2) is more ‘the talk’ of the Broncos RB group. The UDFA just keeps making plays. He’s small but savvy and quick enough. He’s likely earned a spot on the 53-man. I just don’t see ‘star’ here, but he is decent and can improve as he goes. Reminds me of the same sentiments on Jaret Patterson…memba him? That’s the problem for McLaughlin. He can play, but will he ever get enough work to FF matter?
-- The 49ers RB report…
Tyrion Davis-Price (4-22-0. 0-0-0/1) started here and continues to be terrible…but he’s a 3rd-round pick and (example) Jaleel McLaughlin is a lowly UDFA, so TDP will get paid more money and get 10x more chances over the next 1-2-3 years to somehow make the GM not look so bad for this disastrous waste of a draft pick.
TDP actually worked ahead of the much more talented (UDFA 2022) Jordan Mason (8-24-0)…is Kyle sending a message or just trying to pump TDP’s confidence or value? I don’t know. All I know is -- Mason is good/promising and Davis-Price is the opposite of that.
-- Broncos receiver report…
2nd-round rookie Marvin Mims (1-8-0/2) debuted, and it wasn’t much. Give him a rookie debut/deer in the headlights ‘pass’ here, but he did not take his debut by storm. He definitely looked lost/uncomfortable. It’ll be something to watch next week.
TE Greg Dulcich (1-18-0/1) had a nice catch and run here. I don’t know how to play him for FF 2023. Is he their best receiver or buried TE behind Payton buddy Adam Trautman (0-0-0/0)? And does it even matter?
Courtland Sutton (0-0-0/0) is not their best receiver…that guy was a ghost here. His career is slipping away.
-- 49ers receiver report…
The best-looking receiver in this game, for either side, was rookie WR Ronnie Bell (7-114-0/9). He had to have people scratching their heads in Denver as to how Mims got drafted as high, but Bell looks similar in size and style but was 100x better-looking here. Bell is likely to be a #4 WR for a lack-of-WR-depth 49ers.
Deebo (2-39-0/3) and Aiyuk (1-15-0/1) looked like ‘Deebo and Aiyuk’, as expected…working with Purdy.
-- IDP notes…
I was watching some of DEN rookie LB Drew Sanders (7 tackles, 1 PD) working at middle linebacker. I don’t get/sense ‘it’ yet…and I didn’t sense ‘it’ in scouting him pre-Draft. Something just doesn’t feel right with his game. He was CLEARLY with the 2nd-team, not with the starters. He just doesn’t look like a starting NFL middle linebacker to me, yet.
SF UDFA rookie DB D’Shawn Jamison (2 tackles) is going to make this 49ers roster…and he’ll likely be a starting CB or SAF for them in the future, not 2023.
-- Bad kickers battle…
Brett Maher (2/2 FG, 2/2 XP) was the good one here. He actually didn’t miss a kick, and everything he kicked was true.
Rookie Jake Moody (3/3 FG, 0/1 XP) was not the good one here. He was better than his 0/2 FG week last week, but he gaffed an extra point this game and his second made FG was a curving, slightly wounded duck and then he almost pushed the game winning chip shot off to the right…and had he missed it, he likely would have had the 49ers on the phone with Robbie Gould’s agent right after the game. Moody is on very thin ice right now.
