The San Francisco 49ers have experienced a whole mess of change this offseason, a lot of which was unwelcome to many fans and if any of those anonymous sources are accurate, at least a couple players. But at the end of the day, the 49ers have a motivated coaching staff, and a quality locker room to compliment a quality roster.
Fortunately, those latter aspects don't seem to be changing, as the number of players working out at team facilities this offseason "appears about the same as previous seasons," according to Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee. This isn't surprising by any means, but isn't it nice to know that there is some semblance of order and there aren't just people running about 49ers HQ on fire?
According to Barrows, the players working out the most are those recovering from injury, such as linebackers NaVorro Bowman and Patrick Willis, offensive linemen Daniel Kilgore and Brandon Thomas and cornerback Jimmie Ward. But there's also guys like Tank Carradine, Eric Reid and Bruce Miller working out. We recently wrote about defensive lineman Justin Smith regularly visiting the facility, which means he's at least entertaining the idea of returning in 2015-16.
Motivation should not be an issue for the 49ers this season. We all have our misgivings with the coaching staff, from the position coaches all the way up to Jim Tomsula, the head coach. But Tomsula is a favorite of the players, perhaps his strongest asset, and while many wouldn't want to trade someone as proficient in x's and o's as Jim Harbaugh was for a "rah-rah" kind of guy, it could be a lot worse.
These guys will work as hard as Tomsula expects them to, and when actual organized team activities and training camp gets underway, I expect the mood in the locker room will be a positive one. We've a long way to get there but amid all the panic, just remember ... there is at least some semblance of order in place.