The 49ers only have an afternoon practice session today so we won't have an open thread until later. In the meantime, we can certainly take a look at yesterday and start thinking down the road. While it was only one day of practice, there is plenty we can start to gleen from it (and overreact to as well).
As you can see we've got the first of what should be many photographs from practice. If you scroll your mouse over the picture you can check out a gallery of photos from the morning practice yesterday. For those who can't quite place the quotation below the picture, I watched the first Ace Ventura movie yesterday. Couldn't help but post the picture with that quotation. During the draft, one of the tidbits that was always mentioned was Nate Davis's habit of gripping the ball off the laces. Apparently he was making some laser throws yesterday, so I guess it's not the worst thing in the world. For the folks who know anything about the mechanics involved in throwing a football with and without the laces, would you mind commenting?
As for practice itself, Davis did get some playing time, but it wasn't much. He threw the first interception of practice, but otherwise he passes looked solid in terms of getting to the receivers. There wasn't any mention of Huard. The results of Shaun Hill vs. Alex Smith: Day 1, were intriguing. Hill took the first team snaps in both practices. With only one practice today, I don't know if it'll matter who is taking the first practices. Tomorrow they go back to 2-a-days, so we'll see who lines up at QB1. One of the more intriguing comments came from Matt Maiocco's facebook page (all references at the bottom), in which he said:
My quickie, 49ers thoughts from Day 1: Alex Smith and Shaun Hill already look better than at any point during '08 camp in Martz's offense.
I realize it's a single statement from a single report, but I still consider that quite a statement. I wouldn't really call it surprising. J.T. O'Sullivan was ready for that offense from day 1, while Smith and Hill were playing serious catch-up. So, is it really all that big a statement in the end? Who knows.
In the end, as some of the links this morning show, it was all in all a solid start to camp for both quarterbacks. The team may still be missing a potential important cog to the offense, but the folks that are in camp are their to take care of business. It may get a little cliched, but Coach Singletary is looking for guys willing to go the extra mile and make the sacrifices to become great. In a little over a month we'll start to find out how far they've come, or not come as the case may be.
After the jump, a quick look at injury issues heading into Day 2.
Injuries
Parys Haralson - Hip Flexor
Tarell Brown - Left Toe Sprain
One quick note: Marvel Smith started with the second team offense in the AM practice and sat out the PM practice. That was just the proverbial veteran consideration. It doesn't like there were any injury reasons, aside from keeping him fresh.
Sources
Maiocco Facebook
Maiocco Twitter
Maiocco Blog
Barrows Twitter
Barrows Blog