It was a sophomore slump kind of day for the San Francisco 49ers. The offense struggled, and did not get much of a chance to do extra credit to make up for it as the team did additional special teams work during practice.
Carlos Hyde, who had a great first day of practice, dropped two passes early in the day. He did, however, look like he was running with a lot of speed as he took hand offs with ease and made a few catches later in the day.
Bruce Ellington continued to shine showing off his speed and hands catching passes and fielding punts, one catch outplaying newly acquired Shareece Wright.
Jerome Simpson had the most exciting catch of the day diving across the field catching a quick pass from Colin Kaepernick.
The battle on the line, however, went to the defense. It's still difficult to tell what they will really look like until they get their pads on, which happens Tuesday, but the defense looked stronger, faster and more intense than the other side of the ball. The offense was attempting to huddle and get to the line quickly but the defense was even quicker with their adjustments. There was plenty of shouting, shifting and directing going on defensively, once the offense was set.
Defenders had "hands on" Kaepernick a few times during drills. Aldon Smith caught him coming around to the left and Kaepernick attempted to unload the ball only to get picked off by Tramaine Brock
Ahmad Brooks, who does look leaner and meaner showed a new sense urgency and was one of the leaders directing traffic during 11 on 11s.
As for special teams, we had our first good look at P Bradley Pinion who at 6'5 229 towers over K Phil Dawson. Pinion appears to have quite a leg with decent hang time as well. He also took over holding duties for kicks during practice. Fielding Pinion's punts were Mario Hull, DeAndrew White, Jarryd Hayne and Ellington, who took one for a touchdown. Reggie Bush who did not participate in team drills for the second day was in the end zone during this session presumably coaching up the younger guys.