49ers training camp recap 8/8: Focusing on quarterbacks, wide receivers

The San Francisco 49ers had a more limited practice on Saturday, switching from full pads to shells. This meant they wore helmets and shoulder pads with their uniforms, but no other pads. Due to this, concern about the battle at the line of scrimmage couldn't really be a focus, as full contact was not going to happen. And so, I decided to focus on the passing game, and particularly the wide receivers. There was a bit of lightness on the practice field as the team and the organization moved forward through day two without Aldon Smith on the team.

The team still did 11 on 11 drills without pads, and I tracked the stats for the three quarterbacks and all their receivers. We'll break them down starting with Colin Kaepernick, moving on to Blaine Gabbert, and wrapping up with Dylan Thompson.

Colin Kaepernick completed 16 passes out of 22 pass attempts. There was one interception by Keith Reaser but he was called for a hold on Quinton Patton, the intended receiver. Reaser subsequently walked over to the referee in the corner of the end zone, to get a little more clarification about holding and body positioning. Kaepernick was "sacked" once by Ahmad Brooks, and handed off twice, once each to Carlos Hyde and Mike Davis.

Receivers performed as follows: receptions/targets

Vernon Davis 2/2
Torrey Smith 2/3
Blake Bell 2/2
Carlos Hyde 2/2
Bruce Miller 2/2
Anquan Boldin 1/1
Quinton Patton 1/3 (broken up once by Kenneth Acker, once by Reaser)
Vance McDonald 1/2 (one was a long bomb he couldn't get to)
Derek Carrier 1/1
Jerome Simpson 1/1
Reggie Bush 1/1
Garrett Celek 0/1 (dropped pass)

Blake Bell continued to get first team reps as well as working in with the second. One of his receptions was versus NaVorro Bowman in coverage. Torrey Smith seems to have transitioned well to his new team so far. Having former teammate Anquan Boldin hasn't hurt. They shared some laughs on the sidelines as special teams work was going on.

Blaine Gabbert took less reps and completed 6 of 11 passes and handed off twice, once each to Bush and M. Davis. Gabbert's pass numbers were as follows:

Quinton Patton 2/2
Blake Bell 1/1
Derek Carrier 1/1
Mario Hull 1/1
Bruce Miller 1/1
Torrey Smith 0/1 (long bomb, not entirely accurate)
DeAndrew White 0/1 (drop)
Garrett Celek 0/1 (caught and subsequently dropped)
One incompletion was tipped at the line by Ian Williams

Rookie QB Dylan Thompson also got some work in, completing 4 of 7 passes, handing off once to Jarryd Hayne. Thompson's pass numbers were as follows:

Issac Blakeney 1/1
DiAndre Campbell 1/1
Jerome Simpson 1/1
Busta Anderson 1/1
Asante Cleveland 0/1 (broken up by Craig Dahl)
One incompletion was tipped by Eli Harold, one was thrown away, out of bounds.

In the drills without the line, Kaepernick completed to Simpson, Smith, Clevelend and Carrier, handed off once to Hyde and once to Bush, scrambled on a broken play once and, ran another time on a designed run. Without the line Gabbert had a zippy completion to Hayne that provoked cat calls from the gallery of players: "There you go Aussie!" Gabbert also threw an interception that was intended for Blakeney but was tipped and caught by Eric Reid swell as having a pass attempt batted down at the line by Quinton Dial.

It seems they are spreading the ball out a bit, giving everyone a chance to show what they can do. They continued with half speed walk throughs of run plays and goal line scenarios before they moved on to special teams work to end the day. During ST drills, after their work was done, all three QBs sat in the grass and chatted, well, two of them sat. Kaepernick did crunches during their post practice conversation because, you know, he never gets tired.

If you have specific questions about these drills, feel free to post them in the comments, and I'll answer them as I get time today and tomorrow.