The San Francisco 49ers have completed five OTAs, and I can only begin to imagine the amount of reps they are getting on both sides of the ball. Matt Maiocco gave us a little bit of insight into the kind of tempo the team has going for it.
During the 49ers’ team period, they ran 24 plays in eight minutes. That’s one snap every 20 seconds.
— Matt Maiocco (@MaioccoCSN) May 25, 2016
We have nothing to compare that to, but I'd bet good money this would be significantly more plays than the 49ers were running under Jim Tomsula last year. Players have discussed how fast the team is going, acknowledging that it is significantly faster than in years past, and this would seem to support that.
The big question now is how this will carry over into training camp and the regular season, and how players will handle it. This past December, Philadelphia Eagles offensive tackle Lane Johnson was critical of the practice philosophy Chip Kelly employed (h/t PFT). Johnson said practice was "pretty much the same from OTAs until the end of the season."
He went on to talk about how rundown it made him feel by season's end:
“There’s not a lot of the guys in the league that do that, continuous. It takes a toll on you, especially me, I expect a lot from myself so I’ve hit it hard since January, go out with [Jason Peters], bust some ass, and by the end of the year I feel like I’m gonna fall apart.”
He later made a comparison with Nick Saban. He talked about how Saban came into the NFL and tried to do things the same way as he had in college, and it didn't work. In comparing Saban to Chip Kelly, Johnson said, “It’s the way it is for everybody, a live and learn process for everybody, including Chip.”
We've been wondering what Kelly learned from his time in Philadelphia as he embarks on his second chance in the NFL. I guess we'll wait and see how things look in October, November, and December.