The San Francisco 49ers are two-thirds of the way through OTAs, and following next week’s OTA sessions, they will have a mandatory minicamp. That will wrap up the offseason workout program and move the team on to training camp.
The offseason workout program is a chance to implement the offensive and defensive schemes, and given the 49ers significant changes in both, that’s huge. But for a new coaching staff and front office looking to implement serious culture changes, it is critical in that regard.
General manager John Lynch made an appearance on PFT Live this week, and he talked about what he and Kyle Shanahan try and get out of these sessions. He briefly mentioned implementing the system, but focused more on the kind of attitude and culture the team wants to implement. When you can’t have live contact, you might actually get a better idea of who is bringing the right attitude. The idea being that you can’t fake the hustle with a big hit here or there, you have to stay on your game. There can be some value in that.
Here’s what Lynch had to say:
You know, I think for us, it’s very much about — we’ve talked about this acquisition of players in free agency and through the draft and undrafted free agency — but now it’s about letting them know the way we want things to be done. We wanna practice extremely fast, we wanna be an extremely physical team. You can’t do that in OTAs, but you can run to the football, and you can let it be known that we aren’t gonna tolerate, we aren’t gonna have guys that aren’t hustling to the football on every single play — that we value the football on every single play, that we value the football. And so we’re going to play guys that protect the football.
That’s the standard of how we want things done. Because Kyle and I both believe those little things are you have success in this league, because there’s so much talent in this league, and everybody has it. So it’s beyond the talent. Yes, that’s a huge part of it, but then the culture. And so the OTAs for us have been a great way to instill that culture. At the same time, putting our systems in, which is new for everyone as well.