Golden Nuggets: 49ers to honor Dwight Clark this season

A day after Dwight Clark’s passing, the 49ers coaching staff wore red #87 shirts to honor the 49ers legend. The players watched highlights of Dwight and heard from Keena Turner before Tuesday’s practice began. It’s important they know the history of Dwight Clark because he was a huge part of the reason the 49ers are one of the most storied franchises in the NFL.

GM John Lynch spoke about honoring Dwight Clark some way this season. A patch on the jersey is a common way NFL teams honor figures. Also, it would not be surprising to see a game day in honor of Dwight during the season. Head coach Kyle Shanahan spoke at length of his interactions with Dwight, from when he first met him when his dad was a coach with the 49ers to last year as a rookie head coach. He wanted the team to know the type of player and man that Dwight was.

During practice, Jimmy Garoppolo excelled in the red zone drills. He threw 5 passes for touchdowns. His effectiveness in the red zone will be very important this season. The offense struggled when they made it into the red zone last season. With a full offseason to learn Kyle’s offense, there should be a dramatic improvement in that area. He will have the full playbook at his disposal and Jimmy has huge expectations this season after the tremendous start to his 49ers career. The best quarterbacks in the league score touchdowns in the red zone. Jimmy needs to end offensive drives with touchdowns, not field goals.

49ers links

JJ Wilcox (Gantt)

1 year deal for Wilcox (ESPN)

Adding a safety (Maiocco)

Trending upward for DeForest | #43 out of 50 (Chahrouri)

Safety depth added (Patra)

Biggest play in 49ers history | “The Catch” and its place in history (Florio)

New signing (Biderman)

Shows how nice of a guy Dwight was | Interesting story about “The Catch” (Smith)

Welcome to the team JJ (Barrows)

Matt Maiocco on Dwight (Maiocco)

Dwight stories (Brown)

He probably didn’t want to go up against Jimmy G in practice | JJ doesn’t sign (Smith)

Off to the Jets | JJ backs out (Lott)

Big expectations in Santa Clara | “Stage fright” (Inman)

Tales of Dwight off the field (Brown)

A patch on the uniform? | Wearing #87 in honor of Dwight (Inman)

Kyle Shanahan on Dwight (Branch)

Stay focused on winning | Not listening to the noise (Florio)

OTA observations (Fann)

Playing tribute (Barrows)

Honoring Dwight during the season (Fann)

Great sign for the offense | Jimmy excelling in the red zone in OTAs (Barrows)

Takeaways from OTAs (Biderman)

Wonder why he changed his mind | JJ decides not to sign with 49ers (Biderman)

Shanahan and Lynch (Biderman)

The good and bad of OTAs (Cohn)

Kyle Shanahan (Branch)

49ers video

John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan share some words about Dwight (Sacramento Bee video)

He will always be remembered by the 49ers and their fans | Dwight Clark (NFL video)

Mooch on Dwight (NFL video)

A legendary career | The career of Dwight Clark (NFL video)

Jimmy G (Sacramento Bee video)