Golden Nuggets: Kyle and John playing keep-away from Pete Carroll

Kawakami: The basic questions Trey Lance answered this summer and why the 49ers needed to see it (paywall)

“He won’t fail for lack of confidence, talent or QB savvy. He hasn’t looked confused a single time that I’ve noticed. Lance has thrown some errant passes, to be sure. He has had to run for his life against the 49ers’ vaunted pass rush in practice and on Thursday against the Texans’ less-than-vaunted defensive line. But Lance has never looked skittish. He’s never seemed over his head. His arm talent is obvious.

And smart and talented QBs tend to only get better, not worse.

Easy conclusion: The Lance we saw this summer and will see in the early stages of the regular season is just a fraction of the Lance we’ll see by December or January and definitely not the full Lance experience we’ll see into the future.”

What Kyle Shanahan said the day after the 49ers’ loss to the Texans

“San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan spoke with reporters on Friday, the day after the team’s 17-0 preseason loss to the Houston Texans. Here is everything he had to say.”

Lombardi: Seahawks ‘very interested’ in signing Jimmy Garoppolo if 49ers release QB

“So what I think will happen is the Friday before the opening weekend, I think they’ll cut Jimmy G. I think that’s when they’ll cut him, and then he’ll have to go do his contract and go up to Seattle and go there. But there is no interest in allowing Seattle to have even a week of preparation with Jimmy G to come in as their starting quarterback. But I do believe, reliably reported to me, that Seattle is the team that wants him.”

49ers have inquired about trading for interior offensive linemen [report]

“The 49ers have recently made trade inquiries to add an interior offensive lineman, but a deal doesn’t appear imminent, according to league sources.”

Branch: Will JaMycal Hasty or Trey Sermon get pushed out of 49ers’ crowded backfield? (paywall)

“There was a lot of uncertainty,” Brendel said. “My sister was one of the first people to get COVID in America, basically. She had a positive test for three months. … So I didn’t want that to happen to me. I would basically have to sit out that entire season anyway (if that happened). I honestly had to make a pretty quick decision on that.”

49ers’ 53-man projection: Predicting fates of Trey Sermon, Jason Poe and others (paywall)

“The 49ers have some difficult decisions in front of them. What will coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch do? Training camp, preseason and the two men themselves have provided some clues over the past few weeks. We’ve done our best to decipher them all and come to agreement on a 53-man roster projection, which you can also visualize in spreadsheet form.”

Hutchinson: 49ers final 53-man roster projection

“One of the incredible, and simultaneously maddening features of the preseason is feeling like you have a handle on where the 49ers’ roster stands... At the start of camp, there always seems like a clear hierarchy, but by its conclusion, it’s all a muddled mess. Special teams and injury questions throw a wrench into all the notions we all had of who is and who is not making this team.”