49ers News: The run game looks awesome this year

49ers Notes: Lenoir throws shade at Darnold, multiple players return to practice

“Those were the most notable practice involvements. They were limited, as were all the limited players from Wednesday, in Talanoa Hufanga (ACL), Christian McCaffrey (calf, Achilles), Aaron Banks (calf) and Jauan Jennings (ankle), remained involved.

For the Vikings, wide receiver Jordan Addison (ankle) did not practice for the second day. Harrison Smith (hip) did not practice after practicing in full the day prior, while edge Andrew Van Ginkel (foot) went from being out of practice to limited. He had a monster game against the Giants with a sack and a pick-six.

Also limited for Minnesota were starting center Garrett Bradbury (knee) and starting right tackle Brian O’Neill (elbow).”

Kyle Shanahan-Brian Flores showdown should be a highlight of 49ers-Vikings rematch (paywall)

“What elevates Shanahan’s choreography is a combination of consistency and physicality. Offensive linemen flow to one side, and skill players drift to the other. And as they all move in harmony, they smash into opposing players with technique and force.

Call it beautiful violence. Call it disciplined aggression. Call it whatever you want. But whatever you call it, know that it’s going to lead to yards and points.”

Shanahan ‘happy’ Darnold landed starting QB job with Vikings

“Yeah, I did,” Shanahan told reporters when asked if he saw Darnold make progress behind the scenes. “I think just, Sam had been in a lot of different offenses and a few different teams and stuff. I think just the more, he always could make plays and stuff, but the more he got used to what we were asking and it’s hard when you ask some people to do stuff that they haven’t done before, because sometimes you’ve got to get worse before you get better.

“But Sam came in with such a good mindset. He was so detailed in what he did, really never wavered and really tried to pick stuff up. I thought he came in really good and I thought he got better throughout the year.”

49ers’ Jordan Mason got the Fred Warner treatment this summer — and it’s paying off (paywall)

“As he explained it, he, Warner and two members of Warner’s linebacker crew — Curtis Robinson and Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles — were on roughly the same workout schedule following the conclusion of spring practices in early June and would bump into each other a lot in the locker room, weight room and practice field.

Mason said it started out with the typical chirping.

“You know how running backs and linebackers get, right?” he said. “We were always butting heads and then one day (Warner) said, ‘Oh, why don’t you just come out and work out with us?’”

Mason took the challenge, then soon found himself on his back gasping for air.

The mark of a Warner workout is that he doesn’t allow much time to recover between repetitions. Thirty seconds? Nah, Warner might cut that in half or eliminate it altogether and just move on to the next high-impact drill.

“I train in the offseason like it’s in-season,” Warner said. “I want to make sure I’m training harder than anyone else in the league, right? And it’s so easy to go out there and allow it to become monotonous and just try to check a box. And just like everything else I do, I don’t want to just check boxes. I want to be intentional and make sure I get the most out of it. So that’s why it’s a little different if you’re out there with me rather than if you’re out there by yourself.”

Robinson explained that the workouts are designed to mimic a practice in which there’s not much time to recover between snaps.

“In (training) camp, you’ve got to be able to go 10, 12 plays, especially if you’re a guy who’s playing in the preseason and you’re going to be doing special teams and defense or offense,” he said. “You’re not going to have time to rest. So we minimize the rest periods in our workouts.”

Why is 49ers’ Deommodore Lenoir confident ahead of facing ex-teammate Sam Darnold (paywall)

“Because me and Sam, we had this connection,” Lenoir said. “This connection. He liked to throw the ball to me. This week, I’m coming. He knows it…I know he’s a talented player,” Lenoir said. “He’s going to come ready to work. I know how he prepares. He gave us great looks when he played here with us. Just taking over the scout team, he was throwing dimes. So I know it’s going to have to be tight, sticky coverage.”

Lenoir was asked if Purdy had a similar practice connection with him when he was the scout-team QB during the 2022 season.

“He didn’t,” Lenior said. “He was actually throwing dimes, I respected him because he was throwing dimes … I would get him sometimes, but he would throw a ball and it would be like, ‘Wow.’ I kind of figured it was his time.’”

How the 49ers won a game of inches and seconds with wideouts Brandon Aiyuk and Ricky Pearsall (paywall)

“For example, the Raiders, who are believed to be receptive to stockpiling picks in anticipation of positioning themselves to draft a quarterback next spring, were approached about dealing starting receiver Jakobi Meyers. The Raiders rebuffed San Francisco’s overtures for the sixth-year veteran, who caught 71 passes for 807 yards and eight touchdowns in 2023.

Acquiring a player of Meyers’ caliber as Aiyuk’s ostensible replacement might not have moved the needle, but clearly Shanahan and Lynch were ready to move on. Then, at 8:15 a.m. that Thursday, Aiyuk showed up unexpectedly in Shanahan’s office and gave indications that finalizing a contract with the Niners was viable.

Immersed in preparation for a team meeting — and trust me, NFL head coaches tend to treat such moments as sacred spaces — Shanahan went into panic mode. When he tried and failed to reach Lynch on the phone, he bolted out of his office and sprinted upstairs to tell the GM, in person: Don’t make that trade!

Shanahan confirmed the story when I asked him about it in his news conference Wednesday, saying, “I mean, I had to sprint ’cause I had a team meeting at 8:30, and I was getting ready. … And Brandon just randomly walked in and talked to me at 8:15. It’s very Brandon-like to pick that type of time, ’cause I was trying to get ready for something else.

“So about 10 minutes into talking to him, I realized we needed to talk a little bit more when the meeting was over — and meetings can go a while, and I knew we were in discussions a lot with Pittsburgh. I actually called up to John and he didn’t answer (or pick) up on the first ring. I just wanted to make sure he wasn’t on the other line making any trades. So I ran up there and just said, ‘Hold on, let’s talk after this meeting.’”

Why 49ers sitting Christian McCaffrey reflects danger of season-ending injury (paywall)

“That’s according to Dr. Kenneth Jung, a foot and ankle surgeon who is a consultant to the Los Angeles Rams. Jung, of course, isn’t privy to McCaffrey’s medical file. But he noted more serious cases of Achilles tendinitis, an overuse injury that causes inflammation, can involve microscopic degeneration, small tears in the fibers in the middle of the tendon that can increase the odds of a season-ending injury.

“You’re talking about possibly rupturing your Achilles,” said Jung, who works at the Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute in Los Angeles. “There’s obviously a lot of load and dynamic motion associated with being a running back. And there are different grades where you can have partial tearing of the tissue. And if it’s a small tear, combined with explosive activity, you have a higher chance of having further damage to the tendon.”