The 49ers’ training camp has a little of everything right now: competition, schematic tweaks, rookie lessons, and a few contract details that could matter down the line. But the clearest theme coming out of practice is that the defensive backfield has found an edge by pushing each other, and it’s showing up in the way Renardo Green and Deommodore Lenoir are talking about one another.
Green said he and Jones have been talking constantly, and he’s taking a lot from the veteran corner’s approach to the ball.
“Jack and I have had a lot of conversations,” Green said. “He’s a real savvy football player, and Jack has real good ball skills. He has a very aggressive playing style when it comes to playing the ball, and I try and pick that up.
“You should try to learn from who you can because we’re all in this together, basically.”
Jones sees it the same way. He called Green “a great corner” and believes the second-year player has the ceiling to become a top-tier cover man.
“He’s a great corner,” Jones said of Green. “I think he has the potential to be one of the true lockdown corners in the league, you know what I’m saying?
As far as from me to him, I’ve just been trying to really tell him to go get that ball. Focus on the ball and not just PBUs.
“That’s what I am preaching. … We’re all making each other better. A guy makes a play, and that gives you an energy boost.”
That kind of exchange is happening in a defense that’s being shaped by Raheem Morris, and Green sounds genuinely comfortable in his third defensive coordinator in three years. He said the structure is helping him play with less hesitation and more speed.
“It’s easier to play faster, and I feel like he’s more detailed with just, like, realistic things, and there’s a lot less thinking,” Green said. “I’ve been able to get attached to guys and contest catches, make plays. That’s what he wants, and that fits us.”
Jones tied that back to the actual work it takes to be a ballhawk.
“People don’t just wake up with that ability to go get the ball,” Jones said. “It comes with film study, it comes with practice and repetition. Sometimes you got to take a million reps just to get it right one time.
“I played receiver too growing up. But I didn’t want to get thrown the ball. I wanted to go take it.”
Morris’ fingerprints are showing up elsewhere, too. The 49ers’ defensive changes include expanded usage of five defensive linemen and a simplified set of coverage assignments meant to help the cornerbacks and safeties play fast without having to make too many split-second adjustments.
There’s also a very different kind of camp note with some financial weight behind it. Deebo Samuel has a series of incentives tied to production and playing time, including a $200,000 bonus if his combined rushing and receiving yards land between 600 and 802, and $450,000 if he reaches 803 scrimmage yards or more. Those amounts double if the 49ers make the playoffs.
Samuel also can earn $200,000 for finishing with five or six touchdowns in the regular season, or $450,000 if he gets to seven or more, with the same playoff multiplier attached. On top of that, he’s set to make $250,000 if he ranks 10th or better in average yards per kick return, with a minimum of 20 returns, plus another $250,000 if that incentive is met and the 49ers reach the postseason. He’s also scheduled to earn $250,000 if he plays 68 percent or more of the 49ers’ offensive snaps.
At quarterback, Brock Purdy is still being held up as the clearest sign of where this offense wants to go. The visible evidence came late last season, after he returned from injury and looked fully in control of the Shanahan system. He was “canned” plays - Shanahan’s term for switching to an alternate call - quickly and confidently, and he looked like he already knew the answers before the questions were finished.
Special teams has its own story, and Eddy Piñeiro is enjoying the kind of stability that hasn’t always come easy for kickers.
“That’s why I think it’s so hard for rookies when they come in,” said Piñeiro, who finally found some stability with the Panthers from 2022-24. “It’s just such a short leash they have with kickers.
You miss kicks, you’re gone. It’s just part of the process, and I wish I would have known that faster in my career.
I’m like, ‘Oh, I miss one, I’m gonna be OK.’ No, you’re not gonna be OK.”
The rookie class keeps adding its own layer to the camp story. De’Zhaun Stribling said the moment he got the call was memorable, and not just because it changed his football life.
“We kind of weren’t even ready for the whole thing,” Stribling admitted during a conversation with Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area. “Everyone was still parking cars and trying to get set up. And got the call from a San Jose area code.”
And then there’s Jaden Dugger, who is getting a look as a pass rusher after working with the off-ball linebackers. He’s moved quickly into individual drills with Osa Odighizuwa, but the transition is still very much in progress.
Dugger is 240 pounds, 6-foot-5 with a 7-foot wingspan and 35-inch arms, and that length gives him a chance to stay clean. He also has the burst to flash - including a rep Monday where he beat Trent Williams.
But the learning curve is real, and there have been plenty of snaps where he looked lost or couldn’t get past Isaac Alarcon.
The good news for Dugger is that he has another rookie to watch in Romello Height. The 49ers have been careful with Height for a reason, and his movement has already turned heads.
He’s being groomed as the designated pass rusher, much like Dee Ford was, and he’s described as having a deep bag of tricks. If Dugger is going to keep cross-training there, Height is the one to follow.
In Other News...
Brandon Aiyuks 49ers Drama Is Raising A Bigger Concern
Brandon Aiyuks social-media push to get to Washington has already gone well beyond the usual offseason noise, and it has put another layer of scrutiny on how the situation is being handled. The 49ers wideout has made it clear he wants to join the Commanders, but the public nature of the campaign has only made the storyline messier for everyone involved, especially for a player whose standing in San Francisco has been a key part of the teams recent offensive identity.
From the Commanders side, the interest question now feels as much about fit as talent. General manager Adam Peters has stressed culture and locker-room chemistry as priorities, which makes Aiyuks path there less certain than his desire might suggest. It also stands in contrast to how Deebo Samuel handled his own Washington chapter, returning to the 49ers professionally after a year there and keeping those relationships intact, a reminder that not every exit or reunion has to come with the same degree of friction. [Read more 🡒]
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JiAyir Brown has already noticed a different tone around the 49ers defense this spring, and it starts with the way Raheem Morris is approaching the scheme. The second-year safety said the new defensive coordinator has brought a simpler, more instinct-driven structure, one that is designed to let players react instead of thinking through every snap. For a unit that had its share of trouble last season, that kind of reset could matter as much as any personnel move.
There is still plenty to prove, of course, but the ingredients for a better year are there if the healthy bodies stay on the field and the added depth holds up. San Francisco needs its young players to grow into bigger roles, and Brown is part of that group the 49ers are counting on to make Morris approach work. The defense does not need to become something entirely new so much as something cleaner, faster and more confident, which is often the difference between surviving and actually taking a step forward. [Read more 🡒]
49ers Camp Battles Are Getting More Complicated Around Deebo Samuel
A week into training camp, the 49ers are already sorting through a depth chart that feels more crowded in some places and thinner in others. Injuries to Ricky Pearsall and Christian Kirk have changed the shape of the wide receiver group, pushing more attention toward Deebo Samuel and the larger role he is expected to handle as San Francisco keeps evaluating how the offense should line up.
The uncertainty does not stop there, either. The battle at left guard, the rotation along the defensive line, and the competition in the secondary are all still unfolding, while the return game has become another spot where players are trying to separate themselves. With several spots still in flux and a few players working back from injuries, camp is starting to look less like a straightforward evaluation and more like a series of overlapping decisions the 49ers have to get right. [Read more 🡒]