49ers
49ers WR Brandon Aiyuk is rehabbing after his surgery for a torn ACL and MCL, with HC Kyle Shanahan saying it is possible he could be ready to go for Week 1, but still uncertain at this point.
“I don’t know,” Shanahan said, via NBCSportsBayArea.com. “It’s too early to tell. The goal is always early. You hope to have him right away. We were told by his doctor there’s a chance. But it’s too early in the process and we’ll see when we get closer to training camp and see what it looks like.”
Rams
Rams HC Sean McVay and GM Les Snead were aware that the team could be adding WR Davante Adams and felt that the team did right by WR Cooper Kupp by letting him know they were planning to move on.
“We thought Davante Adams would be a possibility,” McVay said, via TheAthletic.com. “We don’t know, you know, he’s going to have other interests. There was a possibility we were gonna re-sign Tutu Atwell, but we didn’t know at the time. I think the most important thing was when we had made the decision that we were gonna seek a trade or at least grant him his release, that was very quickly after the season, which I thought he deserved that clarity in regard to the direction we were going. Now, exactly why all those things occurred, there had to be a little bit of time to be able to provide the appropriate context. That wasn’t applicable in the moment.”
Seahawks
Seahawks HC Mike Macdonald views DL DeMarcus Lawrence as a player that they can move all over their defensive front.
“Really excited about him,” Macdonald said, via the team’s website. “I think he complements our room really well. AD (defensive coordinator Aden Durde) will get a laugh if he hears this, but he’s a heck of a six technique—shout out to Leslie Frazier, that’s a constant battle in the office—but just a disruptor. He can play the way we want to play technique-wise, but also, this guy’s really, really smart on what sets tell you, what blocks am I going to get, being able to create more negative plays on early downs to get us in some of those advantageous defensive situations that are really going to help us. Then obviously the pass-rush element too, complementing Chenna (Nwosu) and Boye (Mafe) and all those guys. Moving him up and down the line like we do—we like to move guys around—so he fits right in.”
Macdonald added that Lawrence is more than just a third-down rusher.
“That’s kind of how I’m talking about him on early downs, converting versus play-action pass. Just understanding, ‘Hey, I don’t have to play everything on this play. This guy’s the guy who’s going to block me. It’s a play-action pass. All you got to do is beat this guy now.’ That’s what wisdom and experience and reps and intelligence does—he understands how the game works—it lets him play fast, lets him play violent, and lets him take opportunities where you can take a chance and create a play for us.”
Macdonald said the team was excited about resigning CB Josh Jobe, but said he expects to continue to add to that position throughout the remainder of this offseason.
“A wise man once said, you can never have too many corners,” Macdonald said. “It might be Ozzie Newsome that said that, and he’s right. So we need to create more competition in the back room, especially at corner. Josh knows that when he signed up, but I’m really excited about Josh just taking his career to the next level and how he competes. I think one thing that Josh does such a great job of is just the day-in day-out process, how he approached his job, his responsibilities, how he studies. Him and Spoon work really well together. So that’s the type of energy we talked about that we need this offseason in the room so we can sharpen each other and be able to put a heck of a group out there. But he’s going to be a big part of what we’re doing.”
Macdonald is expecting a big year out of LB Ernest Jones IV, who will have a full off-season to train and prepare with the team.
“Now we have the continuity, Ernest understands what we’re trying to achieve,” Macdonald said. “He’s got a great feel for just how we want to operate day-in, day-out. That’s why we love him so much because it’s so much aligned. But there are things, there’s idiosyncrasies of details and things like that that he needs to work on to take his game to the next level. He’s going to have ample opportunity now to do it rather than just saying, ‘Hey, what do I need to get ready to get my body ready to go play another football game?’ We can work on all those things throughout the off-season. It’ll be great.”
Macdonald also believes that the blocking scheme that OC Klint Kubiak will implement will help the team up front on the offensive line, in particular their younger players.
“It’s definitely going to help us,” Macdonald said of the scheme. “I felt like what they’ve done in their past in college, that’s part of their best film. Some of the wide-zone stuff, running off the ball, things like that. But I think it wouldn’t be wise to underestimate a Year 1 to Year 2 jump. These are guys who are really excited about, they showed flashes last year, and can you kind of go all the way down the line—Abe having a whole offseason to work and train and get stronger, be in the same system the whole time, that’s really valuable. Charles Cross, same thing, another off-season to get stronger, take his game the next level and then obviously the guards are point of conversation. But again, going from being a rookie and you’re just kind of like, ‘What the heck’s going on? I’m just going to go in there, and I’m working offseason, draft and all this crap.’ Now it’s, ‘Hey, I’ve been training in the same spot all off season. I get the whole offseason program from Day 1, any rookie should have an expectation to be able to really take their game to next level, especially those guys.”
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