SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Two years ago, receiver Brandon Aiyuk jumped out during the San Francisco 49ers’ spring practices, then followed that with a career-best 1,342 receiving yards.
Last year, the spring standout was cornerback Deommodore Lenoir, who also parlayed that into a career-best performance and a five-year, $92 million contract extension.
So which 49ers looked good in this year’s spring sessions, which wrapped up Wednesday?
First, a caveat: OTAs and minicamps aren’t “true” football. The practices aren’t padded, there’s no hitting or even thudding, and most of the marquee veterans are watching from the sideline. That makes it hard to assess certain positions, especially those that play in the trenches.
The spring is where receivers like Aiyuk and defensive backs like Lenoir stand out because there is a lot of passing and a lot of seven-on-seven activities.
All of which should help explain the types of players who are on, and not on, this list:
LB Dee Winters
The 49ers sent a message to Winters in April by spending an early third-round pick on a weakside linebacker, Nick Martin. Winters’ response this spring: Message received.
With Fred Warner watching from the sideline, Winters was the most experienced linebacker during the spring sessions — at least in the 49ers’ defense — and he played like it.
He seemed more confident and aggressive than in previous years, both on run defense and in the passing game. His pass breakup on a deep seam-route throw to receiver Isaiah Hodgins — offenses drool over receiver-linebacker matchups — was one of the defensive highlights of the spring. Winters will have to hold off Martin in training camp, but he heads into the summer with momentum.
“He’s been impressive,” defensive coordinator Robert Saleh said Wednesday. “Again, it’s easy when it’s OTAs and you’re not having to deal with run-pass reads and everything’s a little bit slower, but he’s got something to him. I don’t want to jinx him or anything, but if he stays on his trajectory and he attacks these next 40 days and he does things the right way, I think he’s due for a heck of a season.”
WR Jacob Cowing
A theme among coaches and players this spring: No one took better advantage of the offseason than Cowing.
The second-year receiver, who had a minimal role on offense as a rookie, trained with Purdy and Pearsall early in the offseason and was prominent during the spring sessions.
He caught all four targets during Wednesday’s practice, for example, three of them from Jones. Cowing has excellent speed and is doing a better job this year of maintaining that speed throughout his cuts and breaks. He’s good with the ball in his hands and can run a lot of the gadget plays that went to Deebo Samuel in previous years. The 49ers also were taking advantage of his speed as a downfield threat this spring.
WR Demarcus Robinson
There weren’t a lot of veteran receivers on hand this spring. Aiyuk is rehabilitating from an ACL tear while Jauan Jennings (calf) and Ricky Pearsall (hamstring) have been nursing minor injuries.
That left Robinson, 30, as the gray beard of the group, and he nicely filled the role of reliable veteran. There’s nothing flashy about Robinson. But he’s well-versed in the Kyle Shanahan offense, having spent the last two seasons with the Los Angeles Rams, and because of that, he was a frequent and trusted target for Brock Purdy and Mac Jones.
CB Tre Brown
Brown didn’t play a lot of nickel cornerback during his four NFL seasons with the Seattle Seahawks, but he was the 49ers’ top nickel defender for spring practices.
He’ll have to hold off good-looking rookie Upton Stout (see below) for that role to start the season, but Brown clearly was one of the top four cornerbacks during the recent sessions. With Lenoir sitting out Wednesday’s practice, Brown filled in at outside cornerback with the first-team group while Stout took over the top nickel role.
CB Upton Stout
At 5-8 1/2 inches, Stout is the second shortest player on the 49ers’ roster. (He beats Cowing by 1/8 of an inch.) However, he didn’t look out of place — or even small — on the practice field in recent weeks. Instead, he looked the part.
On Wednesday, he shadowed fellow rookie Jordan Watkins out of the slot, hung on Watkins’ hip when he darted back toward the middle of the field and then immediately tagged up the receiver after a catch for what would have been either a small or no gain.
Nickel cornerbacks are essentially mini linebackers, and the true test will come in the summer, especially in the preseason games, when there is live tackling. But Stout appears to be one of the least timid players on the roster and a good fit for the rough-and-tumble aspects of the position.
WR Jordan Watkins
He wasn’t perfect. And Shanahan, who’s famously tough on rookie wideouts, offered only guarded praise when asked about Watkins on Tuesday.
“I think Jordan’s doing solid,” Shanahan said. “He’s had some good days, some bad, but normal.”
That said, Watkins stood out in the spring the way Pearsall did a year ago. He was a regular part of the receiver rotation and took a number of snaps with the first-team group.
Watkins’ strengths are speed and fluidity. He doesn’t break stride when catching the ball, which makes him an asset on the crossing routes that are such a big part of Shanahan’s offense.
He also seemed bigger in person than he appeared on tape — thick legs, big lower body — which signals the potential for breaking tackles and gaining yards after the catch.
RB Christian McCaffrey
It wasn’t as impressive as McCaffrey’s 2023 spring session when he treated OTAs with the intensity of a Week 17 game to decide the division.
Still, McCaffrey was one of the few high-profile veterans — Purdy, Nick Bosa and Kyle Juszczyk were others — who took part in 11-on-11 situations in recent weeks.
McCaffrey said he was testing himself after rehabilitating from last year’s injury-marred season. He said his intent wasn’t so much to look like his 2023 self but to remain on the field.
“I spent a lot of time (early in the offseason) kind of building back a base from scratch,” he said. “I wanted to put myself in a position where I didn’t miss a day of OTAs and I could practice and play football again and be healthy again and not miss a day. And I did that. And now we can kind of kick back up to training again.”
The top item on McCaffrey’s summer break agenda: the birth of his first child.
“It’s coming up,” he said with a smile. “It’s right around the corner.”
OT Austen Pleasants
It’s difficult to assess linemen in practices that include no pads, no hitting and no touching the quarterback.
Still, Pleasants was impressive enough this spring that the 49ers, who aren’t exactly teeming with tackles, cut one of the veterans at the position, Nicholas Petit-Frere. It’s also telling that of the two tackles the team signed late in 2024, Pleasants and Charlie Heck, Pleasants was the one who was retained.
“Last season when he signed here, I didn’t see the speed,” offensive line coach Chris Foerster said recently of Pleasants. “But now, all of a sudden, he’s moving. He’s just a giant that can really move, and I don’t know what happened. … I really think he’s got something in there that’s special. I just don’t know how soon he will be ready.”
The team’s top three tackles likely will be Trent Williams, Colton McKivitz and veteran Andre Dillard, who had a recent ankle procedure but is expected back for training camp. That leaves a fourth spot for Spencer Burford or Pleasants, who was McKivitz’s backup at right tackle this spring.
LB Tatum Bethune
With Warner not practicing, Curtis Robinson rehabbing from an ACL tear and Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles now with the New York Giants, Bethune served as the middle linebacker with the first-team defense.
A seventh-round pick last year, he probably doesn’t have the speed for the weakside or strongside positions. But he’s tough, instinctive and a natural fit for the middle linebacker role, especially on run defense. As of now, he looks like the team’s fourth linebacker.
QB Mac Jones
He threw an interception in Wednesday’s practice. And he had a rough outing last week, the day he spoke with reporters.
“Today was a little bit shaky for me, but that’s how practice goes,” Jones said. “My goal has been, like I said, every attempt should be committed to the throw.”
Overall, however, Jones has looked solid with a number of big passes, including a scramble and throw to Robinson in Tuesday’s session. In that way, he’s looked a lot like Sam Darnold and Josh Dobbs did in previous springs — a bit up and down but unafraid to push the ball down the field and make mistakes.
“(I’m) trying to get them to trust what they do and let it rip,” Shanahan said of the quarterbacks. “That’s all I want in practice. You go through all these practices and you never throw a pick, you’re probably not getting better.”
