Who gets the starting shots from the 49ers, Trey Lance or Sam Darnold? 10 must-see OTAs

The 49ers will hit the field for OTAs Monday, marking the first time the team as a whole has trained this season.

Well, almost in general.

A designated quarterback will watch from the sideline while his elbow heals and the reigning defensive player this year doesn’t usually attend volunteer sessions like this. It is also common for players to undergo cleanups early in the season, and some of these can be exposed as well.

The team will be holding two OTA sessions this week, Monday and Tuesday. The media will be on hand Tuesday. This is what we will see…

1. Nothing will be more scrutinized than Trey Lance’s throwing motion, which, by all accounts, has improved after Lance spent most of March with quarterbacks coach Jeff Christensen and Christensen’s most famous client, Patrick Mahomes, in the Dallas area.

According to Christensen, Lance throws spirals tighter, gets released faster, and, perhaps most importantly, no longer deals with the arm fatigue he suffered from in previous seasons.

Lance’s sessions with Christensen revolved around mechanics, and he mostly pitched to high school receivers with no defensive players on the field. Now Lance will test his modified delivery against the best defense in the league last season. Lance only completed 54.7 percent of his attempts in training camp last year. The team would like to see it raise that to the 60 percent range this spring and summer.

2. Who repeats for the first team at centre-back as Brock Purdy continues his recovery from elbow surgery? You’d think they’d go to Lance, the 2021 #3 draft pick who at this point last year was the undisputed starter.

However, Kyle Shanahan has made it look as if Lance and Sam Darnold are on an equal footing and that they will both get opportunities with the first attack this spring.

“I really see Sam, who’s talented, as a top pick in the draft just the way he was,” Shanahan said earlier this month. “You watch his whole career and there’s no reason to think differently. He wasn’t in the best of positions, so we’re glad he’s here. And I’m so glad he wanted to come here. He could have gone to a lot of different positions and probably made a lot of money.”

Shanahan reiterated that Purdy is the best player on the team when healthy. But No. 2?

“We know we have a quarterback who’s done this at a high level in the NFL that we can win with,” Shanahan said. “I also think we have two more on our roster. Strong. But one guy showed it. So let’s see how it goes.”

3. Nick Bosa will almost certainly not be showing up at the OTAs, and it’s not that he’s waiting on a huge new 49ers contract. Bosa spends his off-season training with his brother Joey at a super-secret two-member gym in South Florida, and he has the full pool of 49ers to miss for volunteer sessions.

“Believe me, Nick Bossa works,” said general manager John Lynch. “He shows that every time he shows up, he’s in good shape.”

If Bossa doesn’t attend the mandatory junior camp in June, it will be a bigger one. And if he doesn’t show up to training camp in late July, that will be even more important. The 49 contestants aim to complete the bossa deal by then.

4. The silver lining of Bosa’s absence: It gives the team more opportunities to evaluate other defensive ends, a group that includes forward Drake Jackson, free additions Colin Ferrell and Austin Bryant, and fifth-round pick Robert Bell Jr.

Ferrell and Jackson will likely be the first defensive line to finish this week while Bosa is out of town. The team would love it if Jackson stuck to that starting point when Bossa arrived. Jackson reportedly added size and strength—elements that had diminished at the end of his rookie season—during the offseason. He leads the list of sophomore players the 49ers hope to take a significant step forward in 2023.

5. We might also add Kalia Davis to this year’s rookie class. The defensive tackle was a sixth round out of Central Florida last year (Athletic Dane Brugler rated him a fourth or fifth rounder) but he spent 2022 on the non-football injury list while recovering from an ACL tear he suffered in college.

However, Davis was able to train with the team for three weeks at the end of the season and stated that he was feeling very good – and confident with his knee – after being knocked out in Week 3. Which means he went into the off-season with momentum.

As you may recall, Davis switched from linebacker to defensive lineman midway through his college career. His game is built on speed and pursuit, which should mesh well with the 49ers defensive style. Defensive line coach Chris Kukorek always wants a strong lineup from the Braavos – what he calls his second-rate defensive line. This year’s group favorites include Davis, Javon Kinlaw, Kevin Givens, Ferrell, Bryant and Kerry Hyder Jr., suggesting it could be one of Cuckoork’s best teams yet.

6. Jackson may be the most scrutinized of the sophomores this spring, but he’s been closely followed by a pair of 2022 third-round draft picks, running back Tyrion Davis-Price and receiver Danny Gray.

Davis Price was jumped by rookie Jordan Mason last season, while Gray finished with just one catch, which came on the end of a big win over the Pirates.

The 49ers are assigned the first four receiving positions with Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk, Jauan Jennings and Ray-Ray McCloud III. And although Gray is the favorite to hold on to No. 5, there are a couple of wide youngsters with boots on his heels.

The first is Ty Martin, the 2022 undrafted rookie who has been on the practice squad all season. Martin could continue the course set by Kendrick Bourne (non-drafted 2017) and Jennings (seventh round 2020) all the way to cruising in Year 2.

Another contender is seventh-round pick Ronnie Bell, who stood out at junior junior training earlier this month. The 49-year-old sees Bill as a quick learner—someone who can become a reliable backup at all three receiving points. Guys like that are valuable on a game day roster.

Davis, meanwhile, will battle Bryce Mason and two newcomers, previously unproduced rookies Khalan Labourne and Ronald Awatt, for the third spot in the running back rotation.

7. Zane Gonzalez, we hardly knew you? Yes, it’s very hard to see Gonzalez, the veteran shortstop that the 49ers acquired in March, make the 53-man squad after the team used a third-round pick on Jake Moody.

But that doesn’t mean their kicks won’t be drawn and compared throughout the spring and summer. The close fight will only benefit the 49ers, who may be able to trade Gonzalez to one of the many teams that have been looking for a player throughout the draft.

The 49ers acquired him from Carolina for a conditional seventh-round pick. Who knows, they might be able to trade it in for something better at the end of August.

8. Given how important the center was to Shanahan, it’s strange that he never developed one of his own in San Francisco. Every player who has started in this niche since 2017 has either been inherited by Shanahan or acquired in free agency.

This year, Jake Brendle will start and veteran John Feliciano will be the likely replacement. But it will be interesting to see the young players who also line up in the center in the spring and summer. Among the nominees are Keith Ismail, Nick Zakelj, Jason Bowe, and a trio of 2023 rookies not-so-famous, Joey Fisher, Elm Manning, and Corey Luciano. Of that group, Ismail, who was picked by the leaders in Round 5 in 2020, was the only one not homegrown.

9. It will also be interesting to see who the 49ers develop in the tackle. Trent Williams, Colton McEvitz, Matt Pryor and Gaylon Moore rounded out the top spots. Someone to watch: Leroy Watson, a converted tight end that the team added to the practice squad last season. Watson was a strong blocker in college and seemed to be moving steadily into his new position.

10. The right guard is also worth watching. Last year, then-rookie Spencer Burford took turns on the series with veteran Daniel Brunskell. This year, Brunskill was with the Titans and the 49ers signed Feliciano for the inside line backup role.

Will Feliciano work the way he did Brunskill in 2022 or will Burford prove himself enough to get the starting job?

(Trey Lance top photo: Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)