San Francisco 49ers players reported to training camp yesterday, including one that initially was a question mark to be there.
Pro Bowl tight end Vernon Davis decided to end his holdout and come to camp after not going to mandatory minicamp last month. The 30-year old, who is coming off a season in which he tied his career-high with 13 touchdowns on his way to making his second Pro Bowl and first AP All-Pro team, allows for quarterback Colin Kaepernick to use all of his weapons in camp.
With a now-healthy Michael Crabtree and off-season addition Steve Johnson joining Anquan Boldin and Quinton Patton in the wide receiver corps, Kaepernick has a bevy of targets to go. Still, the safety valve of Davis returning has Kaepernick “excited to have him back out here”.
“Vernon’s a Pro Bowl tight end,” said Kaepernick. “He’s one of the best in the league. There’s not going to be too much of a fall off for him. I don’t think anyone is concerned about that. We’re just happy he’s here.”
Kaepernick believes the offense is “further along than last year”, with “a lot more weapons” and health for the offense. The third-year quarterback believes the depth at receiver makes his job easier.
“You don’t have to worry about match-ups as much, necessarily whose running what part of the route,” said Kaepernick. “To me, I’m very excited about it. I want to get the ball in their hands and see what they can do with it because I know they’re going to be competing just the way everyone else is.”
San Francisco has gone to three straight NFC Championship games, under the leadership of head coach Jim Harbaugh for all three, and the quarterbacking of Kaepernick the past two. Despite not finishing the season with the game’s ultimate prize, the fourth-year signal-caller is not letting expectations get lowered.
“Yeah, it’s always motivation when you don’t finish the season the way you want to,” said Kaepernick. “I think this team has the talent. We have the coaching staff to win a Super Bowl. Now it’s just time to go out and do it.”
As for his newest pass-catcher, Kaepernick said he and Stevie Johnson got “a lot of time to work together” during OTAs, and sees Johnson’s deceptive quickness and ability to separate as things that help make it “pretty easy” to build a rapport.
The offense has also changed parts in that there is a stripped down playbook, which Kaepernick stated “took out a little bit of the indecision in some of things”. Also new is the home venue that the 49ers will be playing in, Levi’s Stadium, which replaces the famed Candlestick Park that San Francisco played in for over 30 years.
Kaepernick believes the new digs gives this group of 49ers players an “opportunity” to start their “own legacy”.
“There was a lot of tradition, a great legacy at Candlestick and this is an opportunity for us to really make this our home and start something new here,” said Kaepernick.
Now in his second full-year of a starter, Kaepernick’s leadership has “evolved” in terms of comfortability with what the team is doing, the “confidence” teammates have in him, and giving direction over defensive coverage. Kaepernick also showed he has grown as a player and man by not falling for the trap of talking about the Seahawks-49ers rivalry, which reached a tipping point in the NFC Championship game with the Richard Sherman-Michael Crabtree controversy.
“I think this team, and all of us, don’t take the approach of talking about it,” said Kaepernick of the rivarly. “We want to go out on the field and handle our business that way, go about it that way. We get to see them twice this year.”
It could be three times this year, actually, if both teams find a way to meet in the postseason. Either way, the 49ers and Kaepernick don’t seem to be afraid of the challenge of playing the defending Super Bowl champs multiple times, nor can they be if they want to reach their expectation of winning a Super Bowl.
