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Aug 1, 2026
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Camp Notebook

The Edge Room Lost Three Bodies While The New Receiver Took Ten Snaps

Camp practice five. Deebo Samuel practised on a script, De'Zhaun Stribling did not practise at all, and San Francisco lost three edge defenders inside two hours.

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Sam KezarAug 1, 20263 min read
Every call on this site goes on a public ledger and gets graded. The misses stay up.
The Edge Room Lost Three Bodies While The New Receiver Took Ten Snaps

San Francisco practised Saturday morning in Santa Clara, the fifth session of camp and the second in pads. The observations below come from Nick Wagoner of ESPN, Jennifer Lee Chan of NBC Sports Bay Area and Tim Kawakami of the SF Standard, all filed the same day, plus the club's own release and roster page. Nobody from this site was there.

The roster move came first, at 9:44 a.m. The 49ers signed Deebo Samuel to a one-year deal and placed Ricky Pearsall on injured reserve in the same release, and the club's roster page lists Pearsall under Reserve/Injured. That is the corresponding move this beat has been waiting on since Thursday night, and it is the first player all camp to leave the 53-man projection in either direction. The release names no injury and gives no timeline. John Lynch said afterward that the decision had been made and that surgery was the course of action everyone felt was appropriate. The club has put no timeline on it, and this notebook does not carry one either.

Samuel practised on a script, and the number is small on purpose. Wagoner has him in one-on-ones and limited to about ten snaps in team drills, with three catches, one over the middle from Brock Purdy for a big gain. Chan has roughly ten planned plays, catches from both Purdy and Mac Jones including a screen and a route to the flat, work in the run game, and a job returning kicks. Both accounts describe the same ramp.

The fourth receiver went down before the fifth practice was over. De'Zhaun Stribling, the rookie taken 33rd overall, missed the session with hamstring tightness. He had taken the first-team slot reps for three straight practices, and Kawakami on Saturday morning called him the most impressive receiver in this camp after Mike Evans. Christian Kirk missed his fourth straight with the calf he strained in camp's opening session, the last practice he was on the field for at all. For the first time, neither man in the WR3 competition was on the field.

The edge room lost three bodies. Keion White started and did not finish, with an adductor issue from one-on-ones. Romello Height sat out with an elbow. Mikail Kamara, an undrafted rookie, left on a cart; the club announced a knee, and has offered nothing past the body part, no timeline and no prognosis. Those are the two men taking first-team defensive end reps opposite each other, plus the depth behind them, on a line already missing Mykel Williams and running Nick Bosa on limited work.

One item needed a second source and has one. Wagoner writes that "DL Keion White (adductor), DL Mikail Kamara (knee) and RB Kaelon Black (undisclosed) did not finish the practice after starting it." Chan's absence list is longer than Wagoner's and does not mention Black at all; 49ers Webzone has him out of the latter portion of team drills and says in as many words that whether he suffered a setback is unclear. So two accounts have him leaving the field early and neither has a reason. That matters more than a normal depth note, because Black is competing for the backup running back job against Jordan James, who has a fractured rib.

The offense was bad and both accounts say so. Miscommunication, overthrows from Purdy and from Jones, and an exchange between Jones and centre Brett Toth that hit the ground. Wagoner reads fatigue into it. Toth is in the backup centre competition, which makes his the one name in that sentence with a roster consequence attached.

The good plays, for the record. Luke Farrell caught a touchdown from Purdy in the move-the-ball period. Christian McCaffrey sold a fake, cut back against the grain and went a long way untouched. Eddy Piñeiro made all six of his field goal attempts, the longest from 55 with room to spare.

Kyle Shanahan addressed the team for the first time since the July car accident, then spent the practice on the field giving the offense feedback in real time. He had watched the previous four from behind the defensive backfield. Lynch, on Shanahan: "He's doing better. He got a nice welcome and it was good to have him up there."

Also out: Jordan James (ribs), Malik Mustapha (hamstring), C.J. West, Gracen Halton (knee) and Cameron Sample (knee). Kawakami has Trent Williams dominating one-on-one pass rush and Nick Martin working at strongside linebacker.

Two names crossed the 53-man projection today, which is two more than had crossed it in the first four practices combined. The reasoning for both is on the 53-man tracker.

Sources. Nick Wagoner, ESPN, August 1, for the practice log, the players who did not finish, the Samuel snap count and the Lynch quote. Jennifer Lee Chan, NBC Sports Bay Area, August 1, for the absence list, the Samuel usage, the Jones exchange, the Piñeiro kicks, the McCaffrey run and the Farrell touchdown. Tim Kawakami, SF Standard, August 1, for the Stribling assessment, Trent Williams and Nick Martin. David Bonilla, 49ers Webzone, August 1, for the club's announcement of Kamara's knee and for Kaelon Black leaving the latter portion of team drills. Kirk's absence count is this site's own, against its published camp reports of July 26, 27, 29 and 31: he strained the calf during the opening session and has not practised since. The 49ers' official release and transaction log, August 1, 9:44 a.m., and the club roster page, both read at the primary the same afternoon.

Filed under 49ers

More on De'Zhaun Stribling

His page →
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De'Zhaun Stribling Is Out At Least A Month, And Injured Reserve Would Cost At Most One Game More

De'Zhaun Stribling has a deltoid sprain in his ankle and is out at least a month, Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reported Sunday morning; the rookie is still seeking opinions and may need surgery, though none is planned. San Francisco has filed nothing: read at 4:50 p.m. Pacific Sunday, the club's transaction log still ends on September 10 and Stribling is still on the Active table. The reported month rules him out of Miami on September 20, Arizona on September 27 and Denver on October 4 whether he goes on injured reserve or not. The four-game minimum that comes with the designation adds at most one more, October 11 at Lumen Field, and Christian Kirk becomes eligible to return from injured reserve for that same game. The first club document that has to say anything is Wednesday's injury report; Nick Avila of NBC Sports Bay Area reported that the players do not practise until then. Behind Stribling the active roster carries Mike Evans, Demarcus Robinson, Deebo Samuel, Jacob Cowing and Jordan Watkins, and Watkins was inactive in Melbourne. One take filed, priced at -120.

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The Right Denominator For De'Zhaun Stribling's First Game Is Twenty-Six, Not Sixty-Five

De'Zhaun Stribling, the wide receiver San Francisco took with the 33rd pick in April, was hurt in his first professional game and the 49ers have published nothing about him since. The official participation report has him at 21 offensive snaps of 65, which is 32 percent. Counted against the 26 plays from scrimmage San Francisco ran before the snap he was injured on, it is 21 of 26, or 81 percent. The count reconciles to 65 at the end of the game once the second-quarter roughing-the-passer penalty is included, which is the check on it. He was not targeted on any of the 21. Six 49ers receivers took an offensive snap in Melbourne: Mike Evans 49, Demarcus Robinson 41, Deebo Samuel 27, Stribling 21, Jacob Cowing 5 and KhaDarel Hodge 1. Tight end Luke Farrell played 46, more than every receiver but Evans, and fullback Kyle Juszczyk played 33, more than Samuel. Four of the five other receivers who played are 30 or older. Kyle Shanahan said after the game that the Achilles was checked and intact and that the club was not sure of the magnitude of the ankle injury; further testing waited on the flight home, which David Bonilla of 49ers Webzone clocked at 13 hours 46 minutes, landing at SFO at 3:06 p.m. Friday. San Francisco's next game is Miami at Levi's Stadium on Sunday, September 20, at 1:25 p.m. Pacific, and the 49ers traded down twice in April, first with Miami, to reach the pick they spent on Stribling. No take filed.

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The Right Denominator For De'Zhaun Stribling's First Game Is Twenty-Six, Not Sixty-Five
49ers Notebook

Fred Warner Is The 49ers' Career Tackle Leader, On The Column That Counts Assists

Fred Warner became San Francisco's all-time leading tackler in the second quarter of the season opener in Melbourne, passing Patrick Willis, who held the franchise record at 950. Warner entered the season at 948 and finished the game at 959 in 122 games. The record is kept on combined tackles, solo plus assisted, and on solo tackles alone Willis still leads him 733 to 602. Kyle Shanahan gave an MCL for Jake Tonges and an ankle for De'Zhaun Stribling with no timetable on either, and the club has filed no transaction on either man.

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Fred Warner Is The 49ers' Career Tackle Leader, On The Column That Counts Assists

On the record

Called Shots →
OpenJul 31, 2026

Between the 49ers' first regular-season game and 2026-11-01, Deebo Samuel runs more pass routes from the slot than from out wide. Method, fixed in advance: alignment splits as published for Samuel over that span, slot routes against wide routes, backfield routes excluded from both sides. Ties resolve as FALSE. The comparison is his own two figures, so no league-wide source is needed to score it.

The call is on the ROLE the money implies, not on production. His 2025 usage in Washington was 260 slot routes against 141 out wide and 15 from the backfield, out of 416, at 5.3 average air yards per target across 99 targets, with 67 of those 99 inside ten yards. Niners Nation projects him to the slot with Stribling at Z and Mike Evans at X. A one-year agreement whose value the player's own agent describes as a ceiling is a continuity buy, and a continuity buy uses the player it just watched rather than the one from 2021. If he instead lines up mostly wide, the read in the piece is wrong and the team bought something closer to the older version.