The 49ers Worked Out Three Centers On A Day They Did Not Practice
Camp notebook, Friday. San Francisco did not hold a practice, and its afternoon still produced a three-man tryout sheet, an injury settlement, and a second published version of Brett Toth's injury. Four times since July 28 this club has worked a group out and signed one of them inside three days.
San Francisco worked out three offensive linemen on Friday, and every one of the three is a center. Doug Kramer Jr., whom Chicago drafted in the sixth round in 2022 out of Illinois. Joe Michalski, undrafted out of Oklahoma State in 2025 and waived twice by Denver since. Lecitus Smith, whom Arizona drafted 215th overall in 2022 as a guard and whom David Bonilla lists at center now. Bonilla had the workout at 49ers Webzone at about 2:47 p.m. PT, off the NFL's daily transaction report, and Niners Nation headlined the same item as a tryout for three centers.
The 49ers did not practice on Friday. The club's published Week 3 schedule, posted Tuesday by Webzone's site staff off the media schedule, gives Friday as a walk-through with no media availability and puts the next practice at 10:15 a.m. Saturday. Nothing published Friday contradicts it, and the four checks carry their own times because a claim that nothing exists is only as fresh as the last look at each source: the club's newsroom index, no Day 9 recap, 2:53 p.m. ESPN's continuously updated camp file, no entry after Thursday, 2:50. Niners Nation's front page, no practice report, 2:52. Webzone's front page, 2:49, five items posted Friday and none of them a practice report.
The missing recap is the weakest of those four and it is worth saying why, because this site leaned on it yesterday and it did not hold. The club's own camp recaps have published at 3:40 p.m., 4:09 p.m. and 3:52 p.m. on the last three practice days, which is after the hour this notebook gets written. An empty newsroom index at 2:53 p.m. is therefore evidence of very little on a day the team practiced. What carries the claim today is the club's own published schedule, plus three independent outlets that were not silent on Friday and wrote about other things.
So the news is the tryout sheet, and the tryout sheet is about one position. Sixteen offensive linemen sit on the active roster, counted in a browser at 2:51 p.m. Four of them are hurt: Vederian Lowe with a high ankle sprain, Carver Willis in concussion protocol, Nick Zakelj with an elbow, Brett Toth with something nobody agrees on. Three of those four are inside this site's projected 53. Behind Jake Brendel at center, this board's answer has been Toth, and Toth has now missed two straight practices. The club did not spend Friday afternoon looking at offensive linemen in general. It looked at three centers, which is the job this board has had Toth doing behind Brendel.
Four times since July 28, this club has worked a group out and signed somebody out of it. July 28, four edge defenders; K.J. Henry and Quinton Bell signed the next morning, and David Lombardi wrote the sentence that makes it a set rather than a coincidence, that San Francisco was signing two of the four it had worked out that day. July 29, three receivers; Trenton Irwin signed on the 31st. July 30, three running backs; Khalil Herbert signed on August 2. August 2, three edge rushers; Ogbo Okoronkwo signed on August 5. The slowest of the four took three days.
What makes Friday's group different is what it would cost. The roster is at 90 against a ceiling of 90, counted the same minute as the rest of this: 88 active plus three on Active/PUP is 91 names, less Isaac Alarcon's league exemption. Every one of those four signings carried a corresponding subtraction in the same club release, and the club log shows no day since July 25 on which San Francisco added a man without removing one.
The take, filed today and scoreable by anybody with a transaction log: San Francisco signs at least one of Kramer, Michalski or Smith on or before Wednesday, August 12. That is five days against a pattern whose slowest instance was three, on a week that runs into a joint practice with Tennessee on the 11th and a preseason game on the 13th. The case against it is real and it is the base rate: most tryouts produce nothing, the club has just signed Kion Smith at the same position group, and Willis and Toth could both walk back onto the field Saturday and make the whole thing moot.
A second transaction, and this one is a departure. The 49ers reached an injury settlement with defensive lineman William Bradley-King, per the same Bonilla item off the same transaction report. He was waived/injured on July 29 to make room for Henry and Bell and reverted to injured reserve on the 30th when he cleared. He was never graded on this board and the settlement moves no name in the 53, but it closes a file this site has had open since the day it was opened.
Neither of Friday's two items has reached a transaction feed. The club's own log, read at 2:51 p.m., has nothing after August 6. ESPN's, read at 2:54, has nothing after August 6 either. A workout is not a signing and a settlement is not a roster move, so the feeds are behaving correctly and not lagging. Worth saying out loud on a beat where the difference between reported and processed has cost this site a sentence before.
Brett Toth has two published injuries. The club's own Day 8 recap says undisclosed. Bonilla, on Friday, says undisclosed. Marc Adams, in his Day 8 quick hits posted Friday morning, has him at concussion, listed one name after Carver Willis, who is in concussion protocol. Those are two published versions and this site is not picking one. The distinction is not cosmetic: a concussion has a protocol with a defined exit and an undisclosed injury has neither.
And a number this site printed on Thursday has a second version. Thursday's notebook has Brock Purdy at 11 of 14, charted by Nick Wagoner. The club's own Day 8 recap, published at 3:52 p.m. Thursday, has him taking 32 snaps in team periods and completing 12 of 17. Both are published, both are Thursday, and the club's recap landed 32 minutes after the 3:20 p.m. check that sits behind Thursday's piece. Named here, not quietly replaced.
The backup running back competition still has nobody healthy in it. Jordan James did not practice Thursday with the fractured rib, and Adams has Kaelon Black out with an adductor. Khalil Herbert was signed into exactly that condition on August 2, three days after the club worked him out. Both James and Black are inside the projected 53 and neither has moved.
Sources: David Bonilla, 49ers Webzone, August 7, for the workouts and the settlement. Marc Adams, 49ers Webzone, August 7, for the Day 8 quick hits. The club's Week 3 schedule per 49ers Webzone site staff, August 4. 49ers.com's own Day 8 recap, August 6, 3:52 p.m. Nick Wagoner's ESPN camp file. David Lombardi for the July 28 workout group. The roster and transaction counts were taken in a browser on 49ers.com and ESPN between 2:51 and 2:54 p.m. PT Friday, and both logs were re-read at 4:56 p.m. with nothing added after August 6. Niners Nation, August 7, for the tryout count. Kramer's, Michalski's and Smith's draft years and positions are from their own records rather than from the workout item. The photograph is the 49ers offense against Chicago at Levi's Stadium on December 8, 2024, and none of Friday's three men is in it. This site has no access to 49ers practices and every observation here belongs to a named reporter on a named date.
