The San Francisco 49ers and Tennessee Titans held a joint practice in Santa Clara on Tuesday. We’ll round up a bunch of tweets and react. According to everybody in attendance, there were at least eight scuffles, with most of them coming in the first ten minutes of action.
Fred Warner said, “No, I promise,” when asked if the defense intentionally picked fights. Warner added, “We’re not going to get through today if we continue on this path. I think we kind of found our groove after that fiery beginning.”
Depending on whose timeline you look at, both teams won the day. Things did not start out well for the 49ers defensively:
Things got chippy early. Renardo Green, Upton Stout, Fred Warner, and Dre Greenlaw were all involved. Green allowing a reception early was the trigger:
Props to the 49ers pass rush
The group, sometimes with help, generated plenty of pressure on Ward, who was under steady fire in the latter sections of practice.
Ward said it was good work against pressure, real-game situations and some scramble drill.
But as things settled down, the 49ers’ pass rush had their way. This is from longtime Titans reporter Paul Kuharsky’s recap:
In Turron Davenport’s post-practice notes, he highlighted Alfred Collins having a sack, and multiple edge rushers from the 49ers being disruptive. That’s noteworthy, knowing Nick Bosa is out. It shouldn’t be news that Osa Odighizuwa was making plays. He’s supposed to do that. It is news when the role players and depth are contributing, as that wasn’t the case last year — or the year before, for that matter.
Here’s more about the pass rush from Jim Wyatt from Titans dot com:
One issue that troubled Ward and the offense was the offensive line’s inability to protect at times. There were 49ers in the face of Titans QBs on several occasions in practice as the team worked through a number of different combinations, for one reason or another.
We should point out that the Titans lost their top two left tackles, Dan Moor Jr. and Austin Deculus, after they were ejected from practice after the first series. That could be part of the reason the Niners had so much success.
Strong in the secondary
Upton Stout, Ji’Ayir Brown, and Jakob Robinson had interceptions. Renardo Green had a couple of pass breakups. One Titans reporter was recapping a play and said, “Green simply had Ayomanor blanketed and there was no chance at a completion.”
Stout’s interception came on an overthrow when Tate was wide open. So we should put an asterisk next to that turnover.
Even after drafting Carnell Tate, nobody is going to confuse the Titans wideouts with, say, a team like the Bengals or Cowboys. But you still have to go out and make plays. The 49ers didn’t just do that today, but they also finished. That’s been a massive issue for years.
Fred Warner had strong praise for the secondary. He said he’s never felt as confident about a secondary heading into the season as he has with this one heading into 2026. While that could be the typical teammate talking up his teammates, it was unprovoked.
Hey, rookie
Titans reporters were impressed with Fred Warner and his ability to diagnose. That’s nothing new. What is is Jaden Dugger. He saw reps with the starters when they went to 5-man fronts. That’s good news for Dugger, and not so much for Nick Martin.
Dugger has the build you want for a linebacker playing on the line of scrimmage. And if there’s any motion or a tight end flexes out into the slot, he has the athleticism to walk out and still hold his own. It’ll be fascinating to see how he’s used and how Dugger’s role evolves this season.
Warner said Dugger has a “rare” skill set and can “run like a deer.” He’s a rookie, so mistakes are inevitable. But if Dugger can mix in enough splash plays to outweigh the bad while he works his way to being consistent, the base defense should be stout.
He’s not the only rookie linebacker making a name for himself. Larry Worth is working his way into becoming a practice squad player at the very least. If he shows enough special teams value, perhaps Worth can unseat one of the veterans for a final roster spot.
Raise your expectations for Brock
If you are in the belief that Brock Purdy is among the best quarterbacks in the NFL, then it should only be news if Purdy has a bad day. Everything else is expected.
So when you see tweets like this:
The reactions should be, “Yeah, that’s what he’s supposed to do.”
I’m referencing the Titans’ beat to avoid as much bias as possible. They had Purdy throwing only four incomplete passes. When I see something about Demarcus Robinson making plays, whether it’s in the red zone or at the intermediate portion of the field, my mind goes to, “Brock threw him open.”
Brock gave Robinson way more credit after practice:
“Yeah. I think he’s just one of the best receivers that I’ve played with in terms of the one-on-one matchup and his feel for the game. We’ll have something drawn up like, ‘Hey, the receiver needs to get this many steps and be here on time,’ but sometimes there’s situations where you cut it off short or you push up into a guy a little bit longer and then get out of the cut. Like, he has a good feel for the game when it comes to that. He’s played for a while. He’s got a lot of savviness to him. And obviously in the red zone, he’s got length, he’s got just the ability to go up and get the ball. So, obviously I learned a lot about him last year, but this offseason, watching film on him, it’s like, all right, we can give this guy more ops and have him be a huge part of our offense. He’s had a great camp. He’s been out there every day showing up, making plays and catches. Today against the Titans too. Same thing. So, I’m really excited for him.”
Robinson will likely be viewed in a different light playing alongside Mike Evans and De’Zhaun Stribling.
Speaking of, all eyes will continue to be on Stribling, who caught a team-high seven passes during team drills. Reporters are almost shocked that the Niners have a receiver who catches the ball without fighting it and continues to run without breaking stride.
Not to pick on him, but there’s a vast difference in the way Stribling catches the ball compared to Deebo Samuel — who is lining up in the backfield more and more with the offense missing its top four backs.
More importantly, they had the Titans defense generating little pressure. That’ll be a concern so long as we don’t know who the left guard is. That’s Robert Jones, for now. It might be Carver Willis. It could be Connor Colby. Better question: Does it matter? The other four starters are all a little better than average at worst.
One player who gets lost in the sauce and might play a bigger role once the season begins is Jake Tonges. The 49ers might not want to spread things out if the offensive line cannot hold up or the wideouts cannot separate. Even if George Kittle is inactive early on, two-tight-end sets might be their best path for success. Tonges reportedly caught multiple passes downfield, which is noteworthy.
A tight end is a quarterback’s best friend. Kyle Shanahan said the tight end groups have done a good job so far during camp. He also mentioned that Tonges can do all of the things Kyle Juszczyk can. The 49ers have their TE2 on the roster. It’s a matter of whether they use him.
