Other than Evans, the most impressive WR in camp, by far, has been Stribling, who has a huge opportunity with Pearsall out and Christian
Kirk nursing a sore calf. Stribling is big, accelerates out of cuts very smoothly, catches the ball cleanly, and seems to have quickly earned the trust of the quarterbacks. He’s been so good that Evans, a six-time Pro Bowler, all but shouted out his name on Friday when asked to name a standout young player. “Strib!” Evans said. “Strib’s standing out. He’s had a really good offseason and OTAs and he’s continued to do that in training camp.” I’m a zero-time Pro Bowler, but in my eyes, Stribling’s early-camp play has been more consequential than any 49ers highly drafted rookie receiver since Aiyuk in 2020 and Deebo in 2019 — and has already placed him above Pearsall, Dante Pettis, Danny Gray, and Jalen Hurd.
Jeff Nowak·
Rattler made his mistake today on a slightly underthrown deep ball in 7-on-7s that was intercepted by Quincy Riley, and the QB responded with some of his best moments of camp. That stretch included another ball attacking the rookie deep, this time to Mason Tipton for what would've been a 50-yard TD in team drills. Even more impressive was his showing in the first set of situational drives of this camp, a 14-14 scenario with about 1:45 left and one timeout to use. Rattler -- leading the second team for this practice -- completed his first three passes, two checkdowns to Kendre Miller for positive gains and a ball to Dante Pettis that the receiver took for a 20-yard gain into opposing territory.
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