Charvarius Ward may be new to the San Francisco 49ers, but he already has a lot of confidence in the team's young quarterback, Trey Lance. On Tuesday, the 22-year-old passer reportedly had his best practice of the offseason as the 49ers kicked off a mandatory minicamp. At least, it was the best practice of the few open to reporters.
The veteran cornerback was asked about Lance and praised the second-year quarterback while expressing enthusiasm for the team's future.
"He QB1, so he's the face of the franchise," Ward told reporters. "He's going to show the world this season, I think."
Ward is coming from the Kansas City Chiefs, who had a pretty good quarterback themselves. Naturally, someone had to ask the defensive back to discuss the similarities between Lance and Patrick Mahomes.
"Patrick, both of them going to be great quarterbacks," Ward responded. "They light-skinned great quarterbacks. That's the similarities."
Ward didn't limit his praise of the 49ers offense to the quarterback position. He also boasted about the team's talented group of receivers. On Tuesday, Ward was held out of practice as a precaution. The team's best offensive player, Deebo Samuel, wasn't in Santa Clara until Tuesday—and he didn't practice. So Ward has not gone up against Samuel yet but knows him by reputation.
There was one wideout whose talent caught Ward off guard, though—Jauan Jennings.
"Jauan kind of surprised me a little bit," Ward admitted. "He got a lot more talent than I thought he had. He's a great route-runner. And we all know Aiyuk, he can be receiver No. 1 once he puts his mind [to it], and puts everything together. He's going to be a great receiver in this league even though we got Deebo Samuel. Once he comes back, and George Kittle, once all those guys come back, the offense, they going to do their thing, I'm pretty sure."
Since Ward focused on Jennings first, and the young 49ers receiver ended last season on a strong note, the defender was asked to elaborate on what impressed him about Jennings.
"He's a great route-runner," Ward responded. "He knows how to work his leverage. He does what the coaches tell him to do. He's just a gamer. Once he puts on the helmet and straps those shoes on, he's a good player."
On Tuesday, the 49ers' head coach, Kyle Shanahan, shared that he is highly confident in Jennings.
"I think if anyone watched our games at the end of last year, not many people covered him," Shanahan said. "He got open. He had aggressive hands. He got up the field. He blocked well. Jauan was a guy we had a lot of hope for coming into stuff. He had some setbacks with injuries, but once he got healthy and he got his opportunity when [Mohamed Sanu] went down last year, he took off.
"And this offseason, him and [Aiyuk], the first day they got here, they've had as good of an offseason as they've had since they got in the league. And they're as good as they've been right now, both of them."
