Day 8 of the San Francisco 49ers training camp is officially over, as it was the longest practice that the team ran, consisting of 13 periods, rather than the usual 12, with the final session lasting nearly 23 minutes in a heavy scrimmage day.
The offense and defense each had their moments, as the quarterbacks compiled a second consecutive day of good collective performances, while the defensive line rebounded with a number of pressures and at least five sacks.
Of course, much of the eyes are on the quarterbacks, as Brock Purdy is returning to practice, while Trey Lance and Sam Darnold are competing for the top backup spot, but there's much more that goes on than meets the eye.
With that said, what are some of my random observations on Day 8 of training camp?
QB rep split
When you look at the overall picture of the quarterback rep split, it seems very even between Trey Lance and Sam Darnold, who each got extended reps in 11-on-11s during a longer practice.
However, it was an interesting divide on Friday that had one quarterback sitting for at least 30 minutes in between reps in team drills.
Sam Darnold took the first reps with the second-team offense, and Brandon Allen was re-inserted as the third-team quarterback, meaning it took five series of plays once again for Trey Lance to get his first opportunity. The same went for Darnold the second go around.
Lance got an extended look in the second team drills session, which was a move-the-ball period, earning back-to-back sets of reps, working with the third-team offense first before taking the second-team reps after Purdy had his go around.
But, after that, Lance was on the sidelines for nearly 30+ minutes, as there was a session break, as well as a skip in the rotation, before getting a set of reps in the second move-the-ball session, where he drove the ball down to the redzone.
It's been an interesting management of reps for the backups at times. I can understand the desire to stack up reps sooner for quarterbacks to keep them fresh, but that long of a layoff isn't great.
Moody's Leg
Jake Moody can kick the ball pretty darn far.
The rookie kicker nailed a 57-yarder the other day with a few yards to spare, and narrowly missed a 63-yarder on Friday.
The accuracy will truly be tested only during the season, but the power in his leg is certainly there.
Moody appears to be fairly consistent with his accuracy though, not missing many kicks to begin camp, even those above 50 yards. Good sign for the 49ers early in camp.
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