Random observations from Week 1 of 49ers preseason

The San Francisco 49ers were ousted by the Las Vegas Raiders in brutal fashion, losing 34-7 in their first preseason bout during a game where nearly none of the starters played on either side of the ball.

San Francisco significantly struggled offensively, with their lone scoring play coming off a near interception, while the defense struggled to contain both quarterback Aidan O'Connell and the run game in a disappointing effort.

Of course, much of the eyes are on the quarterbacks, as Trey Lance and Sam Darnold took a majority of the reps with Brock Purdy resting, but there's much more that goes on than meets the eye.

With that said, what are some of my random observations from Week 1 of the preseason?

Run/Pass disparity

While the 49ers' offense struggled to put points on the board throughout the game, something that stood out to me was the run-pass disparity early on versus when the game started to settle down.

The 49ers opened up the game with eight dropbacks for Trey Lance on their first nine plays offensively, which ended poorly, as the offense went three-and-out on all three drives, while the quarterback endured three sacks and was pressured on nearly every play.

The playcalling evened out after that, as Lance had four passes and three handoffs on each of his next two drives, which resulted in a touchdown and a turnover on downs in Las Vegas territory.

If looking even deeper into the context, you would see that, on Lance's second of the two drives, there was a first down sack prompting a pass-heavy approach to start, as well as a screen pass in the mix.

Lance obviously had a two-minute drill that resulted in four consecutive passes to end the half, which led to the 20-dropback, seven-run disparity.

Sam Darnold, on the other hand, had eight passes and nine runs called for him, although context is required there too.

Darnold had a pass and run evaporated due to distinct illegal formations, while the 49ers went with three consecutive runs, including a quarterback sneak after encountering a 2nd & 1 and failing to convert through four downs.

Still, there was a clear run-pass disparity between the early and later portion of the game.

And, while the offense didn't flow as well early on, I didn't hate the decision. I'm totally fine with Kyle Shanahan looking to give Trey Lance some additional passing opportunities and seeing what his young quarterback can do with the chances.

In my film review, I pointed out how there were several opportunities on negative dropback plays that Lance could've made to either move the chains or create positive yardage, but his hesitation ultimately led to blown plays.

Now, had those been converted, or even attempted, we may be having this conversation under a different scope.

After the offensive line had struggled at times, leaving Lance uncomfortable and indecisive in the pocket, I liked Shanahan's change in approach to incorporate a balanced attack, which led to better returns, even though the scoring wasn't there.

And since the formula was clicking, I liked the decision to continue the strategy when Darnold took over in the second half.

DL struggles

Is the defensive line as good as people suggest it is? More specifically, are the 49ers as deep along the unit as many proclaim to be?

Those were my main questions heading out of the preseason game, where the defensive line was worked by the Raiders' backup unit.

While the 49ers' defensive line got the better of the team's backup offensive line during training camp, it's valid to question truly how impactful they will be this season.

The interior defensive line, specifically Javon Kinlaw, Kerry Hyder, and Kevin Givens, struggled to contain the run, which was an issue for the players last season as well.

At edge rusher, there wasn't much contribution apart from some nice plays from Clelin Ferrell, whose roster spot seems locked, and Austin Bryant, which isn't great, given the lack of depth at the position.

This is why the 49ers went out and signed Javon Hargrave; with this team, it's important to have those key three-down players, but the depth at defensive line doesn't seem to be on par compared to previous years, at least early on.

Hiding Laborn?

All of training camp, the running back room was one of the strongest position groups for the 49ers, with players making plays from top to bottom.

Amongst the competitors at the bottom is undrafted free agent running back Khalan Laborn, who shined and looked like an NFL-caliber back in limited reps this offseason as a runner.

With the preseason providing more chances for third-string players like Laborn, I expected him to gain some carries during Week 1, but the running back saw just one touch and was bypassed by recent free-agent signing Jeremy McNichols, who got four carries for seven yards.

The 49ers may be playing the roster politics game here.

Laborn seems like an intriguing candidate to keep around, but the 49ers are set at the position with Elijah Mitchell, Jordan Mason, and Tyrion Davis-Price backing up Christian McCaffrey.

So, the 49ers may be preserving Laborn from the public eye to potentially keep him on their practice squad for the upcoming year, rather than let him play more and risk the possibility of losing him on waivers.

It's an inference, but one that certainly could be the case, given Laborn's lack of reps versus a player who just got onto the roster.

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