Today is the day for all San Francisco 49ers fans. It's preseason, and some may not care about the outcome, but there a lot of notes we can make based off small sample sizes of certain players. This writer has a few players to watch for and look forward to seeing in week 1.
LB NaVarro Bowman
After suffering a huge knee injury against the Seahawks in 2013, Bowman sat out the whole 2014 season nursing that knee. He's back, and he's going to have to be the anchor for this brand new 49ers defense. Bowman may not play against the Texans, Tomsula said if he does it will be for packages of plays, but nonetheless the fact that Bowman can play is big for the 49ers. For Bowman we'll want to see speed and explosiveness. Mentally Bowman is top-knotch, but physically we haven't seen yet and hopefully we get to witness a bit of him this first week.
QB Blaine Gabbert
The 49ers re-signed Gabbert this past spring and almost everyone had a synchronized "What?!?" but Gabbert is one to watch for this preseason. He'll get a lot of time, and it will hopefully make us feel a bit better about our future if something does happen with Kaepernick. With the sample size we have seen of Gabbert before, hopefully Kaepernick will stay healthy or the 49ers are in bad trouble. Gabbert didn't play all that well last preseason, but Tomsula talked a bit about that leading up to this year.
“Who was blocking for him? What was the cast around him?” Tomsula mused. “This preseason ... that cast will probably be different. Maybe not as much this weekend, but Blaine Gabbert is going to be in a position with a cast around him that will look different."
RB Jarryd Hayne
Hayne has been an intriguing player this training camp and offseason. The 49ers signed the ex-rugby player and all the talk is that he's aggressive, tough, and fast. The 49ers may have depth t the running back position, but Hayne makes this writer very excited for this preseason. Hayne will get plenty of reps for his quest of making the team this season.
CB's Tramaine Brock and Shareece Wright
This duo at the corner position have been in the first-team reps all training camp. For the 49ers defense to be good, you can guarantee their run defense being exceptional, but the pass defense has always been a real issue. These two are something to watch for as they'll be matching up against the best receivers all season. The CB position is the most worrisome of the defense so flashes of bright spots in the preseason will bring some comfort to the fans.
After a long-awaited offseason, the time has come to see the 49ers take the field. Gametime will be at 5 pm PST for the first step of many this season.