49ers
Brock Purdy enters the season after receiving a massive five-year, $265 million contract extension. 49ers HC Kyle Shanahan reflected on a phone call he made to Purdy back in April, explaining that it was important for Purdy to be present in their offseason program as negotiations pressed on.
“I just wanted to give him some clarity,” Shanahan said, via Nick Wagoner of ESPN. “I hope by me kind of reassuring him of that, it would kind of take the edge off and the pressure off. … And I just wanted to assure him that [the negotiation] wasn’t going to change anything.”
Purdy said he agreed with Shanahan and felt it was a “good reminder” to keep things in perspective.
“I totally agreed with him,” Purdy said. “It was a good reminder for him to call and remind me of what’s important in the long run.”
49ers OT Trent Williams thinks Purdy rising from Mr. Irrelevant from the 2022 NFL Draft to franchise quarterback is inspiring.
“You talk about a Cinderella story; I think that’s the epitome of that,” Williams said. “To go from making a few hundred thousand a year to making $50 million a year? He is the guy for this team. He is the guy for this franchise. This is just the tip of the iceberg.”
Cardinals
Cardinals DE Darius Robinson only appeared in six games last season after suffering a calf injury in their preseason finale. Arizona DC Nick Rallis said Robinson is coming into the season hungry for success.
“I think he’s going to be a hungry guy. He wants to be great. And so whether he would have played last year or he had the injury that set him out for the first part of the year, like he’s going to work no matter what. He wants to be great and so he puts in that time,” Rallis said, via CardsWire.
Rallis didn’t want to compare Robinson this year to when he was a rookie, but commented that he is “consistent” in practice and is improving.
“I don’t know if I’m going to sit here and try to compare to where he was. I know last year I saw a really good player and this year he’s doing some really good stuff. Obviously, there are things that he can improve on, but I see a guy who is consistent with how he works, consistent with how physical he plays when we got the pads on in practice or in the games. And I’ve seen parts of his game improve from where he was a year ago. So, I would say he’s continually getting better from one day to the next.”
Rallis praised Robinson for being mentally prepared going into the season.
“He works. Every day I need to meet before everyone’s meeting and I’m staying after the meeting. When we were over at the stadium, my office was in the D-line room and it felt like his office too because he’s just always in there.”
Seahawks
Seahawks OLB Uchenna Nwosu has emerged as a leader for the team’s defense and is looking forward to getting him back on the field in 2025, according to HC Mike Macdonald.
“Uchenna is a leader for us on defense,” Macdonald said, via NY Times. “He’s a great edge player on early downs. He’s got physicality. He’s incredibly smart. He’s got a great feel for the game, so activating on those pass-rush opportunities in the play-action game, he’s really good at. Then on third down, he can run inside and outside, he’s a great game runner. He’s got great chemistry with guys like Leo (Williams), and obviously he plays hard. So, a lot of boxes right there. He’s a heck of a player.”
Macdonald added that it’s too early to determine whether or not Nwosu will be ready for the team’s opener.
“There are some checkpoints we have to hit along the way,” Macdonald said. “The first thing is to do individual (drills), going through walk-through, staying sharp mentally; he’ll be ready on all that, but we have to get through that first.”
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