49ers

Injuries, unfortunately, are once again one of the early stories around the 49ers. They lost WR Ricky Pearsall for the season before it even began after he needed surgery to correct a lingering PCL injury. At one point recently, 20 players weren’t practicing due to various ailments. Even HC Kyle Shanahan is at less than 100 percent with lingering concussion symptoms from a July car wreck. Yet that hasn’t seemed to affect the team mentally, given how they overcame injuries to make a playoff run last year. 

“I think that year did so much good for us, just in the belief and the culture and in the locker room,” 49ers LT Trent Williams said via ESPN’s Dan Graziano. “Because that’s what won games, was the culture. It wasn’t the players. For so long we’ve heard, ‘Aw, y’all got seven All-Pros, seven Pro Bowlers, that’s why y’all win.’ And then we do without all those guys and we still find ways to beat really good teams and work our way into a playoff win. And yeah, once [George] Kittle was out, it was pretty much curtains, but what is there not to believe in?”

49ers assistant Chris Foerster is filling in for HC Kyle Shanahan and commented on the team’s injuries ahead of the preseason.

“It seems like we’re very healthy. We have injuries and bumps and bruises and guys are missing practices,” Foerster said, via Pro Football Talk. “If you’re not practicing football hard you can get through camp easily without injuries.”

Cardinals

Mike LaFleur enters his first season as the Cardinals’ head coach following his time as the Rams’ offensive coordinator. When asked about the groundwork for his offense in Arizona, LaFleur said he wants everything crisp before the snap. 

“How tight are we in the huddle?” LaFleur said, via Charles Robinson of NFL Blue Book. “How are we breaking the huddle? How crisp are our motions? How are we communicating? All the little details before the snap.”

LaFleur mentioned that every strong offense is productive in its pre-snap buildup. 

“I have yet to see a really good offense that looks like shit before the snap. I’ve seen a lot of bad offenses that naturally just look like shit before the snap — don’t know where they’re going, breaking the huddle it looks sloppy and slow. I think I’ve got it ingrained in these guys how important that is. We’ve watched a lot of Rams film and stuff like that to just kind of visualize it.”

As for Jacoby Brissett being set to be their starting quarterback, LaFleur believes the adversity Brissett has faced throughout his career gives them the experience they need at the position. 

“You always knew he was going to be mature because he’s a little bit older and he’s been through the wringer,” LaFleur said. “He’s had an injury. He’s had more ups than downs, but his downs have calloused him in a good way, in my opinion. And that’s what really fired me up about him in the draft process. Inevitably, we’re all going to get shit thrown at us at some point in this league. For him to get it thrown at him in big-time college football, naturally that’s going to callous you a little bit to learn it really doesn’t matter what other people think. He makes a good play, makes a bad play, it’s not like he’s looking over his shoulder to see if anyone is watching. He’s just doing his thing. I really was impressed with just how he was able to absorb everything so fast. I think he’s pretty clean in the huddle. He’s still got room to get there, but I think he’s ahead of where I was expecting.”

Rams

Rams WR Davante Adams said CB Trent McDuffie has given him one of the best practice challenges he can remember facing.

“I can honestly say I don’t know if I’ll get a better look than what I get from Trent out there,” Adams said, via ESPN. “I don’t like putting big expectations, bulletin board material or any of that but at the end of the day, I can’t remember the last time I felt about another corner the way I feel about him.”

Adams said McDuffie stands out because he consistently affects plays with technique and awareness rather than simply benefiting from opportunities.

“But Trent’s out there doing something every single play,” Adams said. “He’s always got the right technique. He’s got a great way of reading you out. He understands his position on any given play, whether it’s his leverage or situationally a smart player and great technique. I don’t want to gas him up too much and have everybody thinking that he’s going to win MVP this year, but I’m really happy with what I see. It’s the epitome of iron sharpens iron. He’s made some plays on me. I got him a couple times yesterday and I’m assuming that’s how it’ll be all year.”

Rams WR Puka Nacua said McDuffie’s patience at the line of scrimmage and trust in his technique have been noticeable improvements since their college days together.

“It’s [McDuffie’s] ability to have patience at the line of scrimmage,” Nacua said when asked how McDuffie’s game has changed. “I think that’s something that Coach talks about all the time, especially in the DB room. When that ball is in the air you can see the body tense up and how they react when the ball is in the air, the look and lean. It’s something that he stays patient and in that deep ball rep that we had the other day of him running and saying you got to take it all the way to the ground. I think it’s something that’s been fun and working different movement at the line of scrimmage because he is so patient and trusts his feet. He knows he can roll too, so it’s always fun. If I can take the top off, I think that means I was running pretty fast.”

McDuffie said going against Adams and Nacua every day is helping raise his own level and gives him room to experiment with new techniques in practice.

“Knowing who you’re going to go against, knowing the type of player [Adams] is and knowing that every rep he gives you is going to be 100%, that’s what I love,” McDuffie said. “When I first came here, knowing who I was going to practice against, I was excited because they’re going to get me better. Yeah, he’s going to beat me a lot of the time because I’m trying new things just like he’s probably going to try new things. The more we can keep ping-ponging back and forth against each other, the more we can keep rising our standard, it’s going to be a great year for both of us.”

Seahawks

The Seahawks have a lot of versatile defensive backs going into 2026 with S Julian Love, S Nick Emmanwori, CB Devon Witherspoon and second-round S Bud Clark. Love said their defensive backs give HC Mike Macdonald options to blitz or stay in coverage.  

“It’s important for Mike, he can dial it up and spin the wheel and keep offenses guessing,” Love said, via John Boyle of the team’s site. “And for us, we play off of each other. It’s easier for an offense if you have that one safety where it’s like, ‘That guy blitzes.’ We know that’s a thing in this league — one guy blitzes, one guy plays deep — but it’s a cool tool when you know everyone can do everything. We can all cover pretty well, we can all blitz.”

Clark said their defensive backs group has established a close relationship throughout the offseason. 

“It’s a great brotherhood, but when it’s time to work, we have this thing called loose and focused,” Clark said. “We’re very loose and focused. When it’s time to focus, we’re focused, but when it’s time to have fun we have fun.”

Love is excited to see how Clark continues to develop. 

“It’s going to be really cool to see how he comes alive on the field for us this training camp,” Love said. “I’m really excited to see him spin.”

• Seahawks CB Trevon Diggs said he’s fully healthy and is very thankful for having an offseason where he didn’t have to rehab and could focus on training. (Curtis Crabtree)