NFC Notes: Devon Witherspoon, Jordyn Brooks, 49ers, Rams, Seahawks

49ers third-round TE Cameron Latu feels like he’s “thinking way too much” in practice and is working to simplify the game. 

“I’m obviously thinking way too much every play,” Latu said, via Eric Branch of the SF Chronicle. “It’s got to slow down for me and I have to just understand what I’ve got to do on every play and do it at a high speed. That’s my thing: I’m too slow right now.”

Latu feels like his success at Alabama will help translate into the NFL. 

“Most definitely,” Latu said. “I was at Alabama for five years and I’ve been here for less than five months. It’s coming faster for me now that I’m understanding the game of football as a tight end.”

49ers TEs coach Brian Fleury said they are being patient with Latu and its requires time for players to learn new systems. 

“It’s different than somebody who spent their entire life playing tight end, especially tight end in different schemes,” Fleury said. “You can ask them to make adjustments and it’s something they might be familiar with. With (Latu), if you’re asking him to do something different, it’s something he’s never attempted to do before. It takes time to where you’re not thinking about technique and you can think about what the opponent is doing and make those adjustments. He’s still at a point where he’s thinking about everything he’s doing to start the play. That’s where you can tell there’s a little bit of newness to the position.”

• Latu has swelling and an issue with his meniscus which might necessitate knee surgery. (Nick Wagoner)
• 49ers third-round K Jake Moody suffered a strained quadriceps in practice this week and was ruled out from Friday’s preseason game. (Branch)

Rams

Preseason results infamously have little correlation to the regular season. The only two NFL teams to go winless, the 2008 Lions and the 2017 Browns, each went 4-0 in the preseason that year. Still, it’s not encouraging for Rams HC Sean McVay to punctuate a winless preseason with a 41-0 drubbing by the Broncos. 

“That was a humbling night,” McVay said via Arnie Melendez Stapleton of the Associated Press. “That’s not a night you ever want to go through no matter what your approach is. . . . There are some guys that got that some opportunities that we might be counting on for our 53 and so I’ll have to be able to look at some film but tonight was a good humbling night that you sometimes have in football and you have to be able to learn from them and move on accordingly.”

Seahawks

• Per the Athletic’s Michael-Shawn Dugar, Seahawks HC Pete Carroll was not committing to anything with first-round CB Devon Witherspoon, who has missed some time with a hamstring injury: “He’s flying. He’s going. But, there’s a lot more to it than that. It’s the conditioning level he can maintain and hold up with the workload of practices. We’ve got to figure that out.”
• Meanwhile Carroll said he’d be shocked if LB Jordyn Brooks wasn’t playing in Week 1, which is a remarkable turnaround after tearing his ACL at the beginning of this year. (Dugar)
• Seahawks first-round WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba is confident he can beat any injury return timeline and is wearing a brace after wrist surgery. (Dugar)