San Francisco 49ers: Biggest Storylines Ahead of Training Camp

Training camp for the San Francisco 49ers begins on Friday, when players report, and when practice begins on Saturday, finally, football will begin again—at least the football-like substance that is training camp reports and preseason games. 

An offseason filled with departures and pondering the replacements for those who have left will begin to get replaced with some cold hard facts. It’s the best time of year for many franchises—the time of year when everyone is 0-0, everything seems possible and every player seems poised to make a huge impact.

For the 49ers, there’s a lot of uncertainty surrounding the franchise thanks to the massive replacements of players and coaches up and down the roster. Uncertainty doesn’t mean the team will be bad, just that the range of possible outcomes for the 2015 49ers feels wider than it is for a team with known quantities already in place.

That can be good, as in the case of New England, or it can be bad, as in the case of Washington. For the 49ers, it’s very hard to predict how good the team will be thanks to a plethora of new starters and the new coaching philosophy.

As a result, the 49ers will be one of the more fascinating teams to watch as they try to replace more than a third of their playing time from 2014. Anything from a disastrous 4-12 season because none of the replacements work out to another NFC West title and trip back to the NFC Championship seems within reason, depending on how optimistic or pessimistic you are about the myriad changes.

This year’s chaos will put general manager Trent Baalke’s long-term strategy to the test.

Here are five of the top storylines to watch as training camp begins.

Meet the New Boss

Joe Robbins/Getty Images

Jim Tomsula opens his first NFL training camp as the lead man boasting the greatest winning percentage of any coach in NFL history, thanks to his 1-0 record as an interim coach between the Mike Singletary and Jim Harbaugh eras.

He also enters the season with no experience as a head coach or coordinator outside of the developmental—and defunct—NFL Europe. It remains to be seen how he’ll run a team of professionals and to what extent his success as a beloved position coach translates when he’s responsible for every aspect of football operations.

By all accounts, Tomsula’s planning on taking more of a hands-off approach than Jim Harbaugh, although you can't be entirely sure it’s possible to be more hands-on than Harbaugh was. A lot of the specific, day-to-day operations on offense and defense will be handled by coordinators Geep Chryst and Eric Mangini.

Tomsula’s replacing one of the most successful coaches in recent NFL history. Harbaugh’s 44-19-1 record in the regular season was the highest winning percentage of any active coach last season and the fifth-highest in NFL history among those who've coached a minimum of 50 games. If there’s a Mount Rushmore for 49ers coaches, Harbaugh’s on it alongside Bill Walsh, George Seifert and Buck Shaw. These are some very large shoes for Tomsula to fill.

Tomsula’s personality is outsized, and his road from sleeping in his car to a head-coaching position makes for great copy. But he’ll be under a microscope as he tries to justify the ownership’s decision to move on from Harbaugh.

Return of the Linebackers

Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

The 49ers missed 25 starts from All-Pro linebackers NaVorro Bowman and Aldon Smith last season. That’s a lot for any team to absorb, and the fact they remained a top-five defense is a testament to the players who were able to suit up.

Now, however, the return of Bowman and Smith to full seasons of work corresponds to the mass exodus of talent, with seven of the players who received more than 100 defensive snaps last season having left.  Adding a half-season of Smith and a full season of Bowman is like adding one-and-a-half All Pros to a defense—assuming they’re both up to full speed.

Bowman, of course, is coming off of a major knee injury he suffered at the end of the 2013 season, forcing him to miss all of last year. From reports, including this one from SFGate, Bowman was looking fairly good at OTAs, though he still wasn’t completely able to do everything he wanted to. It was a major knee injury and a major recovery process to get back to this point.

If Bowman is even 80 or 90 percent of the player he was in 2013, however, he’s one of the top linebackers in the league and should provide a veteran leadership presence on a team that desperately needs one.

Smith, on the other hand, doesn’t have injuries to point to for his downturn last season but rust—he missed nine games thanks to suspension handed down thanks to a laundry list of bad behavior off the field the year before. He also missed five games the year before thanks to a stint in rehab.

As such, the player who recorded double-digit sacks in each of his first two seasons is something of a question mark. Can he regain the form that made him one of the most feared pass-rushers in the NFL?

A full controversy-free offseason, a full practice slate and a contract year in the making are all points in his favor. The loss of Justin Smith to help set the edge for him is a mark against him.

Still, when Smith has played every game in a season, he’s averaged 1.05 sacks per game. Even during his interrupted and less efficient last two seasons, Smith’s was still at an amazing 0.88 sacks per game. A full year of Smith could be a game changer for the defense.

Replacing Legends

Ben Margot/Associated Press

Frank Gore, Justin Smith and Patrick Willis all have at least outside shots of making the NFL Hall of Fame and will all go into the 49ers Hall of Fame in relatively short order. They’re all gone now, leaving big shoes to fill.

The last time the 49ers lost at least three players in the same offseason even close to that collective level of talent was 2004, when Terrell Owens, Jeff Garcia, Derrick Deese and Garrison Hearst all left the franchise. The result of that was possibly the least talented team in franchise history, with Bryant Young leading a bunch of mediocre players to a 2-14 record—the worst in the NFL that season.

Will that happen in 2015? Probably not; there is still plenty of talent around in the likes of Joe Staley and NaVorro Bowman, but the prospect of replacing so many stars at one time is daunting.

Willis’ replacement will be Michael Wilhoite, who served as Bowman's replacement last season. Wilhoite can’t replicate Willis’ leadership or raw talent level, but he was a solid, if uninspiring, middle linebacker last season. He might be the weak link on the 49ers’ defense, but that’s mainly because the 49ers’ defense has been so good. A hard worker, Wilhoite’s play last year was enough to convince management they didn’t need to bring in an external replacement after losing Willis and Chris Borland.

Frank Gore’s carries will likely be replaced by a rotation, but Carlos Hyde looks poised to get the lion’s share. Everyone and their brother has Hyde poised to make the leap in 2015 and a 1,000-yard season is a distinct possibility. The fact remains, however, that he hasn't yet reached 100 carries in his NFL career and will be asked to play a huge role.

As for Justin Smith? The end result there will probably be a rotation, with young players such as Quinton Dial, Tank Carradine and first-round pick Arik Armstead having opportunities to fill in there. There’s opportunity, but the 49ers need someone to take advantage of that and make a statement. Armstead and Carradine have the draft pedigree, but Dial has had the most success to this point.

Make or Break for Colin Kaepernick

George Nikitin/Associated Press

Colin Kaepernick’s 2012 half-season was a revelation. Riding the read-option wave that spread across the NFL, Kaepernick put up a 98.3 quarterback rating and led the team to the Super Bowl, falling just short at the end zone with a chance to win.

His 2013 season wasn’t quite as good, as a few of his weaknesses with accuracy and reading defenses played a larger role, but it was still a very good year. Kaepernick threw 21 touchdowns to only eight interceptions and added 524 yards and four touchdowns on the ground, running circles around pretty much every team not named the Seattle Seahawks. A slight step down from 2012—one that was probably to be expected considering the larger sample size.

His 2014 season, however, saw him take another step back. Asked to do more work out of the pocket and with more NFL-style reads, Kaepernick regressed. He threw fewer touchdowns, more interceptions, saw his quarterback rating drop, absorbed sack after sack after sack and only managed 7.0 yards per attempt, by far the lowest of his NFL career.

There are a lot of outside factors you can blame for Kaepernick’s regression—questionable offensive design from Greg Roman, the state of flux that was the offensive line, the abrupt regression of Vernon Davis—but the quarterback Kaepernick looked like in 2012 and 2013 could have overcome those issues.  He took a notable step back last season, and it remains to be seen if it was just an anomaly or a sign that defenses have caught up to his style of play.

Kaepernick’s accuracy and ability to identify the open receiver has always been somewhat in question; it’s just that his arm strength, mobility and ability to make something out of nothing significantly outweighed his faults before last season.

He’s a boom-and-bust type of quarterback, and the value of that sort of player depends on how often they boom and how often they bust. With a new offensive coordinator in place, work done with quarterback coaches in the offseason and interesting new weapons that play to his strength, there are reasons to hope Kaepernick can bounce back. If he doesn’t, his contract is such that he can be cut without too much penalty after the year.

New Offensive Weapons

Patrick Smith/Getty Images

Helping Kaepernick develop will be a pair of new offensive weapons—some of the few free-agent acquisitions Trent Baalke has made in his tenure as general manager.

Take a lot of sacks? Well, why not work more of a safety outlet and screen-passing game into the system? And if you’re going to do that, why not grab one of the better receiving running backs of the past decade in Reggie Bush? While Bush has never lived up to the hype that accompanied him coming out of college, he’s averaged more than four receptions and 30 yards a game since he entered the NFL in 2006, not to mention the 45 to 50 yards per game he’s added on the ground.

While Carlos Hyde will get the starter’s reps for the team, expect Bush to come in on passing downs and provide Kaepernick with a short-range option to help stretch the field horizontally, as well as serve as an outlet if the offensive line has trouble with pass protection once again.

Have a quarterback with a rocket arm who tends to overthrow his receivers? Well, why not grab one of the better deep threats in the league in Torrey Smith? Smith, who has averaged 16.9 yards per reception over his NFL career, will re-unite with Anquan Boldin, serving as the deep option to Boldin’s underneath possession receiver traits.

It was surprising to see Baalke spend the cap space on a higher-tier free agent such as Smith, but adding a vertical threat to the passing game rather than the three or four receivers with roughly the same skill set the 49ers had last season should help.

Players such as Smith, Bush and Bruce Ellington bring with them specific skill sets for which defenses have to account. Splitting Bush wide will force defenses to declare how they’re defending him. Lining Smith up helps indicate where safeties will go. All this simplifies reading defenses, which can only help Kaepernick. If they’re part of a specific and organized offensive structure, we could see a rebound in form from the offense.

Bryan Knowles is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report, covering the San Francisco 49ers. Follow him @BryKno on Twitter.