San Francisco 49ers Open Camp Healthy at Last, With Mike Evans in the Fold

The San Francisco 49ers opened for business this week, and for once the drama quotient is refreshingly low. The rookie class reported to the SAP Performance Facility in Santa Clara on Saturday, July 18, a week ahead of the veterans, and the loudest storyline in 49ers news right now isn't a holdout or a trade demand — it's a medical chart that finally reads in the team's favor. Nick Bosa, Fred Warner, and most of a defense that spent 2025 in the training room are expected on the field when camp opens in earnest on July 26. Add Mike Evans, who swapped Tampa pewter for Niners red back in March, and this is the rare July where San Francisco's biggest questions are about depth charts rather than damage control.

The Week in San Francisco 49ers News

Rookies reporting on July 18 was the tentpole event of the week, with second-round receiver De'Zhaun Stribling, third-round pass rusher Romello Height, and third-round running back Kaelon Black leading the group into Santa Clara. Height made his arrival official just before report day, signing his four-year rookie deal. Undrafted names like edge rusher Mikail Kamara, defensive tackle Bryson Eason, and tight end Khalil Dinkins checked in alongside the draft picks, all of them getting a week of extra install time before the veterans show up on July 25.

The other notable item came from the front office. Paraag Marathe, the team's longtime executive vice president of football operations and chief contract negotiator, withdrew from consideration for the MLS commissioner job after being named a finalist, per the San Francisco Standard. That's a bigger deal than it sounds — Marathe has spent 25 years in the building and handles the cap gymnastics that keep this roster together. The team also announced 11 open training camp practices starting July 26, including five weekend dates, so fans get more access than usual to a camp that should be worth watching.

The Rehab Report Finally Reads Well

The 2025 season was essentially a 17-week casualty list, so the health updates coming out of Santa Clara matter more than any scheme talk. According to reporting from The Athletic and the San Francisco Chronicle, relayed by Pro Football Rumors, Bosa is more than ten months removed from the torn ACL he suffered in Week 3 and is expected back for camp. So is Mykel Williams, whose own ACL tear came in early November, and Keion White, who needed ankle surgery in February. Alfred Collins, last year's second-round defensive tackle, is ready to go after offseason shoulder surgery. Fred Warner, who dislocated and broke his ankle in Week 6, has been declared fully healthy.

The one name still carrying real uncertainty is George Kittle, who tore his Achilles in the wild-card win over Philadelphia in January. An Achilles in mid-January makes a July return ambitious, and the 49ers hedged accordingly this spring by re-signing Jake Tonges to a two-year deal. How much Kittle the team gets in September, and how carefully they manage him to get there, is the quietest big question in camp.

How the 49ers Got Here: 12 Wins and a 41-6 Gut Punch

San Francisco went 12-5 last season and still finished third in the NFC West, which tells you everything about the division they live in. Kyle Shanahan squeezed those 12 wins out of a roster with the third-most man-games lost to injury in the league, a job that earned him AP Coach of the Year consideration, while Christian McCaffrey took home Comeback Player of the Year. The 49ers beat the Eagles 23-19 in the wild-card round, then walked into Seattle and got flattened 41-6 by the eventual Super Bowl champions in the divisional round. That scoreline hung over the entire offseason. It's why the pass rush got rebuilt, why the receiver room got older and meaner, and why nobody in the building is treating 12-5 as evidence the roster was fine as-is.

One structural change worth flagging: Raheem Morris takes over as defensive coordinator, the fifth different play-caller on that side of the ball in five seasons. The Standard's camp preview suggests Morris will experiment with five-man fronts and more varied answers to opposing personnel packages — a real philosophical shift for a franchise that ran variations of the same front for years.

The Offseason Haul: Mike Evans Changes the Math

The headliner is Evans, who left the Buccaneers after 12 seasons and signed a three-year, $60.4 million deal in March. He's coming off an injury-wrecked 2025 that ended his record run of 11 straight 1,000-yard seasons, but a healthy Evans gives Brock Purdy something he's never really had: a big-bodied perimeter target who wins contested balls. The rest of the shopping list was thrifty and sensible — Christian Kirk on a one-year deal worth up to $6 million, cornerback Nate Hobbs on a one-year flier, swing tackle Vederian Lowe for two years and $12 million, and the return of Dre Greenlaw on a one-year, $7.5 million deal after his season in Denver. Per ESPN's offseason tracker, the front office also swung a trade with Dallas for defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa, sending back a third-round pick. Kicker Eddy Pineiro got a four-year extension. The one that got away: defensive lineman John Franklin-Myers, who chose Tennessee — and its lack of a state income tax — over Santa Clara.

Camp Battles and Rookies to Watch

San Francisco didn't pick until No. 33 overall, but the class arrives with real opportunity in front of it.

• De'Zhaun Stribling, the Ole Miss receiver taken with the first pick of round two, walks into a room where Ricky Pearsall is still working past knee and hamstring issues. Snaps are available.
• Romello Height gives the 49ers a rotational edge presence while Bosa and Williams ramp up from their ACL rehabs.
• Kaelon Black, who piled up 2,261 rushing yards in his final season at Indiana, competes for the backup job behind McCaffrey.
• The left guard spot is genuinely open, with veteran addition Rob Jones in the mix and fourth-rounder Carver Willis and fifth-rounder Enrique Cruz Jr. providing young competition on the interior.

The quarterback depth chart is settled at the top — Purdy, backed by Mac Jones, with Kurtis Rourke developing behind them — which is exactly the kind of boring the 49ers ordered.

What's Next on the San Francisco 49ers Calendar

Camp ramps up fast, and the schedule beyond it is genuinely novel.

• July 25: Veterans report to Santa Clara
• July 26: First of 11 open practices
• August 11: Joint practice vs. Tennessee in Santa Clara
• August 13: Preseason opener vs. the Titans
• August 18 and 20: Joint practice, then preseason game, at the Chargers
• August 27: Preseason finale at Las Vegas
• September 10: Season opener vs. the Rams — in Melbourne, Australia, on Netflix

That opener is the NFL's first regular-season game in Melbourne, and the 49ers will also become the first team to play two international games in non-consecutive weeks, with a Mexico City trip later in the year. It's a strange, jet-lagged way to start a season with expectations this size.

Zoom out and the picture is straightforward: the latest San Francisco 49ers news is mostly good, which qualifies as a plot twist after 2025. The stars are healing, the contracts are quiet, Evans gives the offense a new dimension, and the division that embarrassed them in January now has to deal with a version of this roster that isn't held together with athletic tape. The week of July 25 — when the veterans walk in and Bosa puts a helmet back on — is when the title-or-bust talk starts getting loud again in Santa Clara.