The Only Thing That Matters When the 49ers Begin OTAs

It's almost that time for OTAs to begin for the San Francisco 49ers.

On May 22, the players will report to and practice for the next two weeks as a primer for training camp. This will be the first glimpse to see which players have improved their physique and if any young player from the last year or two will standout.

But ultimately, OTAs means little to nothing. These practices are ran at half speed with half the reps of a normal practice in shorts and t-shirts. Not to mention that a bunch of starters will not be participating, so in regard to the quarterback competition between Trey Lance and Sam Darnold, it is not going to be much of an evaluation. All OTAs are good for is to act as a warmup to the playbook so that the players are ready to go by training camp.

There is, however, one specific thing that only matters when the 49ers begin and play out OTAS. It is how the reps are split between Lance and Darnold. This is the only important aspect to takeaway from OTAs. Evaluating them is off the table in terms of a competition, but how the two are splitting reps will reveal a lot of what Kyle Shanahan is thinking. Will Lance get the majority of the "first team" reps since he is an incumbent? Or will there be an even split? Do they rotate who gets the bulk of the reps every other day?

Much will be revealed when the 49ers start OTAs. I would imagine Lance gets the majority of the "first team" reps. He's embedded in the playbook, so the 49ers can actually run a full practice with him. Darnold on the other hand probably is still getting it all down. I think OTAs will be the period that Shanahan uses to see how far along into the offense Darnold is at. He's only been with the 49ers for two months now, so I'd be hard pressed to believe he has the playbook down.

Still, I'm not putting anything past the 49ers when it comes to their quarterbacks. What if somehow Darnold does have the playbook down and gets more reps than Lance? If that is the case, then Lance looks to be dead in the water going into training camp. If it is an even split, then they are really trying to measure up the two quarterbacks. If Lance is taking the majority, then that will be a standard and logical practice.

Either way, however the reps are shared will reveal the true thoughts of Shanahan.