Instant Analysis of the 49ers' 19-13 Preseason Loss to the Titans

The 49ers just lost 19-13 to the Tennessee Titans in the first preseason game, but what matters isn't the outcome. What matters is how the young guys played. So let's start with Dajon Stribling. I thought he was excellent. He was the star of the first half. He doesn't create a ton of separation, but he is big, he's fast, he's a downfield threat. This team doesn't have a downfield threat, and he makes contested catches, big hands. He's like Michael Crabtree with speed, and he's going to be in the slot a lot, and I really hope the Niners don't take him off the field so they can play Kyle Uszczyk this year. This needs to be the year where they finally make the three-wide receiver formation their base personnel. He's that important to this freaking team. Who else? Grayson Halton was really good. He was way better than Romello Haidt, who I think we're waiting to make an instant impact. He's 25 years old. He got put on his back, trying to spin back to the inside, as opposed to Grayson Halton, who was in the backfield a lot. He looked like their best defensive tackle, better than Alfred Collins, who seemed out of shape. And then maybe the most impressive rookie was Ephesians Prysock, played most of the game in place of Jack Jones, who injured his hand, made a couple of pass breakups. He's huge. He looks like Merton Hanks, and he plays cornerback. Maybe he'll move to safety one day. He looks like a very interesting player. On the whole, the Niners still have no starting left guard. Their running backs had no chance. I don't know how they're going to fix that. It's going to be a real problem against the Seattle Seahawks, but I guess an interesting silver lining is Curtis Rourke. He started tonight. He was 12-14. He's big. He's accurate. He gets rid of the ball quickly, and he's mobile. He's everything you want. He might be the next seventh-round pick the Niners drafted, who becomes an actual starter. He looked like he had starter traits. The only thing is, the Niners got him hurt running in between the tackles at the four-yard line, because they really needed to get a touchdown against Robert Sala. And he hurt his ribs. I don't know if they're broken. We'll find out in a minute. It kind of reminded me of that other time the Niners ran that young quarterback between the tackles. We're not going to talk about that. Today is a positive day, because the Niners lost a preseason game, but young players played well. And we'll see what happened to Curtis Rourke. And I hope I don't have to watch Adrian Martinez play anymore. But you know what? It is what it is. It's the preseason. And it seems like not that many players got hurt. So, good day.