Nick Bosa And Christian McCaffrey Did No Drills In The Open Portion Of The First Melbourne Practice

San Francisco practised at AAMI Park on Monday, which was Sunday evening in the Bay Area, and David Bonilla at 49ers Webzone calls it the club's first practice of the week. The Rams are four days away, at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Thursday at 5:35 p.m. Pacific, in a different building on the other side of the Yarra. Nick Bosa and Christian McCaffrey did not take part in drills during the part of it reporters were allowed to watch.

Matt Maiocco, at NBC Sports Bay Area: "Nick Bosa and Christian McCaffrey were not taking part in drills in the early portion of 49ers practice that was open to the media. George Kittle is practicing." Matt Barrows, at The Athletic, filing from the field: "49ers practice is underway. I see George Kittle and Mike Evans, but no Nick Bosa." Barrows on the running back, separately: "Christian McCaffrey was on hand but did not practice. He might be on a practice pitch count all season."

Bonilla records that Bosa was suited up before the unpadded session, and states the limit on all of the above: reporters are required to leave before team drills begin. What either man did after that is not public.

The report that was not owed#

A team playing on Thursday files participation reports early in the week. San Francisco filed none for this session, and Kyle Shanahan gave the reason in the same breath he used to decline the question.

"Because we're technically in the future from where we're from and the Rams are in the present, I don't have to talk about injuries until tomorrow," Shanahan said at his Week 1 news conference. "So I'm not talking about them."

That is worth taking literally rather than reading as a joke about clocks. On an ordinary Monday of a short week, Bosa and McCaffrey would each carry a designation on a public document: full, limited or did not participate. Here there is no document yet, and the evidence is what reporters saw before the gates closed.

What Bosa's absence sits against#

Bosa tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in Week 3 last season and played three games. He was medically cleared when camp opened, then lost a month to soreness and tendinitis in the repaired knee, and did not practise between August 3 and September 2. On September 2, in Santa Clara, he took individual drills and team periods, which Bonilla records as his return.

So this is one missed session five days after a full one, on a knee the club has handled carefully since July. Bonilla reads the suiting up as caution rather than trouble. Four days from kickoff, it is still a session Bosa did not take in the part that was seen.

Six were back and one is unaccounted for#

Barrows named six previously injured players who practised: cornerback Renardo Green, defensive lineman Romello Height, receiver Jacob Cowing, tackle Vederian Lowe, defensive lineman Gracen Halton and linebacker Luke Gifford. Green had been dealing with a hamstring, Cowing with a groin, Height and Halton with ankles.

Six men sat out the last Santa Clara practice on September 2, per Kyle Posey at Niners Nation that afternoon: Green, Cowing, Gifford, Halton, Height and defensive lineman James Thompson Jr. Five of those six are on Barrows' list. Thompson is on neither, and none of the reports out of Melbourne names him in either direction. Thompson is a rookie, he is on the 53, and the defensive line is where San Francisco has made most of its transactions since July.

Mike Evans practised, per Barrows and per Nick Wagoner at ESPN. He was on the field in Santa Clara on September 2 as well, having sat out September 1 with an adductor.

Kittle practised. He ruptured an Achilles in January, came off the physically-unable-to-perform list on August 23, and took his first team reps on August 31, a date John Lynch fixed the following morning.

The captains, and two of them did no drills#

The club named eight team captains on Sunday evening Pacific, announced by Shanahan at the same news conference: George Kittle, Fred Warner, Trent Williams, Brock Purdy, Nick Bosa, Kyle Juszczyk, Christian McCaffrey and Deommodore Lenoir. Teammates vote. All eight held the job in 2025, so there is no new name on the list and no name off it.

Kittle enters his ninth season as a captain, which is every year of his career except his rookie one. Williams has been a captain in 14 of his 17 NFL seasons. Kittle, Warner and Williams wear the gold C for five or more years of service. Purdy and Bosa are in their fourth year, Juszczyk his third, Lenoir his second.

Bosa and McCaffrey were named captains on the evening they did no drills. Shanahan announced the eight at the news conference that came before the practice.

Odds and ends#

Brayden Willis is back on the practice squad and the club announced it itself, twenty-four hours after waiving him to make room for long snapper Jon Weeks. He never left Australia. The squad now carries seventeen men, which is the ceiling: sixteen, plus one when a club holds an International Player Pathway exemption. Isaac Alarcón is San Francisco's, per Maiocco, carried by Patrick Holloway and Kyle Posey at Niners Nation on August 31. Every addition from here costs a subtraction.

The club's own transaction log does not have the signing the club announced. Read at 2:58 p.m. PT, it ends on September 5 with the Weeks promotion and the Willis waiver. The roster page has moved Willis under a heading reading "DEV," alongside Kevin Givens, who was signed to the practice squad on September 1. Two club documents, one signing, and only one of them carries it.

The depth chart on the club website has not moved since Friday. Read at 2:57 p.m. PT, it still stamps itself September 4. Sam Okuayinonu is second at left end, three days after he went on injured reserve. Willis is at tight end. The long-snapper box has been empty since the roster was announced, and Weeks has been on the active roster since Saturday. That is the page on the club website rather than the Week 1 chart the club released to media, and the two have disagreed for a week.

Sources: Matt Maiocco (NBC Sports Bay Area, September 6); Matt Barrows (The Athletic, September 7 Melbourne); David Bonilla (49ers Webzone, September 6); Nick Wagoner (ESPN, September 7); Patrick Holloway and Kyle Posey (Niners Nation, August 31); 49ers.com captains release (September 6, 7:04 p.m.), roster page, transaction log and depth chart (all read September 7); the September 10 kickoff time and the Melbourne Cricket Ground as the venue via 49ers.com.