Will 49ers LT Trent Williams Participate in Training Camp?

I assume Williams will suit up and break a sweat as he goes through warmups with the offensive linemen. That's the least he can do as a professional athlete. But let's see if he exerts himself any further than that.
Sep 2, 2020; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers offensive tackle Trent Williams (71) during training camp at Levi   s Stadium. Mandatory Credit: San Francisco 49ers/Pool Photo via USA TODAY Network
Sep 2, 2020; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers offensive tackle Trent Williams (71) during training camp at Levi s Stadium. Mandatory Credit: San Francisco 49ers/Pool Photo via USA TODAY Network / Pool Photo-USA TODAY Sports
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As you can see from the picture above that was taken in 2020, Trent Williams used to actually practice during training camp.

These days, Williams hardly practices even during the regular season. He turns 36 on July 19 so he's trying to conserve as much energy as possible. And even if he doesn't practice, he's still an elite player and one of the best left tackles in the NFL.

Williams really doesn't need to do much in training camp to get ready for the regular season, but his teammates would benefit greatly from his participation, and here's why.

Nick Bosa is coming off a down season. Last year, he skipped all of training camp and preseason and finished the year with just 10.5 sacks, which is low for him. In the past, he would face Williams daily, both during 1 on 1 drills and 11 on 11 drills. And Williams would win almost every time. And these matchups made Bosa much better.

Williams is a leader and a captain -- he owes it to Bosa and the rest of the team to practice at least a few days every week during training camp. Because the more he practices, the better Bosa will be and the better the defense will be.

I assume Williams will suit up and break a sweat as he goes through warmups with the offensive linemen. That's the least he can do as a professional athlete. But let's see if he exerts himself any further than that.


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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.