Joshua Garnett is a big man at 6-foot-5 and 321 pounds, so it was interesting to see a video of him surface this week dunking a basketball.
The former Stanford guard, in a video he posted on his Twitter account, takes a basketball at the top of the key, shuffles about four steps toward the hoop and then goes up for the slam.
Wrote Garnett: “Tired of people saying I couldn’t dunk! This was in college, don’t worry #49ers fans I am keeping the knees safe!”
Now the 49ers are hoping that Garnett – despite missing much of the team’s offseason program – will be a slam-dunk success at guard in the team’s revamped offensive line in 2016.
Based on his performance in the team’s recent three-day, full-squad minicamp, there’s reason to believe he will be.
Garnett saw action at both left and right guard in minicamp and appeared comfortable and knowledgeable. Garnett had been forced to miss earlier time on the field during organized team activities because he was still finishing up academic work in his final year at Stanford.
But Garnett had stayed in touch with coaches and teammates and was absorbing the 49ers playbook even while away from the facility. Garnett specifically said left tackle Joe Staley was a big help.
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“(It’s) real valuable to know that the older guys want you to succeed and want to make sure that you’re staying on top of everything,” Garnett told a writer for the team’s website.
Once he got onto the field in minicamp, he knew where to go and what to do.
“I felt better than I thought I was going to coming in,” he said. “Everything’s clicking. I feel like my preparation really helped me out.”
Garnett played in a similar zone-blocking scheme at Stanford to the one Chip Kelly has installed with the 49ers, so the transition wasn’t as difficult.
Garnett says he’s willing to play on either the left or right side. Veteran free agent pickup Zane Beadles is ticketed to play the other guard spot, with Staley at left tackle and Daniel Kilgore at center. Right tackle is still up in the air, with second-year man Trent Brown the leading candidate going into next month’s training camp.
Kelly, for one, doesn’t have any worries that Garnett will be able to contribute his first season.
“You could tell that he’s worked in his time away at the football aspect of things,” Kelly told 49ers.com. “So that was impressive.”
