Nick's Notes and observations from #49ers practice No. 9:

- Coach Kyle Shanahan is very close to being back at full speed. He came out to practice today at 10:26 am and was on the field for the whole thing. He's still not quite calling the offense and standing in his usual spot but he's getting there as evidenced by his surprise media session after practice. - The entire coaching staff was wearing Roger Craig No. 33 shirts in honor of the legendary running back as he goes into the Pro Football Hall of Fame today. - The only new name added to the list of non participants in practice on Saturday: LB Luke Gifford. It's unclear why he didn't participate but he did some work on the side. - The full list of those missing practice today: Gifford, OL Nick Zakelj (elbow), DE Nick Bosa (soreness), OL Carver Willis (concussion), WR Jacob Cowing (hip flexor strain), FB Kyle Juszczyk (broken finger), OL Brett Toth (concussion), WR Christian Kirk (calf), WR Mike Evans (quad), S Malik Mustapha (hamstring), RB Kaelon Black (adductor), RB Jordan James (rib), DL Keion White (adductor), OT Vederian Lowe (ankle) Players on PUP: TE George Kittle (achilles), RB Isaac Guerendo (pec), DL Mykel Williams (ACL) - Once again, many of these guys were doing some sort of work on the side. Evans looks close to full strength and Shanahan said Evans probably feels like he can be back now but they want to be smart with him. - WR De'Zhaun Stribling and LB Dre Greenlaw were back in team drills in varying capacities after easing back in from a hamstring and soreness the other day. - Some notes from one-on-one pass rush drills: RG Dominick Puni looks like he's ready to take another big step forward and potentially set himself up for a nice pay day. He had excellent reps against DT Osa Odighizuwa and Gracen Halton. ... Colton McKivitz shut down DE Romello Height on the first rep of practice then did it again later. They ran it back and Height jumped offsides twice before finally getting past McKivitz with a nice spin move inside... Rough day for DT CJ West, who seemed to be struggling to keep his pads low. He came up out of his stance a bit high a few times and didn't generate much push on a few of his reps, including one where C Jake Brendel handled him well... Brendel also had a good rep against Sebastian Valdez... Rookie DTs James Thompson Jr. and Bryson Eason and Odighizuwa and got the better of Connor Colby... Drake Nugent had a couple of solid showings against Thompson and West... Still no Alfred Collins here, though he's been plenty involved in team periods. And no one-on-ones for Trent Williams today (though he usually only does one rep anyway). - Score one for the defense today, bouncing back after the top offense had torched it a couple of times during the week. - CB Upton Stout led the way with a couple of big plays. First, he had a diving pass breakup near the goal line on a pass from QB Brock Purdy intended for Demarcus Robinson. Later, Stout jumped a throw for Robinson, picked it off and returned it for a touchdown. Stout even did a front flip into the end zone to cap it off. - CB Deommodore Lenoir, who has had his share of pass breakups in this camp finally got his hands on one with another pick (and possible return for a TD?) on another throw from Purdy for Robinson. Seemed perhaps Purdy tried to squeeze some tight ones into Robinson and it just didn't work today like in recent practices. - LB Fred Warner had an impressive pass breakup on a layered throw over the middle intended for Jordan Watkins. Warner also recovered what appeared to be a fumble early in the first period of team though it was unclear what exactly happened from my vantage point. - DB Nate Hobbs flashed some play making today with a bit more work in team. He had a pair of pass breakups in the red zone, one on a throw for Watkins froM Mac Jones in the corner of the end zone (there was an offside penalty called here) and another on a throw over the middle from Adrian Martinez. - DT Gracen Halton had a nice run stuff against Patrick Taylor Jr. right before Stout's pick-6. Collins got his hand up and batted down a Kurtis Rourke pass. - The Niners did a lot of mixing and matching today on offense. There were times where the top OL worked with QB Kurtis Rourke and other QBs were in with different lines. Perhaps made things a bit more disjointed for the offense. - It wasn't all bad on that side of the ball, though. Had Purdy at 15-of-22, including a tight window TD in the red zone to TE Luke Farrell, who continues to be a favorite target for Purdy in this camp. Purdy also hit Farrell on a deep throw up the seam and hit WR Trenton Irwin on a deep ball early in practice as well as a nice job moving in the pocket and finding Christian McCaffrey for a big gain over the middle. - Stribling was back in the mix in team and making an impact again, catching balls from multiple quarterbacks on multiple routes for multiple sizable gains. Shanahan referred to Stribling picking things up in a hurry in his presser and it continues to look like -- if healthy -- Stribling could have a fairly extensive role early on. - The running back situation behind McCaffrey has no clarity right now because Black, James and Guerendo are out. Nothing against the others that are getting reps there but this is such a prime opportunity for one of those young backs to plant the flag as RB2 and it's just not happening because of injury. Perhaps some will return next week because the path is there. - The Niners are off tomorrow but we will have some access to assistant coaches. Will pass along some notables that come from that session and then right back to it next week with the Titans coming for joint practice on Tuesday and the preseason opener on Thursday.