"Hot reads are the hot thing at 49ers OTAs

During 49ers practice today at their organized team activities, there was something obvious about the team's offense that had not been seen in a while. When a blitz was coming, the quarterback got rid of the ball quickly.

"The hot thing is new around here," 49ers quarterback Shaun Hill said.

In the recent past, whenever the 49ers saw a blitz coming, they'd try to adjust the blocking assignments to pick it up so they could stick with the same play. Now, if the 49ers under new coordinator Mike Martz recognize a blitz is coming, they can also get rid of the ball quickly in hopes of making a big play.

Coach Mike Nolan said he sees quarterback Alex Smith working on some things during practices that he's never seen before -- things he'd like to see carry over into the exhibition games. The first thing he mentioned was getting the ball out quickly against blitzes. A lot of the responsibility for beating the blitz falls on the shoulders of the quarterback to get the ball out quickly -- before the rush arrives.

Smith said this offense relies a lot anticipation and timing. Smith said when he watches film he admits that it looks like he's adopted more of a "gunslinger" mentality.

"It looks like that from an outsider's perspective, but it is structured," Smith said.

Tight end Vernon Davis, who is the target of some of those hot reads, said this is a different mentality than in the past. He said he couldn't remember being the target of any hot reads in the past."






No motherfucking hot reads for the past 4 years... Are you fucking kidding me?! I always thought one of Alex's biggest problems was that he held the ball too long, but the dude couldn't call audibles, and he had no fucking hot routes?! What the fuck.

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