Training camp is supposed to be the fun part — no games, no losses, just guys running around in shorts trying to win a job. San Francisco kicked things off exactly like that, with rookies reporting to the facility and the roster getting its usual pre-camp shuffle.
Hours later, the real roster news landed. Adam Schefter reported the 49ers signed punter Jack Bouwmeester to a 3-year deal and, in the same move, placed tight end Khalil Dinkins on the Active/Non-Football Injury List. Two transactions, same breath — that's how camp works. You add a leg, you free up a spot.
Bouwmeester isn't some anonymous camp body. He's a 27-year-old Australian who went to Texas, Utah and Michigan State across 5 college seasons, punting 213 times for a 43.8-yard average over his career and closing out 2025 at Texas with a 44.5-yard average on 59 punts. First-Team All-Pac-12 in 2023, Second-Team All-Big 12 in 2024 — the guy's been a legit college weapon, just never got drafted.
There's also a paperwork wrinkle that made this deal weirder than it looks. Reports indicate Bouwmeester actually agreed to terms with San Francisco right after the 2026 draft wrapped up back in April, but the signing only became official now because he was waiting on a work visa to clear. Now he walks into camp set to battle incumbent Corliss Waitman for the punting job, which is about as real as competitions get in the NFL — somebody's actually losing their gig here.
Dinkins, meanwhile, is the flip side of a normal camp churn. He's an undrafted tight end out of Penn State who signed with San Francisco after this year's draft, and now he's on the non-football injury list before he ever got a real shot to make a camp impression. The 49ers haven't disclosed what he's dealing with, and landing on the non-football designation specifically means whatever it is didn't happen on their watch — think an offseason workout mishap rather than something in shells.
None of it is season-altering stuff, but that's the point of these first camp days: rosters get finalized, numbers get filled, and somebody's three-year deal creates room for somebody else's setback. Watch how the punter battle with Waitman plays out over the next few weeks, and keep an eye on whether Dinkins gets activated before roster cuts start mattering.