{"id":291370,"date":"2025-08-16T00:05:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T00:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/291370\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T00:05:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T00:05:09","slug":"what-colton-mckivitz-took-away-from-practice-vs-maxx-crosby-nbc-sports-bay-area-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/291370\/","title":{"rendered":"What Colton McKivitz took away from practice vs. Maxx Crosby \u2013 NBC Sports Bay Area & California"},"content":{"rendered":"

It might be an exaggeration to declare 49ers right tackle Colton McKivitz<\/a> won the day against Raiders star edge rusher Maxx Crosby.<\/a><\/p>\n

But McKivitz\u2019s showing on Thursday left him feeling good about the direction he is heading as the regular season approaches.<\/p>\n

It was a stark contrast to the joint practice involving the Raiders and 49ers<\/a> two years ago, when Crosby pretty much did whatever he wanted.<\/p>\n

McKivitz said he and Crosby chatted briefly at the conclusion of practice this time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told him, \u2018A little different than two years ago, huh?\u2019 \u201d McKivitz told NBC Sports Bay Area. \u201cHe said, \u2018Yeah, doing good,\u2019 and \u2018Keep the main thing, the main thing,\u2019 which is obviously balling and doing your thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKivitz took over as the 49ers\u2019 starter for the 2023 season when Mike McGlinchey<\/a> signed a lucrative free-agent contract with the Denver Broncos.<\/p>\n

McKivitz got off to a rough start in the season opener that year, surrendering three sacks to Pittsburgh defensive end T.J. Watt.<\/a><\/p>\n

He has shown steady improvement since then.<\/p>\n

After allowing nine sacks and 47 total pressures in his first year as the starter, according to PFF, McKivitz dropped those numbers to two sacks and 36 total pressures last year.<\/p>\n

The number of pressures allowed was still too high, and McKivitz is using his rough practice two years ago as a measuring stick for how far he has come and how much more he can still improve.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt didn\u2019t go how I wanted it to last (time) with him, but this year, a different mindset, and I\u2019m a different person, mentally, physically and emotionally,\u201d McKivitz said. \u201cI went out there and had a pretty solid practice against him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, Crosby is still Crosby, so he won his share of the matchups, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can feel Maxx every play,\u201d 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said. \u201cI know he got a couple of them, but I think Colton got a couple, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

All-Pro left tackle Trent Williams<\/a> was held out of practice, so Crosby lined up primarily against McKivitz, who realized the benefits of going up against a player at the top of his game.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing on the other side of Trent, he\u2019s going to get their best shot, and then they\u2019re going to come over and see me,\u201d McKivitz said. \u201cSo my goal is to make it as close as I can get to Trent as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a sense, going up against a player such as Crosby is more difficult in practice, McKivitz said. In a regular-season game, the 49ers would put together a scheme to go against defensive lineman. McKivitz referenced how the 49ers always game-plan against Los Angeles Rams star Aaron Donald.<\/p>\n

But in a practice, it\u2019s usually just one-on-one.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor him, we\u2019ll probably scheme a guy like that,\u201d McKivitz said of Crosby. \u201cTo have all the one-on-one reps, it\u2019s just a confidence-builder to see where you\u2019re at in the preseason and if you need to go back and fix things. It tells you where you\u2019re at in a projection for the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quarterback Brock Purdy\u2019s job performance is greatly influenced by how well McKivitz plays, and he likes what he has seen.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s done a great job this whole offseason, and I think (practice) was a really good test going against Maxx and some of those guys on the edge,\u201d Purdy said of McKivitz. \u201cAnd he’s done a tremendous job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Download and follow the 49ers Talk Podcast<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It might be an exaggeration to declare 49ers right tackle Colton McKivitz won the day against Raiders star…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291371,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[51704,4823,7,393],"class_list":{"0":"post-291370","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-2025-nfl-preseason","9":"tag-colton-mckivitz","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-las-vegas-raiders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115035525965795556","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}