SANTA CLARA — Having bounced around other parts of the country for eight NFL seasons, Brian Hoyer quickly recognized one of the perks of playing in the Bay Area:

The avocados here are fantastic.

“In Ohio, they’re either hard as a rock or it’s like they’re mushy already,” the 49ers quarterback explained.

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Both the passer and the chefs get something out of the relationship. Hoyer texts Symon for cooking tips; Symon texts Hoyer to complain about the Browns.

And now that the quarterback is here amid the moderate climate, the top-tier avocados give Hoyer a franchise piece for the rest of his guacamole.

Sitting in one of the 49ers offices after a training camp practice, the quarterback explained his game plan: fresh ingredients, lots of cilantro and a jalapeno to provide the heat. The key, he said was leaving in a few jalapeno seeds for an extra jolt.

“And a white onion. I don’t like red onion in guacamole,” Hoyer said. “Some people like to put tomato in it. It just depends on how I’m feeling I guess.”

This is a recipe — metaphor alert! — that the 49ers are trying to repeat on the field. There are lots of fresh ingredients here: their 90-man training camp roster had 53 players who weren’t with the team in February. And new head coach Kyle Shanahan will try to spice up an offense that hasn’t finished in the top 10 for yards since 2003.

(As for the onion and tomato metaphors … uh … you’re on your own there.)

Hoyer’s role here is to provide stability after a volatile few years for 49ers quarterbacks. He signed a two-year, $12 million contract this off-season in a deal that no one mistook for a blockbuster. Sports Illustrated immediately deemed the contract “a low-risk, moderate-reward option.”

The prevailing view is that Hoyer will serve as a transition to a more prominent QB next season. Think of him as the Hoyer Bridge, spanning from Colin Kaepernick to whatever free agent or hotshot draft pick awaits in 2018. Like our San Francisco 49ers Facebook page for more 49ers news, commentary and conversation.

His career record as a starter is 16-15 but his experience in Shanahan’s system, when they were paired in Cleveland in 2014, will allow him to mentor younger players.

Hoyer can also pass also along the lessons he once learned from the current quarterback master himself. He spent three seasons as Tom Brady’s understudy in New England after entering the NFL as an undrafted rookie out of Michigan State in 2009.

“I don’t think I’d be the player I am, or where I am, without spending those formative years just learning from a guy who comes every day like he’s trying to earn a spot,” Hoyer said of Brady.

“Intensity. Competitiveness. Preparation. Seeing him day in and day out, 8-9-10 hours a day, let me see the type of person he was, the leader he was, the preparation he put in. It showed me: This is what it takes to be the best. I always try to live up to that standard.”

There were ripples of Brady’s influence on Hoyer even before the 49ers set foot at training camp. The new quarterback gathered the team’s skill position players for three days of workouts at Southern Methodist University in Texas. The Hoyer roundup included the 49ers’ three other quarterbacks.

“We had a wonderful time, man. It was great for the camaraderie just to be able to see each other outside of 4949,” said Marquise Goodwin, the deep threat, in referring to the address of team headquarters. “You feel better working with people that you know and that you can trust.

“Our chemistry is great. We spent a lot of time off the field just talking.”

Hoyer takes the reins of a decidedly un-Patriots-like offense. San Francisco finished last in NFL passing last season and heads into 2017 with a cast of receivers who might also fit that “low-risk, moderate-reward” description. After veteran Pierre Garcon, the only receivers on the training camp roster with more than 100 career catches were Jeremy Kerley (246) and Louis Murphy (162). Neither Kerley nor Murphy made the team.

“I know what you’re saying,” Hoyer said early in camp. “Pierre is probably the most well-known, but, really, part of the reason I knew I wanted to come here is because of Kyle’s offense. He is going to get guys open. It doesn’t matter who they are.”

As with all 49ers quarterbacks (see: Young, Steve), Hoyer will inevitably be compared to the guy who came before him. He does not run like Kaepernick, as his 1.5 career rushing average confirms, nor does he have any desire to flee the pocket.

But, athletically, he has a higher ceiling than the other previous guy. Hoyer will not be Blaine Gabbert throwing 3-yard passes on third-and-9.

“Before I got here, I didn’t know he could throw the ball that far,” Garcon said. “He loves throwing the deep ball.”

Hoyer points to his season a year ago, when he thrived under offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains in Chicago before sustaining a season-ending broken radius in his non-throwing arm. He noted that Loggains was the quarterbacks coach when Shanahan was the offensive coordinator in Cleveland, and the Bears system was similar to what the 49ers will run in 2017.

This is what Hoyer did in that system a year ago, starting with Week 2: 317 yards (against Dallas), 302 yards (against Detroit), 397 yards (at Indianapolis) and 302 yards (against Jacksonville).

In all, Hoyer threw 6 touchdowns and 0 interceptions over his six games in Chicago. His passer rating was 98.0.

“I think that’s always been one of my strong suits is not zeroing in on one guy, especially against zone defenses because they are going to make you pick here, pick there,” Hoyer said. “The ball should go to wherever the open guy is. Until the ball is snapped, you don’t always know where that’s going to be.”

Hoyer’s niche is nuance. He is adept, for example, at the play-action fake — a hallmark of Shanahan’s offense.

While serving as the Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator last season, Shanahan used play action 27.6 percent of the time, the most in the NFL according to Pro Football Focus. In 2014, with Hoyer as his quarterback, Shanahan used play action 29.2 percent of the time (third in NFL.)

On this matter, experience counts. Hoyer said than in ’14, he would hear Shanahan’s play call in his headset and simply execute the play. Now, even early in training camp, he could hear the play call and immediately visualize how the action would unfold and how the defense might react. For complete 49ers coverage follow us on Flipboard.

He’s come to appreciate the art of a proper play-action fake. A little-known fact, Hoyer said, is that the true key to selling a play-action pass is an offensive line that blasts out of the snap the line like it’s a running play.

That’s what the linebackers are watching for; the exchange between the QB and running back is just the finishing touch.

As Shanahan said: “If a guy’s not stopping the run because he’s so worried about the receiver and quarterback, now you’re getting 4 yards before that guy shows up. It makes people hesitate. You can’t let a defense tee off on you in this league. I don’t care who you are on offense, they’re usually going to get after you once you become one-dimensional.”

Hoyer can appreciate a change of direction in more days than one. For most of his early life, he was dead set on becoming a professional baseball player. As a fire-baller for St. Ignatius High School in Cleveland, Hoyer went 8-1 with a 1.99 ERA and was the winning pitcher in the 2002 Division 1 State title game.

“Really, if you had asked me at age 14 if I was going to play football, I would have said, ‘No, I’m going to play baseball.’ I love baseball,” Hoyer said.

“I was on all these really good travel teams, probably the best traveling team in Ohio. We would play 70 games a summer. It was crazy.”

But during his junior year at St. Ignatius, his life changed forever under the siren call of the Friday night lights. Against perennial state football power Massillon Washington, Hoyer’s team trailed 21-3 late in the third quarter. Then he coolly orchestrated a comeback with a pair of touchdown passes, rallying his troops tto victory despite a hostile road crowd of 15,051.

After that, his baseball career was going … going … gone.

“I was, like, ‘Man, this is so much more exciting than baseball’ when I’m just standing on the mound and pitching the ball,” Hoyer said with a laugh.

“To be honest, I don’t know if there’s anything better than hitting a home run. Throwing a deep touchdown pass is probably pretty close. Those are the things I miss about baseball, but I’ll never forget that game my junior year. I was like, ‘Man, if this is what big time high school is like …'”

For a guy who chased gridiron glory, though, he also knows just how miserable NFL life can be: He grew up a Browns fan.

Hoyer’s favorite player in those days was the quarterback, Bernie Kosar. Hoyer also remembers watching in his living room as his dad groused about the idiot coach who kept slamming shifty Eric Metcalf into the middle of line on power runs.

“Funny enough, that’s when Bill Belichick was coaching,” Hoyer recalled. “So I told (Belichick) the story, he kind of got a chuckle out of it.”

For one of his many lessons in anguish, Hoyer was in the stands on the day the Browns played their final game at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. This was before the franchise moved to Baltimore.

“As a 10-year-old, I don’t think you fully understand what’s going on. But to see grown men crying, people ripping out the seats — it was a traumatic experience,” he says now.

As part of a wide-ranging career travels, Hoyer wound up going home and playing in Cleveland during the 2013 and ’14 seasons. In his second year, he led the NFL with 13.74 yards per completion.

It was during this stop that he became friendly with Symon, the restaurateur and television personality. Symon owns a number of restaurants in downtown Cleveland, including Lola, which brought him national culinary acclaim.

Hoyer isn’t quite in that league, but he did win a celebrity cooking competition in 2014. His winning menu of mussels, a grilled romaine salad and truffle beef tenderloin helped raise money to support families dealing with pediatric traumatic brain injuries.

“I always like watching The Food Network,” Hoyer says now. “And I’ve always been passionate about food. It’s kind like anything: You just kind of mess around and see what you like and what you don’t like and learn some technique.”

Now, the 49ers are hoping Hoyer can bring a little sizzle back to their dormant franchise. He should know that fans out here like their football well done.