SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- San Francisco 49ers cornerback Rashard Robinson, perhaps more than any of his teammates, doesn't lack for confidence. In only his second year, Robinson's mouth runs almost as fast as his legs during the course of a practice.

But there's one player in this year's training camp who has rarely been on the other end of Robinson's in-practice musings: wide receiver Marquise Goodwin. In fact, ask Goodwin to recall the corner who talked to him the most since he entered the league in 2013 and he struggles to come up with even one.

"No cornerback in the league has ever really talked noise to me, so I really haven't had that issue with anybody since I've been playing in the league," Goodwin said. "I'm not out here to talk, I play football."

While Goodwin's quiet demeanor doesn't make him a magnet for trash talk, Robinson better illuminates the reasons opposing defensive backs generally choose not to bark at him.

"Marquise is pretty fast, so me and him out there running, it's like a track meet almost," Robinson said. "He's not pretty fast, he is fast."

So fast, in fact, that any wasted motion, even the rapid movement of a jaw, could mean the difference between staying in step with Goodwin and watching as he blows past.

At Texas, Goodwin was a two-time NCAA champion in the long jump and was a member of the 2012 U.S. Olympic team in that event. At the 2013 NFL combine, Goodwin ran the 40-yard dash in 4.27 seconds, which ranks fifth best in combine history. Over the summer, ESPN's Matt Bowen rated Goodwin the second-fastest player in the NFL, behind only Kansas City Chiefs receiver Tyreek Hill.

Given all of that, it has hardly been a surprise to see Goodwin racing past defenders and coming up with big plays on an almost daily basis at 49ers training camp.

"Speed is one of the best things in this game if you have it," coach Kyle Shanahan said. "Speed scares everyone. When you have that speed to scare people, which not many people in this league do because a lot of people can run, but when you have elite speed like Marquise does, people are going to back up."

During Goodwin's four seasons in the league, that speed hasn't exactly translated to production. He's been plagued by a variety of injuries that have limited him to 49 receptions for 780 yards and six touchdowns in 39 games. A yards-per-catch average of nearly 16 indicates Goodwin has been able to make some big plays but not much else.

The assumption that Goodwin is a one-trick pony makes him chafe and, at least through the first two weeks of the preseason, he's proving it to be false. I asked a scout in the AFC East his impression of Goodwin recently and he said that it wasn't so much that Goodwin couldn't run short and intermediate routes as the Buffalo Bills didn't ask him to do it.

"Marquise can breakdown pretty good, but when you run like he does you don't have to breakdown as good as someone who doesn't scare people," Shanahan said. "But, if you're scaring people and they're making sure they're going to defend that go route, then it makes it a little bit easier to get some completions underneath. Now, you've got to have a guy who has hands still and who can breakdown. If you do that enough, now they have to back up and you know they can't run with him. So, it kind of opens up everything for everyone else too.”

While Goodwin has made improving his route-running skills a priority since signing with San Francisco in March, it's been more of a sharpening of those skills than a relearning of them. That's a big reason he's looked more polished doing it and that teammates have taken notice of his ability to be versatile in the passing game.

"That [speed is] what I kind of knew about him when he came here," quarterback Brian Hoyer said. "Then he got here and you can just tell that they only used him to go deep and no one ever really coached him. I think he's taken that coaching really well. He's worked his butt of towards it too. I could tell a difference from when we left in June till we went and got there [to work out together] in Dallas. I could tell he'd been working at it. And I can tell he worked at it from when we left Dallas until now, and it's paying off for him. I think the one good thing, the good decision he made was to come here, because Kyle knows how to use guys like that and he's willing to put the work in and he's done a great job.”

Indeed, "guys like" Goodwin do have a tradition of producing big numbers in Shanahan's offense. The latest Shanahan project to turn into a dangerous offensive weapon is Atlanta receiver Taylor Gabriel. At 5-foot-8, 165 pounds, Gabriel is only slightly smaller than Goodwin's listed 5-9, 179 pounds. Also like Gabriel, Goodwin has the ability to line up all over the formation -- and though he's expected to be one of the starters on the outside opposite Pierre Garcon -- he will also move into the slot on occasion as Shanahan works to give him a free release off the line of scrimmage.

Goodwin prefers not to get into comparisons but does acknowledge that he viewed Shanahan's offense as the place that could best turn his unrealized potential into performance.

"I always wanted to be part of his offense," Goodwin said. "He had one of the most prolific offenses in the game last year, so just looking to build off of what they did last year and bring that same intensity, same swagger except with a little more juice."

Whether Goodwin is poised for a breakout season remains to be seen and will depend greatly on his ability to stay healthy. But this week should offer a good opportunity to see just how far he's come with his route running. The Niners don't boast much cornerback depth, making it hard to determine if Goodwin's star-turn in this camp is going to translate to games.

With the Denver Broncos set to arrive for a pair of joint practices and a preseason game set for Saturday night, Goodwin will have a chance to face perhaps the best cornerback duo in the league in Aqib Talib and Chris Harris Jr. Continued success in those matchups, especially in showing off his entire skill set, would be a good sign for Goodwin and the 49ers offense.

"I'm constantly evolving as a receiver," Goodwin said. "Each day I come out, I do what I'm told, I fix the little things I need to when watching film and it's continuing to show. That's a credit to my coach, my teammates for pushing me each day and correcting me on the little details. I see myself open quite often because a lot of people are threatened by the speed, so that's when the other routes come in. People are used to seeing me run just 'go' balls, and that's not the case."