SANTA CLARA–On Thursday morning, 49ers’ general manager John Lynch completed a critical trade, acquiring former first round draft pick Laken Tomlinson to shore up San Francisco’s depth along the offensive line.
With just 10 days remaining until the 49ers open their regular season against the Carolina Panthers, the move provided further clarity that starting left guard Josh Garnett would not be ready for the beginning of the year.
It turns out, Garnett might not be ready at all.
“It’s potential,” first-year head coach Kyle Shanahan said Thursday, when asked if Garnett’s knee injury could be season-ending. “It’s going to be one of those two. We have to go in and talk about a lot of it. I haven’t had the chance to talk to Josh personally. So we’re going to talk about the different options and what it means to him this year and what it means to him next year. So we’ll discuss all of that tomorrow.”
The two options Shanahan is referring to are placing Garnett on injured reserve (IR), which would end his season, or placing Garnett on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list, which would allow Garnett to return to the 49ers after six weeks. If Garnett is placed on the PUP list, he’d be able to return to the 49ers between between the end of week six and the end of week 11. But if he’s not healthy by then, he’ll be forced to sit out the remainder of the year.
Garnett initially injured his knee at the beginning of 49ers’ training camp, and Shanahan said he didn’t think the injury would be serious. Shanahan said Thursday that there’s no damage to Garnett’s ACL, but he also said the injury wasn’t “normal.”
“We had to clean some stuff up in there,” Shanahan said, referring to Garnett’s surgery. “We know how long it takes to heal, but it’s how long it takes to recover. Those are the things that you’re not exactly sure about and we need to discuss what our options are and find that out tomorrow.”
With Garnett out, the 49ers expected Zane Beadles to step into the former first-round draft choice’s spot on the first-team offensive line. It’s a spot Beadles has held down for much of the preseason, but as the calendar turns to September, it’s not a spot the 49ers have an immense amount of confidence in.
The addition of Tomlinson, a 2015 first round draft choice of the Lions, reflects the concern both Lynch and Shanahan have for the left guard position in Garnett’s absence. Even though the 49ers will begin the season next Sunday, Shanahan didn’t rule out the possibility of Tomlinson starting against the Panthers in week one.
“We’ll start getting him (Tomlinson) with our O-line coach and our O-line assistant and he’ll start working,” Shanahan said. “They’ll start trying to teach him our scheme and it’ll take until Saturday to get him out on the field with us and we’ll do a little bit Monday, have a normal Wednesday and have a normal week after that.”
Shanahan wouldn’t commit to starting Tomlinson out at left guard, though, as he said following Thursday’s preseason finale against the Los Angeles Chargers that he wants the Duke product to learn both left guard and right guard.
The loss of Garnett, who started 11 games during his rookie season in 2016, is already a significant blow to a 49ers’ offensive line that struggled to run the ball during the preseason. If Garnett’s injury does end his season, San Francisco will rely heavily on Tomlinson to at least create competition with Beadles up front.
“We brought him (Tomlinson) in to help us out at guard,” Shanahan said. “We know we’re going to have a decision here to make with Josh and we’re going to do it here over the weekend. We know it’s going to be one of those types IRs. It’s something we’re going to have to sit down with Josh and talk to him more about and the doctors. But we know we wanted to get a guard here that has played. We know, coming out of college, he was a guy that definitely has a lot of talent and he hasn’t reached it all yet in this league but we wanted to give him a new start and we think he can come in here and help us.”