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All is not lost! Well, it is, but it also might not be. This year, this season, continue to confound. After a 34-17 smackdown at the hands of the Green Bay Packers (mostly just their stars in Aaron Rodgers, Aaron Jones, Davante Adams and Za’Darius Smith), and finding out that all four of their players on the reserve/COVID-19 list would not have needed to be placed on the list if the game was moved, the 49ers are trying to recover.
With a quasi-bye week, the focus, for this 4-5 team which is very much down but somehow not yet out, is recovery. Kyle Shanahan’s message to his team after Thursday’s game?
“Heal up.”
Garoppolo could return
There were two scenarios for Jimmy Garoppolo; one which involved season-ending surgery and one which did not. His path is the latter, as Shanahan said Monday that after multiple opinions from doctors, none recommended surgery on his high ankle sprain, which is effectively a new, worse injury than Garoppolo’s initial sprain.
What that means is that Garoppolo, who is on injured reserve, will rest for 4-6 weeks. At that point, the team will re-evaluate him. At earliest, that means Garoppolo could return, thanks to the bye week, for the last four games of the season. At latest, if he struggles to heal, and it takes time to re-acclimate him in practice (especially if the playoffs are out of reach), he could still sit for the remainder of the year.
The only thing that’s clear is that at this juncture, the injury is not definitively season-ending. What Garoppolo’s future is this season and next, though, is anyone’s guess.
Shanahan not openly upset with NFL’s decision to play Thursday
If you had a raving Shanahan tear into the NFL for forcing the 49ers and Packers to play Thursday, it would feel warranted. The NFL, despite postponing numerous other games, went ahead with the contest on Thursday, leaving San Francisco without it’s top two receivers (Deebo Samuel would have been inactive) and Trent Williams.
It left Richie James Jr. to go for nine catches, 184 yards and a touchdown, and saw the team leaning on River Cracraft. Justin Skule, replacing Williams, allowed three sacks, working mostly against Za’Darius Smith.
Shanahan said he understood why the situation played out how it did and was happy Bourne and the others were not actually ill.
“I dealt with the disappointment yesterday,” Shanahan said. “I know it’s frustrating, but it is what it is. It’s what everyone in this world’s got to deal with right now. They’re doing that for the safety. Unfortunately, it wasn’t necessary. But I get why it happened. So [we] got to deal with it. We obviously dealt with it last night. Hopefully, we won’t have to going forward.”
Samuel, Mostert timelines, QB situation and other notes
- Shanahan said that Raheem Mostert (ankle) and Deebo Samuel (hamstring) “have a chance” to return next week after the 10-day break before playing the New Orleans Saints.
- The starting quarterback job is “firmly” Nick Mullens‘, according to Shanahan, who said that the 34-17 loss was by no means on Mullens. He was frequently pressured, but also threw a number of interceptable passes.
- Playing Jordan Reed (played just 13 offensive snaps) more is something the 49ers would have preferred to do, but not with a player coming back from injured reserve, with a long injury history and with George Kittle out for the season. Shanahan said, “It was extremely tempting to use Jordan Reed more,” but that, “… for a guy who just got cleared to go this week, who has an injury history, coming off an injury, to only give him two walkthroughs, would have been pretty unfair to him.”
- The team will be signing quarterback Josh Johnson to the practice squad. With Garoppolo out, Shanahan said he wanted a veteran in case more COVID-19 or injury issues cause the team to lose a quarterback and the 34-year-old Johnson fit the profile.