Coming off their first loss of the season, the 49ers had to face some questions about what went wrong on Sunday night against the Green Bay Packers. If Aaron Rodgers can’t find Davante Adams on two deep throws in the waning seconds, maybe the tone is different, but there were myriad areas for improvement on Sunday.
Injury updates
The most laborious part of press conferences for Kyle Shanahan is typically reading off the list of injuries and remembering who is dealing with what, and exactly what the diagnosis is.
Wednesday’s list of names was long, but came with mostly positive news.
Did not practice
Josh Norman – chest/lung, “seems a lot better today, but he’s got to pass a number of tests to be able to [play]”
K’Waun Williams – calf strain, likely out “a few weeks”
George Kittle – calf, day-to-day, “should be alright this week, just sorer today than we expected”
Trent Williams – maintenance
Nick Bosa – maintenance
Alex Mack – vet day
Javon Kinlaw – knee, managing as usual
Limited
Elijah Mitchell – shoulder, was in blue non-contact jersey at the start of practice
Full practice
Arik Armstead – abductor, had previously been limited or not practiced due to the abductor over the last few weeks
Returned to practice
Both cornerback Davontae Harris and defensive tackle Maurice Hurst returned to practice on Wednesday off injured reserve. They have a three-week practice window to be activated from injured reserve.
Garoppolo responds to criticism
The 49ers clearly don’t want Jimmy Garoppolo long term. They made that as clear as possible this offseason by trading two future first-round picks, a future third-round pick and the third overall pick to select Trey Lance.
But Kyle Shanahan defended Garoppolo as playing well so far this season and said again that right now, there is no quarterback competition.
Be that as it may, there is a reason the 49ers drafted Lance and it’s because Garoppolo limits the ceiling of the 49ers. He currently ranks third-to-last in intended average air yards at 5.8 yards per throw and fourth-lowest in air yards to the sticks (where the ball is thrown on average, in relation to the first down marker) at -3.2 yards per throw.
Shanahan’s offense has become increasingly conservative with Garoppolo at the helm, and he’s consistently struggled to make deep throws and throws towards the sideline of a significant distance.
On Sunday, his deep shot to George Kittle was picked off by an outstanding play by Jaire Alexander, and his one deep target to the left side of the field was a dart which Deebo Samuel dropped, or had broken up by an uncalled pass interference.
Those were his only two throws more than 15 yards past the line of scrimmage, and his completions more than 10 yards down the field were grouped around the middle of the field.
The Packers’ defense, in which safeties crept down close to the line of scrimmage, and the box was sometimes stacked, could be interpreted as encouraging those throws outside the numbers.
So, Garoppolo was asked whether the criticism that he doesn’t challenge defenses vertically or to the boundary as much as he could, is fair.
“No,” Garoppolo said, before laughing. “I just go with the play that’s given. I think we’ve stretched them pretty welI in some different aspects, but just whatever play’s called I’ll go out there and execute it.”
No Richard Sherman reunion?
Richard Sherman is heading to Tampa Bay, as he announced on his new podcast. He said he respects the 49ers, but the Buccaneers were a better fit, mentioning that Tom Brady recruited him.
Recently, general manager John Lynch said on KNBR that the 49ers had talked to Sherman and hinted that there could be a reunion down the line.
That won’t happen, and now the 49ers, who will lose K’Waun Williams for multiple weeks with a calf injury and aren’t sure about Josh Norman, have turned to Buster Skrine for help.
Shanahan explained Sherman’s move to Tampa Bay on Wednesday, saying that the moves to bring in Norman, Dre Kirkpatrick and other players were about them being available. He indicated they couldn’t guarantee him a starting role immediately, mentioning that he believed it would have taken Sherman at least a week to get up to speed.
“We didn’t think that was the time for Sherm with what he’s been here, always been the starter,” Shanahan said. “We weren’t going to bring him in unless we knew exactly what his role was. And then this week, I think he just had a better opportunity at Tampa. Some of the injuries we have, we need an outside and inside guy. Still would’ve loved to have Sherm, but the situation at Tampa was a little bit better for him I think or what he decided. And I was glad we were able to get [CB] Buster [Skrine] in here too, who has played inside and outside throughout his career.”
Shanahan said that the 49ers expected Sherman to be available for longer than he was, sounding almost snakebitten by the move by Tampa.
“We were hoping he was going to be there for a while so when it made sense for both of us, we could do it,” Shanahan said. “But we lost that opportunity because Tampa came through and it just wasn’t the right timing for us.”