Based on the dour postgame press conference from Jimmy Garoppolo on Sunday, it sounded like a certainty that he would not play this Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals.
That outlook shifted with a positive update from Kyle Shanahan, but it still appears more likely than not that Garoppolo won’t play this Sunday.
Garoppolo’s calf and other injury updates
Shanahan and Garoppolo have been awfully weird about this whole injury situation, which is perhaps just a reflection of the way Garoppolo said the injury occurred.
The latest update is that Garoppolo is not healthy enough to practice Wednesday, but “has a chance” to play on Sunday, which is the exact update you would have expected; nothing even remotely certain in either direction. But if Garoppolo is ruled out by doctors, Shanahan said he’ll announce that.
After the loss to the Seahawks, Shanahan said Garoppolo had his calf stepped on. Garoppolo said he wasn’t sure if it was stepped on, but that he “just felt something go in the calf.”
On Wednesday, Garoppolo tried to provide a clearer picture of his injury situation and how it occurred. He said on the first series, former 49er Kerry Hyder Jr.’s knee got caught on Garoppolo’s calf as he was throwing, catching his calf “in an awkward position.”
While the injury has been listed as a calf contusion, Garoppolo said he “pulled a calf a little bit… tweaked a muscle… strained it a little bit.”
Though he said he’s more optimistic than after the Seahawks game — when he said he hoped the injury was just a multiple-week issue — he did not sound exceedingly likely to play against the Cardinals. Asked whether he’d be 100 percent or if he’d have to battle through pain to play, Garoppolo sounded less than inspired.
“Yeah, I’d be battling through it probably,” Garoppolo said. “I mean we’ll take it day by day. It hurts, but it is what it is at this point.”
Garoppolo didn’t practice on Wednesday, along with multiple other players:
Didn’t practice:
- K’Waun Williams, calf
- Trent Williams, shoulder
- George Kittle, calf
- Samson Ebukam, hamstring
- Alex Mack, vet day
Limited
- Josh Norman, chest
- Javon Kinlaw, knee
- Elijah Mitchell, shoulder
Shanahan’s assessment of Lance
Kyle Shanahan’s postgame review of Trey Lance was a mixed bag.
But that assessment was typified by his response to whether Lance looked similar in the game to how he looked in practice.
“That’s why he was the number two quarterback going into that game,” Shanahan said.
It was a fairly harsh assessment of a rookie quarterback coming into a game with a gameplan built for Jimmy Garoppolo. Shanahan acknowledged that, but suggested that Lance missed too many reads, and simply made up for it with his legs.
His tone shifted a bit on Wednesday, as Lance looks likely to start for the first time against the NFL’s last undefeated team, the Arizona Cardinals.
After watching the tape, the man who mortgaged his own future on Lance indicated he was more pleased than he expected to be.
“I thought when he got thrown into battle here just running the offense — not really specific plays — I thought he got more comfortable as the game went, especially going home and watching the tape after the game,” Shanahan said. “Thought there was a lot of encouraging stuff… what you like about him and the stuff that he might not be ready for, he can overcompensate with some of his athletic ability, and to me, how competitive he is and how good of a football player he is.”
With Garoppolo out of practice, that also means Lance will get starter’s reps. That means that instead of the roughly 20 percent he’d take with the first team and roughly 80 percent of the scout team, those numbers will at least flip, if not more. Nate Sudfeld is the only other backup quarterback available, on the practice squad.
While Shanahan is fairly particular about how quarterbacks read the field, he indicated a level of excitement about the way Lance extends plays and creates off-schedule opportunities: “obviously that’s more of an option now”
Overall, he sounded impressed with his rookie.
“I thought he did a lot better than he did in the preseason,” Shanahan said. “He came in — I know he got off to a rough start with his first two passes — but he calmed down and played poised after that. Wasn’t perfect, but you watch him, watch how he moved, how he attacked stuff. He wasn’t locking it up, he was playing football and still gave us a chance to win.”
Other notes: Stephon Gilmore and Trenton Cannon’s mishaps
- Did the 49ers pursue Stephon Gilmore, the former All-Pro corner who the Patriots traded to the Carolina Panthers for a 2023 sixth-round pick? Well, they thought about it. “We looked into all of it, but we obviously didn’t go through with it,” Shanahan said. Gilmore’s contract, with a base salary of $7 million, would have put the 49ers over the cap and required them to extend Laken Tomlinson and/or restructure Arik Armstead’s deal.
- Trenton Cannon, who was brought in to play special teams, had a horrific day on special teams. Instead of downing a punt inside the five, he barrel-rolled into the end zone with it for a touchback. He fumbled a kickoff return twice, with the second fumble being recovered by Seattle and turning into back-to-back touchdowns. Then, he tried to let the ensuing kickoff go into the end zone for a touchback, but it bounced back at around the two-yard line and he had to scoop it up; he was tackled at the 11-yard line.
- Special teams coordinator Richard Hightower defended Cannon on Wednesday, saying that there will be competition at the kickoff return spot, but that, “We still have confidence in Cannon” and added, “I’m looking forward to seeing that kid play. I love him. I really do.”