With two games left, the 49ers are still in the hunt for the No. 2 seed.
They’ll likely need to win out against Las Vegas Raiders and Arizona Cardinals — which would represent a 10-game win streak heading into the playoffs — and get some help from the Green Bay Packers or Chicago Bears, who face the second-seeded Minnesota Vikings in the final weeks of the year.
The injury outlook heading into this final stretch is promising.
Kyle Shanahan said Monday that there were no injuries from Saturday’s game, and provided injury updates on a few players who missed out:
- Deebo Samuel (knee/ankle): “Making real good progress, still working his way back.”
- Kerry Hyder Jr. (ankle): “We should get him back in practice this week.”
- Jimmy Garoppolo (foot): “Got his cast off, but no further update.”
- Elijah Mitchell (MCL): “Making real good progress. He’s getting much closer to returning too.”
As far as Mitchell’s actual return, Shanahan said that Friday is the earliest he could return to practice and that he has a “chance” to return in the regular season. If he did return, it would figure to be more about getting him a few game reps heading into the playoffs, but he’s shown an ability to be productive after injury layoffs.
“He is healing up,” Shanahan said. “He’s had no setbacks, he’s doing well, so we’ll see if he’s available next week for us.”
When Mitchell does return, the 49ers will be out of injured reserve-return designations. That means defensive lineman Hassan Ridgeway, who was extremely productive in the wake of Arik Armstead and Javon Kinlaw missing most of the season, will be out for the year with a pectoral injury.
That could have potentially been avoided.
San Francisco activated linebacker Curtis Robinson from injured reserve on October 15, but waived him on December 23. While Shanahan said that he’s expected to re-sign to the practice squad, it was a head-scratching move then, and looms larger now.
He played just three games this season, from Weeks 6-8, on special teams. Shanahan indicated the team hoped for more from him on special teams, but didn’t regret the move, deeming it something of an occupational hazard.
“Where we were on special teams at the time and how big of a player we thought he could be for us on special teams,” Shanahan said. “And so, we were excited to get him back and do that. You know hindsight’s 20/20, obviously, nothing against him on that, but those are the risks you take when you’re trying to get guys back and trying to have guys up.
“We had a number of guys down at one time, so we put a number of guys on IR so we could fill the roster and those are the gambles you have to take and we ended up becoming one short on it at the end of the year.”
Shanahan said he’d also be in favor of an additional return slot for playoff teams given how difficult it is to spread out those return designations over the course of the season.
He also added that Ridgeway’s return timeline put him back later in the postseason, making it a tougher proposition to wait for him.
“When we looked into the Ridgeway stuff, the odds were we wouldn’t be able to have him until possibly a championship, possibly a Super Bowl type game, so that’s why we ended up having to go with that,” Shanahan said.
There was no other concrete injury news, but the head coach said Jordan Mason, who came into the game with hamstring tightness and had a knee “scare” in the game, is doing fine.
And while it went under the radar, Shanahan indicated after the game that Brock Purdy was still not 100 percent in recovering from an oblique and rib injury. He said Monday that, “… he should be even a little better this week with more health.”
The 49ers’ will head to Las Vegas on New Year’s Day for their road game of the regular season on Sunday.