© Stan Szeto | 2021 Aug 29
49ers general manager John Lynch joined KNBR for his weekly hit on Friday morning ahead of San Francisco’s season opener vs. the Lions. Lynch provided a number of injury updates. Most notably, it’s looking like Trey Lance’s hand injury has healed to the point where he’ll be able to play.
“It looks like it,” Lynch said when asked if he’ll be available. “He’s had two good days of practice, provided he goes out there today and doesn’t have any setbacks, which at this point is just about not hitting his hand on anyone’s helmet the way he did it. Really he’s been unaffected this week…it’s been encouraging thus far.”
Now for the less than encouraging updates. First is regarding Javon Kinlaw, who seems doubtful as he continues to deal with a knee injury he sustained last season.
“Well it’s not knees plural, it’s a knee,” Lynch said. “He came down on that at Dallas last year, and that led to some issues. It’s kind of a deal where we’ve been able to quiet it down at times and other times it gets flared up. He was doing really well throughout the offseason and it kind of flared up again at some point a couple weeks ago. We tried to quiet it down but it’s not working real well right now.
“Good news is he was out on the practice field yesterday for some. As for this week we’ll still see. We’re meeting this morning to see where he’s at. I talk about Nick (Bosa) being a difference maker and Javon has that in him. He’s a huge man who has an incredible amount of power in him. We’re so proud of him, we’re excited at the amount of work he’s put in. We’ve just got to get him right so we can see that talent come to fruition.”
Lynch said that Emmanuel Moseley is also doubtful for Sunday, after “he got tripped up, fallen on, he’s got a little bit of an issue he’s working through.”
Then there’s Jalen Hurd, who despite making the roster, is still dealing with injury issues for the third season in a row. This one is related to the ACL he tore last year.
“ACLs, some go very smooth. Others, you have these little deals where you’re going great and then you run into a rough patch and things get irritated. Unfortunately it just happened at the wrong time where he played in that Raiders game. So we took a course of action where we’re trying to quiet the thing down and ramp up again. But we do have a lot of belief. I know people get frustrated but I think we’ve seen having the long view. Jason Verrett, who had a litany of injuries, but we stuck with him, and it’s bore real good fruit.
“We’ve got some examples of sticking with people working out for us, and we’re going to continue to do that with Jalen.”
Finally there’s Dee Ford, who appears to be as close to 100 percent as he can be, and will be a full go on Sunday.