San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan provided updates about some of the team’s top players. Nick Bosa has missed several practices in a row after dealing with some soreness.
No concerns about Bosa or McCaffrey’s injuries
Shanahan said it’s nothing more than that:
“Just soreness. Tendinitis. It’s a pretty normal thing with ACLs. Just talking to our guys, it’s happened to about 90% of the guys we’ve had, so it’s a normal thing. We have to be smart here from week to week. No concerns about it being any more than that.”
According to reporter
James Palmer, the tendinitis Bosa is dealing with stems from his first ACL injury back in high school on his right knee..
There’s a similar lack of concern for Christian McCaffrey on Shanahan’s end:
“No. My concern would be him toughing through tightness, like a lot of people do. Then hurting something bad, and pulling something. Then it could be a month. That would be our concern. So once we hear him talking a certain way, Christian’s a guy who needs to get prepared for Week 1.
But also, we’re pretty confident in what he’s done before this, and what he’s done in these two weeks. We just want to make sure it’s not something we’re concerned about. Honestly, I think everyone goes through this.
When you have vets who know how to get ready for Week 1…lots of guys have this stuff, and you need to push through it. He’s not a guy who needs to do that. It’s pretty simple with us.”
Shanahan explained how De’Zhaun Stribling is in a different situation than McCaffrey, as the rookie needs the reps:
“It’s been good to get him back. We were excited to, some of that stuff he did the first week. Then you know, he had some tightness and stuff, similar to Christian. Then we took him off for, I think, a week. I want to guess; I think this was like his fourth day back.
I just love him getting the reps. We love his talent. We love the character and just how he plays. It’s such a different situation than Christian. We need to get him ready to play an NFL game. It takes a while for rookies to do that. So I want him ready for Week 1. So it’s been really good to get him back, the way he attacks each day. Each day he’s got better and better. Hopfeully, he doesn’t have any injuries, so he can continue getting those days in for Week 1. And if he does, feel real confident about him.”
Too early to call the battle at left guard
Shanahan said that it’s too early to say whether Robert Jones has taken a step forward in the left guard battle: “It’s open for anybody. Those guys will probably be the lead at it. Love to get Carver [Willis] in that, too. Him missing a week or whatever it was with his concussion made it out of him a little bit. But he’s been out two practices in a row. It’s still early, but we want to see those guys in games too. It’s definitely a battle for us to see who gets that spot.”
Don’t expect to see starters on Thursday
Shanahan said the team has made a decision about who will play during Thursday’s preseason game against the Titans, but they haven’t told the players:
“There won’t be many starters playing. We’ll see with injuries today and stuff. That doesn’t mean none. But we’ve got to balance that out.”
Robert Saleh is taking a different approach. He said everyone will play.
