The San Francisco 49ers officially moved De’Zhaun Stribling to Injured Reserve after head coach Kyle Shanahan announced earlier this week that he’d miss close to 10 weeks with his ankle injury.
The move allowed the 49ers to promote defensive lineman Ogbo Okoronkwo to the active roster ahead of the team’s Week 2 game against the Miami Dolphins on Sunday. Okoronkwo was called up from the practice squad last week against the Los Angeles Rams and played in 30 percent of the defensive snaps with the team’s injury
situation.
He’ll likely have a similar role in Week 2, as the 49ers go with a deep rotation that included nine defensive linemen in Week 1. The 49ers also elevated wide receiver Khadarel Hodge for Week 1 with Jordan Watkins out, and he was signed to the active roster earlier this week.
The 49ers are looking pretty clean on the injury report going into Week 2. They had two questionable players, kicker Eddy Piniero and running back Kaelon Black, but it’s looking like both will play.
The 49ers hosted kickers Greg Joseph and Younghoe Koo for tryouts on Saturday, but didn’t sign either. Meanwhile, they didn’t elevate a running back, which heavily indicates that Black will be ready to go after being limited on Thursday and Friday with a groin injury.
With Stribling out, the 49ers are probably going with five receivers in Week 2, and it could look very similar to how their Week 1 rotation played out. They had Mike Evans, Demarcus Robinson, Deebo Samuel, Khadarel Hodge, and Jacob Cowing up last week, and Kyle Shanahan indicated that’ll be the group again on Sunday.
That means former fifth-round rookie Jordan Watkins is expected to be inactive for the second straight week. That could be the way San Francisco goes until Stribling is able to return in a few months.
