San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan spoke with the media on a conference call Sunday afternoon, providing a few updates.
Wide receiver Ricky Pearsall will return to practice on Monday after missing the majority of training camp with a shoulder injury.
Edge rusher Leonard Floyd is day-to-day after suffering a knee sprain in the preseason finale.
Yetur Gross-Matos is week-to-week with the same injury, although it’s more severe than Floyd’s based on Shanahan’s timetable.
He would not go into detail about the number of edge rushers the 49ers would keep, saying that we’ll find out after roster cuts are made regarding which players would have to step up if Gross-Matos needs to miss any game action.
Linebacker Dee Winters will need more imaging done on an ankle injury he suffered. There’s no timetable for Winters until the team gets his MRI back.
Safety Talanoa Hufanga could start the season on the reserve/PUP list. Shanahan said a decision is coming. Here’s what Shanahan said when asked if rookie Malik Mustapha would start if Hufanga misses time:
“No. It’s all a possibility. Gio Odum was going to start. He rolled his ankle in pre-game. He spatted it up. Just what he did in pre-game, we thought it was a little risky for him to fight through it.”
That would be putting a lot on Mustapha’s plate to throw him out there against Aaron Rodgers in Week 1. The team appears more comfortable putting out an experienced vet like Odum.
Shanahan, on the decision to re-sign tight end Logan Thomas:
“Logan wasn’t a guy we wanted to let go of. He had his injury, and we had some other roster issues. We have a spot for him. He wanted to come back here. We felt very fortunate for that, and we definitely wanted him back.”
Thomas is TE2 by process of elimination. He’s more of a receiving threat than the rest of the options on the roster and has the size and experience to do just enough in the running game. It’ll be fascinating to see who and how many tight ends they keep, but Thomas will be one if he’s healthy.
Shanahan said the team would have given Dominick Puni reps at left tackle early on during camp had there not been instant injuries at right guard. But the Niners didn’t draft him with visions of Puni being a tackle:
“We probably would have if he didn’t have to get in the starting guard position with Spence [Spencer Burford] going down so fast and [Jon] Felicano doing the same. We didn’t draft him putting him there, but we know he can help us out in a pinch.”
Shanahan was relatively tight-lipped whenever he was asked about potential roster moves or players on the bubble, as you’d imagine. Roster cuts must happen this Tuesday at 1 p.m. PT.
