49ers notebook: Shanahan prepping for multi-game absences from Samuel, Wilson
Kyle Shanahan’s in an all-too-familiar position. It’s one he’d rather not find himself in every week.
The 49ers head coach is again looking for answers in response to losing key players to injury.
After Sunday’s surprising blowout victory over the New England Patriots, Shanahan will have to figure out how to win one of the biggest games of the season Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks without receiver Deebo Samuel and running back Jeff Wilson Jr., who scored three touchdowns and had 112 yards in a career performance in New England.
Samuel is expected to miss two games with a hamstring strain while Wilson is slated for injured reserve this week and will likely miss a month with a high ankle sprain, Shanahan said Monday. It’s the same injury San Francisco’s starting running back, Raheem Mostert, is dealing with that landed him on injured reserve Saturday.
Wilson becomes the third 49ers halfback that made the Week 1 roster to land on injured reserve. Tevin Coleman has been out since Week 2 with a knee sprain and could return to practice this week. Otherwise, the team’s only healthy running backs are Jerick McKinnon and JaMycal Hasty, while Austin Walter is on the practice squad.
Wilson was the surprise engine of the offense against the Patriots on Sunday. He exited the game after a defender rolled up on his left ankle as he crossed the goal line for his third touchdown, giving San Francisco a 30-6 lead that cemented the outcome.
It was an inspired performance from the third-year pro that catalyzed a second-straight quality showing from the 49ers offense that struggled to the rush consistently in upset losses to the Philadelphia Eagles and Miami Dolphins.
“He was unbelievable,” Shanahan said of Wilson. “Every time he gets hit, it looks like the goal line is right in front of him and he’s doing everything he can to cross that.”
Wilson broke four tackles and had six first-down runs while averaging 6.6 yards on his 17 carries. He entered the game with just 51 yards on 21 carries (2.43 average) and missed the previous game with a calf injury.
“I was very happy for him and how hard he played. It was extremely unfortunate he got hurt,” Shanahan said. “I know he’s really disappointed in that (with) how good he was playing. But at least he’ll be able to come back. It’ll be a month most likely, but he’ll be back from it.”
For Samuel, his latest injury will be his second of the year. He broke his foot in June and missed the first three regular season games after suffering a set back in his recovery. He’ll miss Sunday’s game in Seattle and “most likely” the following Thursday night game against the Green Bay Packers in a rematch of last season’s NFC title game. Shanahan made it sound like the team is expecting Samuel back for the Nov. 15 trip to play the New Orleans Saints.
“Deebo’s a huge part of our offense, a huge part of our team,” said Shanahan. “The physicality our receivers add to the game, starting with Deebo, really helps our offense and we’ll miss him when he’s out, that’s for sure.”
In San Francisco’s consecutive wins over the Rams and Patriots, Samuel had 15 combined touches, often getting the ball on designed running plays, that went for 132 yards (8.8 average) and scoring a touchdown in the victory over L.A.
So how does Shanahan make up for the injuries?
McKinnon and Hasty will likely see their workloads increase if Coleman can’t play in Seattle, and Walter might get promoted from the practice squad.
At receiver, Kendrick Bourne will likely see an increase in snap count and Brandon Aiyuk could get more manufactured touches on running plays like Samuel in recent weeks. Aiyuk, the recent first-round pick, had his most prolific game of the season in New England, totaling 115 yards while catching five of his six targets.
Like Samuel in 2019, Aiyuk’s usage early in his rookie season came on plays designed to get the ball in his hands in space, either on sweeping running plays or passes near the line of scrimmage. That’s been a way for Shanahan to incorporate his play making receivers into the offense while they become more consistent route runners, leading to more passes downfield, as Aiyuk had Sunday.
“I wouldn’t give the guys those run plays if we didn’t think they were good at it. It’s not like we do that for everybody,” Shanahan said Monday. “When you can do that, it gives you more opportunities to make plays because you’re touching it. But the more you can do in the routes, the more you’re consistent, the more opportunities you get. And I think those guys, they’re not there yet, but I think they’re both getting better in a lot of ways.”
He continued: “A lot of receivers who come into this league, it takes them a while to learn how to beat NFL coverages, beat man to man in the NFL. And these guys have been able to do it right away, but as you wait for them to reach their full potential, it’s not hard having them out there because they can make so many plays in so many other ways, which allows us to keep them out there more consistently.”
Samuel, of course, scored a critical touchdown on an designed running play in the epic Week 17 game late last season that helped San Francisco earn the No. 1 seed in the playoffs, leaving Aiyuk with big shoes to fill as the 49ers try to unseat the team currently leading the NFC West at 5-1.
More roster shuffling on the way
The 49ers on Monday waived defensive end Alex Barrett and cornerback Parnell Motley, opening up two roster spots. One is expected to go to former Jets defensive end Jordan Willis, whom the team traded for last week and should clear COVID-19 protocol in time for Wednesday’s practice.
The team is still waiting to figure out how to use the other two open spots from the releases and Wilson eventually going on injured reserve.
Possibilities Shanahan mentioned were Coleman and slot cornerback K’Waun Williams, who was seen at practice last week running, cutting and catching passes on the side field.
Williams missed the last three games with a knee sprain sustained Week 4 against the Eagles. His replacement, Jamar Taylor, had two interceptions Sunday and might have played well enough to stick on the roster even though San Francisco has typically kept just one slot cornerback active over the past three seasons.
“We got a number of options coming through,” Shanahan said. “We’ll see how this week goes. Hopefully we can get K’Waun back, possibly Tevin too. We’ll see how it plays out.”
49ers not talking about playoffs
At 4-3, Shanahan’s team is back in the playoff race in the expanded field. For the first time, one additional team from each conference will make the playoffs making a total of seven. The Rams would have made it under this format last season at 9-7.
But Shanahan said Monday he isn’t broaching the subject while the NFC West has the best record of any division in the NFL at 18-8 before Monday night’s game between L.A. and Chicago. Conversely, the NFC East is by far the worst division in football at 7-20-1.
When Shanahan spoke Monday, the 49ers were the No. 9 seed in the NFC, half a game behind the Rams and two full games behind Arizona (5-3) because the Cardinals hold the tiebreaker following their victory Week 1.
“It’s way too early to look at that stuff. That’s stuff that I leave for my wife and for friends and for people to do,” Shanahan said. “But there’s so many things that change. I’ll start to watch it the last few weeks because you’re trying to think of certain things and scenarios, but that’s something you don’t think at all about right now.”
▪ Shanahan said there was no victory Monday for the players following their big win in New England and cross-country flight back to the Bay Area late Sunday night. The team took off at roughly 9 p.m., landed back in San Francisco around 2 a.m. and bused down to Santa Clara, which adds an extra hour to the trip.
The team is prohibited from landing at San Jose Airport, which is roughly a 10-minute drive from their facility, because it has a curfew preventing planes from taking off or landing between 11:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m.
So players were back at the facility Monday going over Sunday’s game film and getting treatment for injuries.
“Victory Monday, sometimes it’s nice for those guys. But it adds to a very long Wednesday,” Shanahan said. “I kinda like (not having it) a little bit more that way because when they come in on Wednesday it’s all about Seattle and we don’t have to address anything from the previous Sunday.”
This story was originally published October 26, 2020 at 5:37 PM.