The hold-in has ended. The preparations for Week 1 have been completed. So, when 49ers receiver Brandon Aiyuk takes the field on Monday night, how much will he play?
“Don’t know yet,” coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters on Saturday. “I think he plays most of the game, usually, and I’d probably be surprised with that same amount. But he’s in good shape. He’s had a really good week. His soreness hasn’t been too big after each practice. He’s pushed it real hard, done some stuff extra after. He looks good and he is ready to go.”
One of the things Aiyuk has been doing is working with his quarterback, Brock Purdy.
“They’ve been great,” Shanahan said. “They started throwing together, Saturday was their first time they came up here alone and just did it. And they’ve had — I think they did it Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and today. So they haven’t missed a beat. He’ll get back in the flow of things. Putting a lot on a guy, just to expect him to be exactly same way. But he does look that way in practice and he’ll get better each week.”
Well, they have missed a beat. They’ve missed weeks of beats, because the 49ers and Aiyuk didn’t set their mutual deadline before the opening of training camp. And that puts even more pressure on player and team to show that his absence from practice didn’t impact his preparations or the team’s fortunes.
Alex Smith and Aaron Rodgers.
As recently detailed in the new Rodgers biography, they competed for the privilege of being the first overall pick in the 2005 draft. Monday Night Football will include during the pregame show an interview of one by the other.
Smith, who now works for ESPN, sat down with Rodgers. The interview comes nearly 20 years after Rodgers badly wanted the 49ers to pick him. They went with Smith instead.
The clip posted by Adam Schefter of ESPN focuses on the events of the first Monday night of the 2023 season, when Rodgers suffered a torn Achilles tendon on the fourth play from scrimmage.
In the locker room, Rodgers told Smith he thought his career was over.
It wasn’t. At times, it looked as if his season might not be over. Now, he’s back and ready to go.
He faces a real challenge. Three games between September 9 and 19. After taking only four snaps since January 2023.
And the season begins in the home of the team that didn’t pick him, way back when. While he likely still wouldn’t be playing for the 49ers (then again, who knows?), the past two decades in the NFL would have gone very differently if San Francisco had guessed right.
So why did the 49ers take Smith? There were concerns about how Rodgers held the ball before throwing it. There were concerns about the history of players tutored by his college coach, Jeff Tedford. There were concerns about Rodgers’s personality, given that Smith was at all times respectful and deferential.
Regardless, it’s another example of how inexact the pre-draft science is.
During training camp, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan seemed to be surprised by the possibility that teams will choose to kick out of the end zone and concede the 30, under the new not-so-dynamic kickoff formation. As Week 1 unfolds, he’s not surprised by the fact that, through two regular-season games, it has played out that way.
On Saturday, Shanahan was asked whether he was surprised by the lack of returns.
“Not really,” Shanahan told reporters. “I think we were kind of expecting that. I think like you guys were, too. It’s looked that way so far and I’d probably be surprised if it changed.”
Of course, it’s only two games. But the truth remains that it makes more sense to eliminate the risk of a long return.
There will be situations when it makes sense to put the ball in play. And Green Bay’s Friday night kick that landed inside the 20 essentially caught the Eagles napping. Still, that can’t be a regular approach, or the return specialists will be ready to field the line-drive kicks.
The NFL remains a copycat league. We’ve got two of 272 data points. Sunday will be significant, with 13 games added to the mix.
By the time Shanahan and the 49ers host the Jets on Monday night, we’ll have 15 games played under the next rules. Both teams will have a chance to refine and adjust their strategies for the last contest of Week 1.
For now, though, the expectation from Shanahan is that the early trend of few if any returns will continue.
Unless, that is, he’s just hoping to catch the Jets napping.
Veteran tackle Trent Williams ended his holdout earlier this week. Week 1 for the 49ers comes on Monday night. On Saturday, coach Kyle Shanahan provided an assessment of the 36-year-old’s progress.
“I thought he did good,” Shanahan told reporters regarding Williams’s work in practice. “It was nice to get the extra practice on Monday, that I think was Tuesday to the rest of the world. Then he’s had these three days, each day he’s gotten more comfortable. He was obviously in shape and stuff, but it was good just to get back into hearing the cadence, coming off the ball, moving with other guys. It got better for him each day.
Will he play the full game on Monday night against the Jets, like Williams normally would?
“We’ll see,” Shanahan said. “I’d like him to, but it’s — you’ve got to watch it. We’ve got to talk to him. It’s always, I haven’t done this too much with a tackle, those are a little — [offensive] linemen are different with rotating and stuff, like skill positions and everything. But it also seems weird to just watch Trent sitting on the sideline next to us. But that’s something we’ll be on top of throughout the game. He’ll be honest with us in how he feels. I know [run game coordinator/offensive line coach] Chris [Foerster] will be watching that a ton.”
It would have been a question is the 49ers and Williams had simply found a way to resolve their differences before the start of camp. As we saw with multiple players this year, the setting of the right mutual deadline is critical to ensuring the player is as ready as he can be.
49ers running back Christian McCaffrey dealt with a calf injury throughout training camp and the preseason. This week, when the team’s obligation to display minimal transparency began, it was also described as an Achilles tendon injury.
McCaffrey was limited in practice all week, and he’s officially questionable for the Monday Night Football opener against the Jets.
Regardless, McCaffrey’s position is that he’s good to go.
Via Nick Wagoner of ESPN.com, McCaffrey was asked on Friday whether there’s any doubt that he’ll play. McCaffrey provided a one-word answer: “No.”
Will he have his usual workload? “I hope so,” McCaffrey said.
McCaffrey was the NFL’s offensive player of the year in 2023, with 1,459 yards rushing, 564 yards receiving, and 21 touchdowns. He had 339 touches in 16 games, an average of 21.1 touches per game.
There’s been a lot of confidence from the 49ers about running back Christian McCaffrey’s availability over the last few days, but the team isn’t setting anything in stone for Monday night.
McCaffrey is listed as questionable to face the Jets on the team’s final injury report of the week. McCaffrey is returning from a calf injury that kept him out during the summer and he participated in practice all week.
The 49ers ruled out defensive end Yetur Gross-Matos (knee) and linebacker Dee Winters (ankle). With Gross-Matos out, the 49ers will lean on Nick Bosa, Leonard Floyd and Robert Beal on the edge.
Safety Talanoa Hufanga (knee) is set to miss the game after drawing a doubtful tag and offensive lineman Aaron Banks (finger) is listed as questionable.
Jets head coach Robert Saleh has resisted ruling edge rusher Haason Reddick out for Monday night’s game against the 49ers despite Reddick’s continued absence from the team, but it looks like the clock has struck midnight.
Saleh said at a Saturday press conference, via multiple reporters, that it is “fair” to say that Reddick will miss the opening game of the season. Reddick briefly reported to the team after being traded by the Eagles this offseason, but didn’t take part in the offseason program and held out of training camp this summer.
Jermaine Johnson, Will McDonald, Micheal Clemons, and Takk McKinley will handle the edge rushing work.
Saleh also said that offensive lineman Wes Schweitzer (hand) and linebacker Zaire Barnes (ankle) have been ruled out. Saleh added that Schweitzer is a candidate for injured reserve, which would keep him out for at least four games.
Leonard Floyd has a career high of 10.5 sacks. He’s done it twice, most recently in 2023 with the Bills.
New 49ers teammate Nick Bosa is optimistic Floyd, 31, will break the mark this year.
“I hope he’s going to have the best year of his career, which is saying a lot,” Bosa said Thursday, via NBC Sports Bay Area.
Having Bosa absorbing plenty of attention will help. As will Leonard’s skills.
“I think Leonard brings something to our defense that we haven’t had — a guy that can make plays all over the field and has a motor,” Bosa said. “He doesn’t get tired. . . . Having a guy like that who is super long, athletic and can rush, and I think this scheme is going to bring the best out of him. So I’m excited. I really am.”
That’s good news for the 49ers. And bad news for the Jets. Last year, it was Floyd’s sack of quarterback Aaron Rodgers that resulted in his torn Achilles tendon on the fourth play of the first game of the season. On a Monday night.
Floyd, the ninth overall pick in 2016 by the Bears, beat a cut block, and Rodgers has admitted he held the ball too long, trying to decide where to throw it.
This year, Rodgers will see Floyd again, on the first Monday night of the year. Hopefully, the Jets won’t try to cut block Floyd or Bosa. Even more hopefully, Rodgers won’t display Hamlet’s fatal flaw for the season straight Week 1.
49ers running back Christian McCaffrey spent most of the summer off the field due to a calf injury and he was limited in practice on Thursday, but there doesn’t appear to be any concern about his availability for Monday night.
General Manager John Lynch said on KNBR Friday that McCaffrey, who is listed with an Achilles issue in addition to the calf, “is doing great” and looks like himself when he’s on the practice field. Lynch said that leaves him confident that the running back will be good to go against the Jets.
“Obviously we want to see him progress through the week, but he takes tremendous care of his body. He’ll be out there and ready to roll,” Lynch said.
McCaffrey was one of several key 49ers who were off the field this summer and one of the big questions for the opener is whether the team’s performance will suffer because of the lack of time together in camp.
49ers running back Christian McCaffrey will be on the field to start the practice week, but he won’t take 100 percent of his usual snaps.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan said in his Thursday press conference that McCaffrey will be limited in the session with the same calf issue that sidelined the running back during training camp.
But Shanahan noted on Thursday that it’s a calf/Achilles injury. While it’s not new, this is the first known time Shanahan has acknowledged the Achilles aspect of the issue.
McCaffrey led the league with 1,459 yards rushing, 2,023 yards from scrimmage, and 21 total touchdowns in 2023.
Defensive lineman Yetur Gross-Matos (knee) and linebacker Dee Winters (ankle) won’t practice on Thursday.
Running back Isaac Guerendo (groin), receiver Jauan Jennings (ankle), and offensive lineman Aaron Banks (pinky) will be limited.