© Rich Barnes | 2020 Sep 13
The 49ers are banged up, but so are the Jets.
Though San Francisco’s injury report is more lengthy, their opponent on Sunday will be without their two best skill players, New York head coach Adam Gase announced on Friday. Wide receiver Jamison Crowder, who is coming off his first 100-yard receiving game with the team, won’t play because of a hamstring injury. He joins running back Le’Veon Bell, also out with a hamstring, who was placed on injured reserve Tuesday.
As far as the 49ers are concerned, general manager John Lynch gave the following injury updates during his weekly hit with Murph & Mac on Friday morning.
George Kittle:
“He did sprain his knee,” Lynch said. “Is it out of the question that he plays? No. George is obviously very important, and George is one of those guys who’s going to want to play every time, so we have to be very judicious. But that’s not to say we’re ruling it out.
“We’ll see what he’s going to do today. I don’t know how much he’s going to try to do. I think it truly will be a game-time decision for George. He’s so important to us. We’ve really got to be smart. That could be being smart, and he finds a way to play. It could be we decide to wait another week.”
Ahkello Witherspoon:
“He cleared (the concussion protocol). The nice thing about that these days … there’s so many protocols. I feel like we live in protocols, but it actually helps with the concussions because it takes it out of the coaches’ hands, out of anyone’s hands other than there’s a very strict and serious protocol. They have to meet these steps.
“He’s done great. He’s really responded well, feels good. So it looks like he’s going to be going.”
On Dee Ford’s neck injury:
“We sent him for some imaging, and we’re waiting to kind of hear those results here this morning,” Lynch added. “We’ll let you know as we know.”
Lynch said that Witherspoon will start at Richard Sherman’s field cornerback position alongside Ahkello Witherspoon. Ford’s injury sort of came out of nowhere, as the DE was a late scratch from practice on Thursday.
Listen to the full interview below.