Photo credit: 49ers
Yes, another one. Ahkello Witherspoon showed up on the injury report on Friday as limited. Head coach Kyle Shanahan explained that the former third-round pick had hamstring tightness before he “tweaked it a little bit.”
He is now ruled out of Sunday’s contest with the New York Giants. He is one of six would-be starters on the inactive list for Sunday(on the active roster, which doesn’t include Tevin Coleman on injured reserve):
CB Ahkello Witherspoon
QB Jimmy Garoppolo
RB Raheem Mostert
RG Tom Compton
DE Dee Ford
LB Dre Greenlaw
TE George Kittle
Witherspoon’s absence leaves Jason Verrett poised to start an NFL game for the first time in 1,112 days, which last happened in the then-San Diego Chargers’ 2017 season opener against the Denver Broncos, during which he suffered a setback in his right knee, the ACL of which he tore the season prior.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan expressed confidence in Verrett on Friday.
“Yeah, very confident in Jason,” Shanahan said. “He had a real good week of practice and he had a real good camp before he hurt his hamstring.”
Verrett’s career has been derailed in brutal fashion. His return to the league after two-plus years against the Pittsburgh Steelers saw him burned on back-to-back plays by Diontae Johnson for a pass interference call and subsequent touchdown. He suffered a knee patella sprain and was placed on injured reserve for the remainder of the season.
An interesting move is the decision to have Hroniss Grasu active and not Tom Compton. The team promoted Grasu from the practice squad to the active roster permanently on Saturday. Both running back JaMycal Hasty and linebacker Joe Walker will be active as the team’s two practice squad activations for the week.