Photo by Adam Glanzman/Getty Images
If it’s pessimism-inducing injury news you want, it’s pessimism-inducing injury news you’ll get. At this juncture, the standard for 49ers injury updates is disappointment. There are few indications that will change.
Injury roundup: From pretty bad to even worse
Jaquiski Tartt’s season is over after suffering from turf toe (a toe sprain). Kyle Shanahan confirmed on KNBR on Thursday that Tartt will spend the remainder of the year on injured reserve.
K’Waun Williams (high ankle sprain) could join him, and is expected to be out four-to-six weeks. Because he was placed on IR earlier in the year, he cannot be placed back on the list and return, so the team is effectively biding its time because they can. They currently have a surplus of roster spots, so having Williams take up one is not an issue at the moment. If it does become a problem and it seems unlikely he’ll return, he could be shelved for the season.
That means that Tartt, who has been with the team since being a first-round pick back in 2013, will have played 66 out of a possible 99 games in his career, assuming the 49ers don’t make the playoffs this year. In other words, he’s missed 30.3 percent of possible games, including the playoffs. He, along with everyone in the 49ers’ secondary not named Jimmie Ward and Tarvarius Moore, will be a free agent this offseason.
There’s a chance he and Williams have played their last games for San Francisco.
Deebo Samuel, meanwhile, is “a long shot” to play against the New Orleans Saints and is much more likely, along with Raheem Mostert and Richard Sherman to return in Week 12 to face the Los Angeles Rams.
“There’s a chance” that Kendrick Bourne could get out of COVID-19 protocol on Friday after testing positive (potentially another false positive) for the second time, then testing negative.
New Orleans can be beat with big plays, and Mullens is actually 49ers’ best shot
One thing that pops up when you look at the close games and losses the New Orleans Saints have had this year is that a number of time their defense has been gauged is with chunk yardage on deep throws.
- Against the Chicago Bears (Saints won 26-23): a 50-yard reception by Darnell Mooney, a 24-yard lofted touchdown pass to Allen Robinson.
- Against the Carolina Panthers (Saints won 27-24): a 74-yard touchdown reception by D.J. Moore (41 air yards). The Panthers also scored two touchdowns doing two things the 49ers excelled at with Deebo Samuel (a shovel pass touchdown to a motioning Moore, and a five-yard rushing touchdown to Curtis Samuel, used as a running back after being motioned into the backfield after lining up as a receiver.
- Against the Los Angeles Chargers (Saints won 30-27): a 17-yard lofted touchdown pass to Keenan Allen, a 49-yard reception (44 air yards) by Jalen Guyton, a 64-yard reception to Mike Williams (37 air yards), a 29-yard reception by Williams (29 air yards).
The list goes on against New Orleans, like with Danny Amendola of the Lions on a 50-yard reception and Allen Lazard of the Packers on 48- and 72-yard receptions (42 and 43 air yards, respectively).
One of the consistent ways teams have given the Saints trouble is by taking deep shots against them, On KNBR, Shanahan acknowledged that.
“New Orleans has got a real sound defense,” Shanahan said. “When people have gotten by them, it has been with some big plays. And I think we will have some opportunities this Sunday.”
Now, a big play doesn’t necessarily require a quarterback throwing the ball 30-plus yards past the line of scrimmage, but it just so happens those are the plays that have stretched the New Orleans’ secondary into breaking. Shanahan can and has schemed open chunk plays time after time, with New Orleans included (the 75-yard touchdown pass to Emmanuel Sanders last year, which Jimmy Garoppolo underthrew), but many of those chances have been whiffed on this year, by both Garoppolo and Nick Mullens.
The one thing that actually favors the 49ers is that Mullens has very clearly been the better quarterback throwing the ball deep this season.
On throws of 15-plus yards past the line of scrimmage, here’s how Garoppolo and Mullens fared:
Garoppolo: 5-of-19 with zero touchdowns and four interceptions
Mullens: 14-of-23 with one touchdown and zero interceptions
Following up on this, on passes of 15+ air yards this season for the #49ers:
Jimmy Garoppolo: 5-of-19, 0 TD, 4 INT
Nick Mullens: 14-of-23, 1 TD, 0 INTGaroppolo had one completion of 15+ air yards in each game until Seattle, when he did not attempt a pass of 15+ air yards https://t.co/9E2n2Mt7V2
— Jake Hutchinson (@hutchdiesel) November 13, 2020
Asked about that Garoppolo stat on KNBR, Shanahan acknowledged that part of the reason the 49ers have struggled is throwing the ball effectively downfield. He tried not to put the blame specifically on Garoppolo, though we all have eyes.
“When I just hear numbers, I hear that’s not good enough,” Shanahan said. “Obviously want to do better than that. But then I’d have to go through all of those plays to tell you what it is. And I promise you when I watch it, it’s not one thing. I mean, it’s a group. It’s quarterbacks, it’s play calls, it’s protections, it’s receivers, it’s coverages you get. So all that goes into it. I don’t think we’ve ever had a huge problem of getting the ball downfield, but we haven’t been doing a good job of that this year. And obviously, our record reflects that. I know if we could get better at that, I’m sure it would help us more.”
Other notes: Strong safety competition and the “best left side” in football?
- Robert Saleh didn’t exactly ensure that Marcell Harris, who is a liability in coverage, will remain the starter at strong safety the rest of the season. He also didn’t say if there’s an open competition at the position. Shanahan said this week that the reason Tarvarius Moore doesn’t get a chance there is because of body type. He prefers a bigger player at the position and Harris is listed with a 15-pound weight advantage over the 200-pound Moore. The question is whether Johnathan Cyprien, the veteran who was promoted off the practice squad, might win the job.
“We’ll see as it goes,” Saleh said. “Obviously, Cyp will be up. He’s always part of the equation, but trying to find roles for everybody on our defense and making sure that we’re putting our best 11 on the football field is always going to be at the front of our minds. Whether Cyp has a role, [DB Tarvarius] T-Moore, [S] Marcell [Harris], we’ve just got to do a really good job trying to find a way to get our best 11 on the field and continue to be as fast as possible. So, to answer your question, absolutely. There’s always ways to get people on the field. We’ve just got to figure it out.”
- Left guard Laken Tomlinson was asked about how he and Trent Williams have gelled this season, and was not short on confidence. “I think we’re the best left side in the league,” Tomlinson said.
- Richie James Jr., who had a standout, career-best performance last Thursday of nine receptions, 184 yards and a touchdown, said, despite excelling as an outside receiver, that he prefers to be in the slot, as he has been for most of his career. He said he understands the business of the NFL, and why he hasn’t gotten an extended opportunity as a receiving target until now. He, like most of the team’s young receivers, credited Emmanuel Sanders for helping him develop. That group will reunite with Sanders in New Orleans on Sunday. He said Sanders “literally,” was, “… showing us how to do it. His actions, how he carried his self around the locker room, game day, how he prepped for games, you could literally just see it.”