Unfortunately, the San Francisco 49ers didn’t come out of their first preseason game unscathed from the injury bug. Second-round pick Aaron Banks will miss a couple of weeks and “maybe three” with a shoulder injury, per Kyle Shanahan.
Banks wasn’t the only injury, as rookie UDFA WR Austin Watkins suffered a broken foot. Shanahan said Watkins suffered the injury in the first quarter and tried to play through it. However, he added that Watkins had a noticeable limp when the team went back and watched the film. Watkins will miss 6-8 weeks.
That’s unfortunate for Watkins, as he’s now on the outside looking in when it comes to making the roster. But, on the other hand, Watkins could be a player that San Francisco redshirts, as they basically did with Jauan Jennings last year.
Players who will return to practice on Monday:
- LBs Azeez Al-Shaair
- LB Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles
- DE Samson Ebukam
- TE MyCole Pruitt
- CB K’Waun Williams
The 49ers have to cut down to 85 players on Monday. Because of that, Shanahan said they might not add another running back despite injuries to Jeff Wilson Jr. and Elijah Mitchell.
Shanahan gave some updates on the rookies and Jauan Jennings. He said that he’d been pleased with Jaylon Moore: “I’ve been pleased with him. He’s shown that he has the ability to play in this league… has to do it consistently.”
The 49ers originally intended for Moore to play guard, but with Justin Skule suffering an injury, that’s forced Moore to play offensive tackle.
As for Jennings: “I was excited with how Jauan played. If you watched him in the running game, he really got after it. Maximum effort every play dug out those safeties.”
The NFL counted the throws behind the line of scrimmage as carries for Jennings, who looked spry in his first action as a Niner. He was encouraging and proved he can win down the seam.
Speaking in full coach mode, Shanahan wants more out of Trey Sermon: “I’d like to see a little more from him. Putting the ball on the ground can’t happen. I expect him to do a little bit better as we go forward.”
If Sermon is going to be “the guy,” the last thing he can do is fumble in his debut. So we’ll have to keep an eye on that.
Shanahan said one of the four sacks Trey Lance took was on him: “He definitely needed to get rid of.” He mentioned that the other three sacks would have been tough for Lance to escape given the pressure and the down and distance.
Lance will continue to get sprinkled in during practice with the starters, per Shanahan. There are no plans to make the reps even. Shanahan said the plan is to continue to “rev up” Lance as we get closer to the season.