49ers injury updates: Deebo Samuel leaves practice early with an apparent injury

Samuel limped off and was grabbing his hamstring

The San Francisco 49ers finished up their final joint practice against the Los Angeles Chargers on Friday. Unfortunately, the practice was cut short as it seemed like the coaches had achieved everything they intended to do.

Friday’s practice saw more special teams drills. However, it was a much lighter practice, which is expected two days before a game.

The highlight from practice happened on the first play from scrimmage for the Niners offense when Raheem Mostert outran the Chargers defense down the sideline for a 70-yard touchdown:

Welcome to the NFL, Asante Samuel Jr. — these guys can run.

Deebo Samuel left practice early. There was no official word on his injury from the coaching staff after practice. Samuel limped off, grabbing at his hamstring. We’ll see if he suits up Sunday for the preseason game. I have my doubts.

Here is the list of players who didn’t participate during Friday’s practice:

• LB Azeez Al-Shaair (elbow)
• SS Tavon Wilson (maintenance day)
• CB Emmanuel Moseley (hamstring)
• WR Jalen Hurd (knee)
• RB Elijah Wilson (adductor)
• DE Alex Barrett (nothing confirmed)
• G Aaron Banks (shoulder)
• LT Trent Williams (knee)
• T Shon Coleman (knee)
• DT Javon Kinlaw (shoulder)

Al-Shaair’s injury is new after he just returned from a leg injury. He’s been starting at SAM linebacker. When Al-Shaair is not in the lineup, the rotation goes Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles, Mychal Kendricks, and Jonas Griffith.

For the first time in training camp, Trey Lance received a series with the starters. After Thursday, head coach Kyle Shanahan said that he wanted to see Lance against the Chargers starters like Joey Bosa and Derwin James.

On Friday, Lance received eight plays with the starters. He had some highs and some lows. Lance remains inconsistent, but he’s undeniably exciting. The highlight of Lance’s day came when he picked up a first down on a QB draw on 3rd & long.

Lance finished the day going 4-8 with a red zone touchdown, a couple of drops, and a sack. He picked up two first downs during his drive with the starters before the coaches stopped the drive on second down. Lance was also fortunate not to throw an interception when a pass sailed on him deep over the middle.

A point of emphasis from Shanahan to Lance has been for the rookie to speed his processing up. As a result, Lance went through his progressions much quicker today. Let’s see how that translates to Sunday’s game.

Jimmy Garoppolo finished 3-7 with a drop and an interception that was returned for an interception near the goal line to Derwin James:

Garoppolo has had every opportunity to close the door on the starting quarterback questions, but these decisions are happening too often. So as of today, I’d still slot in Jimmy as the starter.

Shanahan wouldn’t say how long he intended to play Garoppolo and the starters during Sunday’s preseason game against the Chargers:

“I don’t know yet and I mean that. How much you get off these practices, I never decide before how a scrimmage. I want to see what they got here today. I really want to have a big one tomorrow. And then I evaluate where guys are and how hard the workload was for them. see if the game is worth for them and who needs to do it.”

I’d guess Garoppolo would play the first quarter, with Lance getting the next quarter and a half, or so and Nate Sudfeld — who received a series during team drills for the first time all week — gets the second half.