49ers-Bears Injury Report: Jonas Jennings Out

by Fooch on Aug 18, 2008 2:50 PM PDT in News Comment 11 comments

EDITOR'S UPDATE 4:25PM: Jennings had surgery on his right hand for a broken knuckle (sounds painful). He'll be out Thursday, but apparently should be back for the exhibition finale against San Diego.

On Saturday Jonas Jennings apparently injured a knuckle on his right hand. Now it looks like he'll miss Thursday's showdown with the Bears. There is no word on the extent of the injury, but he's definitely out.

Jennings had been having a great camp, so it's definitely not good to see him get hurt. At the same time, he's struggled to stay healthy during his career, so this isn't exactly a shocking piece of nice. Barry Sims will get the start in his place. While I'd prefer Jennings be healthy, it'll be good to see what Sims can do with the first team offensive line. When Sims was signed, the coaches indicated he'd get a chance to compete for a starting position. In reality, I have no doubt he was actually signed as insurance for Jennings.

In other injury news, Ashley Lelie is really hoping to play Thursday. He wore a sleeve on his left calf to increase circulation and speed up his healing process from a small tear in his calf muscle. Barrows indicated Lelie is planning on applying some pressure to the leg to see where he's at. You know he's feeling a lot of pressure from the younger receivers. Josh Morgan has shot past him and it's possible this is now a competition between Lelie and Jason Hill, if even that.

Finally, Michael Robinson seems to be closer to full health. It sounds like if this were the regular season he could definitely play in the exhibition finale, but we'll see if they hold him out. Considering the struggles of the kick off and punt coverage units, his importance is only amplified.

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Maiocco just announced on the radio that O’Sullivan will be starting the next game. Don’t know if he’s put it on his blog yet.

I’ll say now without reservation that Alex Smith’s situation is pretty clear at this point. He’s got to be behind in the rankings. This does not make Ray Ratto right, though.

My Dave Righetti is better than your Dave Righetti.

by howtheyscored on Aug 18, 2008 5:01 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Oh yeah it’s up on his blog. Every QB will get equal snaps blah blah blah. Mike Nolan is a douche.

Simply by pulling on both ends, Patrick Willis can stretch diamonds back into coal

by 49erLou on Aug 18, 2008 5:07 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

As I said somewhere else....

I’m pretty surprised by this. I thought either Smith or Hill would get this start. The only way that Smith ends up starting the season opener is in the (VERY) unlikely event that the the coaching staff is just trotting JT out there in hopes that he fails in front of the fans. But that’s almost like a plot from some third-rate, straight-to-DVD movie.

On an interesting note, the “Stories from Around SBN” links on the right had this interesting one of Michael Robinson. Apparently he’s pretty well liked amongst Penn State fans. I have no idea why!

by sfgfan on Aug 19, 2008 8:54 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I’m extremely surprised by this, and I’m not really sure that it doesn’t shake my confidence in the upcoming season. On the one hand, I have to trust the coaches to put the best player out there, but on the other hand, it’s extremely difficult to believe that J. T. O’Sullivan is the best player out there.

My Dave Righetti is better than your Dave Righetti.

by howtheyscored on Aug 19, 2008 12:17 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

What I'm afraid of...

What I’m afraid of is that this is a desperate move by Nolan and Martz to save their jobs. I have very little doubt that O’Sullivan is probably the better option right now. However, I refuse to believe that Smith wouldn’t be better later in the season or even next season. Matt Maiocco made an interesting point in one of his recent blogs: while it’s very possible the 49ers sever ties with Smith if he doesn’t win the job, it’s unlikely McCloughan would sign off on the deal. I think McCloughan wasn’t ready to give up on Smith, because if he were, he wouldn’t have signed off on that buyout/extension/whatever-it-was during the offseason.

Long story short, I can totally understand where starting O’Sullivan doesn’t really instill much confidence in the 49ers, especially in the long-term.

by sfgfan on Aug 19, 2008 12:37 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

why

would Martz have to save his job? He just got it. He inherits an all-time terrible offense, all he has to do is have it show some respectability for a season or two and they will Beatify him.

O’Sullivan may not be much… but how could he be worse than Alex Smith? And even if he is, WE STILL HAVE SMITH!

The other thing is that it’s probably good we have 3 guys who all play QB “equally well” since they will probably all get badly damaged in the Mike Martz zero-protect offense.

FIRE BRIAN SABEAN

by zenbitz on Aug 19, 2008 4:25 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Here's how I see it.

Nolan and Martz are kind of tied together. If the 49ers fail to get obtain a winning record this season, it will again probably be tied to the offense. This is especially true if there’s no marked improvement over last year’s offensive production (which there probably will be). Mike Nolan is approaching the final year of his contract, and the 49ers have never had a head coach go into his final year without any indication of whether or not they’re sticking with him or letting him go.

In other words, if the team doesn’t show it’s capable of winning, at least to the extent that the front office gives Nolan an extension, then Nolan is gone. Unless they promote Martz to offensive coordinator, it’s very likely they’ll let Martz go, too. I suppose there’s always the possibility that the new head coach would like to have Martz stay on as his offensive coordinator, but what if the team goes with an offensive-minded coach this time around?

As for my thoughts on Smith being better later on, it’s not that I’m saying the team doesn’t have Smith just because O’Sullivan is here. I’m saying that unless O’Sullivan gets hurt or sucks up a storm, it’s unlikely Smith will just get inserted into the lineup when the coaching staff suddenly deems him the better QB. In other words, I’m just afraid that if they decide to stick with O’Sullivan, they’re sticking with him for the entire season, rain or shine.

by sfgfan on Aug 20, 2008 9:03 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Re: Jennings. Could be a blessing in disguise. Broken knuckle does sound painful, but it doesn’t really sound like something that affects you for the year. And on the positive side, if Jennings isn’t playing practicing in the pre-season then that should help him avoid an injury that does keep him out for the regular season.

by Kraut182 on Aug 18, 2008 9:32 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs