Fangio, Roman hopeful Chris Culliver, Marcus Martin can play Sunday

The San Francisco 49ers offensive and defensive coordinators met with the media Thursday afternoon, and they provided us with some injury updates. The 49ers are conducting an indoor practice on Thursday, due to heavy rain and wind in the Bay Area, so today's practice participation report probably won't tell us quite as much as we'd otherwise like.

Vic Fangio is hopeful Chris Culliver will be able to play on Sunday. He suffered a knee injury on Sunday, but Fangio thinks he dodged a bullet. He was limited in practice on Wednesday, and if he can keep improving, he should be good to go for Sunday.

Fangio was also asked about Glenn Dorsey and Tramaine Brock. He said Dorsey is improving, but still in a similar situation to last week. That would indicate he will continue getting limited reps, but he probably will be inactive on Sunday. As for Brock, Fangio said there was a "slight chance" he could play on Sunday. Fangio talked about his rustiness, which was a problem when he made his way back against the Denver Broncos prior to the bye. Given that his Wednesday practice was the first time since the week leading up to the Broncos game, I don't expect to see Brock active.

Fangio also Ahmad Brooks has started to work his way back into Fangio's good graces. He was benched last week due to missing a Tuesday meeting, and then being 20 minutes late to a Wednesday meeting, and then having a bad week of practice after that. Fangio said Brooks had a good Wednesday practice, and if he builds on that, he will likely start again on Sunday.

On the offensive side, Roman said he was hopeful Marcus Martin would be able to play Sunday. Martin suffered a knee injury in the second half of Sunday's game. He did not practice on Wednesday. The team is having a bit of an abbreviated indoors practice on Thursday, and hopefully getting back on the field for Friday's practice session. The key for Martin will be getting back on the field.

I am more confident Culliver plays than Martin, in part because Fangio is generally more of a straight-shooter in his press conferences. Martin very well could play, but I put more value in a Fangio "hopeful" than a Roman "hopeful".