The San Francisco 49ers promoted Shayne Skov to the 53-man roster on Wednesday to replace Ray-Ray Armstrong, but Skov is not the guy who will replace what Armstrong did. The 49ers had split reps between Armstrong and Hodges, with Armstrong working more of the passing downs and Hodges working more of the running downs.
On Wednesday, Chip Kelly said that Wilhoite is likely to handle that coverage work. Kelly was asked if Wilhoite, Bellore, and/or Skov can handle coverage work in place of Armstrong:
“Mike is good. Mike would be the next guy up in that situation. Those guys had a really good battle in camp between the two of those guys in who really was going to be that coverage linebacker for us and real confident in Mike in being able to do that.”
This does not mean we’ll see an even split of snaps with Wilhoite getting all the coverage work. It is possible the team still gives Hodges some of those snaps as well, but we won’t know until the Seahawks get into those situations on Sunday.
In particular, it will be interesting to see who gets the assignment of covering Jimmy Graham. Since arriving in Seattle, he has struggled to get going consistently in the passing game. He had one reception for 11 yards in Week 1, and three receptions for 42 yards in Week 2. He was returning from a torn patellar tendon, so it could still take him some time to get fully up to speed. He has talked about being more comfortable with each passing week, so we’ll see how much he is targeted by Russell Wilson on Sunday, and who is handling him in coverage.