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The San Francisco 49ers will take on the New York Giants on Sunday, and as usual, we’re here to talk about the gameday inactives. The 49ers must rule out seven players on the 53-man roster to make it down to 46 active for the game.
At this point, predicting the gameday inactives is an exercise in trying to determine who is actually healthy and who is on injured reserve. The 49ers are constantly shuffling players in and out of the roster due to the never-ending slew of injuries, and it’s hard to keep up.
Last time out, the 49ers were so beset by injuries that their entire inactives list, sans one player, was filled with injured players. Linebacker Pita Tamoepenu was the only healthy scratch while all of offensive tackles Garry Gilliam and Joe Staley, defense ends Solomon Thomas and Aaron Lynch, defensive tackle D.J. Jones and cornerback K’Waun Williams were inactive with various injuries.
Of that list, we know a couple things for certain. Gilliam has been placed on injured reserve, while Staley has been removed from the injury report completely and will play. Lynch has already been ruled out, so he’s our first for-sure inactive, while both Williams and Thomas are listed as questionable.
I’d expect both Williams and Thomas to play on Sunday, though of those two, Thomas is the less-likely one. Williams was starting in practice and looked fine, so I expect him to play.
There are three others who have already been ruled out: wide receiver Trent Taylor, tight end George Kittle and linebacker Elijah Lee. Combined with Lynch, that’s four of the seven inactives. Five if you think one of Thomas of Williams won’t play.
I’d expect Tamoepenu to be inactive, as he’s not really ready to play at this point. Guys like Louis Murphy and Adrian Colbert should play and get plenty of playing time. Most interesting to me will be whether or not Antone Exum Jr. gets playing time, and if so, who won’t be playing.
One of the defensive ends should be inactive if Thomas can go, but the list of for-sure inactives is a bit fuzzier at this point. Victor Bolden might be inactive if the 49ers are comfortable in Murphy, but at this point, I think we’ve run out of definitive inactives for Sunday.