Predicting the 49ers inactives for Week 14 vs. Texans

The San Francisco 49ers will play the Houston Texans in Week 14 action on Sunday and, as usual, I’m going to take a look at the potential inactives for the matchup.

Last week, the 49ers ruled out offensive lineman Tim Barnes, running back Jeremy McNichols, safety Antone Exum Jr., linebacker Pita Taumoepenu and defensive linemen Aaron Lynch, Tank Carradine and D.J. Jones.

At this point, I see no reason to think Lynch will play before the season is over. I’m personally disappointed by this, because I think he’s the best pass-rusher on the team, but either Kyle Shanahan or Robert Saleh don’t like what he brings to the table because he has been and should continue to be a healthy scratch.

Carradine is an interesting case. He was technically a healthy scratch a week ago, but I wonder if the 49ers just wanted to give him more rest. He’s set to hit the open market in the offseason, and I figured the 49ers would want to see what he has to offer given he played well earlier in the year. But he could very possibly not be in their plans moving forward.

Trent Brown is the only 49ers player on the injury report, and he’s listed as questionable with a shoulder injury. He played a week ago despite being on the injury report, and there has been no talk of a setback so we should see him in action today. He will only miss time if the 49ers feels like he is a risk to suffer greater injury by playing, which doesn’t seem to be the case.

Given the injury list and the players who were inactive last week, I honestly don’t see much changing short of the team giving Carradine the green light or limiting Brown due to his injury.

All of McNichols, Exum, Taumoepenu, Barnes and Jones should remain inactive as there is no reason to make a change there. Then add Lynch, and it’s all about the last spot.