The San Francisco 49ers have hopefully avoided another modest bullet on Thursday. Safety Terrell Williams suffered a knee injury during Thursday’s joint practice session after going down on concrete outside the field following a one-on-one drill. Kyle Shanahan did not know the severity of the injury, but William was seen walking around and told Matt Maiocco he is fine.
Williams has been further down the safety depth chart, but last week he might have earned a little more work. Pro Football Focus gave him their top grade on the 49ers roster. He had a pair of pass breakups on two targets, and had a quarterback hurry on one blitz attempt.
Williams lined up with Antone Exum in the backfield in the fourth quarter against the Dallas Cowboys. Exum was the center field guy, while Williams split his time between lining up as the in-the-box strong safety and covering slot receivers. Marcell Harris did not play last week, and appears unlikely to play this weekend due to a hamstring injury. If Williams is healthy, we’ll see where he settles into the depth chart with Chanceller James.