Injuries shake up 49ers snap count in Week 1

The San Francisco 49ers dropped their season opener to the Minnesota Vikings, but we saw plenty that gives us some reason for optimism moving forward. The team made way too many mistakes, and Jimmy Garoppolo was inconsistent throughout the game, but it’s not yet the end of the world!

The close of Week 1 means we have the first snap count of the regular season. You can view the whole thing below, or check out the gamebook PDF.

Mistakes aside, injuries were the big story on Sunday. The team went through both their guard options, with Mike Person suffering a foot injury, and then his replacement, Joshua Garnett, suffering his own foot injury. This resulted in Mike McGlinchey moving inside to right guard and Garry Gilliam taking over at right tackle. Both Person and Garnett seemed to be walking OK after the game, but the team will update their status after some tests today.

Marquise Goodwin suffered a quadricep injury, and that seemed to result in Dante Pettis getting more work. Pettis was in line for some snaps, but he ended up that much busier once Goodwin left. Meanwhile, fifth receiver Kendrick Bourne finished with eight snaps, and considering one of them involved a blown assignment that resulted in a pick six, one has to wonder if Richie James will be active in his place next week.

Linebacker Fred Warner joined the ironman group on defense this week, playing all 71 snaps. Brock Coyle would have joined him but he suffered a concussion and missed the final ten snaps. Elijah Lee came on in his place, and would start next to Warner if Coyle’s concussion symptoms last too into this coming weekend.

On the defensive line, Arik Armstead ended up playing the most snaps, with 59. DeForest Buckner played 53, with Sheldon Day getting some work in his place for stretches of the game. Solomon Thomas played only 35 snaps, and Cassius Marsh ended up busier than him with 39 snaps. The 49ers still have to figure out how they want that rotation to look like, particularly for Thomas outside and inside.

The snap count lets us also see the difference in 4-3 looks vs. sub package looks the 49ers presented. SAM linebacker Mark Nzeocha played 33 of 71 snaps, while K’Waun Williams played 38 of 71 snaps. We don’t have full lineup details yet, but given that those two numbers add up to the 71 total defensive snaps, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were never on the field at the same time.