The San Francisco 49ers will send out their fourth right guard of the season on Sunday when they host the Detroit Lions. On Thursday afternoon during a KNBR interview, head coach Kyle Shanahan said on KNBR that rookie guard Najee Toran will get the start barring big recoveries from Mike Person and Joshua Garnett.
“Right now, we’re still waiting on some guys to get healthy. So, we’re not sure going if they’re going to be able to by Sunday. We’ve had to take Najee Toran, we moved him up from our practice squad on Monday. He’s gotten most of the reps here throughout the week. I’m expecting him to be our guy here on Sunday unless we can have a miraculous recovery by some of the other guys.”
Person and Garnett both suffered foot injuries in Week 1, and that resulted in rookie tackle Mike McGlinchey moving inside to guard for the first time since he was a kid. The team promoted Toran from the practice squad early in the week, which suggested at least one of Person or Garnett was unlikely to play on Sunday.
If both Person and Garnett are inactive, Matt Tobin likely becomes the primary backup to Toran. Garry Gilliam remains the swing tackle behind McGlinchey and Joe Staley. The 49ers will release their final injury report on Friday afternoon.