San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan spoke to the media Monday afternoon with a few injury updates. Cornerback K’Waun Williams is expected to go on the short-term injured reserve. Williams and Ziggy Ansah are now the 12th and 14th players to go on IR this season. We are four weeks in. Shanahan said he’s “concerned” as Williams has battled through a hip injury, and now a new knee sprain pops up. Williams will miss at least the next three games. Shanahan said he hopes to get one of the injured cornerbacks back this week.
This would be the third week for Richard Sherman’s injury. Shanahan said he was initially told that Sherm’s injury could be 3-4 weeks, and it’d be a nice surprise to have the veteran cornerback return to practice on Wednesday. Still, he’s not optimistic about Sherman’s return. Staying with cornerbacks, I asked Shanahan if we could see Emmanuel Moseley, who remains in the concussion protocol, slides inside, and plays slot cornerback with Jason Verrett and potentially Ahkello Witherspoon, who is expected to return to practice as well. Shanahan said the team has to prepare for “Plan Z,” which is funny because it’s true. He said, “guys who don’t play nickel, you’re still talking about them playing nickel.”
Shanahan was complimentary of Raheem Mostert’s explosiveness and said there is nobody like him in the league. Kyle put Mostert in the same boat as Sherman and didn’t sound too optimistic that Raheem would practice this Wednesday. They both “have a chance,” but Shanahan’s confidence level “isn’t real high.”
Those two, Dre Greenlaw, Jimmy Garoppolo, and Witherspoon, are all “hopeful” to return to practice this Wednesday. Richie James Jr. is eligible to return from IR as well.
Shanahan said he’s still unsure whether Garoppolo would practice or what the quarterback situation would look like against Miami next Sunday. He’ll know more on Wednesday once the 49ers returned to practice and said he’ll talk it over with the other coaches and have a plan by then.