49ers practice report: K’Waun Williams practices for the second day in a row

It hasn’t rained in over a month in Arizona, so naturally, there was a downpour all morning leading up to the San Francisco 49ers Thursday practice. The weather cleared up toward the end of practice and won’t be a factor on Sunday as there’s a retractable roof at State Farm Stadium.

According to The Athletic's Matt Barrows, defensive tackle Kevin Givens missed Wednesday’s practice to be on hand for his daughter's birth. Due to COVID-19 protocols, Givens must miss Sunday’s game against Washington. Congrats to the Givens’ family. That’s a big blow for the Niners defense as Givens has arguably been the 49ers' best pass rusher from a win-rate standpoint.

The good news is K’Waun Williams practiced on Thursday and went through drills. Williams looked good and on track to play Sunday against Washinton’s football team. Emmanuel Moseley participated in drills as well. The more starters that are playing, the fewer coverage busts we’ll see. Last year, when the starters were down, the defense played more vanilla coverage. Monday night, San Francisco leaned on their complex coverages, and mistakes were made. Williams's value goes beyond the passing game.

Raheem Mostert spoke to the media and said his high ankle sprain is something that won’t be 100% the rest of the season. Mostert called it a “nagging feeling.” That came after Mostert was asked about his low snap count Monday night.

Speaking of high-ankle sprains, Mostert added this about Jimmy Garoppolo:

“Like Jimmy’s, for example. He was dealing with a high ankle, but I believe it was a little bit more than that, and that’s why he hasn’t been able to play.”

NBC Sports’ Matt Maiocco was on KNBR Thursday discussing Alex Smith and if he thought we’d see Jimmy G this season. Maiocco said the decision to play both Garoppolo and Kittle would be determined whether the 49ers keep winning:

“The thing with Garoppolo is, they’re going to have to make a decision. It’s not going to be an easy decision. Do you want to do anything that upsets your thought process or where you want to go as an organization for a game that might be meaningless, as far as his health goes? If he has another injury, does that impact what you’re going to want to do in the offseason with him? Or shopping him to a team that may want him while you go in a different direction? Does the short-term benefit the long-term risk?”

Maiocco didn’t make it sound like we’d see Garoppolo return this season.

Here is today’s practice report:

DNP:

T Tom Compton (concussion)
DT Kevin Givens (not injury related)
DT D.J. Jones (ankle)
CB Emmanuel Moseley (hamstring)

Limited:

C Hroniss Grasu (knee)
WR Deebo Samuel (foot)
CB K’Waun Williams (ankle)

I can promise you that Moseley was padded up and practicing with the special teams.