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On Friday afternoon, San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan had this to say about Deebo Samuel as to why he wasn’t going on the injured reserve:
“Because we believed he had a good chance to play this week. It didn’t go the way we hoped, but he’ll still be day-to-day going on that next week. We felt there was a chance, so to make a decision, that would be three weeks when we thought he did have a chance. We didn’t think that would be very smart, but we’ll see how next week goes. Also, it’s something with the rules that because it happened before training camp started, which is considered a non-football injury, there was some reason we couldn’t do that, either.”
Per ESPN’s Field Yates, the 49ers placed Samuel on the injured reserve Saturday afternoon. With the new IR rules, Samuel will miss at least three games. I think it’s smart since he wasn’t going to play on Sunday. There’s no reason for Samuel to travel across the country when he isn’t going to play. Let him stay in the Bay Area and continue to rehab. Also, rushing him back was more of an “in the now” line of thinking and not with the big picture in mind. If you’re looking at this glass half full, the 49ers didn’t promote a wide out from the practice squad which would indicate that the team is confident Brandon Aiyuk will play.
The 49ers also announced they promoted C Hroniss Grasu and CB Dontae Johnson. Grasu will wear No. 50, while Johnson will wear No. 27. Does calling Grasu up mean that Garland’s status is in question? You’d think so, and that’s troubling. Mike McGlinchey spoke on Friday to the media and had confidence that Grasu could perform, but he’s inexperienced and has only had a couple of weeks of practice with the first-team offense.
On Friday, Shanahan said, “It might take us all the way until game time to decide if they can go or not because they are that close to doing it” when asked about Garland and Samuel’s status. I wouldn’t rule out Garland playing just yet, but it’ll come down to the last minute.