Jimmy Garoppolo

George Kittle, Jimmy Garoppolo To Miss Week 3

The 49ers will be starting backups at nearly every non-offensive line position on offense against the Giants on Sunday. Despite George Kittle getting in three limited practices this week, the 49ers will hold their All-Pro tight end out.

Same goes for Jimmy Garoppolo, though San Francisco’s staring quarterback did not practice this week. The 49ers will play a game without their starting quarterback, their top two running backs from Super Bowl LIV, their No. 1 wide receiver and their recently extended tight end.

Kittle is on his way back from a knee sprain, and the three limited practices point to the 49ers having him ready to go against the Eagles in Week 4. But the 27-year-old star pass catcher will miss two games for a second straight season.

Nick Mullens will start for Garoppolo, who ended up receiving better-than-expected news about his high ankle sprain, and a currently healthy Jordan Reed will line up as the 49ers’ first-string tight end at the same MetLife Stadium venue that further depleted the team’s depth chart.

The list of would-be 49ers starters/key contributors who will not be in uniform against the Giants: Garoppolo, Kittle, Raheem Mostert, Tevin Coleman, Deebo Samuel, Weston Richburg, Nick Bosa, Dee Ford, Solomon Thomas, Dre Greenlaw and Richard Sherman.

49ers To Place Tevin Coleman On IR

The 49ers are preparing to place running back Tevin Coleman on injured reserve, head coach Kyle Shanahan says (Twitter link via Cam Inman of the San Jose Mercury News). Between this and Raheem Mostert‘s knee strain, the Niners’ backfield is looking thin. According to Shanahan, Coleman’s issue is also more severe than Mostert’s.

Coleman, 27, joined the 49ers last offseason after spending the first four seasons of his career in Atlanta. The veteran was solid in his 14 games (11 starts), compiling 544 yards and six scores on 137 carries. He also hauled in 21 receptions for 180 yards and one touchdown. The emergence of Mostert relegated Coleman to more of a backup role, although he still had 18 totes (albeit for only 30 yards) through his team’s first two games this season.

The injury bug has shown no mercy to the 49ers, nor has it been exclusive to the offensive side of the ball. In the past week, the 49ers have also lost star defensive end Nick Bosa and defensive lineman Solomon Thomas to season-ending ACL tears.

Meanwhile, they received better-than-expected news on Jimmy Garoppolo‘s high-ankle sprain, but Nick Mullens is still likely to start in his place on Sunday against the Giants. The Niners – currently at 1-1 – will hope to have Jimmy G under center in Week 4 against the Eagles.

49ers’ Solomon Thomas Suffers Torn ACL

The hits just keep on coming for the 49ers. Shortly after learning that defensive end Nick Bosa is done for the year with a torn ACL, the 49ers announced that defensive lineman Solomon Thomas has suffered the same injury. Needless to say, Thomas’ year is over. 

[RELATED: 49ers’ Nick Bosa Done For Season]

Thomas didn’t just go down in the same game — he went down two plays after Bosa. This marks a lost season for the former No. 3 overall pick in the 2017 draft after a string of disappointing campaigns. The Stanford product started at least 12 games in each of his first two seasons but was first string just three times in 2019. After playing on just 41% of the Niners snaps, he turned into more of a role player than the star SF envisioned. This year, he started in both of his games, but he won’t have an opportunity to build off of that.

In 2017, Thomas was widely regarded as the second-best defensive lineman in the class, behind only Myles Garrett. On draft night, the Niners sent their No. 2 overall pick to the Bears and tapped Thomas, even though they already had a loaded defensive front featuring Arik Armstead and DeForest Buckner. With that, the Bears got Mitchell Trubisky and the 49ers got a king’s ransom for sliding down just one spot. Unfortunately, they missed on Thomas. In four seasons (really, three seasons-and-change), Thomas registered six total sacks while starting just 30 games.

In other Niners injury news, the club received good word on quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. He’s day-to-day with his high-ankle injury, giving him a small chance of playing this week against the Giants and a better chance of returning for Week 4 against the Eagles (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport). Running back Raheem Mostert, meanwhile, will be out for several weeks with a knee injury.

49ers RB Tevin Coleman To Miss Several Weeks

It keeps getting worse for the 49ers. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports (via Twitter) that 49ers running back Tevin Coleman will miss several weeks with a knee injury. The veteran suffered the injury during his team’s win over the Jets yesterday.

The 49ers training staff has presumably been working overtime this season, and the injuries have made their way to the running back room. Raheem Mostert is dealing with a MCL strain that will likely sideline him this weekend against the Giants, and with Coleman out, the team will likely have to turn to the likes of Jeff Wilson, Jerick McKinnon, and JaMycal Hasty to lead their running game.

Coleman, 27, joined the 49ers last offseason after spending the first four seasons of his career in Atlanta. The veteran was solid in his 14 games (11 starts), compiling 544 yards and six scores on 137 carries. He also hauled in 21 receptions for 180 yards and one touchdown. The emergence of Mostert relegated Coleman to more of a backup role, although he still has 18 carries (albeit for only 30 yards) through his team’s first two games this season.

With injuries up and down the roster, it sounds like the 49ers did receive a bit of good news today. As Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com passes along, the 49ers are optimistic that quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo won’t miss any time due to his high-ankle sprain.

49ers Believe DE Nick Bosa Has Torn ACL, Jimmy Garoppolo To Miss Week 3

Just minutes after it was reported the Giants believe Saquon Barkley is done for the year, another star player appears to have suffered a season-ending knee injury. The 49ers believe pass-rusher Nick Bosa has a torn ACL, head coach Kyle Shanahan announced at his post-game press conference.

It wasn’t the only significant injury the 49ers suffered, as quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo also went down with an ankle injury. Shanahan announced after their win over the Jets that it was a high ankle sprain and that backup Nick Mullens would likely start their Week 3 game against the Giants.

It’s an absolutely massive blow to this 49ers defense, which was the engine behind their Super Bowl run last year. The defensive front already took a hit with the trade of All-Pro defensive tackle DeForest Buckner this offseason, and now there’s a huge hole on the outside.

The second overall pick of last year’s draft, Bosa was sensational as a rookie. He had nine sacks, making the Pro Bowl and winning the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Year award. The 49ers beat the lowly Jets, but they lost as big favorites to the Cardinals in Week 1, and are now at a significant disadvantage.

Bosa should be able to make a full recovery in time for Week 1 of next year. Ankle injuries don’t tend to keep quarterbacks out too long, so it would be a surprise if Garoppolo isn’t back under center for San Fran’s Week 4 date with the Eagles.

49ers Notes: Garoppolo, Brady, Trent Williams

Before Tom Brady shocked the world and joined up with the Bucs, there was buzz about TB taking his talents to SF. For his part, Jimmy Garoppolo says he wasn’t caught off guard by the speculation.

The one thing I can say about the whole situation was Kyle and John were very honest with me the whole time,” the quarterback said (via Matt Barrows of The Athletic). “That’s their job — to put the best team together possible and you’ve got to respect that. So as long as the honesty and truthfulness is there, I respect those guys, I love those guys. And it’s going to be a fun year this year.”

It was an odd spot for Jimmy G to be in, especially since he had just capped his first full season as an NFL starter with a Super Bowl appearance. Still, he says he wasn’t sweating the Brady talk.

It’s the NFL,” he said. “There’s competition. Everyone’s trying to put the best team together they can. And that’s just the reality of it.”

More from SF:

  • 49ers GM John Lynch says he considered trading for Trent Williams midway through last season while tackles Joe Staley and Mike McGlinchey were sidelined. If they acquired the left tackle, they would have kicked him inside later on in the year. “We had made a call about it in the last season when Joe and McGlinchey were hurt, thinking, wow, this could be an option,” Lynch said (h/t 49ers Web Zone). “When those guys come back, maybe we play him at guard.” Ultimately, the deal didn’t materialize in 2019. Instead, the Niners landed Williams in April, allowing him to stay at left tackle post-Staley retirement.
  • The 49ers hired ex-Jaguars assistant LB coach Mike Rutenberg to serve as a pass game specialist. The former colleague of defensive coordinator Robert Saleh will help fill in the gap following Joe Woods’ departure to Cleveland.
  • Earlier this week, we learned that the 49ers have forfeited their right to apply the franchise tag to Williams. Initially, Williams wanted his new team to furnish him with a lucrative multi-year deal. Instead, he compromised with the Niners, allowing him to reach unrestricted free agency next year with half of his 2020 salary guaranteed.

49ers Out On Tom Brady?

Sources have told NBC Sports’ Chris Simms that the 49ers are not going to sign quarterback Tom Brady. The Patriots legend, obviously, is entering free agency for the first time in his career and has been tied to San Francisco for some time. Brady grew up in the Bay Area and following Jimmy Garoppolo‘s struggles in the Super Bowl, many people were connecting the two.

While Simms noted he was unclear if anything had changed over the past few days, he stated that the 49ers were Brady’s preferred destination, but the organization plans to stick with Garoppolo. Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports added in the aftermath of Simms’ report that the Titans and 49ers interest was “always more smoke than fire.”

Simms is a longtime friend of 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan and this may be the most public way San Francisco chooses to rebuke the rumors that have tied Brady to the Niners. Reading between the lines, if the 49ers were indeed Brady’s favorite destination, the rumors could have been entirely driven by his camp, while San Francisco never necessarily considered a change at quarterback.

Assuming Simms’ report is accurate after the Titans extended Ryan Tannehill earlier this afternoon, two of Brady’s most appealing options seem to be off the table. At this point, a return to New England seems like the only avenue available to Brady if he wants to be a contender, otherwise, teams like the Chargers, Buccaneers, or Raiders pose the largest threat to sign him away.

Latest On Tom Brady, 49ers

The Tom Brady rumor mill has been buzzing with drips of news and gobs of speculation. Some of that theorizing has led some to connect the dots between the Patriots’ legendary passer and the NFC champs. However, at this time, there are no indications that the 49ers are interested in replacing Jimmy Garoppolo with Brady, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter). 

Fresh off of a Super Bowl appearance, the 49ers are pretty happy with Jimmy G, as Rapoport notes. RapSheet doesn’t feel that the possibility can be ruled out, but at this point, there hasn’t been much to substantiate the talk.

Brady has done an excellent job of keeping things on the hush so far, given the circumstances. That’s one of the many traits that he’s learned from longtime coach Bill Belichick (the Pats, predictably, have also kept things quiet, outside of recent word that they are still in regular contact with the quarterback). At this point, it’s tough to predict how things might play out. The Chargers, Titans, and Raiders all profile as logical destinations for the league’s biggest star. The Colts and Giants, it seems, are not in the mix. Right now, it sounds like we can put the Niners into that second group.

On the surface, it’d be a logical match. If the Niners had Brady under center in February, it’s possible that they would be the champs. For Brady, signing with the Niners would put him in a major market with a ready-to-win defense. The Niners pondered the possibility of luring Brady away from the Patriots two years ago, too – when that didn’t happen, they traded for his backup instead.

Right now, it just doesn’t seem to be in the cards. Based on what we’re hearing (or, the lack of what insiders are hearing, concretely), the 49ers seem comfortable enough with Garoppolo as their quarterback moving forward.

49ers Notes: Shanahan, Lynch, Garoppolo

The trade that sent Jimmy Garoppolo from New England to San Francisco has turned out to be one of the most important swaps in recent NFL history, with Tom Brady‘s former backup set to start in Super Bowl LIV. Despite other suitors believed to be in the mix for Garoppolo in 2017, Bill Belichick alerted Kyle Shanahan he was willing to part with the former second-round pick for a second-rounder. The 49ers quickly accepted but did so after initially being willing to offer the Patriots more for the then-fourth-year passer, Seth Wickersham of ESPN.com reports. But Belichick, despite previous refusals to trade Garoppolo, was not posturing when he indicated he would take a Round 2 pick for his contract-year quarterback.

It ended up costing the 49ers only the No. 43 overall selection in 2018 to land their starting quarterback. While this process was murkier on the Patriots’ end, it helped the 49ers construct a rebuild that has them in their seventh Super Bowl.

A week away from the 49ers’ Super Bowl matchup with the Chiefs, here is the latest out of San Francisco:

  • Going back to when this rebuild began, Shanahan did not mince words about the state of the 49ers during his interview for their top coaching job. Early in the then-Falcons OC’s 2017 interview, he told team CEO Jed York the roster left over from the Trent Baalke era at that time was “horrible,” Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area notes. This led to a gradual rebuild that did not get far off the ground before this season, with the 49ers going 10-22. But York was on board with the process, viewing 2019 as the first real season on which the Shanahan-John Lynch regime could be judged, Maiocco adds. York gave the HC-GM duo six-year contracts because of the team going through three coaches in three years from 2014-16.
  • Lynch’s hire came about because he cold-called Shanahan with an offer to pair with him in San Francisco, Wickersham adds. A recommendation from Mike Shanahan, who coached Lynch in Denver, helped seal the deal for his son. Lynch had spoken at length with Kyle Shanahan on the phone in preparation for games he would call as a broadcaster, per Wickersham, and hoped for a chance to return to football. Shanahan did not have much familiarity with the other finalists for the 49ers’ GM job — Vikings assistant GM George Paton and Cardinals VP of player personnel Terry McDonough — and the decision to hire a GM out of the broadcast booth has helped the 49ers return to the Super Bowl.
  • Despite dealing with a dislocated shoulder that induced pain preventing him from walking off the field last weekend, Tevin Coleman has received good news about his status for Super Bowl LIV.

NFC Notes: Falcons, Garoppolo, 49ers, Vikings

Falcons first-round offensive lineman Kaleb McGary is set to resume on-field activities after undergoing a cardiac ablation procedure at the beginning of the preseason. After the lineman missed his team’s first three preseason games, coach Dan Quinn made it clear that they’ll bring the rookie along slowly.

“The first part is, like today, participating in the walkthrough,” Quinn told Will McFadden of the team’s website. “And then he’ll get a good bit of the field work with Marty [Lauzon] and the athletic performance staff. And then once that’s good, we’ll be out a couple of weeks, make sure the conditioning is right. And then back into individual [drills], and then you get back into team [drills]. So we really stay strict to the policy we put into place for the guys to return to it. We just don’t back off of it, especially if you’ve been out for, in his case, two weeks.

“It’s a good sign that he had such a good report. But, like all players, we’re going to do the right thing and make sure nothing comes up.”

McFadden notes that the rookie was working with the second team during the early parts of preseason, but he was expected to emerge as the Falcons’ starting right tackle.

Some more notes from around the NFC:

  • Jimmy Garoppolo is coming off a torn ACL that shelved him for the 2018 campaign, but the 49ers organization is optimistic about his return. “I think what’s important, all the time, is you look at the totality of a camp and I think he’s had a really good camp, I really do,” general manager John Lynch said, via Jennifer Lee Chan of NBCSportsBayArea.com. “I think the best thing for all of us is that is, I get hesitant and reluctant to say it, but is his recovery from his knee has been flawless.” The quarterback struggled during his preseason debut this evening, completing one of his six passes and tossing an interception.
  • 49ers tight end Garrett Celek is currently on the PUP, and Matt Maiocco of NBCSportsBayArea.com writes that the 31-year-old will be sidelined “well into the regular season” as he recovers from back surgery. Celek appeared in 15 games last season, hauling in five receptions for 90 yards and two touchdowns.
  • Vikings coach Mike Zimmer explained some of his logic as he settles on a 53-man roster. “I don’t know that we’re real deep in the secondary,” Zimmer said (via Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press on Twitter). “So that might lend itself (to an extra LB). May keep an extra defensive lineman, less in the secondary and maybe keep one less running back. It all will work out.” When it comes to special teams, Tomasson believes the organization will ultimately opt for kicker Dan Bailey and punter Kaare Vedvik.