San Francisco coach Kyle Shanahan mentioned that the team is close to deciding to keep star left tackle Trent Williams out for the rest of the season because his injured ankle isn’t healing as quickly as the 49ers hoped.
Williams has missed the last four games due to the injury, and with the 49ers (6-8) nearing playoff elimination, he hasn’t been able to return to practice at the beginning of this week.
This situation has raised questions about whether it might be better for San Francisco to shut Williams down for the rest of the year and start preparing him for next season.
“If he can get back to healthy, we would play him,” Shanahan said Wednesday. “But it’s not like that right now. So it’s getting closer to being that way.”
The 49ers were also missing running back Isaac Guerendo at practice on Wednesday as they get ready to face Miami. Guerendo injured his hamstring during a loss to the Los Angeles Rams last Thursday night. Guerendo had been filling in as the starting running back with both Christian McCaffrey and Jordan Mason out due to injuries.
Linebacker Dre Greenlaw was limited in practice after experiencing soreness in his knee following his first game back since tearing his left Achilles tendon in the Super Bowl.
Greenlaw’s return led to De’Vondre Campbell being benched, as Campbell refused to play in the game last Thursday night. As a result, the 49ers suspended Campbell for the last three games for conduct detrimental to the team.
Shanahan explained that the team had looked into Campbell’s history before signing him, as he had publicly complained about his role in Green Bay.
However, the team decided to sign him after Eric Kendricks chose to sign with Dallas instead of the 49ers, and another player the team had targeted signed elsewhere.
“We obviously made a mistake,” Shanahan said. “It’s not something you don’t look into. You look at everything and you weigh the risk and reward of stuff and you weigh the situations that you have and what decisions you can make in terms of options. By no means was it our first option. But at the time when it went down, we thought it was our best option, and it didn’t work out.”
Campbell’s play during his time with San Francisco had been inconsistent, and the return of Greenlaw last week showed what the defense had been missing.
Greenlaw made eight tackles in the first half and brought a physical presence to the run defense that had been lacking at times this season.
“The way that he moved on (Thursday), you would never have known that he went through that,” said teammate Fred Warner. “This guy’s unbelievable.”
