49ers still have no starter at left guard before opener
Kyle Shanahan called left guard 'close to being decided' after the preseason finale, but with the Rams five days off, he's still telling reporters he doesn't know who starts.
Shanahan still won't name a starter at left guard
Kyle Shanahan said after the preseason finale that rookie Carver Willis is "making a push" to win the left guard job, telling reporters, "We'll have to evaluate the whole half of play today. We haven't made that decision yet, but we've been putting him in a lot in practice too," per AtoZ Sports. It sounded like a decision was close. It wasn't.
Asked directly on Monday who starts at left guard, Shanahan gave a one-word answer: "Don't know yet." Pressed on why, he explained the process is behind schedule: "Usually we get all three of these practices and then by that Monday is like when we come in and do leadership council, captains and, 'all right, this is who we're rolling with.' But we haven't had those three practices yet, and we just added a new guy to the group too. So it's truly fluid," per NBC Sports Bay Area. The "new guy" is Jarrett Patterson, the interior lineman San Francisco just landed from Houston in the trade that sent out a 2027 seventh-round pick — he's played real snaps at both center and left guard, and his arrival scrambled a race that had already cost veteran Robert Jones a roster spot. Rookie Connor Colby, who led the competition for most of camp, has settled into the swing-guard role behind Willis as the favorite, and now has to hold off a guy who's actually played the position in the NFL. Brock Purdy is about to find out who's blocking for him in Melbourne with the plane already on the ground.
The moves keep coming as the plane sits in Melbourne
San Francisco added another body to the pass rush this week, signing Khalid Kareem and placing Sam Okuayinonu on injured reserve days before the opener. The 49ers "aren't teeming with edge rushers," as Eric Branch put it, and Kareem — a 28-year-old 2020 fifth-round pick with one career start and one sack across stints in Cincinnati and Atlanta — is now on his way to Melbourne to help fill the gap Okuayinonu's foot injury left behind.
The #49ers have signed Khalid Kareem to a one-year deal. In order to make room on the roster, they’ve placed Sam Okuayinonu on IR. 📰: t.co/gwEciHf0Ja
The bigger news for the locker room is who's healthy. Christian McCaffrey is fully back to practice after a camp stretch of load management, explaining the absence as a deliberate plan to "ramp up pretty big, get nine or 10 practices in, kind of come back down and then ramp up again so we're fresh for the duration," per NBC Sports Bay Area. George Kittle made the trip too and is "trending in the right direction to play" less than eight months removed from a torn Achilles, and Nick Bosa has told reporters he expects to suit up on a surgically repaired knee. San Francisco left nearly a week early specifically to get bodies like these through a full practice week before the time change catches up with them.
The preseason closed 2-1, and now everything is real
Brock Purdy and Deebo Samuel Sr. both sat out the preseason finale, an 18-12 win over the Raiders on August 28, and Mac Jones needed just 5 throws to get through his afternoon, completing 1 of 5 passes for 7 yards. He wasn't worried about it: "I think we're in a good spot," Jones said afterward, adding, "I think a lot of things depend on our first game," per 49ers.com. The backups did the heavy lifting instead — kicker Eddy Pineiro made all 6 of his field-goal attempts, and receiver Jordan Watkins caught 4 of 8 targets for 64 yards.
Raiders18-12
Chargers41-17
Titans13-19Running back Jordan James, playing through a rib injury, carried 8 times for 35 yards and caught 1 of 2 targets for 20 yards, and Kaelon Black added 4 carries of his own for 28 yards. That closes the exhibition slate at 2-1 in the preseason — a 41-17 win over the Chargers and the finale over the Raiders sandwiched around an opening loss to the Titans. None of it moves the number that actually counts: San Francisco is 0-0, and Jones had it right when he said everything now depends on the games that are real.
The wait ends against a Rams team that just got Aaron Donald back
The regular season finally arrives Thursday night in Los Angeles, on the schedule anyway — kickoff is actually a world away at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The Rams roll in off a perfect run through the preseason and a 20-18 win at the Chargers, a different opponent than the one San Francisco has been circling for months, because Aaron Donald came out of a two-and-a-half-year retirement to rejoin them. GM John Lynch, who has to game-plan around him now, put it bluntly: "They got better, certainly, with him deciding to come out of retirement... Never thought he'd do it. But he's doing it and so we better get ready for it."
Whether Donald is actually ready to play Week 1 is still unresolved, which is its own kind of gift to a 49ers offensive line that already doesn't know who's starting at left guard. San Francisco is an underdog for the trip, with the line opened at Rams -3.5 and the total set at a middling 48.5. Los Angeles doesn't even land in Australia until the day before kickoff, choosing the longest road trip in NFL history over the acclimation week San Francisco just spent on the ground. Whichever approach was smarter gets an answer soon enough.