49ers notebook: Garoppolo not ruled out yet, team to add Ansah
The 49ers are holding out a glimmer of hope for quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo’s availability for Week 3 against the New York Giants.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan said Monday Garoppolo’s injury wasn’t as bad as initially feared, but early testing confirmed it was a high ankle sprain, which is an injury that often causes players to miss multiple games.
“We’ll see how that goes this week,” said Shanahan in a Zoom press conference. “(Garoppolo) does still have a chance because the severity’s not real bad, but it is a high ankle.”
There was no update as of Monday afternoon on the status of defensive end Nick Bosa, who the team suspects tore his ACL on Sunday.
Garoppolo exited the win over the Jets at halftime after awkwardly twisting his right leg during a sack the fourth offensive play of the game. He played through the injury and showed marked improvement from his disappointing performance in the opener against the Arizona Cardinals, completing 13 of 16 for 131 yards with two touchdown passes and a 140.4 rating. He hit the halftime locker room early for treatment and didn’t return.
Shanahan said he thought Garoppolo was illegally hit twice on the play he was hurt, the first for a low hit by defensive tackle Quinnen Williams to the knee area and a second time when Garoppolo was hit after he was down. But no flags were thrown.
Nick Mullens would replace Garoppolo if he can’t play Sunday. Mullens took over as the 49ers starting quarterback for the second half of the 2018 season when Garoppolo was lost early in the year with an ACL tear. Mullens started eight games, completed 64 percent of his throws with 13 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. He averaged 285 yards per game and had a 90.8 passer rating. The team went 3-5 and his starts.
“Jimmy’s our guy,” Shanahan said. “If he’s good to go, and the doctors say he’s healthy and he could go out there and protect himself, and Jimmy feels confident doing it, and gives us the best chance to win in that case, then Jimmy will be out there. If Jimmy’s not safe, he can’t protect himself, then we’ll go with Nick.”
Mullens in place of Garoppolo on Sunday completed 8-of-11 for 71 yards and an interception. He was asked after the game about the differences in his approach now that he’s in his fourth season after initially replacing Garoppolo in Year 2. Mullens joined the 49ers as an undrafted free agent in 2017.
“Now I just have higher expectations for myself,” Mullens said Sunday. “And I think myself that’s what carries me and pushes me. It’s my fourth year. There’s really no excuses as to why I shouldn’t perform.”
The 49ers will have to weigh the artificial playing surface at MetLife Stadium as they make a determination on how to handle their franchise quarterback. They came out of Sunday’s 31-13 victory over the Jets with five key players dealing with knee or ankle issues including Garoppolo, defensive linemen Bosa and Solomon Thomas, along with running backs Raheem Mostert and Tevin Coleman.
Team to add Ansah
With injuries to Bosa and Dee Ford (more on him below), the 49ers agreed to terms to with former Lions and Seahawks defensive end Ezekiel Ansah this week, Shanahan said.
Ansah had visited the 49ers twice recently but the two sides couldn’t agree on a contract. That changed with the expectation that Bosa will miss the season with a torn ACL.
“Once he passes the COVID tests and everything, it should be official and hopefully we can get him in here for Wednesday practicing,” Shanahan said of Ansah.
Ansah, 31, was a first-round pick of the Detroit Lions in 2013 out of BYU. He was taken by then-general manager Martin Meyhew, who is currently San Francisco’s Vice President of Player Personnel. Ansah spent last season in Seattle, appearing in 11 games and recording 2.5 sacks and 18 combined tackles. Ansah has 50.5 career sacks and four seasons with at least 7.5.
Ansah was named to the Pro Bowl in 2015. He could see significant playing time as he and Kerry Hyder could see the most playing time while Bosa and Ford deal are out.
“Played against Ziggy a ton. He’s a hell of player,” Shanahan said. “He can rush the passer and play the run well. Hopefully we’ll get him in here soon, get him caught up. We were going to try to do it anyways, but the urgency’s definitely gone up with the injuries we’ve had the last 24 hours.”
Updates on Mostert, Coleman
The 49ers are expecting to be down two running backs for next week’s game as Mostert and Coleman are dealing with knee injuries.
Mostert suffered an MCL sprain and “will most likely be out this week,“ Shanahan said. The injury came at some point in the first half Sunday when he had 92 yards on eight carries, including the 80-yard touchdown to open the game.
Shanahan said Coleman sprained his knee but didn’t elaborate on a time table. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported Monday afternoon that Coleman is expected to miss multiple games.
That leaves Jerick McKinnon, who scored touchdowns in back-to-back weeks to open the season, and third-year pro Jeff Wilson Jr. as the healthy running backs on the active roster. The team could promote undrafted rookie JaMycal Hasty from the practice squad this week.
Other injuries, as announced by Shanahan: defensive tackle D.J. Jones sprained his ankle (Jones missed the end of last season with an ankle sprain). Linebacker Dre Greenlaw had a thigh contusion in the second half. Shanahan didn’t address their prognoses for Sunday.
Dee Ford has back injury
Shanahan said last week pass rusher Dee Ford was dealing with neck spasms that led to his absence from practice Thursday and Friday.
But that changed after further testing, Shanahan said. The team is saying testing revealed it’s more of a back injury for their Pro Bowl defensive end.
“So any time it’s the back, that is an issue, so we’re still working into that,” Shanahan said.
Shanahan didn’t elaborate on Ford’s status. But back injuries are notoriously tricky and the team has a rough history with them. Recently, receivers Trent Taylor and Jalen Hurd, and former tight end Garrett Celek, had back injuries that lingered longer than expected.
Taylor had surgery in the 2018 offseason and never fulled recovered during the regular season. Hurd missed all of 2019 after he was expected to be out just a few weeks initially when he had a stress fracture in his lower back. Celek retired this offseason due a series of back issues that included multiple surgeries.
The East Coast trip from hell
Sunday’s injuries continued a series of unfortunate events for the 49ers as they traveled to the East Coast for the back-to-back games in New Jersey.
First, the team plane at the San Jose airport Friday was hit on the tarmac and dented. So the team had to leave SJC and for an undamaged plane at San Francisco International. It led to a six-hour delay and they got to their hotel in New Jersey at roughly 4 a.m. Saturday.
Then, upon traveling to The Greenbrier for the week’s practices in West Virginia, the team ordered an MRI truck to the resort to get scans on Garoppolo, Bosa, Thomas, Mostert and Coleman. Only that truck broke down, forcing the team to wait until Monday night to try getting the MRIs done at a local hospital, which is why Shanahan didn’t have a definitive update on Bosa or Thomas’ injuries.
Suffice to say, things haven’t been going well for the 49ers in 2020.
