The San Francisco 49ers had one final practice before they head to Australia. Several starters returning from injury took part in Wednesday’s session:
Nick Bosa (ACL)
George Kittle (Achilles)
Kyle Juszczyk (broken finger)
Mike Evans (adductor)
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Those are objectively among the best and most important players on the roster. According to Tim Kawakami, Bosa and Kittle will fly to Australia. That’s a step in the right direction.
Bosa spoke with the media after practice and said he felt great during practice. Bosa went as far as to say he’s confident he’ll play Week 1, as long as he continues on his current path. He also spoke about ramping up too quickly:
“I’m not going to go back too far because every recovery there’s ups and downs, but it was a long road. There’s some stuff I dealt with, with that patella tendon, and then I kind of ramped it a little too fast with the football stuff a month ago or whatever it was. And that kind of told me to back off. I’ve just been trying to get it as strong and myself as confident as I can to where I could rip the bandaid off and go to team stuff today. Because once you get into team, there’s no reservations, there’s no compensation, like there’s no governor. So yeah, I felt that today. I remember my last ACL, there was a couple moments where you just have to go and you’re kind of hoping for the best. Obviously it’s not going to be like anything crazy is going to happen, but you hope that your body is going to respond the way that you prepared it to. And there’s a couple moments today where that happened. So I’m just going to try and keep building, not get too up about it, but it was a great day.”
You have to appreciate Bosa being transparent about the mental hurdle he’s been dealing with. Raheem Morris said high-end athletes are in tune with their bodies better than anyone. If you’re Morris, you unleash Bosa if he’s healthy and let him be the one to tell you when he needs a breather.
Here are a couple of clips of Bosa from the reporters on the scene:
At first glance, Bosa looked leaner. I’d be interested to know if shed any weight during the past calendar year. Regardless, Bosa practicing and traveling is what you want to hear a week away from the first game.
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Here’s a list of the players who did not participate on Wednesday:
CB Renardo Green (hamstring)
WR Jacob Cowing (groin)
LB Luke Gifford (hamstring)
DT Gracen Halton (ankle)
DE Romello Height (ankle)
DT James Thompson Jr. (undisclosed)
Green’s hamstring injury has been lingering since the end of July. Green has the body type you want to go against Puka Nacua (if he plays), Davante Adams, and the three Rams tight ends that stand 6’5″, 6’6″, and 6’7″.
Green’s backup, Jack Jones, came into the NFL weighing in at the first percentile among cornerbacks. Unfortunately, Jones didn’t do any work with the team. Multiple reporters tweeted that Jones was working on the side of the field. There’s no word on what Jones’ injury was. More than likely, he tweaked something. We’ll provide updates once they are available.
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The 49ers are a Green-and-Jones injury away from starting the regular season with a Day 3 rookie corner playing his first game in a brand-new environment against the best offense in the NFL. Gulp.
Staying with the rookies, Halton’s injury occurred before the second preseason game. Height’s ankle was hurt ahead of the third preseason game. It’s been multiple weeks since both players practiced. At this point, it’d be surprising if we saw them in Week 1.
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