Shanahan prepping for absences from Samuel, Wilson
SANTA CLARA — Kyle Shanahan’s in an all-too-familiar position. It’s one he’d rather not find himself in every week.
The 49ers head coach is again looking for answers in response to losing key players to injury.
After Sunday’s surprising blowout victory over the New England Patriots, Shanahan will have to figure out how to win one of the biggest games of the season Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks without receiver Deebo Samuel and running back Jeff Wilson Jr., who scored three touchdowns and had 112 yards in a career performance in New England.
Samuel is expected to miss two games with a hamstring strain while Wilson is slated for injured reserve this week and will likely miss a month with a high ankle sprain, Shanahan said Monday. It’s the same injury San Francisco’s starting running back, Raheem Mostert, is dealing with that landed him on injured reserve Saturday.
Wilson becomes the third 49ers halfback that made the Week 1 roster to land on injured reserve. Tevin Coleman has been out since Week 2 with a knee sprain and could return to practice this week. Otherwise, the team’s only healthy running backs are Jerick McKinnon and JaMycal Hasty, while Austin Walter is on the practice squad.
Wilson was the surprise engine of the offense against the Patriots on Sunday. He exited the game after a defender rolled up on his left ankle as he crossed the goal line for his third touchdown, giving San Francisco a 306 lead that cemented the outcome.
It was an inspired performance from the thirdyear pro that catalyzed a second-straight quality showing from the 49ers offense that struggled to the rush consistently in upset losses to the Philadelphia Eagles and Miami Dolphins.
“He was unbelievable,” Shanahan said of Wilson. “Every time he gets hit, it looks like the goal line is right in front of him and he’s doing everything he can to cross that.”
Wilson broke four tackles and had six first-down runs while averaging 6.6 yards on his 17 carries. He entered the game with just 51 yards on 21 carries (2.43 average) and missed the previous game with a calf injury.
“I was very happy for him and how hard he played. It was extremely unfortunate he got hurt,” Shanahan said. “I know he’s really disappointed in that (with) how good he was playing. But at least he’ll be able to come back.
It’ll be a month most likely, but he’ll be back from it.”
For Samuel, his latest injury will be his second of the year. He broke his foot in June and missed the first three regular season games after suffering a set back in his recovery. He’ll miss Sunday’s game in Seattle and “most likely” the following Thursday night game against the Green Bay Packers in a rematch of last season’s NFC title game. Shanahan made it sound like the team is expecting Samuel back for the Nov. 15 trip to play the New Orleans Saints.
“Deebo’s a huge part of our offense, a huge part of our team,” said Shanahan. “The physicality our receivers add to the game, starting with Deebo, really helps our offense and we’ll miss him when he’s out, that’s for sure.”
In San Francisco’s consecutive wins over the Rams and Patriots, Samuel had 15 combined touches, often getting the ball on designed running plays, that went for 132 yards (8.8 average) and scoring a touchdown in the victory over L.A.
So how does Shanahan make up for the injuries?
McKinnon and Hasty will likely see their workloads increase if Coleman can’t play in Seattle, and Walter might get promoted from the practice squad.
At receiver, Kendrick Bourne will likely see an increase in snap count and Brandon Aiyuk could get more manufactured touches on running plays like Samuel in recent weeks. Aiyuk, the recent first-round pick, had his most prolific game of the season in New England, totaling 115 yards while catching five of his six targets.