49ERS Future roles in question for injured top picks
They are injured recent firstround picks from Pac-12 schools who have this question surrounding them: Will they play major roles in the 49ers’ future?
Unfortunately for guard Joshua Garnett and defensive lineman Arik Armstead, they can’t begin answering that until 2018.
Garnett, a 2016 first-rounder from Stanford, is spending the season on injured reserve after undergoing knee surgery in August. Armstead, the No. 17 pick in 2015 from Oregon, is done for the season after sustaining a broken hand Oct. 15.
On Tuesday, general manager John Lynch offered positive assessments of each player, but that wasn’t particularly telling: He didn’t offer a discouraging word when asked about a slew of players during a 40-minute group interview.
It’s likely Garnett, 23, and Armstead, 24, will have another season to prove they have a long-term future with a new front office that has traded or released 10 Trent Baalke draft picks since taking control of the franchise.
“The guys that hung around from the previous regime, I think some people thought that anyone that was here, you’re gone,” Lynch said. “That’s not it. We were just looking for people that fit the culture that we wanted, the schemes we were building and guys we want to build around.”
Questions about whether Garnett possesses the agility to thrive in head coach Kyle Shanahan’s zone-blocking scheme help explain why the 49ers decided to shut him down for 2017.
Garnett could have returned late in the season, but the 49ers focused on a body makeover. Garnett, listed at 6-foot-5 and 321 pounds, was known as a power-blocking mauler while winning the Outland Trophy at Stanford. In 2016, he started the final 11 games in an up-anddown rookie season.
“He’s done a great job of really changing his body composition,” Lynch said. “We took a really holistic look. And I challenged everybody on our medical, and strength and conditioning, to our functional-performance guys to our nutrition, and we challenged Josh with, ‘We want to do this. And here’s why and we want you to use it as an opportunity to really improve yourself in every aspect.’ ”
Garnett figures to compete for a starting spot in 2018 on a team that has been beset with interior-line issues. Right guard Brandon Fusco is in the final year of his contract. Left guard Laken Tomlinson, a 2015 firstround pick, was traded by the Lions for a 2019 fifth-round pick in August.
Meanwhile, Armstead has shown flashes of dominance in the past two training camps, but it hasn’t translated to the field. In six games this season, he had 16 tackles and 1.5 sacks, giving him six sacks in 30 career games. After missing the final eight games in 2016 with a torn labrum, he was injured this season in a loss at Washington.
“I felt like Washington was his best game where it all kind of came together,” Lynch said. “We had seen glimpses, but he kind of put it all together. That was very encouraging, but at the same time disappointing because right when it was really starting to click, he breaks his hand.”
Armstead was drafted in the middle of the first round because of his potential rather than his college production. At Oregon, he had four sacks and 10.5 tackles for losses.
In the spring, the 49ers must decide to offer Armstead the fifth-year option on his contract, which would extend it through 2019. It would pay Armstead the third- through 25th-highest salaries at his position.
“We think he’s a fit with what we are and who we are going forward,” Lynch said. “We think he has a bright future with us.”