Sanders is encouraged, Kittle is doubtful against Cardinals
SANTA CLARA >> Wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders doesn’t sound like a veteran on the verge of missing his first 49ers game.
Although a rib injury forced him out of Monday night’s loss and kept him from the 49ers’ ensuing practices, his “questionable” status comes with optimism for
Sunday’s game against the Arizona Cardinals.
“It’s getting better by the day,” Sanders said Friday. “I’m going to try to battle it out. I have muscled it out before, though.
“I don’t see it being that big of a problem. But if it is, I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do. We’ve got a long season.”
That “long season” prognosis is what likely will keep several other 49ers from playing. Tight end George
Kittle (knee, ankle), running back Matt Breida (ankle) and kicker Robbie Gould (quadriceps) are doubtful. Left tackle Joe Staley (finger surgery) and nose tackle D.J. Jones (groin) are the only 49ers ruled out for Sunday.
Sanders overcame a rib issue early in his Pittsburgh Steelers career, and his durability has nearly matched his productivity as a 10thyear veteran who’s made an instant impact since joining the 49ers on Oct. 22.
Two weeks ago, he had seven catches for 112 yards in a 28-24 win at Arizona, nearly duplicating what he did against the Cardinals in 2014 with the Denver Broncos. (seven catches, 101 yards). Sanders said the Cardinals’ Patrick Peterson is definitely one of the league’s top cornerbacks and “I’m looking forward to the next game playing against him
again.”
Sanders did not account for any of the 49ers’ seven drops in Monday night’s 27-24 overtime loss to Seattle. As the receiving corps’ most accom- plished veteran, Sanders said he addressed the subject with them, adding that he’s never seen a drop-prone game repeated in consecutive weeks, that receivers “lock in way more.”
• Kittle moved well doing conditioning work on a side field with a trainer, and he would only say af- terward in the locker room that he felt, “Excellent.”
Coach Kyle Shanahan said Kittle also was working out Thursday and is “definitely” improving. “Kittle won’t ever allow us to rule him out until it’s right at game time, because he’s done amazing things here the last couple years,” Shanahan said. “We’re trying to be smart with him.”
Kittle had a fun Friday. While his teammates practiced, he went into the locker room, swapped the clothes in the lockers belonging to Kyle Nelson and Garrett Celek.
• Shanahan hopes Staley only misses the next two games because of surgery urgently needed to repair a fractured and dislocated finger. Staley played every snap Mon- day night despite the first-half injury. “That’s why he had a very hard time accepting that he had to get surgery because he just wants to tape it up and go,” Shanahan said.
“But, when you do have a certain type of dislocation or fracture that you can’t pop back in, if that stays out for 10 days without surgery then it will stay out for life,” Shanahan added. “It just forms that way and then you can’t move it and function with it.”
Staley, the 49ers’ longest tenured player and a 13th-year veteran, missed the previous seven games after sustaining a fibula fracture in Week 2 at Cincinnati.
• With Breida likely missing his first game of the season, Tevin Coleman should be in line for his busiest workload as a 49er. Coleman returned to practice Friday after being excused the previous day for a personal matter.
He’s averaged 13 carries per game, and his season high was a 20-carry effort in a 9-0 win at Washington last month. He followed that game with his fourtouchdown masterpiece against the Carolina, including three rushing touchdowns in a 105-yard effort.
Breida has averaged 12 carries and 60 yards per game. He left Monday’s loss the fourth quarter after aggravating an ankle injury dating back to the Halloween game at Arizona. Also figuring to factor into Sunday’s backfield is Raheem Mostert (5.5 yards per carry) and Jeff Wilson Jr., who was inactive Monday but had those backto-back, two-touchdown games in September at Levi’s Stadium.
The Cardinals, meanwhile, are expected to use Kenyan Drake and David Johnson as a 1-2 punch. Drake ran for 110 yards and a touchdown plus had 52 receiving yards against the 49ers on Oct. 31. Johnson had five carries for 2 yards in returning from a two-game absence Sunday, when the Cardinals fell at Tampa Bay 30-27.
• Several 49ers, including Kyle Juszczyk and Dante Pettis, instantly expressed dismay on social media Thursday night at Myles Garrett’s helmet-swinging brawl that earned the Cleveland Browns’ defensive end a suspension through at least this season.
“That was crazy. I couldn’t believe it,” Sanders said. “Probably the worst thing I’ve seen in the league ever, beside the Albert Haynesworth kick to the face. It could have been worse, though. So it’s bad for the sport.”
Garrett’s exit means one less challenger to Nick Bosa, Arik Armstead, Richard Sherman or any others vying for NFL Defensive Player of the Year honors. Garrett was a contender, and his 10 sacks trail only three players: Chandler Jones (Cardinals; 11½ sacks), Shaq Barrett (Bucs; 11½ sacks) and T.J. Watt (Steelers, 10½ sacks). Bosa and Armstead each have seven sacks to lead the 49ers, followed by Dee Ford’s 5½ and DeForest Buckner’s four. Sherman has a teamhigh three interceptions.
• Rookie Chase McLaughlin appears in line to kick a second straight game while Robbie Gould recovers from a quadriceps injury.
Up until a disastrous hook on an overtime field-goal attempt, McLaughlin looked great in making his first three field-goal attempts Monday night. His 47-yard attempt in overtime went wide left, into the tunnel leading to the 49ers locker room. He earlier made a 47-yarder toward the same, south end zone to force overtime. “He’s a guy we believe in, and I think he’s going to have a good career,” Shanahan said.
• Cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon (questionable) showed enough in practice that Shanahan will suit him up Sunday for the first time since Week 3, when Witherspoon sustained a foot injury. Shanahan would not say whether Witherspoon would start over Emmanuel Moseley, other than to say he’d play and, “I’ll decide right at kickoff how long that is.”
The Cardinals ruled out defensive end Jonathan Bullard (foot) and running back Chase Edmonds (hamstring). Linebacker Terrell Suggs (hamstring, back) did not practice all week but is among those questionable, as is former 49ers cornerback Tremaine Brock (hamstring) and offensive tackle Justin Murray (knee).