Kyle Shanahan provides injury updates, talks sideline scuffle
The 49ers got out of Tampa Bay with a win, but not a particularly impressive one. They also left with a handful of injuries and a late-game scuffle between Deebo Samuel and long snapper Taybor Pepper.
On the injury front, Kyle Shanahan named three players who came out of the game hurt in Renardo Green, George Kittle and Mitch Wishnowsky. Green is day-to-day with what sounds like a minor toe injury. Kittle had "hamstring irritation" and the 49ers will "see how the week goes with him." The same goes for Wishnowsky whose "back flared up." The 49ers will "evaluate some treatment options" which doesn't sound particularly encouraging.
The 49ers worked out punters a couple weeks ago, including Pressley Harvin, who shined in the preseason when Wishnowsky was out. That's worth monitoring.
As for the the scuffle between Samuel and Pepper, Shanahan sided with the star, who put a hand on Pepper's throat while Pepper yelled back at him, and Jake Moody — the subject of Samuel saying, "lock in" — trying to restrain Pepper.
Samuel poked a little fun at Pepper after the game, saying he was trying to be "big bruh" for Moody and laughed. Shanahan said he did address the incident with the team.
"We squashed it and we're good," Shanahan said.
There won't be any fines, Shanahan said. He explained why, and why he sided with Sauel
“I think it was a little bit overreaction [by Pepper] and I don't think, you never want Deebo to throw a baby punch or anything on anybody on our own team, but Deebo also wasn't saying anything bad to Jake, like it sounded," Shanahan said. "He was meeting him on the field telling him to lock in, the same thing I'll tell to an offensive player who just dropped some balls or made some penalties or something. You never sit there and belittle anybody or try to embarrass anyone. You try to challenge guys that you believe in and a way of, that's how we speak to each other and telling someone they need to focus and lock in because we know you can do this.
"And I like Pep’s intentions on it, he’s got his kicker’s back. But I think he kind of interpreted wrong what Deebo was doing to him and overreacted a little bit. And Deebo didn't like that and got him out of his face, and that's really about where it ended.”
Elsewhere, Shanahan mentioned that there's a chance for Charvarius Ward to return this week after the death of his daughter. He also said Chris Conley is expected back. Kevin Givens is a possibility, while Dre Greenlaw won't come back this week.
And as far as Christian McCaffrey's usage, Shanahan — who said before the season that he wanted to limit some of the touches McCaffrey got given what he handled last season — didn't think McCaffrey played too much on Sunday.
“I didn't think we rode him pretty hard," Shanahan said. "But no, I think we were good with it and we'll see how this year goes. That was our first game with him. I think he had 19 touches, which I think is a little less than he had last year. But it was our first game back with him and we didn't want him to go too many series in a row. We started taking him out, I think we did it in between two series in the first half, and once we only had one drive in the third quarter and we got into that fourth quarter, we weren't taking him out in the fourth. So, we'll see how the year goes with it.”
