Injuries to Jimmy Garoppolo and Trent Williams not as bad as feared

The 49ers feared the worst when left tackle Trent Williams went down in the fourth quarter with a shoulder injury. On Monday the team received good news on Williams’ injury, it was not as bad as first expected and a key part of their offensive line is currently listed as day-to-day.

Williams wasn’t the only 49ers player to receive positive injury news on Monday. The calf injury sustained by quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo was not as severe as first expected, an MRI showed that the Achilles was not injured and it was only a calf contusion and he will be re-evaluated on Wednesday.

When asked if this meant Garoppolo would have a chance to play Sunday, or if he was expecting him to be out against the Cardinals, Shanahan responded “it does mean he has a chance. It wasn’t as bad as we thought it might’ve been. Seeing him today, he’s in a lot of pain. He’s still sore. Hopefully by the time he comes in Wednesday, if it’s getting better, then he’ll have a good chance. Looking at it as a bruise. If it hasn’t improved at all by Wednesday, it’ll probably be a little bit longer.”

The Garoppolo situation will be an interesting one to follow. Could this be a little bit of gamesmanship on the part of Shanahan to force Arizona into preparing to face both Garoppolo and Lance? Shanahan was asked last week about the two-quarterback system that he’d mentioned during training camp, “I pretty much keep it pretty real to everyone, but I don’t just tell everyone the answer. I have no problem with you guys overdoing that and Detroit working on that extremely hard,” he said.

If Garoppolo is unable to play this week the 49ers will turn to rookie quarterback Trey Lance. The third pick in the 2021 draft played the entire second half on Sunday, finishing 9-18, 152 yards, and two touchdowns. Shanahan was asked how he would like to see Trey Lance approach this week, “Every week you want to tell him to approach it like you’re the starting quarterback. But this is the first week going into it that he’s legitimately got up a chance to on the first play. So, he’s got to approach it that way, learn from the stuff that he did last night, and come in ready to go on Wednesday,” said Shanahan.

In other injury news, kicker Robbie Gould is expected to miss 3-5 weeks after suffering a strained groin during pregame warmups. Shanahan expects Gould to be out for a while and the front office has already begun creating a list of kickers to have in for a try-out this week.

Other players listed on the injury report included tight end George Kittle and defensive tackle Javon Kinlaw who are both day to day with calf injuries and defensive end Samson Ebukam who is dealing with hamstring soreness.