Your daily San Francisco 49ers news for Friday, December 6th, 2024
Silver: 49ers are clinging to hope while enduring a ‘season from hell’ (paywall)
“On Wednesday I spoke to Ward, who returned to the team to play in the Bills game following an extended absence. I won’t tell you exactly what he said, but just know that — understandably — football does not feel like the most important force in his life right now…….
In comparison to that real-life grief, losing football games is trivial. Yet the 49ers, who’ve pulled themselves out of midseason ruts in each of the past three seasons, take a lot of pride in their culture, chemistry and collective ability to plow through adversity. Fighting their way back to the postseason, as unlikely as it might seem, would be a salve for a locker room that will certainly be filled with many new faces in 2025.
By all accounts, the 49ers are still working hard, sticking together and keeping the faith, but that is becoming increasingly challenging.”
How is 49ers’ Fred Warner playing with a fractured ankle? A surgeon explains (paywall)
“Dr. Kenneth Jung, a foot and ankle surgeon who is a consultant to the Los Angeles Rams, said it’s likely Warner has an avulsion fracture, which occurs when a small piece of bone attached to a tendon or ligament is pulled away from the main part of the bone. The bone fragment and main bone are typically close enough to fuse together naturally. In that case, the fracture is considered stable, surgery isn’t required and effective pain management can allow an athlete to play.
Former 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo played through an avulsion fracture in his right thumb in the 2021 regular-season finale and three playoff games. In Warner’s case, he also suffered a sprained ankle when he was injured in a win against the Patriots on Sept. 29.
“When you sprain something, obviously things are getting twisted,” said Jung, who works at Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute in Los Angeles. “So the ligament is under stress or strain, and it can pull off a piece of bone. Technically the bone is broken, but it’s not like a fracture where the bone gets twisted and it snaps in half, or something similar to that. Some of that is semantics. But when someone says, ‘I have a fracture’ — not all fractures are the same.”
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“With these avulsion fractures, if you are continually putting stress on the bone it may not heal.” Jung said. “You expect with time with a sprain or small fracture that it tends to improve, but it’s very possible that he keeps re-aggravating it. That can cause persistent pain, and persistent pain can obviously affect his performance.”
49ers vs. Bears: Kyle Shanahan provides updates on Nick Bosa, Trent Williams
“Head coach Kyle Shanahan provided updates on both players during a Thursday appearance on Bay Area radio station KNBR. While their chances of playing don’t seem promising, Shanahan did not completely rule out the possibility.
“They’re making progress,” Shanahan said. “I mean, they’re getting better, but not good enough to practice. So, we’re still giving them time, especially those two players. They’ve got two more days. Three, if we count right before kickoff.
“So, hopefully, they can turn the corner, and get better, and have a chance to go this Sunday. Wish they could have gone today (in practice), but they’re still not there yet.”
The 49ers have one final practice on Friday before hosting the Bears at Levi’s Stadium this weekend.”
George Kittle reveals message to teammates amid 49ers’ struggles
“All I think about, and what my message to guys is that, ‘Look, everything’s still in front of us,’” Kittle confidently shared. “And just flush the things that have happened. Don’t worry about what has happened in the past.
“Flush it, try to be your best self, and just move forward because we still have a lot of great players on this team that can all make really special plays. And all it takes is a spark to get the boys going, and then after that, we’ll see what can happen.”
Kittle acknowledged that each defeat this season is more difficult given the high expectations the 49ers had entering the season. Once considered Super Bowl contenders, they are now fighting to claw back into the playoff race, leaving little margin for error.
“It’s hard on you. It’s a grind,” Kittle said. “But how I look at it is, while those games were horrible, and we can get better from those games, like watching, ‘Hey, why are we so bad? Hey, why are we negative three in the turnover column?’ You can take from that and get better.”
“It’s worth asking if the trajectory of the 49ers’ 2024 season played a role in their approach. Did Shanahan and Lynch think it was unwise to invest even more in a struggling team loaded with high-priced players whose mojo seemed off starting this summer, when wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk and left tackle Trent Williams missed training camp with contract holdouts?
Shanahan had an intriguing answer Monday when he said there were issues beyond talent that explained why this year’s team wasn’t the equal of the 2023 NFC champions.
“Last year’s team was obviously a better team,” Shanahan said. “I’m not saying just from the roster, I’m just saying from the beginning to end: The way we started out, the way we felt in training camp, throughout the whole year. We’ve been trying to build that with this team.
“We’ve had times where we felt that we were on the right path to it and then we’ve had some setbacks that I think it’s always been one step forward, two steps back. We really haven’t grasped the full potential of this year’s team.”