The 49ers have two games to play, but left guard Aaron Banks is done for the year.
So is left tackle Jaylon Moore.
So is Pro Bowl tackle Trent Williams.
And possibly linebacker Dre Greenlaw.
Those were the updates provided by coach Kyle Shanahan Monday during his weekly conference call with local writers the day after a 29-17 loss to the Miami Dolphins. The 49ers have won just one of their last six games and were officially eliminated from the playoff race before kickoff.
That’s life with the 49ers during a 6-9 season, where the news is usually bad.
For Banks, who has an MCL injury, it could be his last in a 49ers uniform. He is scheduled for unrestricted free agency in the offseason. The same goes for Moore, who has a quad strain and is also a potential free agent.
As for Williams, Shanahan had been publicly holding out hope of a late-season return from an ankle injury, but that’s not going to happen.
“He won’t be playing the next two games,” Shanahan said. “He hasn’t improved enough to get him out there and we don’t see that happening in the next two weeks, especially with the situation we’re in.”
The 49ers finished the Miami game with Spencer Buford, the No. 3 tackle, replacing Moore and Nick Zakelj filling in for Banks. And Burford is no sure thing to face Detroit when the 49ers host the Lions in Week 17 on Monday night.
Burford has a calf injury and will be monitored this week. The 49ers are presently perusing practice squads of other teams for additional bodies to play both guard and tackle to fill out the season. Austin Pleasants, a recenet practice squad addition, was promoted Saturday.
As for Greenlaw, who left after four snaps one week after playing for the first time since Achilles surgery, it sounds as if he won’t play against Detroit or Arizona.
“My gut feeling is most likely he’ll end up being shut down but I’ve got to wait to talk to Dre and we want to make sure how he is doing and that it’s not just soreness,” Shanahan said. “It will be a decision I’ll leave up to Dre depending on how his health is.”
Running back Isaac Guerendo, who missed the Miami game with a hamstring strain, is day to day and could practice Thursday. Linebacker Dee Winters (chest) is also day to day.
PURDY IN PERIL?
Shanahan said he is giving no thought to sitting quarterback Brock Purdy, who is ostensibly the club’s franchise quarterback heading into the future but will be playing behind an offensive line in tatters.
“We’ve got a football team here and we have two games and we’ve got to see what guys we can put out there and do whatever we we’ve got to do to put a game plan together as best we can to give us a chance to win,” Shanahan said. “I’m not thinking that way.”
Shanahan wants healthy players to fulfill their contractual obligations and isn’t interested in selling players on the notion of competing even if there are no playoffs.
“You get 17 checks, which is for 17 games,” Shanahan said. “We’ve got two games left, it’s all that we’ve got and our goal is to find a way to play better. Our goal is to find a way to win. That’s what I expect out of anyone involved and if they don’t see that way then they’re probably not the type of guys you want around here anyways.”
Quarterback Brock Purdy scrambles for yards Sunday in a 29-17 loss to the Miami Dolphins. Getty Images
WILLIAMS’ LOST SEASON
Williams ended up playing 10 games this season, his fewest since he played 10 in 2017 for Washington. At age 36, Williams sat out training camp while negotiating a three-year, $82.66 million extension with a $25.7 million signing bonus and $48 million guaranteed.
Williams and his family have been grieving the past month since his wife, Sondra, gave birth to a stillborn son, Trenton O’Brien Williams Jr.; a twin daughter was lost earlier in the complicated pregnancy.
When he signed that contract Sept. 3, he expressed a desire to play until he was 40 and do so at an All-Pro level, though this season’s 10-game performance likely wasn’t enough to earn him a fourth All-Pro nod. He’s been a Pro Bowler each of the past 11 seasons he’s played.
“At my age, I know there are not a lot of people who’ve played at an All-Pro level outside of a quarterback. I want to bust those barriers and show this is a new age,” Williams said three months ago. “The research we’ve done, how they’ve done and sculpted our schedules to keep us fresher and keep the banging off of our bodies, it allows you to play longer and I want to take advantage of that.
PENALTY LOG
The 49ers had seven pre-snap violations, three personal fouls and one holding call mong their 11 penalties for 90 yards, indicators that on this day at least, the 49ers were undisciplined and poorly coached.
Tight end George Kittle put the blame on the players.
“I think our coach does a really good job of coaching us and the penalties, all the pre-snap penalties, that’s just bad football,” Kittle said. “I don’t put that on coach Shanahan or the wide receivers coach or the line coach. That’s on us. We know what the formations are and we have to execute them. I messed up one, wide receivers had two. We put ourselves in a hole and we were already in a hole.
“It’s something we have to address and lock in a little bit better. If we don’t do those things, it’s probably a different outcome of the game.”
Said Shanahan of the three second-half personal fouls, “We deserved ’em all.”
A look at the ugly 11 . . .
Offense (5): Banks (holding), Kittle (false start), Jake Brendel (false start), Ricky Pearsall 2 (both illegal formation)
Defense (4): Talanoa Hufanga (unnecessary roughness), Jordan Elliott (unnecessary roughness), Deommodore Lenoir (unnecessary roughness), Kalia Davis (neutral zone infraction).
Special teams (2): Braydon Willis (false start), Isaac Yiadom (illegal substitution)
SNAP JUDGEMENTS
67: Lenoir, linebacker Fred Warner, safety Malik Mustapha and cornerback Charvarius Ward played every defensive snap.
64: Purdy, tackle Colton McKivitz, guard Dominick Puni and center Jake Brendel played every snap on offense.
55: Cornerback Renardo Green, a likely starter in 2025 if Ward departs in free agency with Lenoir having already been paid, had a career-high 10 tackles.
51: Linebacker Dee Winters, with De’Vondre Campbell on suspension and Greenlaw departing early, played a career-high in snaps and had a career-best eight tackles.
46: Pearsall’s snap count was his second-highest of the season and he caught passes on all four targets for 37 yards.
31: Burford, who played a season-high 51 snaps against Chicago when Banks was out with a concussion at left guard, stepped in for the first time in a game at left tackle when Moore went down.
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18: Zakelj, who had just four snaps in 14 games, played 18 snaps in relief of Banks. His previous high was 11 snaps as a rookie in 2022 in the regular season finale.
4: Defensive end Alex Barrett, who hadn’t played in a game since 2020, was promoted from his usual place on the practice squad for limited time.
0: Cornerback Isaac Yiadom, whose playing time had been cut to nine and eight snaps in the last two games, didn’t play at all on defense. He was in on 21 special teams snaps.
