The San Francisco 49ers injury situation in the wide receiver room appears to be on the mend with Deebo Samuel Sr. (calf strain) returning to practice on Thursday for the first time since the team's Week 2 matchup versus the Minnesota Vikings. Samuel Sr. suffered a calf strain in that game that was projected to keep him off the field for roughly two weeks, however, he was able to rejoin practice in a limited capacity a bit ahead of schedule.
His injury status for the upcoming contest versus the New England Patriots won't be made available until Friday when the final injury report is released. Another big-time playmaker to keep an eye on is tight end George Kittle (hamstring), who is also trending in the right direction, participating in team workouts on a limited basis for the second-straight day.
Despite missing some veteran starters, San Francisco generated 425 yards of total offense and scored 24 points against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 3. The offense has shown it can run productively and efficiently with several different configurations of starters, and any players returning from injury should only provide a boost to last Sunday's numbers.
"When you have those guys out, I think we go back to who we are as an offense, what are our base plays and what we are really good at," quarterback Brock Purdy said when asked about playing without Samuel Sr., Kittle and Christian McCaffrey. "Let's run those plays, and we have good guys to step up in those moments and execute well.
"Use Jordan Mason, Jauan Jennings, obviously Brandon Aiyuk, so we have guys that are dogs and are willing to step up in those spots and perform really well... Last week not having three of those guys that you listed, it kept things a little bit more simple gameplan wise, but we are still going to get the ball to our playmakers."
Additional injury updates:
- LT Trent Williams (illness) - back in full
- DL Jordan Elliott (foot) - limited
- LB Curtis Robinson (knee) - limited
- LB Dee Winters (ankle) - limited
- WR Jacob Cowing (illness) - did not practice
- DL Javon Hargrave (triceps) - did not practice
