Carver Willis Graded Last Among The Linemen In The Game He Started

Carver Willis started at left guard against the Raiders on Thursday, the second straight game he has started there, and played 25 of San Francisco's 61 offensive snaps. PFF's grades from that game, released Friday, rank him last among the 49ers' offensive linemen. They give Connor Colby, who started at right guard, the best pass-blocking grade of the night.

Kyle Shanahan, afterwards: "I think he is making a push. We still haven't decided yet. I really want to see how he did in the whole half of play he got today."

On when it gets settled: "We'll have to make that decision most likely, I don't want to say by Monday. I don't know if we'll say it then with our opening game, but I think we'll have a good idea by then as coaches."

The coach and the grades point in opposite directions, and no new evidence arrives before the roster is due. Nobody practices between now and Monday.

1. San Francisco is off until after the roster is cut.

Shanahan said as much on Thursday night, in an answer about something else. Asked why Alfred Collins played into the third quarter of a preseason game: "I think today, and getting these three days off to recover, having those two and a half practices before we go to Australia, I think he'll be ready by Week 1."

Three days off from Thursday night is Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The deadline to reach 53 is Sunday at 3 p.m. Pacific, which is inside them.

That deadline is the first Sunday cutdown the NFL has held since 2004. The normal date would have been Tuesday, September 1, putting waiver claims on September 2. San Francisco flies to Melbourne on September 2 to open against the Rams on September 10, so the league moved all 32 clubs rather than one.

2. A veteran running back came off the roster on Friday afternoon.

The 49ers reached an injury settlement with Patrick Taylor Jr., which takes him off the club's injured reserve list and out of the building, per David Bonilla at 49ers Webzone reading the league's transaction report. Taylor went on injured reserve on August 20, in the move that opened a spot for Khalil Herbert. The club itself has announced nothing, and its own roster page still carried him under Reserve/Injured on Friday afternoon.

3. The linebacker San Francisco traded for on Tuesday graded out as the best 49er on the field.

The same set of grades ranks Deion Jones first among every San Francisco player in the game and gives him the club's best coverage grade of the night. He played 15 defensive snaps and nine on special teams, two days after arriving from New Orleans in exchange for running back Zamir White. He is 31, with ten NFL seasons, 128 regular-season games and 91 starts behind him, and he had signed with the Saints on August 7.

A club that gives up a running back for a 31-year-old linebacker five days before the cutdown has already decided something. The grade is the first evidence that arrived after the decision.

4. Alfred Collins is in the low group again.

PFF put Collins among its five lowest-graded San Francisco defenders in the finale. He played 29 snaps and stayed in two drives into the third quarter, which is longer than a projected starter usually lasts in a preseason game. Shanahan's account of the workload is the shoulder surgery: a late start that is not the player's fault, and extra reps to make it up. He expects Collins ready for Week 1.

5. Patrick Willis watched the broadcast and picked out the rookie linebacker.

Willis posted during Thursday's game that he was "seeing what Coach KJ saw" in Jaden Dugger, and called it subtle. Dugger, a fifth-round pick out of Louisiana, played 48 of the 66 defensive snaps, finished with ten tackles and two quarterback hits, and drew the highest pass-rushing grade PFF gave any 49er that night.

6. Jordan Watkins traces the run blocking to a conversation a year old.

Watkins led the game in receiving yards, four catches for 64 on eight targets, and carried three times for 27. On where the physicality came from: "Kyle challenged me last season to really be more physical, and that's something I really worked on. It had to do with bulking up a little bit and putting on some muscle."

On the room he is trying to make: "A lot of guys have been here for a very long time. But I feel like you just got to get in where you fit in."

7. What moved on the tracker.

One player crossed the cut line on Friday and it is Deion Jones, in. Dugger, Watkins and rookie safety Jalen Stroman all moved up without crossing it. Taylor came off the board entirely. Nobody crossed the line in the other direction.

The club's active table carried 89 names on Friday afternoon, with two more on the active/physically-unable-to-perform list. From 89 to 53 is thirty-six men. The next practice is Monday, and by then the arithmetic will be settled.

Sources: Kyle Shanahan's postgame availability and Patrick Willis's post, via Kirk Larrabee, 49ers Webzone, August 27. PFF grades and snap counts, and the Jordan Watkins and Patrick Taylor Jr. reports, via David Bonilla, 49ers Webzone, August 28. The Deion Jones trade terms and the Khalil Herbert signing, 49ers.com club releases, August 25 and August 20. Roster tables counted at 49ers.com. The cut deadline and its history, CBS Sports, August 28.