Jack Jones And Marques Sigle Were In Uniform Saturday. The 49ers Signed Nobody.
Both left Thursday's opener hurt, and two days later both were on the practice field. Christian McCaffrey, Nick Bosa and Kurtis Rourke were not. The roster is still full at 90 against a limit of 90, which is why the three cornerbacks who worked out on Friday are still three cornerbacks who worked out on Friday.
Jack Jones left the preseason opener with a hand injury after eight defensive snaps. Marques Sigle left the same game with an oblique after 26. On Saturday, two days later, both were on the field when practice began.
In uniform is not a rep count, and it is still the fact of the day. Matt Barrows, at the session: "Jacob Cowing, Jack Jones and Marques Sigle are in uniform as 49ers practice begins," carried by David Bonilla at 49ers Webzone in a report filed as the 11:50 a.m. practice started. Jones is No. 25 and Sigle No. 36. Neither ever received a designation or a timeline for what happened on Thursday, which is why neither man's grade on this site's 53-man projection has moved in either direction.
Nobody was signed, and Saturday is the reason. San Francisco worked out Bryce Hall, Troy Pride Jr. and Corey Mayfield Jr. on Friday afternoon after three defensive backs were hurt in the same week. Two of those three, Jones and Sigle, practised the next day, and Bonilla notes that the Friday tryouts had raised concern about Jones specifically and that he appears to have avoided a setback. The club's own transaction log carries August 12 as its newest entry and ESPN's carries August 13, K.J. Henry to injured reserve, both read separately on Saturday afternoon. Counted table by table rather than off a headline number, the roster page holds 88 on the active list and three on Active/PUP, which is 91 bodies, less Isaac Alarcon's international-pathway exemption, which is 90 against a limit of 90. A signing costs somebody in the building his job. San Francisco paid that price three days ago and the club's own log says who: to sign Eli Apple, Xavier Thomas and Zamir White on August 12 it waived Junior Bergen and Jack Bouwmeester and waived/injured K.J. Henry. Three men in, three men out, one afternoon. That is the price the tryout list carried, and it went unpaid.
Nate Hobbs is the one of the three with a number on him. Kyle Shanahan, after Thursday's game: "Nate Hobbs in the practice versus the Titans pulled his groin. So, he's going to be a few weeks." Hobbs, No. 22, did not dress for the opener.
There are five days on this. San Francisco practises against the Chargers in El Segundo on Tuesday and plays them at SoFi Stadium on Thursday, August 20. Hobbs, on a few weeks, is available for neither. The last joint practice is where Hobbs got hurt, and the roster arithmetic that makes a signing expensive today does not change if the secondary loses another man on Tuesday. It just gets paid.
Kurtis Rourke did not practise. He is No. 14, and this is the first practice since the ribs injury that took him to hospital at halftime on Thursday. There is still no designation, no timeline, and no published result of the further imaging Shanahan said would come back Friday. Rourke was 12 of 14 for 101 yards with 14 more rushing before he left, which is the best case he has made in a quarterback competition he is not winning, and it is two days old with nothing added to it.
Christian McCaffrey and Nick Bosa were out. McCaffrey, No. 23, with tightness, which is what the club has called it since his first missed session on August 10. Bosa, No. 97, with soreness and tendinitis in the surgically repaired knee, the label Shanahan gave it on August 11. Bonilla writes that neither is expected to be a long-term concern. Mike Evans, No. 5, was on the field for what Bonilla calls his second consecutive practice after the quad strain.
The hip flexor is not the question about Jacob Cowing. He is No. 6, he was in uniform, and he took no offensive snaps at all in Thursday's opener while Jordan Watkins took 58. The club has published no reason for that, and practising on Saturday does not supply one.
The run game is where Thursday failed. The four running backs who played carried 23 times for 52 yards: Sincere McCormick, No. 35, 10 for 38; Khalil Herbert, No. 40, six for 18; Zamir White, No. 30, two for one; Patrick Taylor Jr., No. 32, five for minus five. The team line of 28 for 84 flatters that, because 32 of those yards came on five quarterback carries. The interior line competition has been argued all camp in one-on-one pass-rush reps, which is the drill that hands you a winner and a loser on video. Thursday's failure was on the ground.
On the tracker: no grade moved and nothing crossed the cut line. The board still reads 52 named players and one deliberately open spot at backup centre, where it has been since August 8, and nobody is being promoted into it to make the counter read 53.
