The weekly Wednesday practice report is starting to have two constants for the San Francisco 49ers.
Those two constants are star players Nick Bosa and Trent Williams. The 49ers are still without Bosa and Williams to start the practice week. It makes their outlook for Week 14 against the Chicago Bears bleak. Bosa is still hampered by a hip/oblique injury, while Williams nurses an ankle injury.
They both still have time to log in at least one practice to give themselves a chance to be active against the Bears. However, at this point, it would feel surprising if either of them logged a limited practice this week. The season is a lost cause despite still being mathematically in the playoff hunt.
Shutting both players down would be the best course of action for the 49ers. That likely won’t be done until the 49ers lose another game or two. Besides, it sounds like Williams (and probably Bosa too) is itching to return to the field to help the team out.
“Trent’s really trying to get back out here,” Kyle Shanahan said on Monday via conference call. “We’ve just got to, his ankle isn’t healing the way we want. We can’t get the swelling down and stuff, so that’s why I’d like to say it’s day-to-day, week-to-week, because we’re expecting the swelling to go down and everything, it just hasn’t. So we’re trying to be patient with it, I know he’s being patient with it. Hopefully it’ll take a turn in the right direction this week, but it hasn’t yet, so there’s no guarantees.”
Jaylon Moore would fill in for Williams again as the starting left tackle. He’s been decent filling in. You can’t say the same for the players replacing Bosa. His impact cannot be shrunk as the pass rush has been non-existent with him out. Leonard Floyd has been solid, but it’s no more than several plays.
The Bears aren’t an overly threatening team, but their offense is always capable of exploding. Not having Bosa out there will be felt barring a random player breaking out.
