Mike Evans Leaves Early; Christian Mccaffrey Would’ve Practiced If It Were A Game Week

The San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Chargers held a joint practice Tuesday. Head coach Kyle Shanahan provided injury updates.

DeMarcus Robinson, Kaelon Black, and Keion White were all back for the 49ers. Robinson sat out of Sunday’s session.

White was fully padded at the start of practice but did not participate in any team drills and took his pads off about an hour in.

Wide receiver Mike Evans had his left ankle/foot wrapped with ice. Apparently, Evans moved the ice pack and wrapped his left quad after removing it from his ankle. He left practice early and was watching from the sidelines.

Kyle Shanahan said Mike Evans had “some tightness” and the team was being smart with Evans, so they took him out early: “No. They just said he had some tightness, so we were just being smart taking him out. I don’t think it’s anything worse, so we’ll see when we get in there, but nothing that I’m worried about right now.”

The 49ers understand how important he is for the offense.

We’ll see if Evans plays on Thursday. Shanahan plans to play several of the 49ers starters Thursday against the Chargers. There’s also a “good chance” Brock Purdy suits up: “Not all of them, but I expect a number of starters to play, unlike last week. I haven’t told them yet, but they’ll find out soon, but yeah, you guys will see a number out there.”

Jim Harbaugh also said his starters will play.

Nick Bosa is making a lot of progress, per Shanahan: “A lot less irritation and soreness/tendinitis, whatever you want to call it, than you had last week. So he’s going the right direction.”

Shanahan said Mykel Williams is further away than Kittle. Shanahan said Week 1 would be a long shot, but the team hasn’t ruled it out yet, and Williams is progressing well.

Here’s Shanahan talking about Christian Kirk’s “unfortunate” injury:

“He had the same thing in OTAs, so he missed that. He hasn’t been ready to go. I know he’s been extremely frustrated with it. We love the guy so far, but hopefully he can have some better luck going forward here, so he can get some reps out here.”

If Kirk doesn’t get healthy before the start of the season, there won’t be any decisions to be made about his roster spot.

Shanahan also refuted speculation that Christian McCaffrey missed the last week of practice because of a contract dispute: “I think they make a lot of assumptions and that would be one that they’re wrong on.”

He said that McCaffrey would’ve practiced today if it were a game week: “I think if it wasn’t Christian and we were in a game week, I think he would play today.”

Shanahan wouldn’t say where McCaffrey has tightness because Christian would get “sensitive,” which is why the team is leaving his injury designation to “tightness.”

We could see McCaffrey and Bosa as soon as Saturday, which is the next practice for the 49ers.

Renardo Green left practice after some friendly fire. Fred Warner hit him in the end zone. Green stayed in for a play, but left after that. Jack Jones took his place.

Shanahan has been surprised at the concussions the 49ers have sustained despite some of the offensive linemen wearing Guardian Caps:

“Yeah, it is. I think it just shows you those only do so much. My favorite thing about those is quarterbacks don’t break their hands as much on the top of them, but regardless of what you’re wearing, if you get hit the right way, it’s not enough. I know it does help, but yeah, having those, two in one practice, a few days ago was unusual, and hopefully we’ll have better luck with that going forward.”