The San Francisco 49ers will wrap up their preseason on Sunday, hosting the Las Vegas Raiders for the exhibition finale. Sunday’s game will serve as a dress rehearsal to the regular season, with the majority of starters seeing some playing time, many for the first time this preseason.
When speaking with the media on Friday, Kyle Shanahan alluded to veterans like Trent Williams and Alex Mack making their preseason debuts, even if it’s for a limited number of snaps.
“Ideally, just as a whole for starters, I’d like to get close to the first half,” Shanahan said. “I always say the whole half, but I thought we had a real good week of practice. So hopefully we’ve seen enough and I can take them out sometime in the second quarter. There’s probably a few guys here and there that I might do earlier than that.”
Additionally, with a near-identical lineup to what will be seen in two weeks when the 49ers kick off the regular season against the Detroit Lions, both of San Francisco’s signal callers will get to see some extended playing time in Sunday’s game.
Shanahan’s expectations are for Jimmy Garoppolo to open the contest under center with the possibility to see more game action than he has in the 49ers previous two contests (24 snaps). Trey Lance will see his share behind the veteran, which will give the rookie live reps along with the 49ers first-team offense.
“I plan to put Jimmy out there with the starters and I plan on mixing Trey in there, kind of like I wanted to last week,” Shanahan said. “We’ll see how it plays out, but I definitely want to get Trey some looks with the ‘ones’ in there.”
While multiple players will be making their preseason debuts, several 49ers will be watching from the sidelines.
Brandon Aiyuk has been dealing with a hamstring injury and the team is opting to hold the receiver out of Sunday’s contest. According to Shanahan, the injury should have no bearing on his availability for Week 1 of the regular season.
Richie James suffered a knee injury that will require surgery. The wide receiver is expected to miss at least six weeks. It’s likely Travis Benjamin and/or Nsimba Webster could see an increase in return reps in James’ place on Sunday.
According to Shanahan, minor issues have kept Jason Verrett and Dre Greenlaw out of practice this week. Both are healthy but will not play against the Raiders.
Dee Ford, who was a full participant at practice this week, will not play in the exhibition finale. As for Nick Bosa, who made his full practice debut this week, the “odds are he probably won’t play,” per Shanahan as the head coach hasn’t made a decision on the edge rusher as of yet.
Jaylon Moore (stinger) and Jauan Jennings (heel) returned to practice on Friday and are expected to suit up for Sunday’s tilt.
