The 49ers may be heading into their Week 2 home opener against the Dolphins with a little uncertainty at kicker. Eddy Pineiro is one of two San Francisco players listed as questionable, and Kyle Shanahan said Friday the team will bring in another kicker on Saturday in case Pineiro can’t go.
That’s not the kind of questionable tag that usually sets off alarms, since most players with that designation still end up active. But Pineiro’s situation is a little different.
He missed all three practices leading up to Week 2 while dealing with an illness, which makes his status worth watching. The good news is that it doesn’t appear to be anything major.
The concern is simply whether it will be enough to keep him out Sunday.
San Francisco sounds prepared to play it safe. The team will wait until Sunday to make the final call, but the fact that they’re lining up a backup option suggests Pineiro’s availability is far from certain. Given the matchup, the 49ers can probably manage if they have to roll with a kicker signed off the street.
The other questionable player is rookie running back Kaelon Black, who showed up on the injury report Thursday with a groin issue. He never missed practice, but he was limited on both Thursday and Friday.
That injury is not considered serious, but it does raise a few eyebrows because Black also dealt with a groin injury during training camp and missed time then. Unless this is the other groin causing trouble, it’s a situation worth monitoring beyond this week. Still, the expectation is that he plays against Miami.
Even if Black is available, he may not get the same workload he saw against Los Angeles. Shanahan will likely be more cautious and lean more on Christian McCaffrey.
That could line up nicely with a milestone on the horizon for McCaffrey. He needs two scrimmage touchdowns to become the third player in NFL history with 50-plus scrimmage touchdowns with multiple teams.
Only Hall of Famers Marshall Faulk and Randy Moss have done it. Faulk finished with 51 for the Colts and 85 for the Rams, while Moss reached 92 with the Vikings and 50 with the Patriots.
In Other News...
Kaepernick Just Reopened A 49ers Era Story Fans Will Remember
Colin Kaepernick is back in the conversation with a new memoir, The Perilous Fight, and the book has already started to reopen one of the most familiar chapters from his 49ers years. Released Sept. 15, the memoir leans into personal stories and reflection, including an anecdote about Taylor Swift and his adoptive mother, while also giving Kaepernick another platform to revisit the larger arc of his career and the fight that followed it.
On a podcast interview the next day, Kaepernick shifted from memoir mode to sharper criticism, taking aim at Patriots owner Robert Kraft over the removal of rapper Macklemore from Ed Sheerans tour. He used the moment to argue that NFL owners work together to protect their interests, while also revisiting his grievance against the league and how his view of owner cooperation has evolved. For 49ers fans, it is another reminder that Kaepernicks story remains as much about the leagues power structure as it is about the quarterback who once defined an era in San Francisco. [Read more 🡒]
49ers Avoid One Levi's Stadium Wrinkle Against The Dolphins
Week 2 brings a more comfortable setup for the 49ers at Levis Stadium, where theyll host the Dolphins under conditions that look far kinder than some of the early-season home games San Francisco has endured in recent years. Forecasts for kickoff call for 72 degrees, clear skies and light winds, the kind of afternoon that should let football, not the weather, drive the conversation.
For a team that has had to manage excessive heat in past daytime games at home, that matters more than it might seem on paper. The Dolphins arrive as a dangerous early test, but the 49ers at least appear set to avoid one of the more annoying variables that can turn a September game in Santa Clara into something closer to a survival exercise. [Read more 🡒]
Fred Warner Said What 49ers Fans Were Feeling About Dre Greenlaw
The 49ers defense wasted no time reminding the rest of the NFC why it still draws so much attention in Santa Clara. In Week 1 against the Rams, San Francisco held Los Angeles under 10 points, and the middle of that effort looked familiar again with Fred Warner and Dre Greenlaw back side by side on the field. Warner led the way with 11 tackles, while Greenlaw added six in his return after spending a year with the Denver Broncos.
For 49ers fans, the reunion carried a little extra weight because it brought back a pairing that has long been tied to the identity of this defense. Warner sounded as energized as the crowd felt about seeing Greenlaw back in the mix, and the early result suggested the comfort level between the two has not gone anywhere. The bigger question now is how quickly that revived linebacker duo can help San Francisco settle in as the season unfolds. [Read more 🡒]