The fine imposed on Giants running back Cam Skattebo for illegal use of the helmet was not a rarity. The flag thrown in real time for it was.
Of eight fines levied by the NFL for use-of-helmet violations in Week 7, only Skattebo’s came with a flag.
The league fined Skattebo $7,073. The seven players fined but not flagged were: Bears cornerback Clark Phillips ($11,550); Broncos safety Brandon Jones ($23,882); Broncos Alex Singleton ($47,662); Lions safety Brian Branch ($23,882); Colts cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt ($7,791); Steelers receiver Brandon Smith ($4,916); and 49ers running back Jordan James ($6,194).
The fines increase as the violations repeat. For Singleton, who was fined $23,882 for illegal use of the helmet, it was the second straight week he was fined.
The officials, for whatever reason, don’t often call penalties for illegal use of the helmet. That’s what made the penalty called on Skattebo so unusual.
The fact that the hit flattened Texans safety M.J. Stewart likely was a factor in the decision to penalize Skattebo. Still, the fact that only one of eight instances resulted in a foul being called underscores the fact that, when it comes to the rule against lowering the helmet and initiating forcible contact against an opponent, it’s something that costs players money far more routinely than it costs their teams field position.
49ers Clips
The Colts traded defensive tackle DeForest Buckner to the 49ers earlier this week and they replaced him on the active roster with a former member of the Niners.
The team announced on Friday that they have signed defensive tackle Kevin Givens off of the 49ers’ practice squad.
Givens appeared in 71 regular season games and nine playoff contests for the 49ers after joining the team during the 2019 season. He had 106 tackles, 8.5 sacks, a forced fumble and two fumble recoveries during his time with the NFC West team.
Buckner was one of two veterans that the Colts traded away this week. Guard Quenton Nelson was dealt to the Seahawks and the Colts replaced him on the roster with offensive lineman Charlie Heck.
49ers wide receiver Mike Evans missed Sunday’s game against the Falcons with Achilles tendinitis. He was already playing through an injury to his ribs before developing the Achilles issue.
The 49ers are on their off week this week, giving him at least two weeks to try to calm the Achilles.
“Mike’s been working tirelessly,” 49ers General Manager John Lynch said on KNBR, via David Bonilla of 49erswebzone.com. “He’ll continue to do that. He’s on a great plan, and I think the idea is you’ve just got to quiet that thing down. We dealt with that with [RB] Christian [McCaffrey] last year—remember, he had that bilateral. We talked about that a lot, and fortunately with Mike, it’s just on the one side.
“He’s dealt with it some throughout his career, but it got to a point where it was really inhibiting his ability to play. At that point, you’ve got to take him out and try to quiet the thing down. Making good progress on that. We need to continue, and Mike will be tireless in his efforts to do that.”
The 49ers will have a better idea of whether Evans is ready to resume action in Week 9 when they return to practice next week.
“Mike, he’s a pro,” Lynch said. “Mike’s going to attack that, and it’s hard for Mike to miss. He doesn’t like doing it, but he also understands the big picture: That we need him right, and we’ll make sure that he is before he returns.”
The Seahawks and 49ers hope to benefit in the near term from the trades they made with the Colts on Tuesday, but another team could wind up as a long-term winner.
When the Colts were in a better position a little less than a year ago, then-General Manager Chris Ballard dealt Indy’s 2026 and 2027 first-round picks as well as wide receiver Adonai Mitchell to the Jets for cornerback Sauce Gardner. The Colts’ collapse after that deal led to the Jets landing tight end Kenyon Sadiq with the 16th overall pick this year and the other first-round pick looks like it will come much earlier in the 2027 draft.
Moving guard Quenton Nelson to the Seahawks and defensive tackle DeForest Buckner to the 49ers will hurt the Colts’ chances of winning their next 10 games and their first-round pick would be No. 7 overall if the season ended today. Should the Colts move others like running back Jonathan Taylor ahead of the deadline, the prospects for that pick would look even better.
Given the dim prospects for the Jets’ own pick — No. 10 at the moment — and their ownership of the higher pick between the Cowboys’ and Packers’ first-rounders through the Quinnen Williams trade, that’s a lot of capital for the team to use in their attempt to end what will likely continue to be the league’s longest postseason drought.
DeForest Buckner is headed back to the Bay.
The 49ers — who traded Buckner to Indianapolis back in 2020 — have agreed to acquire Buckner from the Colts, according to multiple reports.
Indianapolis will receive a 2027 fourth-round pick to complete the deal.
While Buckner is in his 11th season, he’s still plenty productive from the interior of the defensive line. He’s recorded 4.0 sacks with four tackles for loss and eight QB hits so far in 2026. He’s also tallied three passes defensed and a fumble recovery.
The No. 7 overall pick of the 2016 draft out of Oregon, Buckner was a key piece of San Francisco’s defense in his first four seasons, helping the club advance to Super Bowl LIV to cap the 2019 season. He registered 12.0 sacks for the 49ers in 2018 and 7.5 sacks for the club in 2019.
He was traded to the Colts after his fourth season, with Indianapolis signing him to a long-term second contract.
In Buckner’s 158 career games, he’s picked up 75.5 sacks, 101 tackles for loss, and 196 QB hits.
Buckner has been palpably frustrated by the Colts losses in recent weeks. With an expiring contract, it’s no surprise that he’s been moved.
It’s the second high-profile trade of the day from the Colts, who earlier dealt guard Quenton Nelson to the Seahawks.
The 49ers aren’t planning to make a change at kicker during their bye week.
Eddy Piñeiro missed an extra point against the Falcons in Sunday’s loss and he’s now missed four of them on the season. He’s also missed three field goals, which led to a question for head coach Kyle Shanahan after the game about whether the team will be looking at other options before returning to action in Week 9.
Shanahan said it had not been discussed and General Manager John Lynch offered a more definitive answer on KNBR Tuesday.
“We don’t have a kicker tryout,” Lynch said. “We have a lot of belief in Eddy. He has had a tough run early this year, but we extended Eddy for his body of work with us but then throughout the history of his career. He’s going through a rough patch right now. . . . We have belief in Eddy, and we’re going to ride with him.”
The extension that Lynch referenced includes $4 million in guaranteed money for the 2027 season and that likely plays a role in any decision to give Piñeiro more time to work himself back into the form that earned him that deal in the first place.
The 49ers announced running back Christian McCaffrey had a thigh injury during Sunday’s loss to the Falcons, but the diagnosis of his injury was different on Monday.
Fortunately for the 49ers, the outlook was similar to the one McCaffrey shared after the game. Head coach Kyle Shanahan said on Monday that McCaffrey has a mild hamstring strain while confirming McCaffrey’s belief that it won’t be an issue when the team returns from their bye in Week 9.
“Yeah, we think so, with it just being that,” Shanahan said, via 49ersWebzone.com. “I mean, you never know for sure, but we’re pretty optimistic about it. So is he.”
McCaffrey ran seven times for 39 yards and a touchdown while also catching six passes for 61 yards on Sunday.
Mike Evans, Nick Bosa, and Deebo Samuel are among the other players the 49ers also hope to have available after the bye, but it will be a while before there are firmer updates on their chances of playing.
The 49ers’ bye week was extended by 20 minutes on Monday.
The team announced that the start time for their Week 9 home game against the Raiders will now kick off at 4:25 p.m. ET. The game was originally set to get underway at 4:05 p.m.
In addition to changing time slots, the game will now be on Fox rather than CBS.
Fox is also set to carry the Packers-Patriots game in New England and the Cardinals-Seahawks game in Seattle during that window. The only 4:05 p.m. ET game on CBS is now the Texans’ trip to Los Angeles to face the Chargers.
As the 49ers enter the bye week, they could be thinking about saying farewell to kicker Eddy Piñiero.
The veteran kicker missed another extra point in Sunday’s loss to the Falcons. Through seven games, he has missed four extra points and three field goals.
After the game, coach Kyle Shanahan was asked whether the 49ers will work out kickers during the bye week.
“I don’t know,” he said, “I haven’t talked to anybody about that, we’ll probably discuss on the plane.”
On Friday, Shanahan was asked whether he has spoken to Piñiero about the missed kicks.
“No,” Shanahan said. “Not much to discuss. I can make stuff up, but he knows he’s got to make kicks, and we all do. I’m not going to try to teach him how to do that.”
For a team with high aspirations, one missed kick can spell doom. Sunday’s failed extra point left the deficit at 26-20 with 5:05 to play. Which allowed the Falcons to make it a two-score game with a field goal. Which made it virtually impossible for the 49ers to close the gap when they got the ball down nine points with 1:50 to play.
The 49ers have dealt with a slew of injuries this season, so they were likely bracing for the worst when running back Christian McCaffrey was forced out of Sunday’s game against the Falcons with a thigh injury in the first quarter.
McCaffrey was able to return in the second half, but his presence wasn’t enough to stop the team from suffering their first loss of the 2026 season. After the game, McCaffrey said that he felt like his leg “just died on me” and that he was frustrated trying to get back on track the rest of the day before adding that he doesn’t expect the issue to linger into the future.
“I’ll be fine. I’m not worried about it,” McCaffrey said, via 49ersWebzone.com. “It just sucks to me because that was one of those ones where I just felt like I could have got going . . . I was just trying to keep it warm and not make it worse, but there’s only so much you can do to get back to where you want to be. I’ll be fine. I know that. I’ll be all right.”
The 49ers have a bye in Week 8 and McCaffrey won’t be the only one hoping to use it as time to to get closer to full strength heading into the second half of the season.
