49ers wide receiver Mike Evans has played through injured ribs. He had another injury added to the report on Thursday.
Evans was listed as a non-participant with an Achilles.
“Just some Achilles soreness,” coach Kyle Shanahan said.
Defensive end Nick Bosa, who has missed the past three games with a calf injury, remained out of practice Thursday. The 49ers added defensive tackle Gracen Halton to the report with a quadriceps issue, and he did not practice.
Running back Christian McCaffrey (rest), wide receiver Deebo Samuel (hamstring), safety Marques Sigle (ankle), defensive tackle James Thompson (ankle), linebacker Garret Wallow (hamstring) and left tackle Trent Williams (rest) also did not practice.
Shanahan said injured reserve is a possibility for Samuel.
Fullback Kyle Juszczyk (knee), wide receiver Christian Kirk (calf), offensive tackle Colton McKivitz (illness), safety Siran Neal (neck), cornerback Upton Stout (shoulder), defensive end Mykel Williams (knee) and offensive guard Carver Willis (toe) were limited.
Kirk had his 21-day return-to-practice window opened Thursday as he returns from injured reserve.
Commanders Clips
When it comes to the Week 5 overtime clock debacle for the Commanders, both coach Dan Quinn and quarterback Jayden Daniels continue to take the blame for the failure to stop the clock before a potential game-winning field.
In his midweek press conference, Daniels again accepted responsibility for the outcome.
“Ultimately, like, it’s on me,” Daniels told reporters. “At the end of the day, I know [coach Dan Quinn] is getting a lot of slack for it, whatever, you know, but regardless of what happens, I’m the person on the field that’s supposed to calm everything, control everything, and I failed to the standard I hold myself to and the standard in this organization. So it’s just something for me to move on. I’m not saying I’m proud of it or anything. Obviously, looking back, like, it could have resulted in a loss, we tied, but it was a fail in my in my eyes and, you know, I know I’m better in that. I hold myself to a higher standard than that. So, moving forward, I’ll grow from and learn from it. And it’ll never happen again.”
He also was asked for his reaction to the external criticism.
“I’m moving on to San Francisco,” Daniels said. “I can’t say it’s not warranted because of what happened. You know, everybody has opinions to say, opinions to speak, and rightfully so, so I can’t stop nobody for saying their opinion or anything like that. It’s just about my process and moving forward and learning from it, moving on.”
It’s still unclear how it happened, and Daniels has not been asked whether he thought that overtime would continue for a second period. While that would be a very plausible explanation for the failure to get the clock stopped before time ran out, it would open another can of worms.
Regardless, it all goes back to the coaching staff — to offensive coordinator David Blough and to head coach Dan Quinn. Blough has yet to face reporters regarding his role in the situation. Regardless, Quinn hired Blough (after firing Kliff Kingsbury), and Quinn entrusted Blough with the offense.
Beyond that, it’s Quinn’s third year with Daniels. Sunday’s glitch was a symptom of a potentially deeper issue, when it comes to attention to detail and/or willingness and ability to take charge in a moment of chaos. Quinn either failed to spot it, or he failed to fix it.
The late-afternoon slot on Sundays continues to generate the largest NFL audiences.
Via Nielsen, the Week 5 window that opened at 4:45 p.m. ET averaged 26.697 million viewers.
The headliner was 49ers-Seahawks, with Lions-Cardinals televised at that same time.
The Nielsen calculation began at 4:48 p.m. ET, after the conclusion of the Giants-Commanders game that spilled into the 4:25 p.m. ET window.
The situation resulted in plenty of complaints from Sunday Ticket customers who were not able to watch the game on their local Fox channel, and who could not access the game on Sunday Ticket because it was available in their market. Even if it wasn’t.
We asked the NFL earlier this week whether that glitch would be addressed. The league has not yet responded.
It was the only Week 5 window on Thursday or Sunday that exceeded 20 million. ESPN has not yet released the audience numbers for Bills-Rams. The latest Nielsen report runs through Sunday.
The Commanders spent a lot of time talking about the blunders that cost them a chance to beat the Giants in overtime in Week 6, but the time has now come for them to turn the page to Monday night’s game against the 49ers.
Head coach Dan Quinn said at a Thursday press conference that the failure to stop the clock in time to try a game-winning field goal was “my responsibility, point blank, period” and that the steps that led to that failure have been “dissected, discussed, corrected” over the last few days. While Quinn has taken accountability for how things played out, quarterback Jayden Daniels’s role in not recognizing that the team was going to run out of time has also been in the crosshairs.
Quinn was asked if he’s confident that Daniels is ready to move forward to the next game after such a high-profile error.
“He’s such a mentally tough person that he’s very stoic a lot of times,” Quinn said. “It’s honest conversations about where you’re at, how things are. The longer you get to know somebody, you know some of the signs and tells. For him, he’s somebody that definitely is back. Even through tough weeks, he is a really resilient guy.”
Quinn noted that improvement is not something you can just pay “lip service” to and that the proof will come on the field. A trip to play an undefeated 49ers team isn’t the easiest way to demonstrate that, but it’s the hand Quinn and Daniels have been dealt this week.
Linebacker Jordan Magee is set to return to Commanders practice.
The team announced that they have designated Magee for return from injured reserve on Thursday. Magee will be able to practice with the team for the next 21 days and can be activated at any point in that window, so he could play against the 49ers on Monday night.
Magee had two tackles in Week 1 before injuring his hamstring late in the game.
The Commanders picked Magee in the fifth round in 2024 and he appeared in 25 games over his first two seasons with the team. He had 63 tackles and four tackles for loss in those appearances.
As the NFL season begins to take shape, the league office has a growing body of evidence to inform potential flex decisions. And one game has emerged as a candidate to be the first to exit its current prime-time slot.
Via Rob Tornoe of the Philadelphia Inquirer, the NFL is considering moving the Week 8 game between the Eagles and Commanders out of the Sunday night window.
Plenty of factors influence the NFL’s decision-making process. One obvious factor becomes the game that would replace it.
In Week 8, it may not be easy to find a game that would attract a larger audience, even if the Commanders lose to the 49ers on Monday night and fall to 1-4-1 and if the Eagles lose to the Panthers on Sunday and slump to 2-4.
Given the apparent rule that at least one game in each division rivalry must be televised in a Sunday afternoon window, Vikings-Lions, Browns-Steelers, and Chiefs-Broncos would seem to be off limits. Steelers-Browns (Week 4) and Broncos-Chiefs (Week 1) previously were televised in prime time, and the Vikings are scheduled to host the Lions on Sunday night in Week 15.
Of course, the league could decide to take the earlier Vikings-Lions game, with a flex of the Week 15 game in Minneapolis into an afternoon window.
Ravens-Bills becomes a possibility, but the Ravens also play the following Thursday night. The league may not want to give the Ravens seven fewer hours or so between games on a short week.
Colts-Jaguars is a possibility; the Jaguars are 4-1 and the Colts should move to 3-3 this weekend with a home game against the 0-5 Titans. The league would need to consider whether Eagles-Commanders would carry extra national sizzle than Colts-Jaguars even if both Philadelphia and Washington lose this weekend.
Ultimately, the outcomes of this weekend’s games will influence the final decision. For now, the Inquirer reports that the possibility of an Eagles-Commanders flex is on the radar screen. The deadline arrives on Tuesday, October 20 — the day after Week 6 ends with the Commanders facing the 49ers in Santa Clara.
In seven of the NFL’s eight divisions, the team that is currently in first place is also currently the betting favorite to win the division. The NFC East is the exception.
At 3-1-1, the Giants are in first place in the NFC East by 1.5 games. But they’re a distant third in the betting odds to win the division.
The betting odds currently list the 2-3 Eagles as the favorites at +170, followed closely by the 2-3 Cowboys at +180. The Giants are third at +320, and the 1-3-1 Commanders are last at +750.
It’s not hard to understand why the bettors aren’t sold on the Giants: Despite managing to win three games, they haven’t looked particularly good while doing so, on either offense or defense. (Their special teams are playing well.) Starting quarterback Jaxson Dart is out for the season and there are doubts about how long they can keep winning with Jameis Winston. And their schedule has been easy; all five teams they’ve played currently have losing records.
The schedule stays easy this week, with a home game against the 1-4 Saints. The Giants are 1.5-point underdogs, which underscores how little faith the bettors have in them. If the Giants manage to win on Sunday, their odds to win the division may improve a little. But it won’t be until November 8, when they travel to Philadelphia to take on the Eagles, when the Giants can make a statement that they really are the best team in the NFC East. Unless the Giants keep winning through that game, they’re going to stay long shots to win the division.
The 49ers won’t have linebacker Dre Greenlaw for Monday night’s game against the Commanders.
The NFL has announced that hearing officer James Thrash, a former NFL receiver, has upheld the one-game suspension imposed Monday on Greenlaw.
During the second quarter of Sunday’s game between the 49ers and Seahawks, Greenlaw applied a head butt to Seahawks linebacker Ernest Jones IV. Greenlaw was wearing a helmet; Jones was not.
Greenlaw was ejected. It was his third ejection since 2022. Last year, he was suspended for one game for his behavior toward referee Brad Allen after a game between the Giants and Broncos, Greenlaw’s team in 2025.
Greenlaw will forfeit $136,388 in base salary for the game. He’ll also lose a $23,529 active roster bonus. The 49ers could be able to seek partial repayment of his $2.5 million signing bonus, too.
The lost reps also will make it harder for Greenlaw to earn a $750,000 incentive based on 75-percent playing time for the season. If earned, the amount doubles if the 49ers make the playoffs.
Micah Parsons still isn’t ready to play after last year’s knee injury, but he still knows how to mix things up.
Parsons recently said on his podcast, The Edge with Micah Parsons, that quarterback Jayden Daniels is to blame for the game-clock clusterfudge at the end of overtime in the Giants-Commanders game.
“Jayden Daniels probably cost my man Dan Quinn his job, to be honest with you,” Parsons said, via Nicki Jhabvala of The Athletic. “To be honest with you. And, like, I’m a big Jayden Daniels fan. But the reality is, he probably cost a lot of people their jobs this past weekend. . . .
“All respectfully, we get coached so much on these situations that, like, I’m a defensive player, and this shit’s programmed to me. I even know what to do in those situations. There’s no way I’m taking a sack with 14 seconds left and no timeouts. . . . And, mind you, it’d be different if Jayden Daniels was a rookie. This is your third year. This is your third year. You’ve been to the NFC Championship game. You’ve been in big moments before. And to me, like even after a sack, you’re casually getting up.”
Parsons made it clear that, in his view, quarterbacks are expected to always know what’s going on.
“This is your job, bro,” Parsons said. “This is your job to be prepared to understand the game and understand situations. That’s in your job profile. And you’re telling me, ‘Oh, we’re gonna want to pay this guy eventually $60 million? This cannot happen. . . . I’m a big JD5 fan, but that’s inexcusable, bro.”
Parsons said that the Packers work on situational football “every day,” What happened at the end of the Giants-Commanders game should have required no discussion, frankly.
“This is a lack of preparation, a lack of mentality, and a lack of urgency,” Parsons said. “That just can’t happen.”
Parsons isn’t wrong. The fact that it did happen raises plenty of questions about the level of preparation and attention to detail, as created by the coaching staff. It speaks to potential cultural flaws, perhaps one in which Daniels hasn’t been challenged or held as accountable as he could have or should have been, given his standing in the organization.
It would be a lot easier to make sense of all of this if the Commanders had recorded and preserved the relevant communications. And Daniels surely will face even more questions on this topic the next time he speaks to reporters.
The fact that the outcome was so bizarre, so jarring, and so downright surreal becomes a horrible moment for everyone involved. As to the ultimate consequences, Parsons hit the nail on the head — Daniels’s failure to take charge of the situation in the moment will probably cost Quinn his job.
But Daniels will continue to be the starting quarterback because, even if he made an inexcusable mistake as to one of the easiest parts of the job, he does the hard parts better than most of his peers.
The problem with everyone taking the blame for a colossal clock-management blunder is that, if everyone is Spartacus, it’s impossible to know who’s truly at fault.
As to the end of the Giants-Commanders game, coach Dan Quinn has taken the blame — and quarterback Jayden Daniels has taken the blame. Presumably, offensive coordinator David Blough will take the blame, too, the next time he speaks to reporters.
So who’s truly to blame?
On Tuesday’s edition of PFT Live, Chris Simms suggested that Daniels may have been told to throw the ball away on the last snap the Commanders took. If he had, the clock would have stopped and the Commanders would have had time to kick a potential game-winning field goal. If that’s the case, it seems logical that there will be reporting from unnamed sources that the internal review came to that conclusion. (And, again, it would have been easier to get to the bottom of it if the Commanders had recorded and preserved all in-game communications.)
Here’s another possibility, one that has a historical example. In 2008, after a 13-13 final score between the Eagles and Bengals, Philadelphia quarterback Donovan McNabb admitted that he didn’t know a regular-season game could end in a tie. He wasn’t alone; other players on the Eagles’ roster didn’t realize the game ended when the overtime period expired.
Said McNabb at the time, who was in his tenth NFL season: “In college, there are multiple overtimes, and in high school and Pop Warner. I never knew in the professional ranks it would end that way. I hate to see what would happen in the Super Bowl and in the playoffs.”
Eighteen years later, could it have been déjà vu all over again? Is it possible Daniels’s lack of urgency in the final seconds of overtime resulted from the fact that he didn’t know the game would be over when the clock struck zero?
Given the Eagles’ widespread lack of awareness as to the overtime rules in 2008 — which had been in place unchanged for 34 years — is it crazy to think Daniels and possibly other players didn’t know? Likewise, is it beyond the realm of possibility that Blough, who is the same age now as McNabb was then, didn’t know? (Blough absolutely should be asked that question, just in case.)
Giants safety Jevon Holland said this after the game: “I mean, even when the clock ran to zero, there was a second where I was like, ‘Is it going to go to the second overtime?’ I don’t know if it was two overtimes or not. I’ve never been in an overtime tie like this.”
That makes it a fair question to ask, of Daniels and other members of the offense. Did he, and others, think that once the time ran out, the teams would change ends and the game would continue?
While hardly an acceptable explanation, it would make the complete lack of urgency as the seconds ticked away a little more understandable.
