The San Francisco 49ers often hold their starters out of preseason games to help guard against potential injury. Saturday vs. the Las Vegas Raiders they may need to play their starters because of injury.

Head coach Kyle Shanahan generally holds starters out of a preseason game after a joint practice. That was the case in Week 1 of the preseason when they had a joint practice vs. the Denver Broncos on Thursday before their Saturday matchup. Despite a joint practice with the Raiders on Thursday, Shanahan said starters may play in Saturday’s game because of injuries down the depth chart.

Advertisement

“I’d like Brock to play, we’ll see how it goes,” Shanahan said. “I haven’t decided anything for sure yet. We’ll watch this tape, I planned on getting these starters going. There might be a couple guys I rest, but there’s not a lot of, especially on the defense, healthy starters as it is. But I’ll figure that out here in the next 24 hours. But planning on some starters to play.”

In Week 1 of the preseason Ben Bartch and Dee Winters were the only presumed veteran starters in the first group. \

One player we’re unlikely to see vs. the Raiders is left tackle Trent Williams. Williams has been held out of team drills in both of the 49ers’ joint practices. Shanahan said Williams’s age and NFL mileage play a role in keeping his preseason reps down.

“Starting to have new plus 36-year-old rules for certain people,” Shanahan said. “Yeah, his plus 36 might be a little different than our punter and long snappers but you know, Trent’s playing at a very high level, Trent’s in as good a shape. I think he’s a lot further along right now than he was last year. But we love where Trent’s at. You only have so many bull rushes, so many everything you have in you once you get to a certain age, and when you put a guy out there like Trent, I mean everyone wants to measure themselves up against him. So, I’ve been in joint practices with Trent, and it’s a little different for him just going against people. So would’ve taken him out of that and be a little bit smarter with him.”

Advertisement

Even if starters do play, they’re not likely to get a ton of snaps. Our guess is it’ll be one series if it spans six-plus snaps. If the offense or defense are off the field in three plays, they may go out for a second set of downs.

More 49ers: Kyle Shanahan has good news on return of one of 49ers most important players

This article originally appeared on Niners Wire: 49ers vs. Raiders: Will San Francisco starters play?