{"id":363858,"date":"2025-09-13T04:31:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T04:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/363858\/"},"modified":"2025-09-13T04:31:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T04:31:09","slug":"49ers-trent-williams-jauan-jennings-questionable-vs-saints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/363858\/","title":{"rendered":"49ers’ Trent Williams, Jauan Jennings questionable vs. Saints"},"content":{"rendered":"

SANTA CLARA \u2014 The 49ers knew they would be without Brock Purdy<\/a> and George Kittle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now the status of left tackle Trent Williams is up in the air as the 49ers depart for their Week 2 road assignment in New Orleans.<\/p>\n

Williams and wide receiver Jauan Jennings<\/a> were officially listed as questionable by coach Kyle Shanahan on Friday afternoon. As expected, quarterback Brock Purdy was ruled out and will give way to Mac Jones for his 49ers\u2019 regular-season debut.<\/p>\n

The 49ers\u2019 backup left tackle in a difficult indoor environment is Spencer Burford, whose 29 previous NFL starts have all been at guard. Burford did play 31 snaps last season at left tackle in Week 15 against Miami after Jaylon Moore, Williams\u2019 former backup, departed with a quadriceps injury.<\/p>\n

Williams wasn\u2019t practicing with his position group Friday during a brief media window, working off to the side with a trainer, though Shanahan did say that he eventually took the field for the light practice and his level of participation was listed as limited.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was out there for everything,\u201d Shanahan said. \u201cWe went half speed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams did not practice Wednesday or Thursday. The 11-time Pro Bowl selection left a 17-13 win over Seattle in the opener for one snap but finished the game, although he appeared to be less than 100 percent given the pressure that was allowed on his side.<\/p>\n

Since Williams arrived in 2020, the 49ers are 4-12 in games he has missed due to injury. Combine that with the 7-12 record they have without tight end George Kittle, who is on injured reserve with a hamstring injury, and they\u2019re without two key cogs on their offense. That\u2019s a big hit when it comes to physicality, and that\u2019s beyond the absence of Purdy with a toe injury.<\/p>\n

Last season, Williams was limited to 10 games due to an ankle injury. He hasn\u2019t played a full season since 2013 when he played all 16 games for Washington.<\/p>\n

Jennings (shoulder) was limited at practice but at one point dunked the football over the crossbar after catching a pass during warmups.<\/p>\n

Shanahan said he\u2019s confident in Burford, should the need arise at tackle.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Spence has done a hell of a job for us whether it\u2019s been at guard or tackle,\u201d Shanahan said. \u201cHe\u2019s always been an emergency tackle since he\u2019s been here, but getting all reps he\u2019s gotten throughout OTAs and training camp, I think he\u2019s gotten better each day. I think he\u2019s made to play that position and he\u2019ll be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

Players who were removed from the injury list altogether were left guard Ben Bartch (knee\/elbow), running back Jordan James (finger) and defensive lineman Yetur Gross-Matos (knee).<\/p>\n

\"Spencer<\/p>\n

Shae Hammond\/Bay Area News Group<\/p>\n

Offensive lineman Spencer Burford of the 49ers has 29 starts — all of them at guard.<\/p>\n

Bourne\u2019s availability<\/p>\n

The verbiage is pretty much the same, but the 49ers have added a lot to their offense under Shanahan since wide receiver Kendrick Bourne in 2020. He played the last five years with the New England Patriots.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust another opportunity presented itself and I wanted to do some other things,\u201d Bourne said of leaving in free agency after that season. \u201cWent away for a bit, and it was good. I learned a lot, grew a lot, matured a lot, developed a lot, to come back kind of how I am now, and I\u2019m excited to be back where it all started and go off of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bourne has been getting in extra time with wide receivers coach Leonard Hankerson and is making progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, it\u2019s been a challenge with him just getting here, like it would be for anybody who\u2019s new,\u201d Shanahan said. \u201cMonday compared to today, he\u2019s getting there and he\u2019s got another day and a half to get there and I think it\u2019ll be good on Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bourne has also had extra work with Jones, a teammate in New England.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt falls on me,\u201d Bourne said. \u201cIf I go out there and don\u2019t know what I\u2019m doing, it\u2019s because I didn\u2019t study enough and things like that. I\u2019m just attacking it this week and I\u2019m excited to see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gross-Matos progress<\/p>\n

Despite being out most of training camp with a knee injury, Gross-Matos got 17 snaps playing both end and tackle \u2014 more than rookies Alfred Collins (nine) and C.J. West (seven). Defensive coordinator Robert Saleh liked what he saw.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s versatile in that he can play outside and inside,\u201d Saleh said. \u201cI do think he\u2019s a very powerful pass rusher, but he also has great feet and athleticism to capture the edge. You kind of saw it, for a guy who hasn\u2019t had really any practice reps or game reps, he went out there and I thought he did really well. Looking forward to seeing how he progresses over the course of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Injury epidemic?<\/p>\n

Shanahan wasn\u2019t biting on a question about whether the 49ers have been snakebit with injuries, which were an issue all throughout the 2024 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d Shanahan said. \u201cI think in \u201923 we were the healthiest team in football from what stats have told me, people have told me. Last year we weren\u2019t. This year it hasn\u2019t been good so far, but we\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally Published: September 12, 2025 at 2:21 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SANTA CLARA \u2014 The 49ers knew they would be without Brock Purdy and George Kittle. Now the status…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2080],"tags":[220,2644,7,6066,2810,2812,5215,55,6,1161,252,2624,2623,4819],"class_list":{"0":"post-363858","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-49ers","8":"tag-49ers","9":"tag-brock-purdy","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-george-kittle","12":"tag-john-lynch","13":"tag-kyle-shanahan","14":"tag-mac-jones","15":"tag-new-orleans-saints","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-san-francisco","18":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","19":"tag-sanfrancisco","20":"tag-sanfrancisco49ers","21":"tag-spencer-burford"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115195116618745369","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}