Wide receiver Deebo Samuel and running back Elijah Mitchell are working their way back to the football field in time for the San Francisco 49ers' playoff run. We might see both players as early as this weekend's regular-season finale against the Arizona Cardinals. Samuel and Mitchell have looked good in practice this week and could be set to make their returns this weekend.
"Much like Elijah, [Samuel has] practiced both days this week—both days, Wednesday, Thursday in our work week," Lynch said Friday morning on KNBR's Murph & Mac show. "He's looking good out there. We've got to finish this week and make sure he responds well, but all indications are Deebo's in a real good place."
Is he expected to play?
"Yeah," Lynch responded. "I'd say, right now, I expect him to be out there."
On Thursday, head coach Kyle Shanahan said he expects Mitchell to get at least some playing time against the Cardinals. Lynch indicated the same thing while praising his running back. The 49ers are expected to activate Mitchell from the injured reserve list before Sunday.
"The thing we've seen from Elijah in the past, he's a natural runner, so he can shake rust off in a hurry," Lynch said. "There really is no rust with him. He can go in a game and produce at a high level. We've been doing a great job, our rehab folks, of getting him up to speed. His conditioning level is high.
"He's practiced this week. Barring any setbacks, we expect to see him out there. For how many carries and all that? I don't think we've really nailed that down. We'll have somewhat of a pitch count of how many touches we want to get him."
Lynch stressed the importance of Sunday's game. A win and a Philadelphia Eagles loss would give the 49ers the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoff picture. A Niners loss and a Minnesota Vikings would drop them to the No. 3 seed.
Christian McCaffrey said this week that he expects to play on Sunday despite not having practiced on Wednesday or Thursday. On Monday, Shanahan said the running back is dealing with a "mild" ankle sprain.
"If he's not right, we won't have him out there," Lynch said. "... He's had a high workload here of late. We want him right for the playoffs, but first, he's just got to be right. If he's healthy, he'll play, and we'll see where that goes."
Linebacker Dre Greenlaw suffered a back injury against the Las Vegas Raiders and also has not practiced this week.
"I think we avoided anything real significant with Dre," Lynch explained. "But man, if you saw the impact of that hit, guys hustling to the football, [LB] Fred [Warner] landed on him, and he got bent in a way your body shouldn't be bent. Fortunately, everything's checking out. But there's a lot of soreness that came with that. So we'll see with Dre. Again, with him, we'll make a good decision as to what's best for him and our team."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Lynch below.
