The San Francisco 49ers will have at least one new face in their starting secondary when they face the Washington Commanders on Sunday. The 49ers have been bitten by the injury bug in recent weeks and will be without one of their starting safeties. They may also be without one of their cornerbacks.
On Friday, Greg Papa sat down with 49ers Head Coach Kyle Shanahan in this week's episode of "49ers Game Plan" on NBC Sports Bay Area. They discussed some of the injuries and who might play, particularly in the defensive backfield. Cornerback Ambry Thomas is listed as questionable with a hamstring injury. If he is unable to play, we could see Jason Verrett play in his place. Verrett played some snaps on Monday night when Thomas left the game. The 49ers had planned to work Verrett in any way.
Verrett, as you probably know, has dealt with multiple season-ending injuries in the past. Just the fact that he has been able to work his way back onto the field is a testament to his drive and work ethic. His story is quite inspiring, and the 49ers are happy to have him back on the team.
"Well, it's something that he had talked to me about over the summer, that he was trying to come back," Shanahan said. "A bunch of players would come to me like, 'Hey, JV is working. Are you guys going to ever look into him?' And, I mean, the injuries he's been through and stuff, you never want to act like it's going to happen, but you're never going to hold anybody back. And I was like, 'Yeah, JV, if you can get back, we'll give you a tryout.' And he worked his tail off. Everyone was telling us about it. We gave him a tryout.
"We had about six guys go out there and watch him that day, and he looked like the old JV. Unfortunately, we couldn't sign him to the practice squad at the time. We had six vets on our practice squad. You're only allowed to have six veterans. So I told him we didn't have a spot, but he looked good enough that when we did, we'd bring him in there. And then DeMeco [Ryans] got him down to Houston. They had a spot for him.
"He was there for about a month and then we had one of our spots open when Chris Conley came up to our roster. So then we only had five vets, so we could bring him back. He was so tight with a bunch of guys on the team, he kind of wanted to finish here, kind of where it ended, him with injuries, and talking to DeMeco and all those guys, how good he looked in practice up there for a month, got down here.
"He's had two great weeks with us and was just amazing, really, that he can look the way he does with what he's been through. It's tough when you haven't been on that field for a while. We got him up there as our fifth corner, got him in there a few plays, I want to say about five plays, but I think that's an accomplishment in itself. And he had a good week of practice this week.
"We'll see how the roster plays out for Sunday, but he's a guy who can help us and you need it this time of year. I mean, you see how many vets that weren't on our team at the beginning of this year now have big impacts now. And you go back to, I watched our Super Bowl a couple of months ago, and there's guys rushing the quarterback in there that weren't on our team until the first playoff game that no one remembers. There's a lot of guys you count on as the season goes farther and we hope it's a real long season and these are the guys that can make a difference."
Papa and Shanahan also discussed another spot in the secondary that will have a new face, and that's the safety position. Rookie safety Ji'Ayir Brown will miss some time with a sprained knee. Although the 49ers have been working Isaiah Oliver at safety, newcomer Logan Ryan is the more likely one to be inserted into the started lineup in Brown's absence.
Ryan is a smart player with a lot of postseason experience from his time with the New England Patriots. He has won a couple of Super Bowls, one of which came at Shanahan's expense when the coach was in Atlanta. So what he may lack in physical talent, Ryan makes up for in experience and intelligence. He may not jump off the screen like Brown or Talanoa Hufanga, but he likely won't make the kind of mistakes those young safeties will make either.
"I'm just real glad we have him right now," Shanahan said. "Logan is a guy, I didn't know him, but I played against him a ton and always had a lot of respect playing against him.
Thought he was a real good player. Always seemed like one of the smarter players on the field. And when Huff went down, we knew we had a guy in Ji'Ayir who was ready to go, but you could see how thin things got, especially with George Odom being out.
"So you lose two safeties and that means you only have two left on the roster. So we had to bring up some practice squad guys and things like that. We had to move Isaiah to safety just to fill out numbers. And you always want the younger guys for special teams and stuff, just where they're at and the guys you're trying to develop. But you're always one injury away from a guy who's not ready, being out there in some real impactful games and playing a starting position, and you can do that with some rookies and stuff, but it gets harder and harder and you always are hoping there's a guy out there with experience that could do it. Logan was that guy we targeted right away."
Ryan was on a cruise with his family when the 49ers reached out to him. As soon as he was able, he made his way to Santa Clara to join the team. Shanahan continued, "But I talked to a lot of people who played with him. Everyone spoke so highly of him and he got here. He was excited for it. He's helped out on the special teams, he's owned his role. And then Ji'Ayir got hurt and so there's a good chance he's going to be up this week and taking that role, and he's ready for it, and I'm real glad to have him."
The 49ers still aren't entirely sure which Washington quarterback they will be facing on Sunday, but the defense, and its new-look secondary, will be ready.