Kyle Shanahan Provides Update On 49ers’ Starting Defensive End

Getty Samson Ebukam with the San Francisco 49ers pre-game.

The San Francisco 49ers have one of the deepest defensive lines in the NFL, but that depth well be tested in Week 6, when, according to head coach Kyle Shanahan, the team will be without starting defensive tackles Javon Kinlaw and Arik Armstead and may also miss Nick Bosa, who is recovering from a Week 5 groin pull. Fortunately, one player who was featured on the Wednesday injury report who did return to practice on Thursday was none other than Samson Ebukam, the team’s other starting defensive end.

Speaking with KNBR’s Tolbert & Copes show on Thursday, Shanahan provided an update on Samson, who missed Wednesday’s practice with a tweaked Achilles, as transcribed by 49ers Webzone.

“Samson’s good to go,” Shanahan revealed. “He ended up [practicing] today.”

After averaging 36.4 snaps per game over the first five weeks of the season, good for 55.4 percent of the team’s total defensive snaps, Samson appears destined for another heavy-duty outing for the Niners in Atlanta.

The San Francisco 49ers Will Miss Arik Armstead And Javon Kinlaw

Elsewhere in his interview with KNBR, Shanahan went into further detail about Armstead and Kinlaw’s statuses heading into Week 6.

“We’re not going to have Kinlaw or Armstead,” Shanahan told Tolbert and Copes. “And I’m still really hoping to get Bosa for Sunday. He usually ends up being good, but he wasn’t able to [practice] today. Hopefully, he’ll be good by tomorrow. Regardless, I just hope he’s good by Sunday.”

Now, Armstead’s absence makes sense; though he did play in Week 5 despite being a fixture of the previous injury report, Armstead didn’t travel with the team to West Virginia for their practices and was fully expected to miss the game as a result, but after watching Kinlaw come close to playing against the Carolina Panthers, with Ryans shutting him down during opening practices, his absence in Week 6 will be noteworthy, especially with a less-than-ideal duo of Elijah Wilkinson and Drew Dalman, playing left guard and center for the Falcons. With the duo gone, the Niners will likely turn to Kevin Givens, who has played well as a reserve in 2020, and 2022 free agent addition Hassan Ridgeway as their temporary tackle tandem.

Matt Barrows Believes Omenihu Will Start Opposite Ebukam

In his 49ers mailbag column for The Atlantic, Matt Barrows was asked who he believes will start in place of Bosa for the Niners in Week 6, and he gave a very interesting opinion.

“I think it will be (Charles) Omenihu, who got 46 snaps to Jackson’s 31 on Sunday and who usually gets into games sooner than (Drake) Jackson,” Barrows wrote. “All of the edge rushers’ workloads would increase, of course, if Bosa missed time, and Kerry Hyder would be in the mix as well.”

While the decision to go with Omrnihu over Jackson may be the tiniest bit controversial in the eyes if some fans, as the latter was San Francisco’s first selection in the 2022 NFL Draft, Barrows’ presumption makes quite a bit of sense; Omrnihu has been San Francisco’s first rusher off the bench this season, whereas Jackson has been used as more of a situational pass rusher.