49ers Combat Expansive Injury Report With Practice Squad Elevations

Getty Tashaun Gipson celebrating with a teammate.

As the San Francisco 49ers prepare for their first game of the 2022 NFL season with a Week 1 contest against the Chicago Bears, John Lynch, Kyle Shanahan and company have a very real question on their hands: how will they combat the expansive collection of players on their injury report?

With Daniel Brunskill already labeled out on the team’s official website, George Kittle listed as questionable, and the statuses of Drew Greenlaw, Arik Armstead, Oren Burks, Jimmy Garoppolo, and Mike McGlinchey all listed as unspecified, there’s a chance the Niners could have five of these players back or only three, and that could be a big difference depending on which players are available and which aren’t.

Fortunately, teams are allowed to call up two players from the practice squad to supplement their game-day roster and provide some extra utility in each week of the season. The 49ers have taken advantage of this opportunity by elevating wide receiver Malik Turner and safety Tashaun Gipson to further fill out the depth chart versus the Bears.

Turner and Gipson Bring Experience To The 49ers Game Day Roster

While neither Turner nor Gipson has ever played a snap for the 49ers in a regular season game, the duo are very well experienced at the NFL level.

A standout performer at the University of Illinois, Turner has appeared in 41 games with three starts over his four year NFL career split between the Seattle Seahawks and the Dallas Cowboys. Though he’s never amassed more than 245 yards or 22 catches in a season, which came all the way back in 2019, the undrafted free agent wide receiver is a big, long target who stands 6-foot-2, 210 pounds and could theoretically afford Trey Lance a big target to throw to on the outside.

Gipson, too, began his career as an undrafted free agent, in his case out of Wyoming, but his career has been far more noteworthy, as he snatched a full-time starting role with the Cleveland browns in only his second professional season and rapidly established himself as one of the best ball-hawking safeties in the NFL. Since his rookie season in 2012, Gipson has picked off 27 passes for 591 yards and three defensive touchdowns, and has been named to the Pro Bowl once, back in 2014. After spending the past two years in Chicago, Gipson provides experience both on the field and at Soldier Field specifically, and could serve as a subpackage performer in place of Jimmie Ward.

The San Francisco 49ers Will Improve Depth From Chicago Too

With wide receiver Velus Jones and defensive end Dominique Robinson listed as doubtful and questionable for their Week 1 game against the 49ers, the Bears have decided to elevate a pair of practice squad players of their own to the active roster in Yale guard Dieter Eiselen and Colorado State-Pueblo defensive tackle Mike Pennel.

A third-year pro from Stellenbosch, South Africa, Eiselen has appeared in three games with the Bears since he initially landed with the team in 2020 and is expected to add interior depth since Doug Kramer and Dakota Dozier are on injured reserve. He’s only played six snaps as a pro, all of which came on special teams, but his presence on the active roster could prove valuable if Chicago suffers a few injuries in front of Justin Fields.

Pennel, a ninth-year professional defensive tackle who began his career in Green Bay, initially made the Bears roster but was curiously released despite lacking a corresponding move on September 9th. Still, because he was a vested veteran, he didn’t have to pass through waivers and was ultimately signed to the practice squad on the very next day. Pennel is now expected to fill the role of fourth defensive tackle for the Bears and will likely rotate in on run-specific snaps according to Sports Mockery.