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49ers practice: Don’t expect Joe Staley to play this week (and probably not next week)

For the second-straight day, Joe Staley was back at 49ers practice, though he was limited and appeared to struggle more than he did on Wednesday, when he came through practice discernibly without issue. His reps were few and he was clearly not at full capacity. Though, based on the initial timeline he was given and his age, 35, that should be expected.

As of Thursday, Staley is five weeks and four days into his recovery from a fractured left fibula. The timeline for that injury was six-to-eight weeks. Head coach Kyle Shanahan said there was an “outside chance” he’d play against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, but that seems far-fetched after watching Staley practice on Thursday. Sunday would put him at exactly six weeks out from the injury.

The problem with next week is that the 49ers play on Thursday against the Arizona Cardinals away (which, while a short trip, does involve a flight, which affects swelling) and Staley might be limited to one genuine practice. It would seem surprising to see Staley, with limited reps and not ready for this Sunday, be ushered back by next Thursday, though that’s the game which Shanahan has said he’s been targeting.

This will all come into clearer focus in the coming days, but don’t be surprised if Staley doesn’t play until Week 10, at home against the Seattle Seahawks. It would give him another two full weeks to get his strength and agility back, plus a half-bye week to accrue practice reps after the Cardinals game.

As for the rest of the 49ers, Deebo Samuel, D.J. Jones, George Kittle, Raheem Mostert and Dee Ford all practiced again on Thursday. Both Samuel (groin strain) and Jones (hamstring strain) were inactive last week, but Samuel looks to have made solid progress at least from last week, and it seems more likely than not at this point that he’d be active on Sunday. Ahkello Witherspoon was doing stretches in between practice fields.

Expect the 49ers to cut wide receiver Jordan Matthews by Saturday, or after practice on Friday, barring an injury from someone in practice. The team has a one-week exemption for long snapper Kyle Nelson, and can effectively have 54 players on the active roster until the conclusion of this week. The acquisition of Emmanuel Sanders on Monday likely means Matthews will be cut, but with that exemption, the team can keep him for the week as a safety net against a potential injury in the wide receiving corps.

Sanders, by the way, had plenty of face time with 49ers coaches on Thursday. During the opening portion of practice, when most players were involved in position group warmup drills, Sanders was seen talking with passing game coordinator Mike LaFleur and run game coordinator Mike McDaniel for one-on-one for minutes at a time, as well as other coaches.

Kyle Nelson thanks Niners for patience, explains suspension for PEDs

On December 4 of last year, 49ers long snapper Kyle Nelson was suspended 10 games without pay for violating the NFL’s policy on performance-enhancing substances. His initial statement, which accepted the suspension, but said that he “would never knowingly take a banned substance,” hasn’t changed. Nelson said Thursday the substance he tested positive for was ostarine, in the amount of 0.5 or 0.4 nanograms.

Nelson said he doesn’t know if he would have been retained by another team, thanking the 49ers for their trust in him. While he’s been given his starting job back as the fourth long snapper of the season, he said that roulette isn’t something the special teams unit ever wants to have happen.

“The Niners organization has been amazing through this whole process, and it’s been been rough and they’ve had my back since day one,” Nelson said. “It’s been awesome. I don’t know if this would have been like this anywhere else.”

Nelson said he was unaware of what ostarine was until he tested positive for it. He said he now only takes products which are NSF certified, meaning they are approved by the National Sanitation Foundation.

“Unless I can physically hold on to it or see the container I will not take it,” Nelson said. “And the biggest thing I can tell anybody and anybody else is that we are liable for what we put into our bodies. I one hundred percent agree with that. And if you don’t know what you’re putting into your body or you don’t physically get to have it or see it then don’t take it.”

According to the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), ostarine is categorized as an anabolic agent which is not approved for human use in the United States and serves the main purpose of avoiding muscle wastage:

Ostarine is the trademarked name for a Selective Androgen Receptor Modulator (SARM) that is not approved for human use or consumption in the U.S., or in any other country. In recent years, the World Anti-Doping Agency has reported an increasing number of positive tests involving SARMs, and athletes who use these substances most likely obtain them through black market channels.

The USADA has found that an increasing number of supplements have illegally included ostarine. There is no publicly available evidence to determine whether Nelson took one of these supplements:

The unfortunate reality is that some dietary supplement manufacturers illegally put ostarine and other SARMs in their products, and some omit ostarine from the label entirely or use misleading names to confuse consumers.

Nelson said he was in two minds about watching the 49ers in that he was able to watch the team go undefeated, but wasn’t able to be a part of those wins. He was around the team for the entire preseason, and was able to play in preseason games, something which he credited as crucial in developing chemistry with holder Mitch Wishnowsky and kicker Robbie Gould.

When the season began and he had to remove himself from the team, Nelson said he went to Phoenix, Arizona to work with the University of Arizona’s long snapper Nick Reinhart, and treated Sunday’s as game days like he normally would.

“Me and [Reinhart] snapped in Phoenix three, four days a week,” Nelson said. “On Sundays, I would snap to a net and just did scenarios in my head and just kind of kept it for like a game day, use Sundays like a game day and then come back in and watch the game.”