Captain Fear
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- Mar 20, 2019
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Like 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, 49ers linebacker Kwon Alexander avoided the physically unable to perform list for his first post-ACL tear training camp. Coach Kyle Shanahan nevertheless plans to take it slow with the former Buccaneer to whom the team gave a large pile of money despite the knee injury.
“We’ll definitely ease him in,” Shanahan told reporters on Friday. “We don’t expect him to play early in those [preseason] games. I think he did it in October and had the surgery in November. . . . He’s looked great, he’s been here in the offseason working out and rehabbing, but anyone coming off an injury like that especially at his position and as late as it was, he’s a little later than [Jerick McKinnon] and Jimmy, we’ll definitely ease him in.”
Alexander isn’t the only one who’ll be eased in. The 49ers apparently will be adjusting their broader approach this year.
“We’re going to ease our whole team and we’re going to do reps a little bit differently this year and with some stuff we’ve gotten just talking to [head of player health and performance] Ben [Peterson] and [head athletic trainer] Dustin [Little] and looking at the science of some things over the last seven years,” Shanahan said. “We’re going to ease our whole team in, but Kwon and a few of those other guys we’ve mentioned, they’ll be eased in even more.”
Like Garoppolo, Alexander won’t play in the preseason opener. Shanahan emphasized that he hasn’t ruled out either of them for the entirety of the exhibition slate. Still, the overriding goal is to get and keep players healthy; the fact that the team wasn’t able to do that last year contributed to a failure to meet the very high expectations the 49ers had a year ago.