49ers Camp — Aug 31: Mykel Williams Out at Least Four Games

The 49ers placed Mykel Williams on the reserve/physically-unable-to-perform list at Sunday's cutdown, per David Lombardi at the SF Standard, which turns the "long shot" Kyle Shanahan called him for Week 1 into a ruling: the second-year edge rusher is ineligible for at least the first four games. That lands on a defense whose other cornerstone edge, Nick Bosa, has not taken a practice rep since August 3 while managing tendonitis in his surgically repaired knee — so the two players this pass rush was built around enter game week as a formal absence and an open question. San Francisco opens against the Rams in Melbourne on September 10.

The rest of Sunday's ledger was a wave of veterans: linebacker Deion Jones — the trade acquisition from New Orleans a week earlier, released per Adam Schefter of ESPN — alongside cornerback Eli Apple, safety Ashtyn Davis, running back Khalil Herbert and edge rusher Ogbo Okoronkwo among the released, with Sincere McCormick in the waived column, per David Bonilla's roster tracker at 49ers Webzone, aggregating reports from Matt Maiocco, Schefter, Ian Rapoport and others. The quarterback room had settled a day early: fourth quarterback Adrian Martinez was waived Saturday, per Rapoport, leaving Brock Purdy, Mac Jones and Kurtis Rourke — and Rourke made the roster with the broken ribs he suffered this preseason, after Kyle Shanahan said his practice return was close, per Bonilla.

Now the battle our last episode left hanging. A week ago the left guard picture had thinned instead of resolving — Carver Willis in the concussion protocol, Robert Jones out, Austen Pleasants hurt — and we told you Connor Colby was the last healthy body. That read died in four days. Willis cleared the protocol in time to play the entire first half of Thursday's finale at left guard with the first group, and Maiocco's assessment at NBC Sports Bay Area was direct: the rookie fourth-round pick played well in pass protection and run blocking and looks like the regular-season starter. Colby made the team as interior depth, Jones and Pleasants didn't make it to the decision — Jones waived, per Rapoport, and Pleasants to injured reserve with a return designation, per Maiocco — and the front office bought insurance anyway, trading a 2027 seventh-round pick to Houston for interior lineman Jarrett Patterson, a deal Tom Pelissero reported first with Schefter adding the compensation, per Bonilla. The urgency behind all of it got a name on Sunday: Aaron Donald ended his two-year retirement and rejoined the Rams, per Rapoport and Schefter — the Week 1 opponent, twice a year, starting with a rookie left guard flying to Australia to meet him.

The other race the camp thread pointed at resolved just as cleanly. The backfield behind Christian McCaffrey went to the two youngest names in the race: rookie third-round pick Kaelon Black and second-year back Jordan James both made the 53 while McCormick and Herbert went out, per Lombardi, and Isaac Guerendo was placed on reserve/physically-unable-to-perform with the pectoral injury, per Jeremy Fowler of ESPN. Maiocco's finale verdict: the 49ers appear to be in better shape behind McCaffrey than at any point since they acquired him. McCaffrey himself was back before the cuts came — he returned to practice over a week ago and described the two-week absence as scheduled rest, "part of the plan from the jump," per Jennifer Lee Chan at NBC Sports Bay Area.

The finale itself, briefly: 49ers 18, Raiders 12 in Las Vegas on Thursday, a game with no San Francisco touchdowns in it. Eddy Pineiro scored all 18 points, six field goals on six tries with four of them from 48 yards and beyond and a long of 59, per Brooke Evans at the team's website. Linebacker Tatum Bethune had nine tackles and an interception, and Jordan Watkins led the receivers while handling both return jobs — performances that read differently now that Bethune and Watkins are both on the 53.

And George Kittle's week deserves its own entry, because it contained both real news and a false alarm. The real news: Schefter reported Sunday that Kittle has had no setbacks in his return from the January Achilles tear, is expected to practice this week, and still has a legitimate chance to play in Melbourne, per Will Simonds at NBC Sports Bay Area. The false alarm: Shanahan referred to "guys like Kittle, who's taken a step back" — meaning stepping back into the practice progression — and a corner of the internet heard a rehab regression, per Bonilla. Kittle's own response on social media: "The things I wake up to." Receiver Christian Kirk, meanwhile, went to injured reserve with a return designation, per Maiocco, and the specialists were cut on paper — punter Corliss Waitman and long snapper Jon Weeks, moves Lombardi reported as procedural, with the expectation they're re-signed once the roster mechanics clear. Nothing is signed until it is.

Back in July we previewed San Francisco as a 12-win team our data wouldn't vouch for — five-and-one in one-score games on a last-in-the-league pass rush — with the season hanging on Brock Purdy's nine-game sample and on what's behind the front line if Bosa's knee doesn't deliver. All August the offense kept stacking evidence while the pass rush's best argument was Osa Odighizuwa, because its edge rushers spent nearly the whole month off the practice field. Cut day made that split formal: the offense got its left guard, its backfield, and encouraging Kittle news, and the defense put one starting edge on a four-game shelf while the other's status stayed a hope. The July worry didn't just hold — it got a paper trail.

What to watch next: the waiver wire clears and the practice squads form behind it — where this week's cut names actually land is the next episode's job, and it's the part of cutdown almost nobody covers. Beyond that: whether Bosa takes a practice rep this week, and whether Kittle's expected return to practice reaches team drills before the flight to Melbourne. We'll check back once the claims and the practice squads are in.

_Data via nflverse._