After Monday night’s season-opening win, 49ers running back Jordan Mason told ESPN’s Lisa Salters that he knew he’d be starting on Friday.
During his post-game press conference, coach Kyle Shanahan denied it.
“I never told Jordan he was gonna start,” Shanahan told reporters. “Told him he had to be ready a bunch. But it might have been [running backs coach] Bobby [Turner] or somebody trying to pump him up. But I knew he was gonna have to play a lot. Told him that it wasn’t gonna be like usual.”
Shanahan also explained the decision to not dress McCaffrey, due to the calf and Achilles injury.
“Just same stuff that was bothering him all week,” Shanahan said. “There was a little too much today. Game-time decision. He came in, just talking to him about it. It was still there. Thought it was gonna be smart to keep him out. And glad we did.”
No one would expect the 49ers to admit they knew McCaffrey wasn’t going to play as of Friday. Again, it’s one of the flaws of the injury-reporting system. There’s plenty of ways for teams to engage in gamesmanship, given the broad-brush, bare-bones realities of the injury reports.
Regardless, Mason said what he said. And whatever he was told ended up being accurate. Far more accurate perhaps than the team’s injury report that listed McCaffrey as questionable.