49ers Designate Dee Ford For Return
Dee Ford has been designated for return, per an announcement from the 49ers. This will open a 21-day practice window for the defensive end — he’ll either be moved to the active roster in the next three weeks or lose his eligibility to play in 2021. 
[RELATED: Kyle Shanahan Says Garoppolo Could Start In 2022]
Ford hasn’t played since Oct. 24, a 30-18 loss to the Colts. It’s all tied to ongoing back trouble, the same issue that wiped out all but one of his games in 2020.
The eighth-year defender has struggled with injuries throughout his career. And, in addition to his bad back, Ford has also dealt with neck trouble and concussion-like symptoms this season.
“[My back issues have] never fully gone away. That’s something he’ll deal with most likely forever,” Kyle Shanahan said earlier this month. “So, something that’s on again, off again.”
The 49ers traded for Ford during the 2019 offseason and saw him play a key role in their Super Bowl LIV run as a part-timer. Unfortunately, he’s been limited to just 18 regular season games in SF over the last two seasons and change.
So far this year, Ford has three sacks and four quarterback hits to his credit.
49ers: Jimmy Garoppolo Could Start In 2022
There’s at least a “chance” that Jimmy Garoppolo could wind up as the 49ers’ starting quarterback next year. At least, that’s what head coach Kyle Shanahan told Niners beat writers on Wednesday afternoon (via Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle). 
“I think there’s a chance for anything, but I think we made it pretty clear that Trey [Lance] is our guy of the future, whenever that’ll happen,” Shanahan said. “But it was also nothing against Jimmy that we [drafted] him. But we do believe Trey will be our guy of the future. And like I said, I think it’ll be really hard if Jimmy’s [playing well] for [Lance] to beat [him] out right away. So it is kind of going like that right now and I’m not thinking much past that.”
The Niners sacrificed two future first-round draft picks to move up nine spots and select Lance. After that, many expected GM John Lynch to send Garoppolo elsewhere and recoup some of that ammo. Instead, they kept the veteran and installed him as the Week 1 starter. Lance, meanwhile, has started just once, filling in while Garoppolo nursed a calf strain. The rookie looked awful green against the Cardinals, allowing Jimmy GQ to immediately reclaim his job.
Garoppolo may be the better option for 2021, but it’s still hard to imagine him staying on board next year. Keeping the veteran for 2022 would saddle the 49ers with a ~$27MM cap charge. Meanwhile, trading or cutting him would only leave them with $1.4MM in dead money. Lance — this year’s No. 3 overall pick — will carry a much lower $7.75MM cap figure.
Dolphins Sign Will Parks Off 49ers’ P-Squad
The Dolphins added a veteran safety Wednesday, signing sixth-year man Will Parks off of the 49ers’ practice squad. This will be Parks’ fifth team since the start of the 2020 season.
A four-year Broncos contributor, Parks spent the offseason with the Chiefs before being released in August and signing on with the 49ers’ practice squad in early November. He did not play in a game with San Francisco and has not seen game action since last season.
The former sixth-round pick out of Arizona has seen considerable playing time as a pro, starting 10 games for the Broncos and playing in all but two in his first four years. After signing a one-year deal with the Eagles as a free agent, the Philadelphia native ended up being waived due to injuries. He did, however, land back in Denver via waiver claim. Parks played in four more games with the Broncos last season but was again not retained in free agency.
Parks will add a veteran presence alongside Eric Rowe in a safety room that includes young players in Sheldrick Redwine, Brandon Jones, and Jevon Holland. Because the Dolphins plucked Parks off another team’s practice squad, he must remain on their active roster for at least three weeks.
Parks, 27, will reunite with ex-Broncos teammate Phillip Lindsay in Miami, with the Dolphins having claimed the running back off waivers from the Texans on Wednesday.
NFL Practice Squad Updates: 11/24/21
Here are Wednesday’s practice squad moves:
Denver Broncos
- Signed: OL Zack Johnson
Green Bay Packers
- Signed: OL Jon Dietzen
Houston Texans
- Signed: LB Connor Stachan
Miami Dolphins
- Signed: LB Wynton McManis
New York Jets
- Signed: QB James Morgan
- Released: CB Natrell Jamerson
- Activated from practice squad IR: LB LaRoy Reynolds
Philadelphia Eagles
- Signed: LB Christian Elliss
San Francisco 49ers
- Signed: CB Luq Barcoo
- Released: WR Austin Watkins Jr.
Seattle Seahawks
- Signed: RB B.J. Emmons
- Released: WR Cade Johnson
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Signed: WR John Hurst
Washington Football Team
- Signed: G Deion Calhoun, C Tyler Gauthier
49ers Sign Devin Funchess To P-Squad
The 49ers have agreed to sign wide receiver Devin Funchess to a practice squad deal (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero). Funchess, once a rising star with the Panthers, has yet to see the field in 2021.
The Packers released Funchess in August with an injury settlement. Between that and his 2020 opt-out, Funchess’ Packers run came and went without having ever played a down for Green Bay. His last action came in 2019 with the Colts, a stint that was really more like a cup of coffee. That season ended midway through Week 1, thanks to a broken collarbone. On the plus side, Funchess secured $10MM in salary that year, plus some additional bucks from his terminated Packers contract.
The Panthers selected Funchess in the second round of the 2015 draft and watched him enjoy the best year of his career in 2017, compiling 63 receptions for 840 yards and eight touchdowns. Even though it took him 111 targets to get those 63 grabs, it was a glimpse of his future potential.
No one knows what Funchess has to offer at this point, but the Niners are eager to find out. There won’t be a whole lot of targets to go around behind Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk, and tight end George Kittle, but with Mohamed Sanu on injured reserve, Funchess could see some snaps ahead of Jauan Jennings, Trent Sherfield, and/or Travis Benjamin.
49ers S Jaquiski Tartt To Return From IR
Accustomed to lengthier IR stints, Jaquiski Tartt made a quick return from his latest injury bout. The veteran safety is back on the 49ers’ active roster, missing the minimum three games.
San Francisco activated the first-string DB on Saturday, doing so after Tartt returned to practice earlier this week. However, the 49ers did not make the same move with Dre Greenlaw. The starting linebacker remains on IR, though he also returned to practice this week. The 49ers also promoted cornerback Davontae Harris from their practice squad.
Tartt suffered a knee contusion in Week 6. The seventh-year vet has battled more troublesome injuries — including a broken arm in 2017 and a turf toe issue last year, one that sidelined him into training camp — and has missed 31 games since the arm injury began this run of setbacks. He has missed at least three games in five straight seasons.
Nevertheless, the 49ers have continued to turn to Tartt as a starter. They did so for the first six games this season. Pro Football Focus slots Tartt 47th among safeties this season, a middle-of-the-pack position for a player who has made 56 career starts. Tartt has 32 tackles (three for loss) this year.
Extra Points: Cousins, 49ers, USFL, Europe
While Kirk Cousins has been the Vikings’ starter for four years now, his status came up constantly ahead of his 2018 free agency bid. Kyle Shanahan confirmed the 49ers would have been in play for Cousins in 2018 — for what would have been a reunion between he and the QB he coached while Washington’s OC — but San Francisco’s Jimmy Garoppolo extension preempted such a pursuit. Washington’s head coach at the time, however, believes the 49ers would have coughed up a considerable trade package for Cousins prior to October 2017’s Garoppolo trade. Jay Gruden said Washington could have obtained two first-rounders and perhaps two seconds for Cousins ahead of the 2017 deadline, and the then-WFT HC said — during an appearance on the Kevin Sheehan Show, via the Washington Post’s Jake Russell (Twitter links) — Daniel Snyder and Bruce Allen effectively killed such talks due to not wanting to reunite Shanahan and Cousins.
The 49ers gave up only a second-round pick for Garoppolo, though Cousins was a far more established starter at the time. The 49ers were mentioned in trade rumors regarding Cousins ahead of the 2017 draft, prior to his second Washington franchise tag, but Shanahan has only confirmed the team was planning to go after him in free agency. Gruden suggested Washington still had hopes of re-signing Cousins then; the team walled off this path after trading for Alex Smith in January 2018. Washington has long since moved on, firing Gruden during the 2019 season and Allen at its conclusion, though a notable void still exists for the franchise at QB.
Here is more from around pro football:
- The XFL is not planning to launch its latest reboot until 2023, but another spring football attempt is in the works. Fox Sports is aiming another effort at establishing the United States Football League and has slated the effort for April, Ben Fischer of the Sports Business Journal reports. The USFL represents the best effort yet of a spring league in America; its ill-fated plan to move to the fall in 1986 led to its demise after three seasons. Fox employees Daryl Johnston and Mike Pereira, along with The Spring League co-founder Brian Woods, are set to be involved with this latest spring effort. Games would be televised primarily on FS1. Details are scarce at this point, but the recent Alliance of American Football and XFL 2.0 forays illustrate the uphill battle spring football presents.
- The NFL’s push to play a game in Germany is expected to come to fruition by Super Bowl weekend, with Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports noting plans for the league’s future in Germany will become clear by February. The league is set to begin playing games in Germany annually either next season or in 2023, depending on COVID-19 restrictions, JLC adds. This would up the total of international games to at least four — two in London, one in Mexico City and one in a to-be-determined German city. With the NFL having sent more than two games to London in several previous seasons, it is possible the number of international games will surpass four.
- Additional COVID testing is on tap for the post-Thanksgiving week. The league will require masks for all players, regardless of vaccination status, from Nov. 25-Dec. 1 at team facilities, Tom Pelissero of NFL.com tweets. All players and staffers will be tested twice the week following Thanksgiving.
NFL Practice Squad Updates: 11/18/21
Here are Thursday’s practice squad moves, with the list being updated throughout the day:
Detroit Lions
- Released: WR Travis Jonsen, CB Parnell Motley
Las Vegas Raiders
- Signed: WR Tyron Johnson
- Released: WR Marcell Ateman
Miami Dolphins
- Signed: S Sheldrick Redwine
San Francisco 49ers
- Signed: DE Chris Slayton
- Placed on injured list: DT Darrion Daniels
Minor NFL Transactions: 11/17/21
Today’s minor moves:
Carolina Panthers
- Designated for return: DE Darryl Johnson, OL John Miller
Jacksonville Jaguars
- Designated for return: OL Brandon Linder, TE James O’Shaughnessy
Las Vegas Raiders
- Promoted: LB Patrick Onwuasor
- Placed on IR: S Tyree Gillespie
Los Angeles Chargers
- Signed to active roster: DE Breiden Fehoko
- Placed on reserve/COVID-19 list: DE Christian Covington
Miami Dolphins
- Signed to active roster: CB Jamal Perry
New England Patriots
- Waived from IR: WR Malcolm Perry
New Orleans Saints
- Signed: DT Christian Ringo
- Designated for return: RB Tony Jones Jr.
New York Giants
- Signed to active roster: LB Benardrick McKinney
- Designated for return: OT Andrew Thomas
New York Jets
- Activated off PUP: DE Kyle Phillips
San Francisco 49ers
- Designated for return: LB Dre Greenlaw, SS Jaquiski Tartt
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Designated for return: LS Zach Triner
Tennessee Titans
- Signed to active roster: DL Kyle Peko
- Designated for return: TE Tommy Hudson
Washington Football Team
- Designated for return: CB Darryl Roberts
49ers RB Elijah Mitchell Suffered Finger Fracture
Elijah Mitchell went under the knife today, but there’s still hope that he’ll play this weekend. Kyle Shanahan told reporters that the 49ers running back underwent surgery today on a finger fracture, per Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle (via Twitter).
The team is hoping Mitchell will be able to return to practice as soon as tomorrow, and the 49ers have similar hopes that he’ll be on the field Sunday against the Jaguars. We’ll presumably get more information on his status for Week 11 in a few days.
The sixth-round rookie has been incredibly productive this season, leading his squad with 560 rushing yards and three touchdowns on 116 carries. Mitchell missed a pair of games earlier this season thanks to a shoulder injury, but he’s otherwise started the last five games for San Francisco.
If Mitchell is forced to miss another game, the team could turn to Jeff Wilson, who recently made his season debut after recovering from an ankle injury. Rookie Trey Sermon could also be an option, but the third-round pick hasn’t seen the field in weeks.