49ers' Kyle Shanahan gives target date for Malik Mustapha's return
The San Francisco 49ers are reeling after a 26-21 Week 4 loss vs. the Jacksonville Jaguars that saw their offense turn the ball over four times. Despite the poor performance, head coach Kyle Shanahan shared some good news with the media on Monday morning.
Shanahan revealed that the 49ers are hoping safety Malik Mustapha will start practicing after Week 6, according to Nick Wagoner of ESPN.
The second-year pro has yet to suit up in 2025 and missed the entire offseason program after injuring his ACL during the 2024 season-finale against the Arizona Cardinals. While initial reports indicated Mustapha suffered a torn ACL, Wagoner clarified that was not the case. However, the Wake Forest product still needed surgery to repair the injury.
The 49ers placed Mustapha on the Reserve/PUP list in August, effectively sidelining him for the first four weeks of the season.
Mustapha had a stellar rookie campaign, recording 72 tackles, five passes defended, and one interception in 16 games while finishing 14th for the AP Defensive Rookie of the Year award. The 49ers are hoping his return can further insulate the team’s defense after losing All-Pro edge rusher Nick Bosa to a season-ending knee injury earlier in September.
In Mustapha’s absence, the 49ers have relied on rookie fifth-round pick Marques Sigle and veteran Jason Pinnock to roam the backend of their defense to mixed results. Sigle (46.1) and Pinnock (56.1) are two of the 49ers' lowest-graded coverage players through four games, per Pro Football Focus. They have also rotated in three safety sets featuring 2023 third-round pick Ji’Ayir Brown amid a 3-1 start to the season.
The 49ers will have a 21-day window to activate Mustapha upon his return to practice or risk losing him for the remainder of the year.
Seahawks Earn Praise for Defying NFL Quarterback Trends
The common consensus in the NFL is to find a winning quarterback, pay him and keep on paying, unless you’re the Seattle Seahawks, who are earning praise for ignoring trends and beating the market at football’s most important position.
Plaudits aren’t in short supply for how general manager John Schneider has made two successful transitions from a successful signal-caller. First, he ditched Russell Wilson at the right time and bet on Geno Smith’s Pro-Bowl potential, before moving on from Smith and betting Sam Darnold’s breakout 2024 campaign was no fluke.
There’s no luck about how the Seahawks keep getting things right at quarterback. Not according to one unnamed league executive who instead credits the Seahawks for ignoring how “Most of the league makes fear-based decisions. They think, ‘I have to draft a high-round quarterback or I have to have a placeholder, and the placeholder I know is better than the one I don’t,” per Mike Sando of The Athletic.
Although it’s early, Darnold already looks like a worthy reward for Schneider’s fearless approach.
Sam Darnold Rewarding Seahawks’ Unorthodox QB Plan
Sando noted how “the first four weeks of this season suggest the Seahawks might have picked the right time to trade Smith and sign Sam Darnold.” It’s a bold statement after Smith played the best football of his career in Seattle once Schneider traded Wilson to the Denver Broncos in 2022.
That was a bold deal, given Wilson was a nine-time Pro Bowler and Super Bowl winner as a member of the Seahawks. Smith, meanwhile, had become a career backup after flattering to deceive for the New York Jets.
Yet, while Wilson’s career collapsed in Denver, Smith threw for 4,282 yards and 30 touchdowns in his first year as the starter. Another 4,000-yard season followed two years later, but Schneider still traded 35-year-old Smith to the Las Vegas Raiders before acquiring Darnold.
The latter move looks good thanks to Darnold pacing QBs “on 10+ yard throws this season,” according to Pro Football Focus.
Darnold’s playing decisive football in the clutch, in contrast to Smith, who’s tossed seven interceptions through four games with the Silver and Black. As for Wilson, he couldn’t revive his fortunes with the Pittsburgh Steelers last season, and a move to the New York Giants has already unravelled after the veteran was benched for rookie Jaxson Dart.
Wilson now looks like a viable trade candidate, but the Seahawks still somehow benefitted. The bonus came from Schneider bringing Drew Lock back to Lumen Field after he was released by the Giants.
As Sando put it, “These were high-stakes moves driven by general manager John Schneider in an era when many teams paid upper-tier money for mid-tier quarterbacks, for fear of the unknown.”
The alternative would have been to stick with Wilson through his late-career decline. Or continue paying an ageing Smith. Another executive summed up those alternatives best to Sando: “The contrast is, you are seeing other teams double down on guys like Tua (Tagovailoa) and Trevor Lawrence.”
The Seahawks are winning because of their different way of thinking about the quarterback position. While Schneider is getting more props for clever use of the market, the fact is the Seahawks have a lengthy history of going against the grain at QB.
Seahawks Have Thrived With Different QB Decisions
It wasn’t so long ago Mike Holmgren traded for Matt Hasselbeck and trusted Brett Favre’s backup to become a Pro Bowler and lead the Seahawks to their first Super Bowl, per NFL Legacy.
Before that, undrafted free agent Dave Krieg, from Milton College, made the Seahawks a contender in the 1980s. Krieg’s career earned him a place among the Seahawks’ top 50 players.
Even the decision to use a third-round pick in the 2012 NFL draft to select Wilson defied league-wide convention. Wilson was considered undersized, but he proved a preternatural deep thrower with a knack for making big plays off platform during his peak years.
Schneider was a key figure behind that decision, and he’s continuing to ignore the prevailing strategies and still find success. As another anonymous exec told Sando, “The thing about Seattle is, they have survived the rebuild multiple times. There is something to that. Because they won games in the midst of all that, they don’t fear the same things that other guys fear.”
At 3-1 and with Darnold playing at a high level, the Seahawks look well-placed to maintain their run with unheralded QBs.
