49ers Insider Matt Maiocco on George Kittle’s Achilles Injury Return Timeline

Kyle Shanahan sat down with seven beat reporters this week for a reason that has almost no precedent in the NFL. He wanted to take the blame back.

Matt Maiocco, the NBC Sports Bay Area 49ers insider, was in that office on Tuesday and explained why the meeting happened at all. A public database had posted information Monday night suggesting the other driver in Shanahan's accident was at fault. The official police report from Palo Alto said otherwise. Somewhere in the data transfer, the fault landed in the wrong column.

"Who in the NFL says that there were errors made in reporting and I want to clear it up," Maiocco said. "I was the one at fault. And that's exactly what he did."

Shanahan told the reporters his phone was on his lap, not in his hand. It slipped between the seats, he reached for it, and he was distracted for two seconds. Two seconds was enough to put him over the double yellow line. He said he has no qualms about taking responsibility, and he was insistent that the other driver, a woman in her early twenties, was not to blame.

The football part is murkier. Maiocco says the body is healing and the plastic surgeon "did one heck of a job," but the brain injury is its own animal. Shanahan stood 35 minutes deep in the defensive secondary on day one of camp, more on day two, and the full 11-on-11 period on the third day. The cranked-up practice music is the thing giving him the most trouble right now.

"It's not just this steady progression from here to up there," Maiocco said. "It's kind of going about it like concussions tend to do."

Which brings up the flight. The 49ers leave the Bay Area on September 2nd for Melbourne, a 16 to 18 hour trip, to open against the Rams. John Lynch said at Saturday's press conference that the team expected Shanahan cleared well in advance. Maiocco is less certain.

"I think that there is the possibility that he won't be all the way back," he said. Sideline or booth is an open question. So is how much of the job he can carry.

In the meantime, assistant head coach Chris Foerster is the front man, and Shanahan's instruction to him was simple: do what you want to do and delegate what you don't. Foerster handed the offensive room to Klay Kubiak and the defensive room to Raheem Morris. Maiocco expects Kubiak calling offensive plays and Morris calling defensive plays through the preseason, with Foerster overseeing. Those three preseason games, he said, suddenly matter a great deal, because the chain of command needs a live test.

The receiver room is the other alarm. Ricky Pearsall's PCL was supposed to heal on its own, which is why San Francisco went the rest-and-regular-offseason-program route instead of operating. Two practices in, the knee swelled. Surgery is now on the table, and a PCL reconstruction ends his season.

"Right now, man, it's not looking good for Ricky Pearsall all season," Maiocco said.

That turns the top pick of the second round from a luxury into a necessity. Maiocco says the rookie has had a really good camp and the 49ers need him in a big way, with Mike Evans, Demarcus Robinson, a calf-strained Christian Kirk, Jacob Cowing and Jordan Watkins filling out the room. The faithful want Deebo Samuel back. Maiocco does not think it happens immediately, but he expects somebody gets brought in.

George Kittle is on PUP and making what Maiocco called a good run at week one. Nick Bosa is already cleared off PUP and on a clean path. Fred Warner and Dre Greenlaw are back and the intensity in practice has jumped.

"The sky is the limit" inside the building, Maiocco said. With that roster, the alternative is not an option. "You don't have all those guys thinking, ah, let's just have a good year. No, you're going to win it all."