Veteran tackle Trent Williams ended his holdout earlier this week. Week 1 for the 49ers comes on Monday night. On Saturday, coach Kyle Shanahan provided an assessment of the 36-year-old’s progress.
“I thought he did good,” Shanahan told reporters regarding Williams’s work in practice. “It was nice to get the extra practice on Monday, that I think was Tuesday to the rest of the world. Then he’s had these three days, each day he’s gotten more comfortable. He was obviously in shape and stuff, but it was good just to get back into hearing the cadence, coming off the ball, moving with other guys. It got better for him each day.
Will he play the full game on Monday night against the Jets, like Williams normally would?
“We’ll see,” Shanahan said. “I’d like him to, but it’s — you’ve got to watch it. We’ve got to talk to him. It’s always, I haven’t done this too much with a tackle, those are a little — [offensive] linemen are different with rotating and stuff, like skill positions and everything. But it also seems weird to just watch Trent sitting on the sideline next to us. But that’s something we’ll be on top of throughout the game. He’ll be honest with us in how he feels. I know [run game coordinator/offensive line coach] Chris [Foerster] will be watching that a ton.”
It would have been a question is the 49ers and Williams had simply found a way to resolve their differences before the start of camp. As we saw with multiple players this year, the setting of the right mutual deadline is critical to ensuring the player is as ready as he can be.
