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49ers SS Malik Mustapha is Questionable for Sunday with a Calf Injury

The 49ers might have to start their fifth different safety of the season this Sunday.

Grant Cohn

Oct 10, 2024; Seattle, Washington, USA; San Francisco 49ers safety Malik Mustapha (6) celebrates after intercepting the ball against the Seattle Seahawks during the first half at Lumen Field. Mandatory Credit: Steven Bisig-Imagn Images
Oct 10, 2024; Seattle, Washington, USA; San Francisco 49ers safety Malik Mustapha (6) celebrates after intercepting the ball against the Seattle Seahawks during the first half at Lumen Field. Mandatory Credit: Steven Bisig-Imagn Images / Steven Bisig-Imagn Images
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The 49ers might have to start their fifth different safety of the season this Sunday.

That's because rookie safety Malike Mustapha is questionable with a calf injury. He missed Wednesday's practice and then was limited for Thursday and Friday. And when the 49ers say a player has a calf injury, he often has an Achilles injury, too. Just ask Christian McCaffrey.

Through eight games, the 49ers started four different safeties -- Ji'Ayir Brown, George Odum, Talanoa Hufanga and Mustapha. And Mustapha has been a bright spot in an excellent, young secondary. He seems to be one of the 49ers' best draft picks from this year and a future fixture in the starting lineup. He runs fast and hits hard.

If Mustapha can't play, the next man up probably will be veteran safety Tashaun Gipson. Gipson started 33 regular season games for the 49ers the past two seasons before signing with the Jaguars this offseason and getting suspended for performance-enhancing drug use. And then Jacksonville released him. So he's back just in time to fill in if necessary.

And who knows, Gipson might be an upgrade. Because he was a legitimate playmaker for the 49ers. He had six interceptions in two seasons. And he has 33 picks in his career.

And he makes his teammates better because he communicates well and makes sure everyone is on the same page. As opposed to rookies who often are quiet and focused on executing their own assignments.

We'll see which safety plays on Sunday.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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