Jason Verrett is healthy for the first time in awhile, and the 49ers expect him to suit up for them Sunday in Cincinnati.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan said Verrett is healthy and good to go.
It’s tough to see him stepping into a large role on defense given the play of cornerbacks Richard Sherman and Ahkello Witherspoon in Tampa Bay, but Shanahan said he’d like for Verrett to get on the field in some capacity.
“I hope so,” he said when asked if Verrett would play special teams.
“Everyone we’d get up, we’d like to be getting in somehow. That’d be a factor definitely.”
If the 49ers aren’t confident Verrett can contribute on special teams, they may choose not to suit him up and make him one of the team’s inactives instead. However, he has Pro Bowl caliber talent, and sitting Pro Bowl caliber cornerbacks isn’t conducive to winning in today’s pass-heavy NFL.
It’ll be intriguing to see if the 49ers elect to use Verrett at all defensively. While he is healthy, he tore his Achilles last Spring after tearing his ACL in 2017, and he hasn’t played in a game since Week 1 of the 2017 season.
San Francisco may want to ease him into action since he’s two-years removed from his last football game, but the fact Verrett is healthy enough to suit up is a significant victory for the former first-round corner.
