When wide receiver Mohamed Massaquoi suffered a concussion this past Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks, his second one in two seasons, that pretty much shut the door on his chances of playing in this Sunday's game against the San Francisco 49ers (although head coach Pat Shurmur would not rule him out).
Shurmur did reveal some good news for Carlton Mitchell fans though. When a reporter asked Shurmur on Wednesday what Mitchell needed to do in order to get playing time, Shurmur came right out and said that the second-year receiver will be active for this week's game. "He’s going to be active this week, I’ll just tell you that right now," said Shurmur. "He’s active so he’s shown me enough where he’ll play this week. That’s a quick answer but he’ll be up this week."
Shurmur said that Mitchell has been getting a lot of reps in practice as a member of the scout team, and it sounds like there might be plans for him to contribute on gameday rather than just listing him as active. "He’s got speed and size and he’s healthy now," stated Shurmur. "We’ll try to use him."
Here is some more of what Shurmur said about Mitchell and whether his finger injury set him back:
(On how much Mitchell’s finger injury set him back)- "I don’t know about the injury to his finger, but he’s a young second year player that’s developing as a receiver. He had skill and ability coming out of college and we saw that. That’s why he was drafted. There are a lot of things that need to be learned and I think he’s going through that process. He’s a big, looking guy that can run real fast. I think it’s obviously a distraction for a receiver if you have a finger injury. Your confidence catching the football, some of the things receivers need to come to grips with so to speak."
(On how Mitchell can climb back up the ladder)- "Unfortunately in his case because he wasn’t active it has to be in practice. When you get your opportunity then you fine tune it during that week of preparation. Assuming something crazy happens, he’ll be up this week. He’s going into this knowing that he needs to prepare himself to play both on special teams and scrimmage downs."
Mitchell played in five games in 2010, but never had a reception. He was only active in one game this season. In his NFL career, the only statistic he has to show for is 1 end around for 9 yards.