49ers news: Malik Mustapha will make his first career start

The San Francisco 49ers announced their inactive list against the New England Patriots for Week 4. After rolling his ankle in practice, safety Talanoa Hufanga was listed as questionable.

The writing on the wall said that Hufanga would be inactive after the Niners elevated a safety from the practice squad on Saturday. Sure enough, Hufanga will not play today. Here’s a look at the inactive list for the Niners:

S Talanoa Hufanga (ankle)

WR Ronnie Bell

CB Darrell Luter

OL Ben Bartch

QB Joshua Cobbs (third QB)

Though it hasn’t been announced yet, but Malik Mustapha figures to make his first career start. He played more snaps than George Odum and brought the kind of energy and effort, along with tackling ability, that would lead you to believe the Niners favor Mustapha over Odum.

I’m not sure if Bell will be active again for the remainder of the year, barring multiple injuries after his performance in Week 3. It helps that Deebo Samuel is active. He should see a bigger workload today. Could we see Jacob Cowing on the field on offense? We haven’t yet through three games.

On Friday, head coach Kyle Shanahan said that he wanted the 49ers to get their screen game going, as it’s been lacking this year. It felt like Shanahan was telling us how he wanted to get Deebo involved.

Along with Deebo, George Kittle and Trent Williams are active. The 49ers are as close to full strength as they’ve been all year offensively.