Malik Mustapha played 21 snaps in his season debut for the San Francisco 49ers. But the plan was for Mustapha to ease his way back into the lineup. He did not step onto the field until the second quarter.

Instead, Robert Saleh elected to bench Jason Pinnock, who did not play a single defensive snap in Week 6. Kyle Shanahan was asked what led to Pinnock’s role being reduced to two special teams snaps.

Shanahan said, “He was the starting safety for the first five weeks. We thought Brown had been earning time at safety, and we know with Mustapha coming back, we were going to start rotating and getting Mustapha in there so he could eventually take that over.”

That starting spot went to Ji’Ayir Brown. In his first start of the season, Brown did not come off the field and played a season-high

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