Following up on the ongoing story. ... Deebo Samuel didn't do much in Friday's practice, head coach Kyle Shanahan said. Officially, the team listed Samuel as limited.

Samuel has a quadriceps injury that Shanahan revealed is a deep thigh bruise.

"When you have a deep thigh bruise, you kind of have an idea of how it's going to be, and it just hasn't been as good as we were expecting by now," Shanahan said, via David Bonilla of 49ers WebZone. "We were expecting him to be able to go full by now. He wasn't able to, and that's why there is some concern."

The 49ers list Samuel as questionable for Sunday.

Meanwhile, running back Christian McCaffrey (knee irritation) has no designation.

This is good news since the running back depth chart took a hit on Sunday against the New Orleans Saints.

Elijah Mitchell exited the game with a knee injury. Later, tests revealed that the second-year player suffered his second MCL sprain of the season and would miss six to eight weeks. He could be placed on injured reserve at any time.

Of course, McCaffrey also exited late in the game.

While we're all hoping McCaffrey holds up to his workload tomorrow, what's the plan beyond that?

Last Sunday, Jordan Mason finished the game with 25 rushing yards on five carries. The rookie picked up a couple of first downs in the closing minutes, kept the Saints offense off the field, and the 49ers improved to 7-4, earning their fourth consecutive victory.

"When he gets the ball, I think you can feel him," Shanahan said Friday morning on KNBR's Murph and Mac show. "He runs hard. I know we feel it from the sidelines, and it was cool. He hadn't gotten a lot of opportunities carrying the ball, but when we lost Elijah, when Christian was banged up, we had to close out that game with him.

"And for a rookie to go in like that, who doesn't have much experience, for him to go in and run—I think we ran the ball 10 times out of 11 plays on that final drive, and I think all were to him but one. And for the way he protected the ball but still running over guys, I thought was real impressive."

With Mitchell likely done for the regular season, the team will rely on their two young running backs -- Mason and rookie Tyrion Davis-Price -- to help McCaffrey down the stretch of the season.

"It's also going to give Ty Davis an opportunity to get back up," Shanahan added. "Those guys have been battling all year, and Ty was leading it a little bit in terms of running the ball, but [Mason] was leading it in terms of special teams. And when you're behind those guys (McCaffrey and Mitchell) up front, the tie goes to the special teams player.

"Now, Ty's got a chance to get back out there too, and we'll mix it up with both those guys to see how it all ends up."

Davis-Price suffered a high-ankle sprain during Week 2 against the Seattle Seahawks. He's been inactive in six games since then, including the last three games.

"We've remained very high on Ty Davis-Price," general manager John Lynch told KNBR listeners on Thursday. "He's starting to get involved and got hurt versus Seattle. It took him a little while to get back, and he's kind of just been a victim of you only get so many guys up on game day.

"I think the reason Mason has kind of ascended is because he's a really good special teams player, so that's probably been more reflective of why Jordan's been the guy up. But Jordan has earned some trust, and now Ty Davis has to go do that. ..."

One last note here. ... Brandon Aiyuk has at least seven targets or has scored a touchdown in six straight games.