Photo credit: ninersnation.com

By Jeremy Harness

The 49ers will be playing in a football game Saturday night at Levi’s Stadium.

Other than that, there isn’t a whole lot to be excited about, because after all, it will be the first preseason game. In other words, it will not count. The starters will only play a couple of series at the most.

Basically, the game, which will pit the 49ers’ rookies and others vying to be a part of the 53-man roster at the end of training camp against those of the Dallas Cowboys, will be a glorified scrimmage, and so will the three other games that the team will play in August.

Jimmy Garappolo, although given the green light this season, is not expected to play Saturday, while C.J Beathard and Nick Mullens will handle the quarterbacking duties against Dallas. Beathard is expected to get the first-half snaps while Mullens, who took over for an injured and ineffective Beathard in the middle of last season, is expected to take over in the second half.

Defensive end Nick Bosa, who the 49ers drafted with the second overall pick in this year’s draft, suffered an ankle injury in practice, and he is expected to have an MRI done later this week. What that means is that he is all but ruled out of Saturday’s game.

There will, however, be a little intrigue at the running back position, as three runners will attempt to state their case to be the feature back when the regular season begins.

Matt Breida raised some eyebrows last season but was hampered by a myriad of injuries that seemed to hang around for much of the year. The club picked up Tevin Coleman, who seems to be a magnet for the goal line, this offseason while Jerick McKinnon, who was lost for all of last season after an ACL tear, returns to the active roster after being activated from the PUP (physically unable to perform) list.

There are still question marks at the receiver position, as Dante Pettis will look to improve on a rookie season that was a bit underwhelming in comparison to the record-setting ways of his college years at the University of Washington.