SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Mac Jones said Thursday he didn’t want to talk about the body he saw being retrieved from the marina outside the San Francisco 49ers’ team hotel last week.
“There was just some police activity and stuff,” the 49ers quarterback said. “I don’t really want to talk about it. It was before the game or whatever, and I’ve kind of moved onto (the game) this week.”
On Thursday, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s office identified the deceased man as Wyatt Cyphers, 28. The initial report said Cyphers’ body was found at a dock at the Marina del Rey Marina. A cause of death will be provided upon further investigation.
Other 49ers players said this week that they never saw the body, but that Jones, who would go on to throw for 342 yards and two touchdowns in a win over the Los Angeles Rams, told them what happened. The team buses were leaving for SoFi Stadium as emergency officials were retrieving Cyphers.
Jones, who is 3-0 as the 49ers’ starter, likely will start Sunday’s game against the 4-1 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, although he didn’t appear anywhere near 100 percent healthy on Thursday.
While starting quarterback Brock Purdy (toe) has not practiced this week, Jones has been limited with knee and oblique injuries. He was seen throwing the ball on Wednesday, but he didn’t do much throwing at the start of Thursday’s session, the 49ers’ longest and most intense practice of the week, and he was jogging gingerly between drills with a brace on his left knee.
Jones appeared to suffer the oblique injury after being hit hard on the 49ers’ final offensive snap in Los Angeles. He was asked if he would have been able to continue playing in that game if the offense had another possession in overtime.
“I don’t know, that was the last snap,” he said with a laugh. “So I guess I didn’t have to find out. But like I said, we’ve got a plan in place. Just gotta work through it and make sure you can protect yourself.”
Asked why he didn’t throw much in Thursday’s practice, he said he was “just trying to save some throws.”
“There’s a lot of volume out there,” he said. “And at the end of the day, (I’ve) just gotta be ready for Sunday. And, like I said, we have a plan. So we’re taking it day by day.”
The team’s only healthy quarterback is Adrian Martinez, who was bumped up from the practice squad last week and who has never attempted a regular-season NFL pass.
On Wednesday, Kyle Shanahan was asked how much Martinez would have been able to do had he had to relieve Jones against the Rams.
“We would’ve had to find out,” he said. “Obviously, (with) a guy who hasn’t been in your system very long and hasn’t gotten a lot of NFL experience very long, you want to be as careful as you can. But when you’re in a 20-20 game or whatever it was at the time and someone’s taking over, you’re going to do what you’ve got to do.”
General manager John Lynch struck an optimistic tone on Jones’ availability during his weekly appearance on KNBR radio.
“I think we feel pretty good about where he’s going to be at,” he said. “If you saw him play through that game, that was real-life stuff. You saw it, and you saw toughness and grit, and you saw a guy stepping up and playing through some things. But I think Mac’s in good shape (and) will continue to work (toward) it by Sunday. We’re hopeful and believe that he’s going to be in a good spot.”