NFL Notes: 49ers, Colts, Cowboys, Jets

49ers

• Adam Schefter reports that 49ers LT Joe Staley fractured his orbital bone during Sunday’s game, but did not receive stitches by his eye. According to Schefter, this is a tough injury for Staley, but is not considered a season-end issue and he expects to be back at some point.
• Matt Maiocco reports that the preliminary evaluation for rookie DL Solomon Thomas is that he has an MCL sprain. While Thomas will miss some time, this is still considered good news for him.

Colts

• Chris Mortensen confirms the report from Jay Glazer (NFLTR) that Colts QB Andrew Luck is seeking more opinions to determine why his surgically repaired shoulder is “not progressing as expected.”
• According to Mortensen, Luck had what the Colts believed was a mild setback more than two weeks ago after he experienced soreness in his throwing shoulder upon returning to practice. Luck was given a cortisone injection for the pain at that time but suffered another setback that Colts do not believe is serious.
• Luck is now seeking more opinions of why it hasn’t healed as expected and will visit with a specialist this Monday.
• Mortensen adds that it’s becoming more and more unlikely we’ll see Luck this year.

Cowboys

• According to Todd Archer, Cowboys RB Ezekiel Elliott did not fly back to Dallas with the team after their win against the Redskins.
• Elliott instead plans to head to New York to be in attendance for his Monday hearing regarding his preliminary injunction to block the NFL’s six-game suspension.

Jets

Following Sunday’s loss to the Falcons, Jets RB Matt Forte told reporters he was surprised they got away from the run in a game that was clearly better suited for the running game.

“I only had four carries this game, so I don’t really think we ran the ball enough with the weather being the way it was,” said Forte, via Manish Mehta of New York Dialy News. “I think that kind of hurt us.”

“I’m definitely surprised by that, because we knew the weather was going to be like that. It continued to rain the entire game. I think we only ran the ball 20 times. (There) should have been at least one person getting 20 carries — something like that — with the way the weather was. I thought we were going to grind them out on the ground like that, but it ended up not turning out that way.”