The San Francisco 49ers entered this season with lofty aspirations. For essentially the most half, their hopes have been dashed — and the underside could also be at risk of falling out from below them. On Monday, the 49ers revealed the most recent in a spate of accidents which have devastated the staff this season.
Sunday’s blowout in Buffalo dropped the Niners’ report to 5-7 on the season. They’re two full video games again of the NFC West-leading Seahawks with 5 video games remaining within the season, and must shortly put an finish to their present three-game shedding streak and begin stacking wins in the event that they need to have any hope of constructing the playoffs. Given the present state of the roster, that’s trying increasingly unlikely by the day.
Coach Kyle Shanahan mentioned Monday that working backs Christian McCaffrey and Jordan Mason are each headed for injured reserve. So is defensive lineman Kevin Givens. McCaffrey suffered a PCL damage early within the 49ers’ blowout loss to the Buffalo Payments on Sunday night time. His restoration is anticipated to final not less than six weeks, based on Shanahan. Mason suffered a excessive ankle sprain in the identical sport. He’ll miss not less than 4 video games. And Givens tore his pectoral muscle, which is a season-ending ailment.
Already this season, the Niners have misplaced every of Brandon Aiyuk, Javon Hargrave, Elijah Mitchell, Jon Feliciano and Talanoa Hufanga (who is outwardly on the verge of returning) to injured reserve, and so they have performed the whole season so far with out Dre Greenlaw, who tore his Achilles throughout final 12 months’s Super Bowl loss to the Chiefs. McCaffrey additionally missed the primary half of the season whereas coping with accidents to each of his Achilles tendons.
In current weeks, Trent Williams and Nick Bosa have been sitting out, and so they have been joined on Sunday by Deommodore Lenoir, Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles, Jordan Elliott and Aaron Banks. The 49ers have additionally seen Brock Purdy, George Kittle, Deebo Samuel, Jauan Jennings, Ricky Pearsall and Jake Moody (amongst a number of others) miss video games attributable to varied accidents.
And even past soccer, the 49ers have skilled unspeakable tragedy at occasions this season. Vast receiver Ricky Pearsall was shot within the chest simply earlier than the beginning of his rookie 12 months. Star cornerback Charvarius Ward was out for a number of video games following the tragic dying of his daughter. And Williams and his spouse introduced on Monday that they’d misplaced certainly one of their anticipated twin infants throughout the being pregnant, and that the opposite was stillborn in late November.
It is nearly unfathomable for one staff to must take care of all of that in one season, and it could be comprehensible if these occasions alone resulted within the staff being thrown astray. Add the outrageous rash of accidents on high of all the things else they’ve needed to take care of, and it is no marvel that this season’s 49ers don’t look all that very like the 49ers staff we have gotten used to seeing lately.
