The 49ers are 5-0, but the injury picture around their wide receiver room keeps getting uglier.
Deebo Samuel is already dealing with a multi-week hamstring injury, and now another name has popped up on the list. Kyle Shanahan told reporters, including ESPN’s Nick Wagoner, that Mike Evans is dealing with an Achilles injury and also has a rib issue.
“49ers WR Mike Evans won't practice today,” Wagoner reports. “He is dealing with Achilles soreness, per Kyle Shanahan. That's in addition to a rib issue.”
That’s a jarring update for a San Francisco offense that has already been battered at receiver. Evans’ Achilles soreness is the part that stands out most, even though this is not described as an Achilles tear. Still, it’s the kind of injury note that puts a scare into any team, especially one already trying to patch together its receiver depth.
The timing does offer a little breathing room. The 49ers don’t play until Monday Night Football against the Washington Commanders, so Evans has some time to see whether the issue settles down enough for him to go in Week 6.
But San Francisco’s margin is thin. De’Zhaun Stribling, Ricky Pearsall and Demarcus Robinson are already out, and Christian Kirk is not guaranteed to return this week. If Evans and Kirk both sit, the 49ers would be looking at a very depleted wide receiver group.
Right now, the situation is unresolved. Evans’ Week 6 status is still up in the air, but with the way the injury luck has gone for this team, this is clearly one worth watching closely.
In Other News...
Shanahan Just Made Monday Night About More Than Beating Washington
Kyle Shanahans relationship with Dan Quinn goes back to their Atlanta days, when Shanahan served as offensive coordinator under Quinn in 2015 and 2016. As the 49ers prepare to visit Washington on Monday night, Shanahan said the biggest lessons from that stretch went beyond the playbook, with Quinn putting real weight on how a team talks to one another and builds its identity.
That perspective adds another layer to a matchup that already looks lopsided on paper, with San Francisco leading the NFL in point differential and Washington sitting at 1-3-1. It is also a reunion with a coach Shanahan knows well, only now Quinn is guiding the Commanders, which gives this one a little more history than your average cross-country trip. [Read more 🡒]
49ers Get An Early Edge As Commanders Backfield Suddenly Thins
The 49ers got an early break in the lead-up to their meeting with Washington, as the Commanders backfield took a hit before the matchup even arrived. Jacory Croskey-Merritt, the rookie who has given Washington a useful spark this season with 239 rushing yards and two touchdowns, has been ruled out because of a groin injury, trimming one of the more intriguing pieces of the Commanders run game.
Washington still has options, of course, with Rachaad White and Austin Ekeler expected to carry more of the load. The bigger question now is how the Commanders fill out the rest of that group for game day, and whether the added uncertainty forces them to shuffle more than they would like before facing a 49ers defense that will already be focused on controlling the line of scrimmage. [Read more 🡒]
Renardo Green Is Giving The 49ers Defense Something It Needed
Renardo Green has become one of the more encouraging developments for the 49ers defense this season, giving San Francisco a young corner who is starting to look much more comfortable in Raheem Morris system. His growth has shown up in the numbers, too, with Green standing out among the teams cornerbacks in passes defended and ball hawk rate, a sign that he is not just hanging around plays but consistently finding ways to affect them.
The progress has not come out of nowhere, either. Kyle Shanahan pointed to the work Green did before the offseason program even got rolling as a major reason for the jump, and it is the kind of behind-the-scenes preparation that tends to show up once the games start counting. For a defense that always values playmaking on the back end, Green is starting to provide exactly the sort of presence that can change the way opponents test San Francisco. [Read more 🡒]