The 49ers’ edge-rush picture keeps getting thinner, and Romello Height’s ankle tweak only adds to the concern.
Kyle Shanahan said Height “tweaked” his ankle, calling it nothing major. He’s not expected to miss Week 1, but he will not play in the preseason finale. Even so, the rookie’s situation matters because he hasn’t made much of a case for himself through two preseason games, and the missed practice time slows whatever progress he was trying to make.
That’s why Haason Reddick keeps coming up as the obvious name to watch.
San Francisco has reached, or is close to reaching, a point of real desperation on the edge. There’s also no clear answer yet on whether Nick Bosa will be ready to open the season, which makes the rest of the group look even shakier.
Height was never going to carry the load on his own, and that’s the problem. He profiles as a complementary rusher, not the guy who can anchor the edge room.
Reddick could fit that role. The veteran pass rusher is drawing interest around the league, according to NFL insider Jordan Schultz, after recent moves involving Von Miller to Dallas, Za’Darius Smith to Atlanta and Derek Barnett to Cleveland. Schultz also noted that the 31-year-old Reddick has 61.5 career sacks.
The 49ers may already be looking for help. They reportedly had interest in trading for Vita Vea before the Tampa Bay Buccaneers agreed to a contract extension with him.
What San Francisco has right now is not much beyond Bosa, assuming he’s healthy, Osa Odighizuwa and rookie Gracen Halton, who has been the only other player to show any real promise as a pass rusher. No one else has given the team much reason to think they’ll be effective against the pass this season.
That’s the crux of it: the 49ers can’t just sit around and hope somebody emerges. If they think they can score 30 points with relative ease, maybe they can afford to wait. If not, the pass rush problem could swallow them early.
Reddick wasn’t a player I would have targeted in free agency five months ago, and I had him on the avoid list then. But the situation has changed. The edge-rushing depth chart is what it is now, and if the 49ers believe Reddick would be fine in the locker room, they should at least strongly consider bringing him in.
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For a team trying to settle its roster ahead of an upcoming game and map out its final group for the season, the timing only adds to the unease. The 49ers are still doing the ordinary business of trimming, sorting and projecting, but the cloud hanging over ownership invites a bigger conversation about how much this incident could alter Yorks role inside the team and, down the line, whether it could even reopen old speculation about the York familys long-term future with the franchise. [Read more 🡒]