2021 49ers offseason

[CrimsonCrew]

Of course its pre-season, so its far from a sure thing. But from what we've seen, Sherfield looks like he could be a usable WR for this team.

Some of that could on Lance making him look good, some of that could be Shanny scheming him well. That said, Trent seems to be getting open pretty frequently. Which is more than I can say for the huge pile of unwantedness consisting of James, Cracraft, Taylor, White, etc. And its looking more and more likely, that we will never see Jalen Hurd suit up for a regular season game.

Apparently Jennings has been having a good camp as well. Hopefully between Sherfield and Jennings platoon, 9ers can find some semblance of a halfway passable WR3.

WR is a big concern for this team, but that's nothing new. We've known that for a long while now. Both Deebo and Aiyuk are injury prone, and if either of them go down it will get ugly.

The Hurd pick will never not make me crazy, unless he somehow reverses the entire trajectory of his career to date. We took that dude over Terry McLaurin, who I was screaming for at that point (to be completely fair, I didn't really want another WR, but he was my guy if we went with that position, and prior to the draft I endorsed passing on WR in the second and taking McLaurin in the third). We should have come out of that draft with Bosa, AJ Brown, and McLaurin. Would have been one of the great drafts....

Yes, its incredily frustrating.

Hurd has a unique skillset, and I don't doubt that Shanny could scheme Jalen to where he could be a very effective player. There also have been a huge hole in the WR corps for the last handful of years, that Hurd could/should have been able to plug. But like with most things, it comes down to availability. Short of that 2 TD preseason game in his rookie year, Hurd just hasn't been able to give the 9ers anything. Dude just can't get right physically.

Some of that needs to fall at the feet of the team brass. Hurd had durability concerns in college, and he's done nothing but confirm that he is not reliable.

At this point, I expect him to not play a snap for the 49ers. Anything more than that, I will consider a bonus.

Yeah, he's a tantalizing guy in this offense. Great size, unique movement skills, and the ability to play out of the backfield a bit. I can definitely see the allure. But the reality is that he was a raw WR prospect with injury history and questions about his commitment (granted switching from RB to WR is a savvy longterm move that suggests he's also intelligent), and we took him over a legit WR prospect who had been fairly successful in a college offense that misused him, and who then blew up the Senior Bowl and the combine. It was a reach for the wrong guy at the position, and one of a laundry list of guys (Reuben Foster, Joe Williams, Dante Pettis) who failed not because of physical ability, but because of mental makeup/lack of commitment.

Hurd is a bit different due to the injuries, but I also can't help but question how much he's really hurt vs. fighting for his football life.

[thesack12]

The Hurd pick will never not make me crazy, unless he somehow reverses the entire trajectory of his career to date. We took that dude over Terry McLaurin, who I was screaming for at that point (to be completely fair, I didn't really want another WR, but he was my guy if we went with that position, and prior to the draft I endorsed passing on WR in the second and taking McLaurin in the third). We should have come out of that draft with Bosa, AJ Brown, and McLaurin. Would have been one of the great drafts....

Yes, its incredily frustrating.

Hurd has a unique skillset, and I don't doubt that Shanny could scheme Jalen to where he could be a very effective player. There also have been a huge hole in the WR corps for the last handful of years, that Hurd could/should have been able to plug. But like with most things, it comes down to availability. Short of that 2 TD preseason game in his rookie year, Hurd just hasn't been able to give the 9ers anything. Dude just can't get right physically.

Some of that needs to fall at the feet of the team brass. Hurd had durability concerns in college, and he's done nothing but confirm that he is not reliable.

At this point, I expect him to not play a snap for the 49ers. Anything more than that, I will consider a bonus.

Yeah, he's a tantalizing guy in this offense. Great size, unique movement skills, and the ability to play out of the backfield a bit. I can definitely see the allure. But the reality is that he was a raw WR prospect with injury history and questions about his commitment (granted switching from RB to WR is a savvy longterm move that suggests he's also intelligent), and we took him over a legit WR prospect who had been fairly successful in a college offense that misused him, and who then blew up the Senior Bowl and the combine. It was a reach for the wrong guy at the position, and one of a laundry list of guys (Reuben Foster, Joe Williams, Dante Pettis) who failed not because of physical ability, but because of mental makeup/lack of commitment.

Hurd is a bit different due to the injuries, but I also can't help but question how much he's really hurt vs. fighting for his football life.

Word!!

The underlined, is something I hadn't really thought of myself but I think its a really good point. Hurd has to be well aware that his opportunities to make a living in the NFL are drying up. Does he actually want the NFL to continue to be part of his life path?

Hurd reportedly did return to practice today. I think he probably needs to make some noise in this last preseason game, just to make the roster.

[CrimsonCrew]

The difficulty is, the guy has talent. Every time he's been on the field, he's made plays. But if he can't consistently get on the field, then he's just dead roster weight.

In general, for a third-round pick, I wouldn't be so upset about some arguably fluky injuries hitting a guy. It's worse for me because I had been banging the drum for McLaurin for weeks if not months prior to that draft, and the odds that Hurd ever reaches the level McLaurin is already at are pretty slim.

[CrimsonCrew]

Pretty good run-down of training camp as a whole, in addition to a review of the last practice. He hits on some of the biggest surprises - good and bad - and some of the strengths and concerns for the team coming out of camp.

https://www.knbr.com/2021/08/26/takeaways-from-training-camp-after-49ers-final-open-practice-is-defenses-best/

[arich35]

Do we know who probably won't be ready for Week 1 at this point?

[thesack12]

Jags trade Minshew to Philly for a 6th rounder. Nick Mullens was cut to make room for Gardner.

Unfortunately, I can totally see Shanahan putting in a waiver claim for Mullens. Nick is obviously a better player than Sudfeld, but I would rather not carry 3 QB's on the active roster. That 3rd QB would will most likely never play, so the team will have to cut a talented player at another position that has game day value to the team/roster.

[thesack12]

The difficulty is, the guy has talent. Every time he's been on the field, he's made plays. But if he can't consistently get on the field, then he's just dead roster weight.

In general, for a third-round pick, I wouldn't be so upset about some arguably fluky injuries hitting a guy. It's worse for me because I had been banging the drum for McLaurin for weeks if not months prior to that draft, and the odds that Hurd ever reaches the level McLaurin is already at are pretty slim.

I feel you.

9ers coached both Hurd and Mclaurin in the senior bowl (Deebo as well.), so apparently they felt that Hurd was the better choice for them after getting up close and personal looks at both guys. Perhaps that was due to versatility/fit. Either way, that decision sure hasn't worked out well for them.

Hurd has actually gotten a couple of consecutive practices in the last couple days, and is trending towards playing tomorrow. Judginf by Lynch's comments the other day, it seems as though all Jalen needs to do to get a roster spot is emerge from the game being able to walk. We'll see.

[thesack12]

Richie James now out 6 weeks (knee.)

Apparently he has had a terrible camp, which isn't surprising. I can see this development being a situation where they will waive James with an injury settlement. So Richie most likely will not get claimed. They will then get a 5 game sampling of Sherfield/Jennings, and if those guys are struggling, I can see the team bringing back James after the week 6 bye while cutting one of the above two.

Personally, I'm well past ready to done with the Richie James exprience entirely.

EDIT:

After making this post, 9ers did waived/injured Richie. Apparently, when he clears waivers 9ers have to release him when healthy, and he's not eligible to return to the team without playing somewhere else first.

So I was wrong with my post above. However, it does appear that we are thankfully at the end of the Richie James show. Maybe now the return game won't be a negative every week, and the offense won't have to go 80-90 yards on every possession.

[Jikkle]

Watch on YouTube

Looking forward to seeing how Nick will perform being leaner now. I wonder if he'll be closer to his brother in terms of first step explosiveness because of it.

Really looking forward to seeing him and Ford out there along with the rest of the front 7. I know it's overly optimistic but if Kinlaw could make some big strides this season it would be huge for the defense but I fear with him always being dinged or nicked up he hasn't gotten the development reps he badly needs.

[arich35]

Surprise surprise, Jalen Hurd is likely to be put on the IR with a knee injury. How can someone get hurt so often in practice

[CrimsonCrew]

Surprise surprise, Jalen Hurd is likely to be put on the IR with a knee injury. How can someone get hurt so often in practice

Honestly, I'd rather the dude just get truly healthy, and at least if we put him on IR he'll have a chance to do that. The one week on, one week off sort of thing isn't a longterm solution.

I didn't figure we'd get anything out of Hurd this year, so it's not a huge loss, but it would be really nice to get him back at some point. Not like we could have had Terry McLaurin instead....

[Samurai]

Surprise surprise, Jalen Hurd is likely to be put on the IR with a knee injury. How can someone get hurt so often in practice

I swear that guy must be made out of the thinnest piece of glass around. Doesn't matter how much talent or "potential" you have if you can't ever play in a game. Just cut our losses and move on with guys that actually are willing and able to play a few downs.

[arich35]

Surprise surprise, Jalen Hurd is likely to be put on the IR with a knee injury. How can someone get hurt so often in practice

Honestly, I'd rather the dude just get truly healthy, and at least if we put him on IR he'll have a chance to do that. The one week on, one week off sort of thing isn't a longterm solution.

I didn't figure we'd get anything out of Hurd this year, so it's not a huge loss, but it would be really nice to get him back at some point. Not like we could have had Terry McLaurin instead....

What has he been doing the last two years?

[CrimsonCrew]

Surprise surprise, Jalen Hurd is likely to be put on the IR with a knee injury. How can someone get hurt so often in practice

Honestly, I'd rather the dude just get truly healthy, and at least if we put him on IR he'll have a chance to do that. The one week on, one week off sort of thing isn't a longterm solution.

I didn't figure we'd get anything out of Hurd this year, so it's not a huge loss, but it would be really nice to get him back at some point. Not like we could have had Terry McLaurin instead....

What has he been doing the last two years?

Well he's had two different injuries, and the most recent issue appears to be connected to the ACL tear. But no argument here. I never liked that pick.

[wco81]

Did he ever get a snap even in any of the preseason games since he’s been on the team?

[Jikkle]

Gotta keep in mind the league is keeping last year's IR rules and even if Hurd is put on IR he can come back after 3 weeks so it's not like it has to be a whole season thing like it's been in the past.

It's not like they need to rush him to the IR either as he'd just be one of the inactives on gamedays since it's unlikely all the WRs on the roster would be active anyways. If we start seeing injuries to the WRs than that's when they'd need to make a decision to put him on the IR and bring up someone like Benjamin.

[Jikkle]

The concerning injury is Moseley as CB is the weakest position group and losing anyone hurts.

The one that annoys me is Kinlaw as he's out again and unless he starts to turn his health around he's head for bustsville. It's still early and I've seen DL being nicked up early in their careers to then stay healthy and have a productive career. But he was a guy that was raw and needs reps not like Bosa who was a polished product and didn't need as much development.

I'd rip the front office but judging from the last draft they are fed up with injuries as well and drafting guys with cleaner bills of health instead of the talented but injury prone guys that the organization has been drafting way before even the Lynch Shanahan era.

All in all at least the team is starting the season in pretty good shape health wise. Haven't lost anyone major for the season and the injuries that they do have don't seem like long term injuries.

[CrimsonCrew]

Yeah, Moseley is a huge concern. Fortunately, this week we're playing a team without a single good receiver, much less two. And a QB who isn't likely to threaten downfield. We should be able to survive this week even with some injuries, but we need guys to get back soon.

Kinlaw is frustrating, because they're describing him as a real wrecker when he's in, he just hasn't been able to get and stay healthy.