Injury pileup forces 49ers into careful IR math
The short version
- The 49ers had 15 players on IR entering Week 3; nine are eligible to return and eight of those are not season-ending.
- Christian Kirk and Austen Pleasants have already received return designations, leaving six for six eligible players.
- Nick Bosa (calf) is out a few weeks; Demarcus Robinson and James Thompson Jr. have three-to-six week high ankle sprains.
- Nate Hobbs and Nick Martin are likely to stay on IR for the season barring positional injuries.
- NFL rules allow only eight IR returns per season and require a four-week minimum stint.
With 15 players on injured reserve and limited return designations left, San Francisco must choose carefully whether Nick Bosa and others go on IR.
The San Francisco 49ers face an unusual roster problem entering Week 3: they have more injured players than they can accommodate on injured reserve. NFL rules allow a team to bring back only eight players from IR over the course of a season, and the 49ers are already stretched against that limit.
According to the report, San Francisco had 15 players on injured reserve entering Week 3. Nine of those players are eligible to return, and eight of them are not dealing with season-ending injuries. Two of the eight have already received return designations in wide receiver Christian Kirk and offensive lineman Austen Pleasants.
That leaves six return designations for six remaining players, but not all of them are guaranteed to come back. Cornerback Nate Hobbs and linebacker Nick Martin are likely to remain on IR for the season unless their positions are hit hard by further injuries, per the report. Even if only four of the six return, alongside Kirk and Pleasants, the 49ers would have just two IR returns available for the rest of the year.
The squeeze is complicating decisions on defensive end Nick Bosa, who is out "a few weeks" with a calf injury, and on wide receiver Demarcus Robinson and defensive tackle James Thompson Jr., who both suffered high ankle sprains in Week 2. Head coach Kyle Shanahan described Robinson and Thompson as facing three-to-six week recoveries.
Because NFL rules require a player to spend a minimum of four weeks on IR before returning, the team must weigh whether shorter absences justify using one of its scarce designations. Shanahan said the choices hinge on estimating how long each injury will last, acknowledging that some players will have to be left off IR no matter what.
"It's a discussion," Shanahan told reporters after Friday's practice. "Because of the number we have on it we won't be able to do all of them. So we had to decide and we're just trying to guess which ones will go longer, which ones have the chances of being sooner. It's just a guess. They're all really close in the same boat, so we gotta decide that by tomorrow."
The timing makes the situation especially delicate. With 15 weeks still to play, more injuries are likely, so the 49ers cannot rush players onto IR or back into action. The team is expected to lean on its two weekly practice squad elevations on game days to get through the stretch while so many players sit near the typical timeline for an IR stint.
The 49ers host the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, September 27 at Levi's Stadium. Kickoff is set for 4:05 PM EDT on FOX.
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