The 49ers’ biggest question coming into the 2024 season was whether they could avoid many of the same issues that befell them in the post-Super Bowl 2020 campaign.
Luckily, the world hasn’t been stricken with a worldwide pandemic again.
But the Niners sure seem to have caught the injury bug again.
Two of the team’s most important offensive players, Christian McCaffrey and now Deebo Samuel, will be out for weeks to come.
Yes, the Niners are down not one but two do-it-all threats—the players who made the Niners’ offense the envy of the league.
Yikes.
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In his conference call with the media on Monday, San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan said Samuel has a calf strain and will miss “a couple of weeks,” starting with the Niners’ game this upcoming Sunday against the Rams in Los Angeles.
This, after McCaffrey was placed on injured reserve before the Niners’ Week 2 loss to the Vikings this past Sunday. He’s not eligible to return to the field until October, but there is skepticism he’ll return when he is first eligible.
Obviously, this is not the start the team wanted. In 2020, a downright biblical string of injuries undercut the Niners’ season before it really started. Four seasons later, the Niners aren’t beating the 2020 redux allegations.
Now, San Francisco’s season isn’t over because of two injuries, even if they are arguably their two most important skill position players.
But this season has become significantly — perhaps exponentially — more difficult without Nos. 1 and 23 in the fold. The Niners are 8-9 over the last five years when Samuel hasn’t played. They’re 1-2 without McCaffrey since he arrived in 2022.
Since McCaffrey was acquired via trade in October 2022, we’ve never seen the 49ers without one or the other on the field.
Sunday’s game against the Rams will be a new territory for the Niners.
It puts the spotlight not on McCaffrey and Samuel’s replacements—Jordan Mason and, in all likelihood, Jauan Jennings—but rather on the remaining stars on the offensive roster.
So for this bad luck to strike amid the struggles of two other key offensive players — …read more
Source:: The Mercury News – Entertainment
