Raheem Mostert Out For The Year, 49ers Signing Kerryon Johnson To PS
Unfortunate news for 49ers fans. It appears running back Raheem Mostert won’t be returning in a couple of months after all. Instead, Mostert will have surgery on his knee that will sideline him for the rest of the season, he announced himself on Twitter.
In a responsive move, the 49ers will be signing free agent running back Kerryon Johnson to their practice squad, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets. Johnson, a 2018 second-round pick of the Lions, was cut by the Eagles last month. He also visited with the Raiders last week, and is still only 24. Johnson operated as the Lions’ lead back for his first two years in the league, but took a backseat to D’Andre Swift last year and was soon jettisoned.
Mostert says that he weighed his options and ultimately determined this was the best course of action. 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan had said yesterday that Mostert would only undergo a scope for chipped knee cartilage, and that he would return in about eight weeks. He’ll instead have cartilage repair surgery that will have a six-month recovery, Tom Pelissero of NFL Network tweets. That should at least give him plenty of time to be 100 percent for the start of 2022.
It looks like the backfield will now be Elijah Mitchell‘s to lead going forward. Mitchell got 19 carries in the 49ers’ win over the Lions after Mostert went down, turning them into 104 yards and a touchdown. Fourth-round rookie Trey Sermon, who was a healthy scratch in Week 1, could get a crack at some point as well.
It’s a tough blow for Mostert, who has been an extremely effective runner when healthy but has struggled to stay on the field. He’s averaged a ridiculous 5.7 yards per carry on 284 career attempts, but injuries limited him to eight games last year and held him back in prior years as well. It’s especially tough considering Mostert is in a contract year, and will be an unrestricted free agent this spring.
It’ll be very interesting to see what kind of contract he lands in free agency. On the one hand he’s been remarkably efficient the past few years, but on the other hand has been plagued by injuries and has played in Shanahan’s system, in which virtually every running back seemingly thrives.
49ers Finalizing Deal With CB Dre Kirkpatrick
Following cornerback Jason Verrett‘s season-ending injury, the 49ers have brought in some reinforcement at the position. The 49ers are finalizing a deal with free agent cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick, reports NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport (via Twitter).
[RELATED: 49ers Fear Torn ACL For Jason Verrett]
Kirkpatrick has flirted with teams throughout the offseason, previously auditioning for the Saints, Patriots, and Texans. He also worked out for the 49ers recently, and that ended up turning into a contract. The 31-year-old saw time in 14 games (11 starts) for the Cardinals in 2020, finishing with 56 tackles, seven passes defended, and three interceptions. The longtime Bengals starter has totaled 358 tackles, three sacks, 72 passes defensed, and 13 interceptions across nine NFL seasons.
Verrett had a standout season for the 49ers in 2020, and the team brought him back on a one-year deal. Unfortunately, the veteran suffered an ACL tear during yesterday’s victory, ending his season after only one game. The team has already had to shuffle around their cornerbacks corps; the team needed rookie Deommodore Lenoir to fill in for Emmanuel Moseley, and they previously added Josh Norman. Before signing Kirkpatrick, head coach Kyle Shanahan seemed to imply that the team could look for some extra depth at the position.
“With that being the case, I feel we got enough guys in our building,” Shanahan said (via Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area). “But that’s something you always got to look to see if there’s anyway you can improve. You always do that.”
Raheem Mostert To Miss 8 Weeks With Knee Injury
Unfortunately, Raheem Mostert is dealing with another significant health issue. The 49ers’ talented but oft-injured running back has chipped cartilage in his knee, head coach Kyle Shanahan announced Monday.
Shanahan said the knee issue will sideline Mostert for about eight weeks. He’ll have a scope on the knee and go on injured reserve for the time being. Elijah Mitchell, who became a workhorse against the Lions after Mostert went down early, figures to become the team’s new lead back in his place. Mitchell turned 19 carries into 104 yards and a touchdown against Detroit.
The injury likely also means fourth-round rookie Trey Sermon, who was a surprise inactive against the Lions, will get a crack at the first action of his pro career. Mostert was a 2015 UDFA from Purdue who spent time with six different teams in less than two seasons before finding a permanent home with the 49ers.
He signed with San Francisco’s practice squad in November of 2016, and has been with the team ever since. Impressively, he’s averaged 5.7 yards per rush on 284 career carries. Last year he had 521 yards in only eight games as he dealt with various ailments.
It’s an especially tough blow for Mostert since he’s set to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year. Hopefully he can return and have a lot of success in the second half to help him cash in next spring. Mostert briefly requested a trade in the summer of 2020 before he and the team patched things up with a revised contract.
49ers Fear Torn ACL For Jason Verrett
49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan believes that Jason Verrett has a torn ACL (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport). This marks yet another frustrating setback for the cornerback who has missed a significant portion of his career with injuries. 
A first-round pick of the Chargers back in 2014, Verrett initially looked like a star in the making and made the Pro Bowl in 2015. Then a torn ACL limited him to four games in 2016. After that, he saw one game in 2017, zero in 2018, and one more game in 2019.
Then, last year, Verrett was one of the best stories in the NFL last season. He was finally able to stay healthy as he started 13 games, racked up seven passes defensed, and notched two interceptions. In March, the Niners brought him back on a one-year, $5.5MM deal with incentives.
Running back Raheem Mostert was also forced out of Sunday’s game with a knee injury, so the Niners may be searching for support on both sides of the ball. On the plus side, the 49ers won their season opener, beating the Lions 41-33.
49ers Were Concerned Patriots Would Jump Them To Select Mac Jones
The 49ers became the talk of the pre-draft portion of the offseason when they engineered a trade up to the No. 3 overall pick. It was immediately clear that San Francisco was going to draft a QB with that selection, and for a time, the rumor was that the club had its eye on Alabama passer Mac Jones. Ultimately, of course, the team drafted North Dakota State signal-caller Trey Lance.
However, as Adam Schefter of ESPN.com reports, one of the reasons the Niners made the deal was because they believed the Patriots had identified Jones as their quarterback of the future and wanted to beat New England to the punch. That suggests that the 49ers did initially favor Jones — who was seen as an ideal fit for Shanahan’s scheme — and were only later persuaded to take Lance. The Niners said all along that they viewed multiple passers as legitimate candidates for the No. 3 pick, so blocking the Pats and assuring themselves of the chance to select Jones was not the only motivation for the deal, but it was certainly a perk.
As Tom E. Curran of NBC Sports Boston tweets, there may have been another benefit to the trade as it relates to New England. Even if Lance was the 49ers’ target all along, floating the possibility that they were going to nab Jones might have prompted the Pats to swing a deal for Jimmy Garoppolo.
In the end, Jones fell to the Patriots at No. 15 overall, and he will be under center for the club’s regular season opener against the Dolphins today. Meanwhile, Garoppolo is still starting for the 49ers, and Lance will operate as his backup.
That arrangement may not last long. As Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports writes, Shanahan has already installed plays for Lance, who will see the field in certain packages right away. And one source says Lance will assume more and more responsibilities as the early part of the season goes on while Garoppolo showcases his talents for teams that might be interested in trading for him prior to the November 2 deadline.
Minor NFL Transactions: 9/11/21
With Week 1 games on tap for 28 teams Sunday, here is Saturday’s extensive batch of minor moves:
Arizona Cardinals
- Placed on IR: LB Dennis Gardeck
- Promoted: LB Kylie Fitts, CB Antonio Hamilton
Cleveland Browns
- Promoted: LB Elijah Lee, K Chris Naggar
Denver Broncos
- Promoted: RB Damarea Crockett, CB Nate Hairston
Detroit Lions
- Promoted: T Will Holden, G Tommy Kraemer
Houston Texans
- Promoted: TE Antony Auclair
Indianapolis Colts
- Promoted: S Sean Davis, C Joey Hunt
Jacksonville Jaguars
- Promoted: DB Brandon Rusnak, WR Devin Smith
Los Angeles Rams
- Promoted: DB Tyler Hall, LB Justin Lawler
Miami Dolphins
- Activated from reserve/COVID-19 list: T Austin Jackson; Jackson is the first player to test positive for COVID-19 and be activated the same week, Tom Pelissero of NFL.com tweets, with the second-year offensive lineman’s vaccinated status allowing him to return five days after landing on Miami’s coronavirus list
New Orleans Saints
- Waived: T Caleb Benenoch
New York Giants
- Promoted: WR C.J. Board
New York Jets
- Placed on IR: S Sharrod Neasman
- Promoted: S Adrian Colbert, LB Del’Shawn Phillips
San Francisco 49ers
- Released from IR via injury settlement: T Shon Coleman
Seattle Seahawks
- Promoted: LB Jon Rhattigan
Washington Football Team
- Promoted: LB Jared Norris
49ers Place WR Jalen Hurd On IR
SATURDAY: For a third straight year, Hurd will begin the season on the 49ers’ IR list. San Francisco is stashing the oft-injured wideout on IR, sidelining him for at least three games. While a return in Week 4 would be a bonus for Hurd, who has missed the first two seasons of his career, any IR placement qualifies as a bad sign for the Tennessee and Baylor alum at this point. The 49ers promoted cornerback Dontae Johnson to fill Hurd’s roster spot.
WEDNESDAY: It sounds like Jalen Hurd will miss the 49ers’ season opener. Head coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters that the third-year wide receiver is a candidate for the injured reserve thanks to a lingering knee injury.
“We felt pretty good (coming) out of the Raiders game just with how he was able to play and get through it,” Shanahan said (via Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle). “But it was hurting him three days later when we tried to practice again. And we gave him the weekend off and it hurt again Monday. And just coming in here today and just realizing that we have to reevaluate this and shut him down for a little bit.”
The 2019 third-round pick still hasn’t seen the field for a regular season game thanks to injuries. That included an ACL tear that ruined his 2020 campaign, and knee tendinitis limited him during the early parts of the 2021 preseason. He finally got into the 49ers preseason finale, playing 29 snaps.
If Hurd is destined for injured reserve, the 49ers would likely look to add another wideout to the active roster. Matt Barrows of The Athletic tweets that practice squad veteran Travis Benjamin is “the top candidate” to take Hurd’s spot.
49ers LBs Coach Battling Cancer
- Josh Norman is set to play a 10th NFL season and do so with a fourth team, having signed with the 49ers this week. However, Norman’s camp and the 49ers discussed a deal for months, the veteran cornerback said Friday (via KNBR). Norman, 33, has played with Carolina, Washington and Buffalo. He will join a 49ers team that was already thin at cornerback before listing Emmanuel Moseley as doubtful for Week 1. San Francisco has injury-prone Jason Verrett stationed as its other top outside corner. Norman, who has not returned to a Pro Bowl since his standout 2015 contract year, played 344 defensive snaps with the Bills last season.
- The 49ers will begin their season without one of their assistant coaches. Linebackers coach Johnny Holland recently stepped away from the team due to a battle with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells, Nick Wagoner of ESPN.com notes. This is the second time Holland has left the 49ers because of his cancer battle; he did so in 2019 after initially being diagnosed. The fifth-year 49ers assistant began treatment this week. Holland, 56, has been an NFL assistant for more than 20 years, beginning in 1995 with the Packers, for whom he played linebacker in the late 1980s and early ’90s. Holland has worked with Kyle Shanahan dating back to their days as Texans assistants in the 2000s.
49ers Restructure Jimmie Ward’s Deal
Entering Friday at the bottom of the NFL in cap space, the 49ers moved back toward the middle of the pack with one move. They redid safety Jimmie Ward‘s deal, creating nearly $6MM in cap room, Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets.
San Francisco carried less than $1MM in space, per OverTheCap, prior to this move. The team moved around $7.8MM of Ward’s 2021 salary into a bonus, creating approximately $5.85MM in cap room, per Yates. This slides the 49ers up to 16th in cap space going into Week 1.
This marks the first Ward restructure. The former first-round pick re-signed with the 49ers last year, doing so after a lengthy stretch without a long-term deal. Ward played out his rookie contract, which included a fifth-year option season, and re-signed to stay in San Francisco on a one-year deal in 2019. After Ward played a key role for the NFC champion 49ers defense that season, he received a three-year, $28.5MM offer. That deal initially called for an $8.4MM base salary this season. That number is now much lower.
While this move will raise Ward’s 2022 cap figure, it gives the 49ers some additional flexibility going into this season.
NFL Practice Squad Updates: 9/8/21
Here are Wednesday’s practice squad moves:
Baltimore Ravens
- Signed: DT Reginald McKenzie
- Released: S Jordan Richards
Houston Texans
- Released: LB Hardy Nickerson
San Francisco 49ers
- Signed: LB Nate Gerry
- Released: OL Corbin Kaufusi
Seattle Seahawks
- Signed: TE DeShon Williams