49ers Place Richard Sherman on Injured Reserve with Calf Injury
The hits keep coming.
The 49ers will place cornerback Richard Sherman on the Injured Reserve List on Wednesday, according to the NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo, who did not report the exact injury, but said it’s related to Sherman’s leg.
UPDATE: The injury is related to Sherman's calf.
Sherman joins wide receiver Deebo Samuel on IR -- Samuel has a broken foot and will be out until Week 4 at the earliest. Sherman will be out until Week 5 at the earliest, although it’s unclear when he’ll return.
Sherman, 32, ruptured his Achilles in 2017 and has had surgeries on both Achilles tendons during his career. During training camp this year, Sherman appeared to injure his ankle during warmups with the other defensive backs when he tripped over his feet. He stayed on the ground for three or four minutes and seemed concerned. John Lynch, Kyle Shanahan and Robert Saleh all walked over to check on Sherman -- they seemed concerned. But Sherman popped up eventually and insisted on finishing practice. He clearly was in pain, but he gutted it out.
No idea if that incident is related to the reason the 49ers placed him on IR, or if something else happened to Sherman.
Either way, the 49ers have serious injury issues at two positions -- cornerback and wide receiver.
Week 2 against the Jets, the 49ers’ starting cornerbacks likely will be Emmanuel Moseley and Ahkello Witherspoon. Not ideal. And their starting wide receivers probably will be Kendrick Bourne and Dante Pettis for the second week in a row, while Mohamed Sanu likely will become the No. 3 receiver. Again, not ideal. Plus, George Kittle likely will play through a sprained knee. He may be ineffective.
The 49ers can’t afford to lose to the Jets and start the season 0-2. And they shouldn’t lose to the Jets and start the season 0-2. But without Sherman and Samuel, who knows what will happen?
