49ers Provide Estimated Timeline for Jeff Wilson Jr. to Return
Raheem Mostert is out for the 2021 season.
That forces the San Francisco 49ers to rely upon their young talents at running back.
However, there is one experienced player that will provide reinforcement to the position. Jeff Wilson Jr. is still on the shelf due to tearing his meniscus in the offseason. Now that Mostert is out, eyeing his return is something that becomes intriguing.
Kyle Shanahan provided an estimated timeline for Wilson's return on Wednesday.
"I think he just started running. I hate to give a date because just like I did on Monday, I could be wrong, and it seems to be a big deal if I correct myself. I'm hoping in November, I guess the area that we're saying, but it could be a little earlier. It could be later.”
Shanahan in a conference call on Monday also estimated a midseason return for Wilson, so that is a general sense of when to expect him back. Wilson returning would be a huge boost to the 49ers running game.
For starters, who knows how the backfield will shape out by then. There could be another injury that hurts them, so Wilson could arrive to save the day. Then there could the possibility of underperforming from the young backs.
Regardless of how the situation is, gaining Wilson at a time in the season where the 49ers will be facing difficulties with teams will definitely aid them. Shanahan would surely like a running back that he can trust based off of experience. And it never hurts to add another quality player into the offense.
For now, it is all on young running backs Elijah Mitchell, JaMycal Hasty and Trey Sermon to keep the ground attack effective. Shanahan surely seems positive that they will be okay with these guys in their rotation.
"As you can see with the way [RB] Elijah [Mitchell] stepped up when he came in he did a hell of a job. I have a lot of confidence in [RB JaMycal] Hasty to do the same and same with [RB] Trey [Sermon]. He'll get his opportunity now, most likely to be up. So, we have some depth there. I think we always have, but I don't think we've gone through a year here where we haven't used all four of our running backs. So, I hope to not have to do that, but after one we're down one and hopefully it's sometime this year, we'll get [RB] Jeff Wilson [Jr.] back too. But, it's always that way in the league, especially with running backs, it’s next man up and we expect those guys to not miss a beat.”
