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49ers Safety Malik Mustapha Looks Ahead of Schedule in ACL Recovery

This is good news.

Grant Cohn

Oct 27, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers safety Malik Mustapha (6) celebrates after Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott (not pictured) pass is incomplete during the third quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images
Oct 27, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers safety Malik Mustapha (6) celebrates after Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott (not pictured) pass is incomplete during the third quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images / Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images
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This is good news.

49ers safety Malik Mustapha tore his ACL just 21 weeks ago, and yet today he posted videos on Instagram of him squatting heavy weights and sprinting with a resistance band around his waist. In addition, he showed himself sprinting while turning left and right.

Mustapha did not show clips of him changing directions quickly or stopping and starting the way he would in a game, but progress is progress. He seems like he's well ahead of schedule in his ACL recovery.

Mustapha tore his ACL in the 49ers' final regular season game, but the team didn't say anything about the injury until after the NFL Draft in May. When the news first came out, it was assumed the Mustapha would start the season on the Physically Unable to Perform List and miss at least the first four games of the season.

From the looks of these posts, he's making it his business to avoid the PUP List and return to action sooner than Week 5. You have to respect his determination. He's just a second-year player -- nothing is promised to him. If a new safety steps up in Mustapha's absence and earns defensive coordinator Robert Saleh's trust, Mustapha might never get his starting job back. Saleh doesn't know him. Mustapha has to create a good impression, which is exactly what he's trying to do.

To Mustapha's credit, he attended every OTA practice and minicamp despite being unable to participate. He even went to rookie minicamp -- that's how bought in he is.

Don't be shocked if he's ready for Week 1.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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