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Should the 49ers be Concerned about Trent Williams' Ankles?

Here's what we currently know.
Grant Cohn|
Sep 9, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers offensive tackle Trent Williams (71) is introduced before the game against the New York Jets at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images
Sep 9, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers offensive tackle Trent Williams (71) is introduced before the game against the New York Jets at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images | Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

Trent Williams has injured his ankle five seasons in a row.

It hasn't been the same ankle every time, but that's a troubling trend. He weighs 320 pounds. He's turning 37 in July. At a certain point, these ankle injuries could jeopardize his career.

Here's what we currently know.

Trent Williams missed two games with an ankle injury in 2023. He returned that season, but in the biggest game of his life, the Super Bowl, he did not play well. He committed two penalties and got knocked down multiple times by defensive backs. It's unclear whether he reinjured his ankle during that game.

Then in 2024, he held out for the entire offseason before signing a new deal in early September. When he returned, he was good but not the best left tackle in the NFL as he had been from 2020 to 2023. In 2024, Williams' was Pro Football Focus' 6th-highest-rated offensive tackle, which means he was still terrific, but not quite the player he once was.

Then in Week 10 against the Buccaneers, Williams injured his left ankle, an injury which the 49ers called a bone bruise in the ankle joint. He played through it the next week against the Seahawks. Then the following week against the Packers, he was listed as questionable on Friday and then ruled out an hour and a half before kickoff.

Williams never practiced or played again. The 49ers listed him as "out" for the next few games, then placed him on Injured Reserve for the final two weeks of the season.

Three days after the 49ers' final game, general manager John Lynch said that Trent Williams' bone bruise took longer than expected to heal but that his recovery suddenly had taken a positive turn.

And yet, Williams hasn't posted anything on social media or said a word publicly since he suffered his latest ankle injury.

It's fair to wonder if this one will linger and force him to ask himself how many more he can take.

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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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