The 49ers just can’t seem to catch a break. Already one of the most banged up teams in the league, San Francisco will now be without two of their most important pieces moving forward.
Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo aggravated the high ankle sprain that has been bothering him for weeks during their loss to the Seahawks Sunday and is expected to miss “an extended period of time,” sources told Mike Garafolo of NFL Network (Twitter link). Meanwhile Kittle has a “small fracture” in his foot and will also miss extended time, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network tweets. Garoppolo is expected to be out a minimum of six weeks and “possibly longer” if he ends up needing surgery, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets.
In a follow-up tweet, Rapoport noted that it’s unclear if Kittle will be able to return this season. Either way, it sounds like both are headed for a stint on injured reserve (minimum three-game absences). Kittle is expected to be out eight weeks, Schefter tweets. It would be hard for things to be much worse from an injury standpoint for the defending NFC champions right now.
The 49ers have already dealt with significant injuries to key players like Nick Bosa, Deebo Samuel, Raheem Mostert, Richard Sherman, and many others. Nick Mullens played well in relief of Jimmy G agains Seattle and will presumably start moving forward, although he was temporarily replaced by C.J. Beathard as the number two a couple of weeks ago.
Kittle is one of the league’s best players and critical in both the run and pass games. He missed a couple of contests earlier this year with a knee injury. The NFC West is tougher than ever, and at 4-4 San Fran is in danger of slipping out of the playoff race. Their trade of Kwon Alexander for a draft pick Monday could signal they realize 2020 isn’t their year. Kyle Shanahan has gotten it done under bad circumstances in the past, but he really has his work cut out for him now.
Any chance Jimmy get cut after the season?
He’s not worth the money. They are a power run and TE passing game. Plenty of cheaper QB’s can handle that role.
Yeah, when he was hurt two years ago, Bethard led them…oh yeah, no he didn’t. They can’t go too cheap
Do they still have 1 healthy rb? They can still beat GB if they do.
lay off the drinks. niners won’t be able to keep up with Rodgers. only reason that Minnesota was because of cook. pack will be getting lazard, king, bakhtiari, and Jones back….and niners are without bosa, ford, sherman, Coleman, mostert, Wilson, kittle, samuel. among others. the one remaining weapon that the niners have is Aiyuk, and he will be locked down by Alexander (pro football focus has him as top rated corner in NFL) so pack can afford to bunch the run, instead of also worry about the pass.
We could afford to bunch the run yesterday, and Cook ran wild. Its not about being able to, its about actually doing it.
Remember, yesterday was supposed to be a cake walk. EVERYBODY knew all they had to do was contain Cook amd force Cousins to beat them.
Nevermind we now have COVID issues, so there’s a chance more guys will be missing time.
My parlay said Green Bay I didn’t win!!!!
Rodgers will tank like he does every year and blame someone else. The Packers aren’t going anywhere this year besides HOME
AARON RODGERS IS GOING TO LOOK SWEET IN A 49rs UNIFORM SEASON HOISTING THE LOMBARDI IN FEBRUARY 2022
Oh.
Love that thought!!
49ers should trade for Evan Engram to help their TE/WR situation
I’m sorry did this article list Jimmy Garoppolo as one of the most important people on the San Francisco 49ers? If they treated him like a quarterback in 2020 I would definitely agree but let’s all be honest the 49ers run the ball 70% of the time you could put anyone behind center to hand it off.