49ers: 3 players Niners already wish they didn’t get rid of
By Peter Panacy
Just two weeks into the 2021 regular season, the 49ers should already be having regrets about parting ways with these three players.
San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan doesn’t have a crystal ball and has no way to see into the future.
If he did, however, he might have tweaked how the Niners formulated their initial 53-man roster just ahead of Week 1 of the 2021 regular season.
Injuries have already taken their toll on the squad two weeks into the year. And while San Francisco owns a perfect 2-0 record during that stretch, pulling off road wins over the Detroit Lions and Philadelphia Eagles in Weeks 1 and 2, respectively, roster attrition has already impacted Shanahan’s overall game plan.
In Week 1, the 49ers lost key players like running back Raheem Mostert, cornerback Jason Verrett and linebacker Dre Greenlaw, the prior two suffering season-ending injuries. Week 2 saw the Niners lose even more running backs.
Hopefully, this isn’t a sign of things to come. Especially with the recent memory of all that horrid injury attrition San Francisco dealt with a year ago when it suffered more players placed on injured reserve than any other squad in the league by a large amount.
If Shanahan would have been able to predict the current injury attrition, however, he might have rethought how he would have handled roster cuts.
Sure, it would have been impossible to completely reshuffle the roster, and looking back at 2021’s pre-Week 1 roster cuts in hindsight only affords “what if?” questions.
Still, it’s safe to say Shanahan and Co. are already missing these three players.