3 reasons 49ers won’t put waiver claim on Odell Beckham Jr.
By Peter Panacy
No. 2: 49ers have to be concerned with Odell Beckham injury history
The sheer number of injuries the 49ers suffered in 2020 prompted general manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan to alter their strategies for onboarding players, either by way of free agency or the NFL Draft. Players with a lengthy injury history were supposed to be avoided.
Case in point, the No. 1 reason why the Niners elected to find a long-term replacement for quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, Trey Lance, was because of Garoppolo’s inability to stay on the field because of health reasons.
At least according to Shanahan.
Odell Beckham suffered a season-ending ankle fracture in 2017 that held him out of all but four games that season. A year later, he missed the final four games of the year with a quad bruise and then was dealing with a groin injury for all of 2019 and also underwent core-muscle surgery during the following offseason.
He also tore his ACL in 2020, too, limiting him to just seven games played.
Even on a would-be low-cost waiver claim, assuming that’s what San Francisco would try taking advantage of instead of attempting to bid higher on him in NFL free agency, adding Beckham would incur some notable injury risk.
And based upon the 49ers’ recent strategic shift away from injury-prone players, there’s a strong likelihood they’ll want to steer clear anyway.