The San Francisco 49ers’ injury woes have been well documented in recent years. While the recently debunked electrical substation theories picked up a lot of steam last year, one anonymous NFL executive recently delivered a hard truth about the team’s injuries.
A recent article by Mike Sando in The Athletic quotes the anonymous exec as saying:
"Everyone starts talking about the substation and, ‘Why are we always hurt?’ It’s because you sign hurt players. Mike Evans is going to miss 4-6 games this year, Dre Greenlaw is going to miss eight and you are going to wonder why your players are always hurt."
It’s a bit of a harsh assessment but may end up being right. That’s why the substation theories always seemed so off base. The Niners are an old team. Even though they tried to get younger last season, the core of the roster is still quite old, so injuries are somewhat inevitable.
That core is older now, thanks to the Evans and Greenlaw additions. Evans is 32 years old and only played in eight games last season. That was his most injury-plagued NFL season, though. Outside of last season, Evans played in at least 13 games each season, so he has actually been fairly durable. A player isn't talked about as a future Canton enshrine if they are always hurt.
He may not be perennially injured by any means, but now that he is rapidly approaching his mid-30s, there is always the fear that injuries could dominate the twilight of his career.
Greenlaw was injury-prone when he was with the Niners. He plays the game so hard and aggressively that it’s inevitable will spend some time on the shelf. He only played in eight games last season with the Denver Broncos.
At least the Niners have depth at both wide receiver and linebacker so they can survive if Evans and Greenlaw miss time. Young players like Jordan Watkins or Jacob Cowing would have to step up if Evans went down, and Dee Winters showed he can play quite well at linebacker last season. Nick Martin could also step up after a forgettable rookie campaign.
While it seems impossible the 49ers could sustain more injuries than they did last season, if San Francisco has shown us anything in the last number of years, it is that you should not underestimate the number of injuries the team can fall victim to.
So, maybe, that anonymous executive will end up being right.