49ers place Deebo Samuel on short-term injured reserve, promote 2 from practice squad
The 49ers will have to wait until Oct. 4, at the earliest, to get Deebo Samuel back on the field.
San Francisco on Saturday placed their top receiver on injured reserve, ensuring he’ll miss the first three games of the season after suffering a Jones fracture to his foot in June. He’s eligible to return Week 4 when the 49ers host the Philadelphia Eagles on NBC’s “Sunday Night Football.” That means the team could leave Samuel home during road games Weeks 2 and 3 against the New York Jets and Giants which sandwich a stay at The Greenbrier in West Virginia for practice.
The NFL has new rules for injured reserve this season amid the COVID-19 pandemic, removing the limit on the number of players that can be brought off injured reserve and trimming the mandatory absence to three games. Last season only two players could be brought off injured reserve and they had to miss a minimum of six weeks.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan on Friday, after Samuel was ruled out for Sunday’s opener, said the team believed Samuel “had a good chance to play this week” despite the second-year pro not practicing since the injury. There was initially some confusion about Samuel’s eligibility for injured reserve after getting hurt away the team’s facility at workout in Nashville, which would constitute a non-football injury. But the league recently clarified that wasn’t the case and Samuel was eligible for IR.
The 49ers also on Saturday activated center Hroniss Grasu and cornerback Dontae Johnson off the practice squad making them eligible to play in Sunday’s season opener against the Arizona Cardinals. Grasu has a chance to start while Ben Garland continues to work back from an ankle injury suffered early in training camp. Garland returned to practice this week and was listed as “limited” in all three sessions.
Johnson, meanwhile, could be used in a depth role after Jason Verrett was ruled out of the game with a hamstring strain suffered during the final week of training camp.
Because the 49ers didn’t promote one of their three receivers off the practice squad, the moves indicate rookie receiver Brandon Aiyuk, who entered Sunday listed as “questionable” with a hamstring issue, is likely to play. Aiyuk returned to practice on Thursday for the first time since straining his hamstring Aug. 23.
This story was originally published September 12, 2020 at 2:12 PM.
