49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said Wednesday that big receiver Jalen Hurd is a candidate to land on the injured reserve as he continues his return from a torn ACL last season.
Hurd was absent from practice on Wednesday and Shanahan said the receiver is still experiencing some knee pain after playing 27 offensive attacks and two special teams in the preseason final against the Raiders.
“Yeah, we felt great coming out of the Raiders game with the time he was able to play and beat him,” Shanahan said. “But it hurt three days later when we tried to practice again and we gave him the weekend off and he hurt again on Monday and just coming in here today just realizing we have to re-evaluate it. and close it for a while. “
Sporadic turnout defined Hurd’s training camp this year after losing virtually the entire field last year when he ripped off his ACL at first. The 49ers gave him days off to make sure he would be ready for Week 1, and he did enough in the last preseason game to get a spot on the 53-man roster.
An IR stage makes a lot of sense for the 2019 third round pick. It has a minimum of three weeks off that will allow you to recover and try to get fit. Going to IR would leave a vacancy for a roster that the 49ers could conceivably use in the WR Travis Benjamin training roster, which could also solve their point-of-return problem.
There has been no official move yet and the team can wait until after the first week to see how his knee responds before making any changes to the roster, but for now it seems to make the most sense to close it for a few weeks to make sure you can get it right and contribute at some point later in the season.