Javon Hargrave has a Hamstring Injury

If it indeed is a pull, then Hargrave could miss the next few games along with Arik Armstead, who has a knee injury.

Grant Cohn | Dec 11, 2023

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San Francisco 49ers

Now both of the 49ers' starting defensive tackles are injured.

Javon Hargrave left Sunday's win over the Seattle Seahawks with a hamstring injury, according to head coach Kyle Shanahan. The severity of the injury currently is unclear, but if it indeed is a pull, then Hargrave could miss the next few games along with Arik Armstead, who has a knee injury.

Hargrave is having a terrific season with the 49ers. He has 6 sacks, 13 quarterback hits and 40 tackles -- he's been everything the 49ers paid for when they signed him this offseason. He and Armstead form one of the best defensive tackle duos in the NFL, and as long as both are healthy for the playoffs, the 49ers should be fine.

But the 49ers suddenly are the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoff race, so these next few games matter. And in two weeks, they'll have to face the Baltimore Ravens, who are Super Bowl contenders. The 49ers could lose that game if they don't have Hargrave.

If Hargrave and Armstead both miss next week's game against the Arizona Cardinals, the 49ers starting defensive tackles most likely will be Javon Kinlaw and Kevin Givens, who both are starting-caliber players. So the 49ers will be in good hands. But they're losing depth. Those two will need support.

Expect the 49ers to be extremely cautious with Hargrave the next few weeks. Hamstring injuries can get worse if players rush back to action too soon, and the 49ers can't risk losing Hargrave for the playoffs.

Published Dec 11, 2023

GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.