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49ers Punter Mitch Wishnowsky Injured his Back Against the Buccaneers

Just when you thought the 49ers special teams' issues couldn't get any worse, they get worse.

Grant Cohn

Oct 6, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers punter Mitch Wishnowsky (3) after the game against the Arizona Cardinals at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images
Oct 6, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers punter Mitch Wishnowsky (3) after the game against the Arizona Cardinals at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images / Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images
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Just when you thought the 49ers special teams' issues couldn't get any worse, they get worse.

One of the only bright spots on the 49ers' putrid special teams, punter Mitch Wishnowsky, injured his back Sunday against the Buccaneers and is day to day according to head coach Kyle Shanahan.

"His back flared up a little," Shanahan said, "so we're going to evaluate some treatment options this week and see how he deals these next couple days."

Wishnowsky was the 49ers' fourth-round pick in 2019. Now he's 32 -- he was 27 when he entered the NFL. And his body has begun to break down this season. He hasn't missed any regular-season games, but missed all of training camp and preseason with knee irritation. And he conceivably could miss this Sunday's home game against the Seattle Seahawks. We'll see if he practices this week.

If his back injury is really bothering him, the 49ers will need to sign a punter to the practice squad, someone they could call up to the 53-man roster on Saturday if they need him to play.

They could sign free agent punter Pressley Harvin. He was their kicker during training camp and preseason while Wishnowsky was out, and Harvin performed well, particularly when it came to landing punts near the opponent's goal line which is Wishnowsky's best skill.

Through nine games this season, the 49ers special teams have been a complete disaster, and it only seems to be getting worse. Former third-round pick Jake Moody could get released if he misses another field goal attempt next week considering he missed three on Sunday.

Stay tuned.

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Grant Cohn
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.

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