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Jeff Wilson Jr. Out 4-6 Months with Torn Meniscus

Not good news.

Grant Cohn

Not good news.

The 49ers just suffered their first major blow of the offseason, as running back Jeff Wilson Jr. had surgery recently to repair a torn meniscus in his knee, according to the NFL Network's Mike Garafolo, and will miss the next four to six months.

It's unclear when Wilson Jr. sustained the injury. It's possible the injury happened a month ago, before the draft. That would explain why the 49ers drafted two running backs (Trey Sermon and Elijah Mitchell) and signed a third running back (Wayne Gallman) in a one-week stretch during April. Head coach Kyle Shanahan will address the injury next week when he speaks to the media.

Last season, Wilson Jr. emerged as an impact player in the 49ers offense. He led the team with 10 touchdowns, and established himself as one of the hardest-running tailbacks in the NFL, and a terrific receiver, too. Had he been a regular member of the 49ers' running back rotation two years ago, they might have won the Super Bowl. He's that important.

Now, Wilson Jr. most likely will start the season on the Physically Unable to Perform List.

Which means Raheem Mostert most likely will be the starting running back, third-round pick Trey Sermon most likely will be the backup running back, sixth-round pick Elijah Mitchell most likely will be the third-string running back and veteran Wayne Gallman most likely will be the fourth-string running back.

Still a good group of backs. And when Wilson Jr. returns, it should be an even better group. But this loss will hurt no matter what.

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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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