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Kyle Shanahan Discusses 49ers RB Jordan Mason's Shoulder Injury

Shanahan downplayed the severity of Mason's shoulder injury, which sounds good on the surface.

Grant Cohn

Oct 6, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers running back Jordan Mason (24) before the game against the Arizona Cardinals at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images
Oct 6, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers running back Jordan Mason (24) before the game against the Arizona Cardinals at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images / Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images
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SEATTLE -- Jordan Mason sprained the AC joint shoulder Thursday during the 49ers' 36-24 win over the Seahawks. He returned to the game for one play, ran the ball out of bounds, got hit by no one and never returned. Clearly, the mere act of running was too painful.

Still, the 49ers haven't ruled out Mason for next Sunday against the Chiefs.

"We take it as good news," head coach Kyle Shanahan said. "It doesn't guarantee this week or anything. He does have an AC sprain, but it was positive that it wasn't worse than that. So, he’ll be day-to-day this week. Hopefully he'll be good for the game, but no guarantees.”

But why did Mason return to Thursday's game for one play before leaving again?

“I'm not sure exactly," Shanahan said. "Jordan's as tough as anybody. I'm sure if he has a chance to play, he will. But we’ve got to just see how the shoulder responds. We're only a day out."

Shanahan downplayed the severity of Mason's shoulder injury, which sounds good on the surface until you remember that Shanahan has downplayed practically every injury this season, including Christian McCaffrey's bilateral Achilles tendonitis. Shanahan first called that a calf strain.

It's worth noting that first-round pick Ricky Pearsall had a subluxed shoulder this offseason which he reaggravated multiple times. The 49ers would be wise to be patient with Mason because the last thing they need is for his shoulder injury to linger for longer than it needs to.

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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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