Should the 49ers Expect Another Injury-Filled Season in 2021?

Let's list every key contributor on the 49ers who has an injury history.

Grant Cohn | May 10, 2021

Injuries in football are fluky and unpredictable.

Except in Santa Clara, where the 49ers have ranked ranked among the NFL's top 10 most-injured teams eight seasons in a row. This is the 49ers' most consistent achievement since they broke ground for Levi's Stadium in 2012.

Should we expect the 49ers to finally end this pattern, or should we expect another injury-filled season in 2021?

Before we answer, let's list every key contributor on the 49ers who has an injury history.

1. George Kittle. He missed eight games last season -- two with a knee injury and six with a broken foot. He also missed two games in 2019 with a knee injury, and he played through cracked ribs in 2018. He has gotten injured every season he has been in the league, and he'll turn 28 in October.

2. Nick Bosa. He missed 14 games last season with a torn ACL. He tore his other ACL in high school, and had a serious core-muscle surgery in college. He's not even 24 and has had more surgeries than some players in their 30s.

3. Deebo Samuel. Missed nine games last season due to foot and hamstring injuries. Has had a history of breaking bones and pulling hamstrings dating back to college.

4. Jason Verrett. Played 13 games last season, which was by far the healthiest year he's had since 2015. He never has played a full season.

5. Raheem Mostert. Missed eight games last season with a high-ankle sprain, missed seven games in 2018 with a broken forearm and missed five games in 2017 for good measure. Still has carried the ball only 282 times in his career.

6. Jeff Wilson Jr. Hard runner who missed four games last season with a high-ankle sprain. Has carried the ball only 219 times in his career.

7. Trey Sermon. Carried the ball only once in the 2021 National Championship Game due to a separated shoulder, and carried the ball only 54 times in all of 2019 due to various injuries.

8. Jaquiski Tartt. He has missed 26 games the past four seasons.

9. Jimmie Ward. Missed two games in 2020 and hasn't played a full season since 2015.

10. Jimmy Garoppolo. Has started only 32 games in his career, but has gotten injured four times and missed 28 games.

11. Dee Ford. Missed all but one game last season with a back injury after missing five games in 2019 with a quad injury. The 49ers will be grateful for anything he gives them in the future.

12. D.J. Jones. Has missed 22 games in four seasons.

13. K'Waun Williams. Missed eight games last season, and has missed at least one game every season he has been in the league. Turns 30 in July.

14. Brandon Aiyuk. Missed a game last season because of a hamstring injury and one because of an ankle injury.

15. Trent Williams. Finished last season on IR with an elbow injury, and hasn't played an entire season since 2013.

What a list.

The 49ers have built their team around injury-prone players. More than half of their best players break down frequently. So until they change the roster, we probably should expect more of the same.

I hope I'm wrong.

Published May 10, 2021

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.