49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan gave an update on Jalen Hurd that makes the third-year wide receiver’s future with the club more unclear than ever. Figuring out how to proceed with Hurd could become one of the thorniest issues the 49ers front office and coaching staff have to navigate during final cuts.
Hurd, a 2019 third-round pick from Baylor, has seen his first two seasons marred by injuries. As a rookie he suffered a season-ending back injury during the second week of the preseason. Last year he tore his ACL early in training camp. Now he’s dealing with another knee issue according to Shanahan.
“He’s got some knee tendonitis,” Shanahan said. “So instead of going one day off and three on, we just made the decision a couple of days ago to shut him down for the week. We’ll make sure he gets at least seven days off. I think it was five days before that. So, it’s going to be a little over 10 days. Hopefully when we get to Las Vegas week, that’ll be the right answer. I hope he’ll be a little bit better.”
Lack of practice time already put Hurd’s roster status in question, but it may not be as simple as simply cutting ties with him and moving on. The 49ers have a few different options depending on how the next several days play out.
Assuming Hurd returns healthy for the third week of the preseason, he’ll have four practices and a game to show the coaching staff he’s worthy of a roster spot. The good news for him is the receiving corps is relatively thin, although roster spots are starting to become less available as camp rolls on and some players separate themselves.
Their first option is to keep Hurd on the roster and play him. This seems like the least likely scenario since players like Mohammed Sanu, Trent Sherfield and Jauan Jennings have stood out in camp. However, if Hurd comes back to action and shows out, there’s room in the receiving corps for a player as potentially dynamic as he is.
Then there’s the option where they keep Hurd on the roster, but place him on Injured Reserve. Going on IR after final roster cuts affords the player an opportunity to return to action that season. Perhaps Hurd’s knee tendinitis continues acting up, the club could keep him on the roster, place him on IR, and kick the can down the road for a minimum six weeks. They downside here is that he’d eat a roster spot until he got to IR, and San Francisco would have to risk cutting a player they want and hoping he clears waivers.
Another way to get Hurd to IR is through waivers. This is risky since he’d have to be waived/injured and then clear waivers to get back to the 49ers’ IR list. That would also end his season. The problem here is there’s no guarantee he clears waivers. He’s a former third-round pick with a ton of upside that another team could easily take a flier on. San Francisco saw this happen with defensive back DJ Reed who was waived/injured last offseason with a chest injury and scooped up by the Seahawks.
A similar option is trying to get Hurd to the practice squad. This would also involve sneaking him through waivers, which would likely prove difficult for the same reasons outlined above.
There’s also the scenario where the cut Hurd outright. His 49ers tenure would’ve amounted to a couple preseason touchdowns and zero regular-season games played. This seems like a colossal waste of talent to just let go to another team, but this is why none of these choices are necessarily easy for San Francisco.
Waiving Hurd to try and get him back on the practice squad or IR risks him getting scooped up by another club. Cutting him all but ensures he’d go to another club. Keeping him though means eliminating a roster spot on a players who is a sizable question mark even if he is healthy enough to play.
Hurd may be a player at his floor now, but his ceiling is still exceedingly high. That’s why none of those answers are easy for San Francisco. It may all ride on how Hurd plays following a 10-day absence. More injury woes could lead the 49ers to simply cut ties. If he flashes at all though, it’s easy to see the team talking themselves into his upside.
No matter what, it’s going to be a very difficult decision for the 49ers, and the picture of Hurd’s future with the team is going to remain unclear right up until final cuts and possibly after.