12:15pm: False alarm. On Wednesday morning, Ford explained that he sent a goodbye text to his teammates since he was en route to off-campus injury rehab. That text was misinterpreted by at least one of his teammates as a farewell, hence the earlier report.
“The articles saying I told my teammates I expected to be released are false,” Ford told Mike Silver of NFL.com (Twitter link). “I’m going to be getting rehab and taking the time needed to get back and I was saying goodbye to the boys because I wouldn’t be in the building. We are still rolling. We’re just taking the time needed.”
9:04am: Earlier this week, we learned that Dee Ford is unlikely to return from the injured reserve list this year. With that, the veteran edge rusher is expecting to be released by the 49ers, perhaps as soon as today (via PFT).
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“That’s something I never can predict,” head coach Kyle Shanahan said when asked about Ford’s outlook. “But I’ll be surprised if he’s back. I think we’ll just have to continue playing without him.”
The 49ers traded for Ford during the 2019 offseason and saw him play a key role in their Super Bowl LIV run as a part-timer. Unfortunately, he’s been limited to just 18 regular season games in SF over the last two seasons and change.
Ford’s original deal was a five-year, $85MM deal. In March, he agreed to scale it down to a two-year pact worth $24MM. If the Niners cut him, they’ll save $2.09MM on the 2022 books with $9.8MM left in dead money.
The former first-round pick has played in just six games this year and hasn’t taken the field since Oct. 24th. He was productive while healthy, however, tallying three sacks to bring his career total to 40.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.