The San Francisco 49ers welcomed rookies, quarterbacks and injured players to training camp on Monday, and we have some early news. Following physicals, the team announced on Tuesday that five players will open the season on an injured list. Daniel Kilgore has been placed on the PUP list. Carlos Hyde, Aaron Lynch, DeAndre Smelter and Trenton Brown have all been placed on the NFI list.
The Kilgore news is not surprising. He hurt his lower leg in the Denver Broncos game last year, and was still recovering in the offseason workout program. He was hoping to be ready at the start of camp, but there was some thought it might be delayed a bit. He will continue rehabbing, and Marcus Martin and Joe Looney will be the guys to watch at center for now.
DeAndre Smelter is not a surprise given his ACL tear last year, but the other three names on the NFI list are a bit surprising. Aaron Lynch did not participate in practices at the offseason workout program due to a hamstring injury. This would seem to indicate the injury occurred away from the facility. If it was an injury during the program, he would be on the PUP list.
Carlos Hyde was dealing with something as well, and it would also be an off-the-field issue. Trenton Brown was a participant in the offseason workout program, getting some first team tackle reps in OTAs. This would indicate an injury either after minicamp, or some time in between OTAs and minicamp when he was not at the 49ers facility.
It is important to note that these moves are necessary to retain certain roster injury list rights. If the 49ers did not utilize one of these lists for these five players, they would have lost the right to use it for them moving forward. My guess is Hyde and Lynch are removed sooner rather than later, but we'll see. As for Brown, this could open the door to stashing him for a year, rather than risk sending him through waivers to the practice squad. Here is the full explanation for how these lists work.
In light of that, this seemingly means Darnell Dockett and Jimmie Ward will be practicing from day one at training camp. This bodes as good news considering both did not participate in practice at the offseason workout program. Ideally this means both are at 100 percent and ready to compete in camp.