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Tuesday afternoon, the San Francisco 49ers announced they were waiving wide receiver Kyle Williams and cornerback Perrish Cox. Additionally, they activated linebacker Nick Moody from his short term injured reserve designation. The transactions leave the 49ers one player short on the 53-man roster.
The question now is who will fill the roster spot. The team has several question marks to address, and various players could fill different needs. The current holes, or at least potential holes, include safety, tight end and wide receiver.
Safety
The 49ers biggest issue here is Eric Reid's concussion. The rookie safety suffered his second concussion of the season after taking a big hit while attempting to tackle running back Mike Tolbert. Reid left Sunday's game, and afterward Coach Harbaugh said Reid looked about as well as could be expected. We have no subsequent update, although I'm sure Coach Harbaugh will get another question about it during his Wednesday noon press conference. As it currently stands, unless the 49ers rule Reid out sooner rather than later, we won't know his status for sure until Friday or Saturday at the earliest.
Tight End
The 49ers took two hits here, with Vernon Davis suffering a concussion and Garrett Celek straining his hamstring. Davis met with the media on Tuesday and seemed in good spirits. He will go through the concussion protocol for the second time in a little under a year. He believes this concussion is minor compared to the one he suffered against the Seahawks, so that is a plus.
Celek left Sunday's game early on with a hamstring strain. At this point he indicated it is not a tear, but he's not positive the extent of the strain. Coach Harbaugh said both tight ends were undergoing some testing earlier in the week. I suspect both will be limited or DNPs for much of practice this week.
Wide Receiver
The 49ers decision to release Kyle Williams leaves them with three healthy full-time wide receivers in Anquan Boldin, Mario Manningham and Jon Baldwin. Kassim Osgood is a wide receiver, but that is mostly just in name. Quinton Patton is continuing his own rehab from a foot injury, but is still a ways off.
The 49ers decision to leave on roster spot open had several people pondering if Michael Crabtree would be activated. I can say right now that I think the odds of that are very long. He is working his way back to 100 percent, and there is no point in rushing him. Yes, the 49ers need weapons against the Saints. But that should not dictate his return at this point.
Predictions
If Reid, Davis and Celek are all ruled fine by the end of the week, I have no idea who would get the call from the practice squad. I am operating under the assumption that one of these three is likely to be inactive on Sunday. My prediction at this point is that either TE Derek Carrier or DB Michael Thomas get activated by Sunday.
Thomas played mostly slot corner during the preseason, but he played plenty of safety in college, and can fill that role if needed. Undrafted rookie DB Daxton Swanson appears to have signed with the 49ers (at least according to his Twitter account), but I would have to think that would be to the practice squad to replace either Carrier or Thomas. Swanson's signing is not official, so we'll see how this plays out.