The San Francisco 49ers have been without running back Carlos Hyde the last four games, and there is no indication his status will be changing anytime soon. He suffered a stress fracture in his foot in Week 5, and there was discussion of needing six weeks of rest, give or take, for it to heal back up. With the 49ers Week 10 bye added in, he currently has five weeks under his belt.
The 49ers first practice participation report arrives Wednesday afternoon, and that will be preceded by Jim Tomsula's weekly Wednesday press conference. Tomsula spoke to the media on Monday, and he was asked about Hyde, and if surgery and shutting him down was still an option.
With five weeks left, is there any consideration to shut down RB Carlos Hyde and just have him get that surgery on his foot?
"Again, that's been, all of that's been on the table since the beginning. So, again, I listen to the doctors and the medical staff on where we need to go with that and what's the best course of action. So, right now, we're at day-to-day with Carlos and finding out exactly what that foot's responding to."
How much is he in the driver's seat on what happened with the foot? Is it up to him whether he gets surgery at this point? Has he been resisting surgery?
"Again, I don't, when it comes to the medical conversations, I don't have any comment nor do I have a lot of information, because again I made that clear we stay out of, coaches and medical decisions is not a good thing. So, we stay away. We keep that very separate. But, obviously when it comes to a human being and their body, they have a major say on what they're going to do. All of you do, that's no different here. In the way I see our medical staff do it, we have our doctors, I mean again, with Stanford you can't say enough. But, second opinions and all those things, I know that's all facilitated through our medical department. So, any second opinions and different things and all the information, that's all presented to players, who are people, human beings. So, they're obviously not told, ‘You do this.' They obviously have a major say in what they're doing. That's not just Carlos, that's in everything we do."
Tomsula has been saying Hyde is day-to-day going all the way back to the first week of rest, so that's basically meaningless at this point. Instead, we will just wait each week to see what happens. The fact that he has not been shut down yet indicates the 49ers do actually think he will get back on the field. I don't think it ends up happening, but at 3-8, I can't think of any other reason that he would return, other than his foot is in fact close to getting better. The team has to realize it is not going to the playoffs this year.
I'd prefer they shut him down, but if his foot will be able to completely heal on its own in the coming weeks, I can see why they think it's worth getting him back out there before the end of the season. One problem that comes with this is netting a couple meaningless wins and giving the organization a potentially false sense of where they stand heading into the offseason.
Fooch's update: One reason to put him on IR? There is only so much tread on a running back's legs, so why waste it in a season where the team is going nowhere fast? The point is not about him getting reinjured, but simply wearing down in a lost season.