The San Francisco 49ers have made an intriguing roster move. The team announced on Tuesday that they have signed wide receiver DeAndre Smelter to the practice squad, and released wide receiver Dres Anderson from the ten-man squad.
The 49ers waived Smelter with an injury settlement back during final roster cuts. Here’s what I wrote at the time:
The settlement gives Smelter a fixed amount of money (X weeks) due to being injured and removes him from the 49ers roster. He can immediately sign with another team, but the 49ers can technically re-sign him later in the year. When an injury settlement is agreed upon, the original team can re-sign the player the settlement time + 3 weeks. If they agree to a settlement covering 3 game checks, the 49ers could re-sign him after six weeks. If the settlement was 5 games checks, the 49ers could re-sign him after eight weeks (good explainer here, linked in gtflded72’s settlement FanPost).
This would suggest it was a three week settlement, since that plus three weeks puts us into this week. The 49ers have serious issues at wide receiver, and they invested a fourth round comp pick on Smelter. The Georgia Tech product tore his ACL, and was one of the medical “redshirts” his rookie season. He scuffled along in the spring and into training camp, missing quite a bit of time. The team is in a position to work with him, and hopefully develop him into some kind of pass catcher.