San Francisco 49ers defensive lineman Arik Armstead left the game early for the second game in a row with the same shoulder issue that has been plaguing him since training camp. He has mentioned that he might need shoulder surgery to repair the damage. With the shortages of personnel on the defense the team has needed Armstead to power through the injury. It seems that time should come to an end.
The team is now 1-7 and looking at very tough opponents ahead. They travel to Arizona next week and host the Patriots the week after that. When I asked head coach Chip Kelly about the possibility of taking care of Armstead’s shoulder injury, he didn’t answer the question, more than once. Here is the interchange:
Have you thought of DL Arik Armstead having the shoulder surgery?
I don’t have the information in terms of what happened to him today. I know he was out and he was done. During the course of the game all they tell me is he’s out and he could come back or he’s out for the game. I was just told he was out for the game, so I haven’t had a chance to talk to the doctors.
Was there any thought of having him take care of--?
Again, I haven’t had any conversations about anything about his injury today. I don’t know what the injury was today.
Just to have it taken care of for the season, because he’s been in and out.
Again, I don’t know what the injury was today, so there hasn’t been any conversations about anything like that. So, I’m sorry. I’ll get that information for you. Hopefully I get it for you tomorrow.
Unfortunately, the defensive lineman that the 49ers had picked up off of waivers from the Eagles, Taylor Hart, was claimed back by the same team (He was also ruled out this week with an ankle injury). Hart was waived to make room for DuJuan Harris who took the place of injured Carlos Hyde. The DL is pretty beat up. The team just got back Glenn Dorsey who was finally active after sitting out a few games due to recovery from an his ACL injury from last season. Quinton Dial is still wearing a knee brace and DeForest Buckner is just back from having a foot injury that kept him out a game. Other defensive linemen on the roster include Tony Jerod-Eddie, NT Mike Purcell and tweener Ronald Blair.