The 49ers are up against it with their short-term IR, and now they’re facing another significant injury that could push them to their limit.
Running back Elijah Mitchell suffered an MCL sprain in Week 12 that is expected to keep him out at least through the regular season. Typically putting a player like that on IR with the intention of bringing him back would be an easy call. Placing him there opens a roster spot and allows the team to utilize that roster spot on a different player.
For San Francisco it isn’t that simple. Teams are allowed to return eight players from IR per season. The 49ers have already brought six players back from IR – Mitchell, FS Jimmie Ward, LB Curtis Robinson, OL Colton McKivitz, DL Jordan Mason and LB Azeez Al-Shaair. They’re also planning on bringing back DL Javon Kinlaw, who head coach Kyle Shanahan indicated is getting close to returning.
Once Kinlaw comes back, San Francisco will only have one short-term IR slot left. It seemed logical when news of Mitchell’s six-to-eight week injury came out that the 49ers would use that last IR spot on a second stint for the RB, but Shanahan on Friday told reporters that’s not necessarily a slam dunk decision.
“Yeah, you’re allowed eight, that’s the biggest thing and I think we need to use them by then because the playoffs aren’t four weeks long, so I think we have two more also,” Shanahan said. “I’m not exactly sure on that, but that’s the stuff that goes into it, that’s why we didn’t decide to do it with Arik. Even though it was a long time ago, we just weren’t sure how many we’d have at the end of the year and we feel pretty good, six games left, where we’re at, but we’ll make that a decision on Elijah, most likely in the next 24 hours.”
For San Francisco the decision comes down to how good they feel about their RB depth and whether they want to clear a roster spot for a player like Tevin Coleman, who’s on the practice squad.
They may decide to wait on Mitchell and see how the next couple of weeks play out. If they suffer another injury at a spot where they have less depth, they’d likely rather use the remaining short-term IR slot for that so they can sign a player to fill that void.
Either way the decision isn’t going to be easy, and if things go well for the 49ers, it’ll be the last such choice they’ll have to make all year.
