The San Francisco 49ers were very hopeful rookie wide receiver Jalen Hurd would return from his back injury and contribute in a significant way this season. He still may, but it won't be until, at the earliest, after Week 12. The 49ers placed Hurd on injured reserve on Thursday, which will force him to sit out at least the next eight games.
Hurd injured his back during the preseason and has not played or practiced since then. He was inactive for the 49ers' first three games.
San Francisco could have placed Hurd on injured reserve earlier this season, which would have made him available sooner, but the team wasn't sure when he would be back at 100 percent.
"Anytime you have a stress fracture in your back, that was the hard thing with it," head coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters on Thursday. "There are guys that have come back in three weeks, and there are guys who it takes 10 weeks, and there's just as good of a chance to come back in three weeks as there is 10 weeks. We took that chance."
Obviously, the 49ers were gambling on Hurd potentially returning closer to three weeks rather than 10. That wasn't the case.
They gambled and lost.
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"It hasn't been healing the way we wanted it to," Shanahan continued. "The pain is still there, so we've got to give him at least another month. That's the reason why we've got to put him on IR."
General manager John Lynch joined KNBR on Thursday and discussed what went into the decision to place Hurd on injured reserve.
"We were really excited about the prospect of getting Jalen back in our offense," Lynch said on the "Tolbert, Krueger and Brooks" show. "I think everyone just — not as much as we did — but got a sample of what he could bring to our offense; a very versatile tool that we could use, a very physical football player. He had presence.
"[He] was somebody who we were really excited to work with. Unfortunately, he got this stress reaction, stress fracture in his back, and there's a wide range on how these things heal. We tried to take a conservative approach, and it still wasn't healed. It was healing, but it wasn't all the way healed, and he still had a massive amount of pain.
"We just had no other choice. We consulted our [doctors], and they consulted spine specialists, and they just said, 'Look, the only thing that's going to help this now is about six to eight weeks worth of rest.'
"He can do some rehab, but it just needed more time. So, unfortunately, we had to do that."
The 49ers made Hurd a third-round pick out of Baylor in April.
You can listen to the entire conversation with Lynch below.
