San Francisco defensive tackle Kalia Davis will need knee surgery after getting injured in the team’s first exhibition game, adding to the 49ers’ growing list of injury woes.
At practice on Monday, the team was missing more than a dozen players due to injuries, which led coach Kyle Shanahan to cancel a planned joint practice with the New Orleans Saints later in the week.
“It was tough because we like to do it,” Shanahan said on Monday. “In the long run, I waited so long to make the decision because of how much we enjoy doing it. But when we realized we were just doing it because we were enjoying to do it and trying to change the monotony it didn’t make it worth it.”
Most of the injured players have minor issues that should heal by the season opener on September 9. However, Davis will be out for a significant portion of the season.
Shanahan expects Davis to miss about half of the regular season due to his injury from Saturday night. Cornerback Ambry Thomas also broke his forearm in that game and will miss about half of the season as well.
Davis had one sack and two tackles for loss against Tennessee on Saturday, showing the potential the 49ers hoped for after he played sparingly in his first two seasons due to a knee injury from college.
“I thought he played one of his best games,” Shanahan said. “It was really unfortunate. He played awesome through the whole game, and that is why we, he and us were surprised he had such a tough injury.”
While Thomas and Davis are the only ones with injuries expected to last into the season, several other players, including Christian McCaffrey, Elijah Mitchell, Ricky Pearsall, Isaac Yiadom, Jon Feliciano, and Spencer Burford, are currently sidelined. This led to the decision to cancel the joint practices with the Saints.
The 49ers value these joint practices for giving starters more structured work than in exhibition games, but they decided it was best to skip them this year due to health concerns.
“I was very disappointed,” cornerback Deommodore Lenoir said. “We’ve been competing with each other for so long. I feel like being able to actually unleash that on another team would have been great for two days and then play some in a game. Just get a little scrappy out there.”
San Francisco is still missing two other key players at practice. Receiver Brandon Aiyuk is attending meetings but is not practicing or working out with the team due to a “hold in” related to his contract situation. Left tackle Trent Williams is holding out while seeking a new contract.
Shanahan believes Aiyuk will be ready for the season if the contract issue is resolved. “Brandon knows what he has to do for this year to get ready to play,” Shanahan said.
“I’m feeling he’s finding a way to stay in shape and do those things, but there’s a football-shape element he’s eager to get back to. Hopefully he’ll get to that soon. Brandon knows what he has to do to be in shape for the season and I feel confident he’s doing that.”
On Monday, the Niners signed veteran receiver Robbie Chosen to a one-year contract and waived receiver Frank Darby due to an injury.
The 31-year-old Chosen, formerly known as Robby Anderson, had 4,155 receiving yards in his first five NFL seasons with the New York Jets and Carolina.
However, he has been less productive in the past three seasons. Last season, he played nine games for Miami with only four catches for 126 yards and one touchdown.
Safety Talanoa Hufanga, who is recovering from a torn ACL suffered last November, may return soon. Hufanga will meet with doctors on Thursday to see if he’s ready to resume practice.
