The San Francisco 49ers would likely prefer any other theme than the one most closely associated with their 2025 preseason campaign: injuries.
With two weeks of exhibition football in the books, the Niners already lost two running backs -- Ameer Abdullah (ribs) and Patrick Taylor Jr. (shoulder) -- to season-ending injured reserve, while defensive end Bradlee Anae was released from IR with an injury settlement.
And those transactions don't even account for the multitude of players who've been unavailable for various other injury setbacks but nevertheless didn't land on any specific list.
This has forced general manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan to juggle spots on the back end of the 90-man preseason roster, often having to part ways with players they'd otherwise like to keep just to make sure the remaining depth charts have enough bodies.