Niners Nation
The 49ers placed six players on the Active/Physically Unable to Perform List. Ben Bartch and George Odum were placed on the Active/Non-Football Injury list
The San Francisco 49ers announced eight transactions on Friday afternoon, ahead of the veterans reporting for training camp next week.
Six players were placed on the Active/Physically Unable to Perform List:
WR Brandon Aiyuk
OL Andre Dillard
Edge Yetur Gross-Matos
S Malik Mustapha
WR Ricky Pearsall
LB Curtis Robinson
The Active/PUP list is for players who are unable to start training camp due to a football-related injury. They can return to practice as soon as they’re medically cleared.
The 49ers have broken up their training camp dates more than ever. They’ll practice next Wednesday through Friday, with a day off in between on Saturday. Then they’ll have another three practice blocks from Sunday, July 27, to Friday, July 29. That’s a typical schedule under Kyle Shanahan.
The difference comes in the third block. This time around, the Niners — likely when they start turning up the physicality at practice — the third block doesn’t start until Monday, August 4. This is the first time that we’ve seen a week-ish break once training camp has already begun.
August 4 would make sense as a return date for Pearsall. He was sidelined initially after tweaking a hamstring. At the last training camp, a shoulder injury prevented Pearsall from practicing immediately.
There’s no logical reason to rush back Pearsall if he’s nursing any sort of injury. They need their first-rounder from a year ago to develop into a reliable target for Brock Purdy.
The Aiyuk news isn’t a surprise after hearing about his recovery and a possible return as early as Week 5. But it does put more pressure on Pearsall to accelerate his learning curve as a pro.
Speaking of taking pressure off your teammates, in June, Kyle Shanahan said Gross-Matos had “just some old knee wear and tear. We’re just being smart with him. He’ll be fine by training camp.”
Gross-Matos would be another beneficiary of a practice schedule with more breaks. During his first training camp with the 49ers, Gross-Matos suffered a knee injury in the preseason against the Las Vegas Raiders that was not considered severe at the time, but caused Gross-Matos to miss Week 1. He ended up on the Injured Reserve in early October to undergo knee surgery. The next time we’d see Gross-Matos was in Week 11.
It’s a great sign that Mustapha is listed with this group. He posted a clip of his recovery training in late June, where he was putting plenty of pressure on his surgically repaired knee. The 49ers’ inactivity in the free agency market is another reason to be optimistic about him being ready in time for Week 1.
The 49ers can slowly work Pearsall, Gross-Matos, and Mustapha up to football speed at their own pace, given the breaks in the schedule. It’s a sign that Shanahan is adapting and willing to change things — like strict...
