San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters Monday that Jimmie Ward’s status for the regular season opener is in jeopardy. The veteran free safety suffered a hamstring injury during Sunday’s practice that is severe enough that he may not be able to go when the team travels to Chicago for Week 1.
“Yeah, it was a pretty bad hamstring injury,” said Shanahan. “We’ll see over the next couple of weeks how it plays out.”
Ward has spent his entire career with the 49ers after the club selected him in the fourth round of the first round of the 2014 NFL Draft out of Northern Illinois. While injuries have put a damper on the earlier years of his career, Ward has been much more durable over the past three seasons and has become a key piece to San Francisco’s secondary.
The 31-year-old is also coming off a career year in 2021 where he totaled 77 tackles, six pass breakups and two interceptions in 16 games played (all starts). Ward allowed opposing quarterbacks to complete just 59.1% of their passes against him with a 92.5 passer rating.
Shanahan added that the 49ers may even need to add some safety help, even as clubs across the NFL are required to trim down to an 85-man roster by 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday.
“We probably will have to add some more people there,” Shanahan said. “Especially with Dontae [Johnson], because Dontae’s done a real good job also. He might be out this week too with his rib cartilage. So we’ll see how it goes with the roster. We might move our nickels around a little bit just for some guys, but hopefully, we’ll get some more guys in here soon.”
Along with Ward and Johnson, Tarvarius Moore, George Odum, and undrafted rookie Tayler Hawkins currently make up San Francisco’s safety depth chart.
