Wide receiver Jalen Hurd is on track to rejoin the 49ers for the offseason program after sitting out his rookie year with a stress fracture in his lower back.
INDIANAPOLIS — Wide receiver Jalen Hurd’s 49ers tenure is on track to restart in April, after a back injury shelved his entire rookie season.
That’s good news for a receiving corps that is annually in flux, not to mention being mostly invisible in 49ers’ playoff run to the Super Bowl.
General manager John Lynch and coach Kyle Shanahan, in speaking Tuesday at the NFL scouting combine, expressed optimism about Hurd’s recovering from a “stubborn” stress fracture in his lower back.
“We think we’re nearing toward a much better place, to where he’ll be cleared for all activities,” Lynch said. “Don’t want to officially give that word. But there’s been some recent scans that give us a lot of hope that will be the case, and come April in the offseason program he’ll be a full go.”
Hurd scored two touchdowns in last August’s exhibition opener against Dallas to enthrall 49ers fans, then he went on injured reserve in October and never suited up for an official game.
The 49ers’ corps no doubt needs a boost, as is typically the case. They’ve invested second-day draft picks on Dante Pettis (2018 second round), Deebo Samuel (2019 second round) and Hurd (2019 third round), and they’re interviewing top draft prospects at this week’s combine, including speedy receivers Jalen Reagor (TCU) and Henry Ruggs (Alabama).
“They talked to me a lot about being versatile and that they’d used me anywhere with the offense,” Reagor said. “They want a chance to use my speed. In the (NFC Championship Game), they threw the ball eight times and they said, ‘We look to change that.’ ”
Unlike most injured-reserve players, Hurd did not accompany the 49ers to Miami for the Super Bowl. Why? “A little anxiety on his part that long plane rides set him off before and he worked so hard to try to get right, and he didn’t want that to enter the equation,” Lynch answered.
Added Shanahan: “With the back stuff, he didn’t want to travel or be in the meetings. There wasn’t much to do. He had a stress fracture. It’s taken a long time to heal. We wanted him as immobile as possible.”
And now they’re hoping Hurd can mobilize on the practice field for the first time since October.
“We’ll see. I would hope so,” Shanahan said. “It’s been awhile. I don’t know for sure but would expect.”
As for the rest of the receiving corps, here are updates:
On Emmanuel Sanders: He is slated for free agency after flourishing as a starter upon a midseason trade. “He did everything we hoped for and more,” Shanahan said. “I don’t think we would have got to where we got to without Emmanuel. I would love for anything to have Emmanuel back, but we’ve got to see how that plays out, too.”
On Dante Pettis, who rode the bench the last three months of the season: “I want to see that while he’s away, he’s been on a mission. That is what some guys go through. Dante did that his rookie year trying to make the league and stuff. He took a documented step back in the second year, which I’ve been around a lot of players who have done that. The players I’ve been around, which has been a ton, they go one way or the other: they keep being like that and usually filter out, or it’s a wake-up call for them and they come back and you can see it in April, that ‘this guy treated January to April so much different than the year before,’ and it usually changes their career. I saw it with Ahkello (Witherspoon) the way he came back last offseason. He looked different and you could tell he was on a mission. That’s why those first few games before he got hurt he was playing at an extremely high level. And that’s what I expect to happen with Dante.”
On Marquise Goodwin, who went on injured reserve to have surgery on his toe and knee: “We wouldn’t release Marquise. He’s too valuable. He fell out of the rotation then had an injury and wanted to go on IR so he could get it cleaned up. I think it is. I haven’t seen him for a while. ‘Quise is a guy who can play in this league. If he’s on our team, he’s going to be competing with that group, and if not, I feel confident another team will want him.”
On Kendrick Bourne, a restricted free agent: “He helped us the last two years but at some point in the midseason, Kendrick Bourne took a huge step forward, so we went with three guys and didn’t want to rotate as much.”
