The 49ers are doing something wrong at practice this year.
Maybe it’s the way they’re warming up. Maybe it’s something else. But we’re just three days into training camp, and three players already have gone done due to hamstring injuries.
Ricky Pearsall suffered a “bad one” during Phase 1 of the offseason program, according to head coach Kyle Shanahan. That’s before practices even start. The team says he will make his long-awaited return tomorrow. We’ll see.
Then, on Day 1 of training camp, wide receiver Jacob Cowing pulled his hamstring while warming up — he never actually made it to 11-on-11 team drills.
Now, Renardo Green appears to have injured his hamstring — the 49ers haven’t yet disclosed the exact nature or the severity of his injury. But he limped off the field while holding his left hamstring and did not return to practice on Friday. This was after he sprinted downfield and broke up a deep pass that was intended for Jauan Jennings.
Green was having by far his best practice of the offseason. He broke up three passes — two that were intended for Jennings and one that was intended for rookie Jordan Watkins. Until yesterday, Green had struggled against 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy. But Purdy missed Friday’s practice due to personal reasons, and so Mac Jones became the starting quarterback for a day, and he tested Green. And Green passed the test, until he injured himself.
While Green is out, the 49ers’ starting cornerbacks probably will be Deommodore Lenoir and Tre Brown with rookie Upton Stout in the slot. Third-year cornerback Darrell Luter Jr. could take reps with the starters as well.
The 49ers better figure out why so many players are pulling hamstrings. These are preventable soft-tissue injuries, but once they happen, they tend to linger. It’s fair to wonder if Green, Pearsall and Cowing ever truly will be 100 percent healthy the rest of the season.
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