SANTA CLARA – The 49ers do not expect two of their top receivers to be available for the start of the regular season.
Slot receiver Trent Taylor, who underwent surgery on his right foot three weeks ago, and rookie Jalen Hurd, whose back condition has kept him out for two weeks, are unlikely to be in uniform when the 49ers open the season Sept. 8 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Hurd, the 49ers’ third-round draft pick, got off to a good start in training camp.
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He caught two touchdown passes in the team’s preseason opener on Aug. 10 against the Dallas Cowboys. But a back condition limited him to just eight snaps on Aug. 19 at Denver. He has not practiced or played the past two weeks.
“It’s a little more serious than we thought,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said of Hurd after the team’s preseason finale on Thursday against the Los Angeles Chargers. “Still don’t know for sure, but we thought we would have a better chance at Tampa, and now that’s not looking as good.”
Shanahan said he did not believe the 49ers would be forced to place Hurd or Taylor on injured reserve. The 49ers will likely keep both on the 53-man roster, which might force them to keep a seventh wide receiver for at least the early portion of the season.
“There’s a lot of things up in the air, especially with some of these injuries that have been a little more serious that we’ve found out over the last week than we thought previously,” Shanahan said. “It still is up in the air. We’ve got to decide on whether we’re going to go with six, whether we’re going to go with seven and it’s something we are going to be looking into hard over these next 48 hours.”
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The 49ers – and all NFL teams – must reduce their 90-man roster to the regular-season limit of 53 players by the deadline on Saturday at 1 p.m.
“We’ve got a lot of guys who can play in this league,” Shanahan said this week. “We have dealt with some injuries. We know we lost Trent. We’ll see if he’s ready for Week 1, but (that’s) highly unlikely. We know we haven’t had Hurd the last couple weeks. He’s definitely made a run, so that’s changed some stuff missing both of those two.”