There are a handful of players who have yet to participate in training camp for the San Francisco 49ers.
One of those players who has been up in the air with his status is pass rusher Drake Jackson. Jackson has been recovering from patellar tendon surgery. As a result, the 49ers provided an unfortunate update on him on Monday.
“We don’t have a timeline. I know it won’t be any time in camp. So we have to see how rehab continues to go, but definitely not any time in camp.” Kyle Shanahan said.
“Anytime you do that type of surgery that he had, I think [Mike] McGlinchey had a similar one, those are big surgeries. They’re tough to come back from and you never know how they’re gonna react. We always know it’s a possibility to take a long time and it’s taking a long time.”
So Jackson has been ruled out of ever being ready at any point while training camp is open. That is tough news for the third-year pass rusher. He really needed that practice time to find a role on the depth chart, but now it is practically confirmed that he will be buried on it.
The 49ers basically threw the towel back in Week 3 of the 2023 season with ever hoping Jackson can be an impact player. He had an incredible three sack performance in Week 1 and never saw anywhere close to an outing like that again. That is why the 49ers acquired Randy Gregory and put him ahead of Jackson once he joined.
Even Shanahan himself isn’t batting an eye over Jackson’s absence because he knows he and the 49ers have moved on with the players they now have at the position.
“We knew that coming in with Drake and we’ve also, bringing in Yetur [Gross-Matos] and bringing in Leonard [Floyd]. We’ve addressed that and especially with some of the guys that we lost. So we feel good about what we came in with our D-line. And five practices in, we feel just as good, if not better.”
It’s a bummer for Jackson, but he’s been just a guy holding a roster spot for the 49ers since the 2023 season.
