49ers place wide receiver J.J. Nelson on the injured reserve

The San Francisco 49ers have placed wide receiver J.J. Nelson on the injured reserve.

The San Francisco 49ers have suffered an unprecedented number of injuries at the wide receiver position this summer with the latest coming to veteran J.J. Nelson.

Nelson reportedly injured his knee in practice last week as revealed by head coach Kyle Shanahan when he joined the folks over at KNBR on Friday. Shanahan said that Nelson would “probably be out here for the next month” further decimating the 49ers’ receiving corps.

But on Sunday, the 49ers officially placed the veteran wideout on the injured reserve seemingly ending his brief tenure with the organization.

The expectation is that Nelson won’t remain on the IR for long as he’s likely to receive an injury settlement in the near future. Considering the injury is only expected to keep him out for around a month, that makes sense.

This way Nelson will have an opportunity to sign with another team while the 49ers could look to replace him on the roster with someone who can contribute immediately.

And given the state of the wide receiver depth chart, that’s likely for the best part.

The 49ers won’t be able to count on J.J. Nelson to aid their struggling receiving corps.

The 49ers hope that Deebo Samuel will be ready for Week 1, but the 2019 rookie standout remains sidelined with a broken foot he suffered a couple of months ago.

Meanwhile, 2020 first-round pick Brandon Aiyuk is yet to return to practice after injuring his hamstring last week. Jalen Hurd also tore his ACL and is set to miss his second consecutive season after landing on the injured reserve in his rookie season.

Combine that with an injury to Richie James and Travis Benjamin’s decision to opt-out of the 2020 season and you have a barren receiving corps searching for any help.

The hope was that Nelson could provide that help. Instead, he’ll end up just like the others on the injury report.

Nelson is one of a number of veteran wideouts that the team has signed in recent weeks with the likes of Tavon Austin, Kevin White, and River Cracraft also joining the team.

Here’s to hoping that they don’t end up like Nelson and can remain on the gridiron.