Barber: 49ers’ injuries quickly putting team in a bind

This is how dynasties get nipped in the bud.

When you look at how frequently Super Bowl teams return for a repeat performance the following season, the numbers are ridiculously low: In the past 20 years, only four teams have gone back-to-back on the big stage, and three of them have been iterations of the New England Patriots.

Why? The factor coaches love to talk about is desire. All of them implore their players to hide from Freddy P. Soft, as Jim Harbaugh used to refer to the voice whispering “You’re the best” in a football player’s ear. It makes sense to harp on that, because there isn’t much else a coach can do to influence his team when he isn’t actively coaching or game-planning.

The Press Democrat’s Inside the 49ers blog

NFL analysts like to talk about the rest of the league “catching up” to an offense or defense, and of course there is attrition by free agency and retirement. Those are real concerns. But I would sacrifice all of them for a season of perfect health.

There is no such thing, of course, not in the NFL. But the closer a Super Bowl team can come to remaining injury-free, the better its odds of making another deep playoff run.

This is immediately relevant for the 49ers in 2020, because they aren’t anything close to injury-free at the moment. They have played one week of football, and two of their five best players are scathed.

Tight end George Kittle will almost certainly play against the Jets on Sunday, though I’m not sure how Kittle-like he will be on a bad knee. We saw that one coming. Much more shocking was the 49ers’ announcement Wednesdaythat cornerback Richard Sherman was headed to the injured reserve with a calf injury.

Sherman’s limp, if he had one, went unnoticed during last Sunday’s season-opening loss to the Cardinals. His absence this Sunday (he will miss at least three games) will be more obvious.

Sherman is as important as any player on the 49ers. Some of that significance has to do with his position of cerebral leadership.

“Just his intangibles as a leader for this — not only defense, but as a leader of the team. Him being the seasoned vet that he is,” middle linebacker Fred Warner said Wednesday. “But I know guys are ready to step up. It’s always ‘next man up’ in this league, and I think guys are ready. If we put the right week of practice in that I know guys are going to, we should be firing on all cylinders this week.”

If resorting to clichés is an indication of concern, Warner is practically shaking in his cleats.

Which would be understandable, because San Francisco needs Richard Sherman the cornerback as much as it needs Richard Sherman the class president right now. It isn’t just that Sherman remains the 49ers’ best cover corner at the ripe old age of 32. He is, at the moment, one of their ONLY cover corners.

Last week, four guys saw snaps at cornerback for the Niners (including the slot position): Sherman, Emmanuel Moseley, K’Waun Williams and Ahkello Witherspoon.

The 49ers fully trust Moseley at the position; he was a breakthrough player last year; Williams isn’t the greatest in open coverage, but he’s very physical against the run and in defending short routes; he’ll do fine. After that, it gets extremely dicey. Witherspoon didn’t see the field until Sherman got hurt very late, and now he’s in the concussion protocol. Backup Jason Verrett has a hamstring injury and did not practice Wednesday.

Might the 49ers move Jimmie Ward, the formerly position-less defensive back, from free safety to cornerback for the Jets game? Ward wouldn’t like it. He thrived once the Niners let him settle in at safety, and has been vocal about how much it meant to him. They might have to, though.

If not, you could be seeing Dontae Johnson or Ken Webster in coverage this Sunday.

The 49ers just signed Webster from the Dolphins’ practice squad. He played at Mississippi. The Patriots drafted him in the seventh round in 2019, and he wound up starting five games for Miami as a rookie. That’s the sum total of my knowledge about Webster, except for this: He isn’t eligible to practice until Friday. Getting him ready for a game two days later sounds rough.

Johnson is a more interesting option. The 49ers drafted him in the fourth round in 2014 and appeared to be grooming him as a long-term starter. Indeed, he started all 16 games for them in 2017. He has yet to make an NFL start since then, bouncing to Buffalo and the Los Angeles Chargers, and then back to Santa Clara.

Johnson looks and moves like a classic cornerback. He’s built a lot like Witherspoon, in fact, and has shown a similar inconsistency. Johnson’s most notable play last Sunday (he was called up from the practice squad for that game but not signed to the 53-man roster until this week, a quirk of COVID-era NFL personnel rules) was missing a block on special teams and setting into motion a blocked punt that set up the Cardinals’ first points and changed the game.

Niners fans are by and large done with Johnson, but may need to suspend their distaste for a while.

Cornerback isn’t the only sore spot. The wide receiver corps is depleted, though rookie Brandon Aiyuk at least was able to practice Wednesday and veteran Mohamed Sanu joined the team that day, and the interior line has suffered, too.

“It’s a lit bit of adversity, but this team has been through so much adversity since I even first got here (in 2017),” running back Jerick McKinnon said. “It’s nothing new. Just got to find a way to get the job done.”

Fair point. The 49ers had some injuries last year, too, as Kittle, Joe Staley, Kwon Alexander, Kyle Juszczyk, Jaquiski Tartt, Ward, Mike McGlinchey and Nick Bosa all missed gamess. Even Sherman sat one out. San Francisco put all of that aside to go 15-3 before falling to Kansas City in the Super Bowl.

But the 49ers had a lot of momentum before most of those injuries occurred. Right now they have none, and Kittle and Sherman are both close to indispensable.

The point of all of this is no to write the 49ers off in 2020. Far from it. Even in a tough division, they could probably make the playoffs by going 10-5 over the remainder of the schedule, and that’s well within their reach.

No, just take this as a reminder that, Freddy P Soft be damned, part of the equation that will get the 49ers back to the Super Bowl is out of their hands. It’s on their knees, and their calves, and on the other fragile human body parts required to play football.

You can reach Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @Skinny_Post.