The 49ers may be without free safety Jimmie Ward for at least the first four weeks of the season. General manager John Lynch on Thursday ahead of the 49ers’ preseason finale vs. Houston said the team plans on putting the veteran free safety on injured reserve.
At this point Ward will need to be named to the initial 53-man roster before going on short-term IR. Going on IR before the 53-man roster is announced would end Ward’s season. He suffered a hamstring injury after the team’s first preseason game.
Lynch told Amazon Prime’s broadcast crew what the loss of Ward means.
“He’s a safety who plays like a safety but also covers like a corner,” Lynch said. “He’s often times our best cover man, so it’s a big loss. We’ll probably have him on the short term IR for the first four games of the season which is a big loss. But we got to find a way to step up. So that’s what’s behind going to get a guy like Tashaun Gipson. We like some of the in-house options, Tarvarius Moore, George Odum came over and did really well, is a tremendous special teams player. But we’ll let that sort itself out and a lot of that will happen here tonight.”
Moore is a free safety by trade and played there in college before the 49ers took him in the third round of the 2018 draft. Odum was a free agent addition signed for his special teams chops. Gipson was added ahead of the final week of practice leading up to the Houston game. Veteran Dontae Johnson has also seen a lot of time at safety during training camp.
Ward will miss at least the 49ers’ first four games. They open at Chicago, then host the Seahawks before traveling to Denver then hosting the Rams in Week 4. San Francisco would miss Ward immensely in those games, so figuring out who will start in his stead will be one of their biggest priorities before the Sept. 11 opener.
