The San Francisco 49ers have had a ton of injuries at linebacker this season. With the depth chart getting thinner and thinner, the Niners must be wishing they still had Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles who is thriving with the New York Giants.
Obviously, the biggest loss for the 49ers this season was losing star linebacker Fred Warner. He does so much for San Francisco on defense that it truly seemed questionable whether the Niners would be able to stop anyone without him.
Thankfully, Tatum Bethune has filled in very nicely at middle linebacker. But, of course, he went down with an ankle injury on Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals. He won't land on injured reserve, but he'll likely miss at least a couple of weeks, according to head coach Kyle Shanahan.
Curtis Robinson had to fill in for Bethune, but then Dee Winters had to step into the middle linebacker role after Robinson got injured as well. Winters was a little banged up, too, and at one point, the 49ers had to roll with a linebacker duo of rookie Nick Martin, who has hardly played at all, and Luke Gifford who is typically a special teams player.
They had to dig deep into the depth chart, and the 49ers must have at least some regret that they released Flannigan-Fowles earlier this year.
After five seasons with the Niners in which Flannigan-Fowles was mostly a backup linebacker and special teams player, he has now been thrust into a starting role with New York and looks like he could be a diamond in the rough for the Giants.
The 29-year-old veteran out of the University of Arizona has 21 tackles this season, 16 of them are solo tackles which is the highest mark of his career. He also has two tackles for loss and one quarterback hit on the year.
It seems he is finally getting a chance to prove himself after spending so long as a backup, and he is taking full advantage of his opportunity.
At this point in the season, the 49ers do not have many options to add depth at linebacker. The trade deadline has passed, and most players who are going to play this year have already signed with teams, so the Niners may have to elevate players from their own practice squad to try to make things work.
They need to maintain that next-man-up mentality and not dwell on the past or their bad injury luck, but they must wish they had held onto Flannigan-Fowles, given his solid play and their injury struggles.