49ers lose key starters to knee injuries

The most-injured team in the NFL in 2020 lost two starters to significant knee injuries during the first game of the season Sunday.

The 49ers will be without top cornerback Jason Verrett after he tore his ACL in the fourth quarter of the Week 1 victory over the Detroit Lions, while starting running back Raheem Mostert “chipped” cartilage in his knee and is expected to miss eight weeks, head coach Kyle Shanahan said Monday on a conference call.

For Verrett, it's the second time he's torn an ACL since entering the NFL as a first-round draft pick of the Chargers in 2014. The first came in 2016 before he suffered a torn Achilles during a conditioning test ahead of training camp in 2018. He joined San Francisco in 2019 but sat out the year following a Week 2 ankle injury, and finally returned to play 13 games at a Pro Bowl level in 2020, earning a one-year, $5.5 million deal for 2021.

In all, Verrett missed 61 games since 2016 and will sit out the remaining 15 of 2021.

The 49ers were visably shaken from Verrett's injury during the fourth quarter on Sunday, which played a role in allowing the Lions to come back from a 41-17 deficit in the fourth quarter to lose by eight.

Verrett over the last two seasons has become a highly-though of member of the locker room. Players and coaches have cited Verrett's tenacity and work ethic to return from his long list of leg injuries to play at a high level last season.

“Losing a player like Jason's a pretty big deal just because of the type person he and the kind of player he is,” Shanahan said.

Verrett was upset on the