The San Francisco 49ers have activated defensive end Tank Carradine off of injured reserve. To make room for him on the roster, the team waived fifth-year linebacker Ray-Ray Armstrong.
Carradine becomes the second and final player eligible to be activated off of injured reserve. The first was defensive lineman Ronald Blair, who was activated on November 4.
Carradine started practicing with the 49ers on November 8. He will be eligible to play in the team's November 26 matchup against the Seattle Seahawks. Carradine left the 49ers' Week 3 game against the Los Angeles Rams with a high-ankle sprain.
On Friday, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan was asked if Carradine will go back to the defensive end spot he played before the injury.
"We'll move him around," Shanahan said. "We'll get him out there, get him in the rotation."
The current 49ers coaching staff has been high on Carradine, who had been previously viewed as yet another draft disappointment by former general manager Trent Baalke. In August, 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh went as far as to call Carradine an "elite" player.
"I think he's damn near an elite six-technique," Saleh said. "To be able to create pocket push from an edge, I think that's where his home is. There's no shame in that. I think he's pretty freaking good at it. That's where Tank's strength is. Will he get some inside rush? Yes ... But, as a six, dominating tight ends and being able to transition from run thought to pass on first and second down, I don't know if you'll find much better than that in the league."
The 49ers selected Carradine out of Florida State in the second round of the draft in 2013. During his time with San Francisco, he has played along the defensive line and at linebacker. Since 2014, Carradine has 64 combined tackles, five sacks, and a forced fumble. This season, he had seven combined tackles and a sack before being injured.
Armstrong spent the past three seasons with San Francisco after originally being claimed by the team in late-November of 2015. He has appeared in all 10 games this season and started five while compiling 54 tackles, a sack, two passes defensed, two interceptions, and a forced fumble.
"We're going to activate Tank, so we were going to be one up, so we had to get one down," Shanahan said on Friday. "We had five linebackers, which is about one too many, so it's a decision we had to make ... We'd love to keep everybody. Just, the numbers didn't work out for him."