The San Francisco 49ers' record sits at 2-10 right now. It's nowhere near where coaches and players expected to be at this point in the season. Sometimes it's tough for fans to remember that the 49ers are a squad devastated by injuries as they watch their favorite football team lose week after week.
Richard Sherman would like to remind you.
"We're just beat up," Sherman told reporters after the 43-16 loss to the Seattle Seahawks. "You think about the guys we have out there; we lose our number one receiver, number two receiver, number one quarterback, number two quarterback, number one running back. It just ends up adding up."
Sherman is referring to Marquise Goodwin, Pierre Garçon, Jimmy Garoppolo, C.J. Beathard, and Jerick McKinnon.
Beathard is healthy again but an injury earlier in the season thrust Nick Mullens into the starting quarterback role. Both Garoppolo and McKinnon were lost for the season. Who knows when or if Garçon will play again? He has been dealing with a knee injury for most of the season. Goodwin isn't injured but excused from the team as he deals with a personal matter.
That's just the offense.
"You lose your starting safety. You lose your backup safety," Sherman said as he continued with his list. "You lose person after person. You lose two of your WILL linebackers and then [Malcolm Smith] is kind of beat up. It's just guys beat up. But guys are fighting hard and giving us the best chance."
Injuries are part of life in the NFL. The good teams endure through setbacks. The 49ers, however, seem to have seen more injuries than most during head coach Kyle Shanahan's tenure. Most fans seemed to check out sometime during the fourth quarter of the team's Week 3 contest against the Kansas City Chiefs. That's when the 49ers lost their star quarterback.
San Francisco has been fielding backups and third-stringers at several positions, including the team's most important one — quarterback.
"Kyle's coming up with great plans," Sherman continued. "Obviously, Nick (Mullens) threw for 400 (yards) today. The guys are getting yards. We've just got to execute in the red zone and on defense, we've got to find a way to get the ball."
The 49ers will face a surging Broncos team next. Then it will be a rematch against the Seahawks at Levi's Stadium before games against the Chicago Bears and division champion Los Angeles Rams. Finishing 2-14 looks very realistic. A disappointment after finishing last season on a five-game winning streak? Sure.
At least there is the draft.