The defensive backfield was left mostly untouched this offseason. One of the few additions was the signing of often-injured cornerback Jason Verrett. Sometimes it is tough to write his name without prepending "often-injured." He's fallen victim to some pretty bad luck during his NFL career.
Verrett has been in the NFL for five seasons since the Chargers drafted him No. 25 overall in 2014. He landed on injured reserve in all but one of the past five years. Verrett's most recent injury took place on the first day of training camp last year when he tore his Achilles tendon.
Verrett's name was not among those who landed on the "physically unable to perform" (PUP) list on Friday. That means he's healthy and ready to take the field. Finally.
Verrett hopes to stay healthy this time.
General manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan spoke with reporters on Friday as players underwent their physicals.
"Jason's been awesome, and I think our staff has done a tremendous job with him," Lynch said. "He's coming off the Achilles, his latest injury, but taking kind of a holistic approach to let's attack his whole body, and give him the best opportunity to go out there and do what he does."
That one healthy season, by the way, resulted in a Pro Bowl appearance for Verrett.
"We looked at that risk-reward," Lynch continued. "The risk was small. The reward, potentially, if we get the Jason Verrett that can be out there and be healthy, he's a very good football player that will make us better.
"We're very excited he's feeling heathy. I think there will be some management of him. Obviously, you don't want to throw a guy out there in terms of reps, but we're kind of doing that with the whole team. We're excited about Jason."
Shanahan chimed in on the 49ers' new cornerback, who will compete with Ahkello Witherspoon for the starting job opposite Richard Sherman.
"The cool thing about Jason with his injury history, if we didn't know that and we just talked to the doctors right now, and how he looks now, you would think that guy is 100 percent healthy," Shanahan quickly added. "We could throw him out there, no restrictions […] He is 100 percent healthy. We've just got to be smart with him because we all know there's a history there. But the way he looks now, you wouldn't know that.
"He's put the work in. I'm pumped for him to be in this situation, and we're going to have to protect him from himself more than anything."