The San Francisco 49ers defensive line boasted one of the league's deepest units. While still extremely talented, its depth has been decimated by injuries as the season nears its end. Ronald Blair, D.J. Jones, and Damontre Moore landed on injured reserve. Veteran pass rusher Dee Ford isn't expected to return to the lineup until the playoffs and has missed four of the last five games.
Then there was the news that Jullian Taylor went down during Thursday's practice with a knee injury. The defensive lineman was attempting to return from an elbow injury suffered during Week 13 against the Baltimore Ravens and started practicing again this week.
Now, Taylor's status is in question as the 49ers await the results of an MRI.
General manager John Lynch joined KNBR on Friday morning and discussed the latest injury.
"Yesterday, during practice, Jullian Taylor did go down," Lynch told Kerry Crowley. "It didn't look good. We're still gathering information there, but as I said, our team has been resilient all year, and we're going to have to continue to be. The guys we have are really good players, so we've got to rely on them."
Lynch further discussed the injuries along the defensive line, which has impacted its productivity.
"That's an area where we've had some attrition," Lynch said. "When you talk about Dee Ford has struggled to stay healthy throughout the year. His latest struggle has been the hamstring. He's making good progress with that, not quite ready yet.
"I think sometimes fans hear like a Ronnie Blair, and they say, 'Well, it's not too big of a deal.' Ronnie Blair was a big part of our rotation, as was D.J. Jones. He was really starting to assert himself as a premier nose tackle in this league. You lose guys like that, it's difficult.
"That's an area where we had a huge amount of talent and depth. How has that manifested itself? All of a sudden, our guys have to start playing more plays. So you try to guard against that, but it's hard when you don't have those guys that you can turn to."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Lynch below.
