The latest injury to Jason Verrett hit the San Francisco 49ers locker room hard. The well-liked and respected veteran cornerback has been plagued by injuries throughout his nine-season NFL career. He's seen all but two of his seasons end prematurely due to injuries.
General manager John Lynch joined KNBR on Friday morning and discussed Verrett's injury and its impact on the team.
"With J.V., as we all know him, I just think there's an immense amount of respect," Lynch said on the Murph & Mac show. "First of all, the guy's a tremendous player, elite when he's right. The cruel part of his journey is he hasn't been right a whole lot in his career in terms of health. That's hard for everyone to wrap their arms around as to why his journey has been so tough.
"I think it's been hard for J.V., but all he ever does is fight and fight back. And he's got so much ability that people like us take a chance."
In his one healthy season with the 49ers, most felt Verrett played at a Pro Bowl level. Injuries plagued that 2020 team, but the veteran cornerback stood out as an elite player.
Verrett entered the 2021 season as a starting cornerback but suffered an ACL injury in Week 1. That's the injury from which Verrett was attempting to return, and many inside the organization felt he was close.
"This wasn't [a] gruesome [injury], but at the end of a play, you just look down, and he was laying there," Lynch said. "And the reaction on the field—I've never heard a football field so silent, and I think it was just instantly [on] everyone's mind, number one, knew that it wasn't just a twisted ankle or something because he was down and he wasn't getting up. There was a quietness and eerie quiet to a football field that I've never heard.
"Everyone knows what he's been through, and he was close to getting back. I don't know if it was this week. I do know that, ironically, the two previous plays in practice were probably the best he's looked. I think the play before he was hurt, he broke up a pass on the sideline where he just burst out of a break. And the play before that, he was in the backfield on a tackle for a loss. It just looked like the quickness of Jason Verrett starting to show.
"When he got his Achilles [injury], he was covering a tight end on a simple in-break, put his foot in the ground to come out of a break, and bam. It just looked like he slipped, and there went his Achilles."
Lynch added that the 49ers plan to be there for Verrett as his road to recovery starts over—again. He believes his teammates will compete down the stretch for him.
"We're going to stay with him as he kind of gets through this," Lynch said. "He's a big part of this team and will be going forward."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Lynch below.