The San Francisco 49ers have announced the following roster moves ahead of Sunday's rematch with the Seattle Seahawks:
- DL Yetur Gross-Matos has been activated from IR (injured reserve)
- P Mitch Wishnowsky has been placed on IR
- P Pat O'Donnell has been promoted to the active roster
- S Tashaun Gipson has been elevated from the team's practice squad (standard elevation)
- CB Nick McCloud has been elevated from the practice squad (standard elevation)
- Placed CB Darrell Luter, Jr. on IR
Gross-Matos was placed on IR on October 5th after a knee injury that required surgery. He has appeared in only three games this season. In those three games, Gross-Matos has one tackle and one QB hit.
On Friday, Head Coach Kyle Shanahan said that getting Gross-Matos back will help the defense. "Oh, it helps a ton," he said. "We've had big expectations for Yetur. He had a hell of a camp and had that bad injury at the end of preseason. It wasn't able to heal the right way. And we feel this time off has healed it, and excited for him to get back with us."
Wishnowsky is dealing with a back injury he re-aggravated during last week's win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. When asked about his punter's injury, Shanahan said, "It bothered him a ton in training camp. Then we rested him a ton, got better. But it's been acting back up again, and now we're back to where we were in training camp." The punter's injury does not appear to require surgery.
Wishnowsky is averaging 45.2 yards per punt this season. He has placed 11 punts inside the 20-yard line (50%). Equally impressive is that Wishnowsky has not had any touchbacks this year.
O'Donnell is a nine-year veteran. He has a career average of 45.1 yards per punt. But O'Donnell has had only 36% of his punts land inside the 20-yard line, although, in 2022, 46.2% of his punts landed inside the 20-yard line. The former Chicago and Green Bay punter has not appeared in a game since 2022. He spent last season on the Atlanta Falcons practice squad.
Gipson spent the last three seasons with the 49ers. He was elevated to the active roster last week in Tampa.
McCloud is in his fourth season. As a rookie, he played with the Cincinnati Bengals. But for the next three seasons, McCloud was with the New York Giants. New York released him on November 5th and the 49ers signed him to their practice squad on November 11th.
McCloud started five games for the Giants this season. In those five games, he defended one pass and had 14 tackles. He is a solid special teams player who will likely replace Luter, Jr. on special teams. Last Sunday, Luter, Jr. was pushed into punt returner Jacob Cowing, resulting in a muffed punt and turnover. On Thursday, Luter, Jr. suffered a pelvic injury.
In addition, the 49ers downgraded OL Jon Feliciano from questionable to out for Sunday's game.