Alex Smith will be at the team’s headquarters on Friday

As if the season-ending injury to starting cornerback Jason Verrett was not disappointing enough, the San Francisco 49ers lost another key player during Week 1's victory over the Detroit Lions. Raheem Mostert's 2021 campaign is over. The running back suffered a knee injury and will undergo season-ending surgery. That's a tough loss on each side of the football, and San Francisco still has 16 more regular-season games to play. "Just to say, Raheem is such an awesome dude," center Alex Mack told 95.7 The Game's Damon Bruce, Ray Ratto, and Matt Kolsky on Wednesday. "It's been great to join this team and get to know him. My heart goes out to him. I hope he gets healthy and gets back quick." Mostert is scheduled to become a free agent after this

San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Jalen Hurd was among the names head coach Kyle Shanahan rattled off while sharing who would miss practice today. The team is preparing for its regular-season opener on Sunday against the Detroit Lions, and Hurd is still dealing with a knee issue. Hurd missed all of last season after suffering an ACL injury during training camp and has spent each of his two NFL seasons on injured reserve. He may land there again. The coach was asked if Hurd is a candidate for injured reserve, sidelining him for at least three weeks. "Yes, he is," Shanahan responded. Hurd played in the 49ers' preseason finale on August 29 after missing the first two exhibition matchups and appeared to come out of the game

Yes, everyone remembers NFL Media analyst Adam Rank predicting a three-win season for the San Francisco 49ers in 2019. That team went on to win 13 games before a playoff run that ended just short of a championship. Last year, Rank predicted a 12-4 record. Instead, San Francisco won half as many games after suffering through one of the most injury-plagued seasons NFL fans had seen in decades. Rank gets a pass because no one saw that one coming. The Niners are healthier entering the 2021 season and look to prove that last season, not 2019, was the anomaly. So what is Rank's prediction for this year's

The NFC West is on a roll, which isn't necessarily great news for the San Francisco 49ers when it comes to the success of their division rivals. Through two weeks of NFL play this season, the NFC West is 7-1 as a whole. That, of course, includes the 49ers' Week 2 17-11 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles. The Seattle Seahawks became the first NFC West to lose a game, falling to the Tennessee Titans 33-30 in Week 2. The Los Angeles Rams beat the Indianapolis Colts 27-24 and the Arizona Cardinals edged the Minnesota Vikings 34-33. There is a three-way tie for the division lead, proving what many believed—that the NFC West would likely be the most competitive division this season. "NFC West,