Taking a look at the San Francisco 49ers injury report ahead of their matchup against the Arizona Cardinals.
The San Francisco 49ers are set for a battle against their NFC West rival, the Arizona Cardinals, in Week 3 of the 2026 season on Sunday afternoon.
In the first two weeks of the season, the 49ers have looked great as they have picked up dominant wins over the Los Angeles Rams and the Miami Dolphins, which now has San Francisco sitting at 2-0, hoping to make it 3-0.
With that said, the 49ers need to take advantage of this opportunity to pick up a divisional win and advance to 3-0, but to do that, health will be essential. So, let's take a look at the Week 3 injury report for San Francisco.
For the 49ers this week, there have been four players ruled out, which include defensive ends Nick Bosa (knee and calf) and Romello Height (hand), defensive tackle James Thompson Jr. (ankle), and wide receiver DeMarcus Robinson (ankle).
The interesting part about all four of these players is the fact that none of them were able to practice at all this week, which shows that these were injuries that could not be pushed through.
Clearly, the biggest injury news of these four is Bosa, who is one of the best edge rushers in the entire NFL, and without him, as well as Height, the 49ers will need some other players to step up, which very likely includes defensive ends Keion White and Khalid Kareem as the players who must step up on Sunday.
Losing Thompson and Robinson is not great for the 49ers either, especially because the depth is thin.
At wide receiver, Ricky Pearsall, De'Zhaun Stribling, and Christian Kirk are already on IR, which is not great because Robinson has also now been placed on IR, which puts him out for a while as well.
The 49ers do have some solid wide receivers who are healthy, including Deebo Samuel Sr., KhaDarel Hodge, Jordan Watkins, and Jacob Cowing, and possibly Mike Evans, depending on his status. San Francisco does have weapons, but head coach Kyle Shanahan does have some injuries to manage.
When it comes to Thompson being out, the 49ers should be alright at defensive tackle, as they have Osa Odighizuwa, Gracen Halton, Naquan Jones, Kevin Givens, and Sebastian Valdez. So, the 49ers should be in a decent spot at defensive tackle in terms of depth, but Thompson being out is definitely not ideal.
In terms of the players' questionable status, that just includes wide receiver Mike Evans (hip), and at this point, it seems like he may be a game-time decision after not practicing on Wednesday and Thursday and being limited in practice on Friday.
On the perimeter, the 49ers are a little light when it comes to their starters, so the hope is that Evans will play, but if he is unable to play, it will be very interesting to watch how Shanahan tries to throw the ball and if quarterback Brock Purdy potentially targets tight end George Kittle more than normal.
The final three players on the injury report are offensive tackle Trent Williams, running back Christian McCaffrey, and linebacker Dre Greenlaw who are all expected to play after getting a rest day on Wednesday and being full participants in practice the rest of the week.
With it still being early in the season it is best to manage veterans, and it seems like Shanahan is doing exactly that with Williams, McCaffrey, and Greenlaw which could be something that helps these three veterans to stay a lot fresher and healthier deep into the season.
So, heading into Sunday, the 49ers definitely have their fair share of injuries, but if a few players step up on the defensive line and at wide receiver and this team plays like they have the last two weeks, San Francisco should be able to come out with a win over Arizona to move to 3-0.
