Mike Evans was expectedly held out of the 49ers’ first Week 7 practice against the Falcons.

He left Monday night’s game against the Commanders right before halftime with an Achilles injury and wouldn’t return. Anytime a player leaves a game with an Achilles injury, it causes panic. 

Thankfully, Evans didn’t suffer a season-ending Achilles tear. But he is experiencing tendinitis. It would be very surprising if Evans plays this week against the Falcons, especially with the Bye week after.

Evans’ injury is twofold. On one hand, it’s a sigh of relief that Evans didn’t tear his Achilles. On the other hand, he shouldn’t have gotten hurt against the Commanders because he shouldn’t have played.

The 49ers deserve blame for Evans’ Achilles injury. Evans didn’t take part in a single practice in the lead-up to Monday night against the Commanders because of Achilles soreness. 

That should’ve been a red flag to the 49ers. They, of all teams, should know how serious Achilles injuries are, even if it’s just soreness. It happened two years ago with Christian McCaffrey.

You’d think they’d learn that it’s best to be extremely cautious with a player who’s dealing with any Achilles-related issue. Instead, they allowed Evans to play because he wanted to. This failed to protect him from himself. 

“Mike's got a lot of experience doing this stuff,” Kyle Shanahan said in Monday night’s postgame. “Mike's pretty honest with us too, and my life experiences with him over six games, if he says he's ready to go, I believe him.”

Believing in Evans is foolish. What NFL star doesn’t want to play, no matter how they’re feeling? Evans isn’t thinking about the consequences and risks of playing through Achilles soreness.

All that matters to him is playing and helping his team. That’s how tough he is, but he doesn’t need to prove anything to anyone. What he needs is someone to hold him out from worsening his injury.

The 49ers failed to prevent that because Evans wanted to play. They let him play that game as if it were against the Seahawks in December, with the NFC West on the line.

Now, they have to rely on Jordan Watkins, Jacob Cowing, and a newly signed Brandin Cooks. The wide receiver position was already razor-thin.

It's desolate now, and it opens the floodgates for 49ers fans to pound the table for a wide receiver trade. This all could've been avoided if they had sat him against the Commanders.

What a blunder.

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