Mike Evans stays out at 49ers camp with quad strain as multiple offensive players miss practice

The San Francisco 49ers’ training camp has picked up another layer of uncertainty after wide receiver Mike Evans remained sidelined from practice Wednesday. According to Yahoo Sports, the issue is a quad strain that surfaced Monday, leaving Evans unable to take part in practice at the time of the report.

Evans’ absence comes as the 49ers continue to manage a longer injury picture across the offense. Yahoo Sports reported that Ricky Pearsall is out for the season, while tight end George Kittle continues his recovery from an Achilles tear. Those two absences alone change how the 49ers can distribute reps at key positions where timing and chemistry tend to build during camp.

The depth issues extend beyond the top targets. Christian Kirk, cornerback De’Zhaun Stribling, and fullback Kyle Juszczyk were also described as sidelined from practice in the same report. Even when a team plans to rotate personnel throughout training camp, missing multiple players at once can compress the available practice windows for both starters and backups.

For a veteran-heavy offense, early-camp availability is often about getting the timing right, especially on routes and in scramble situations where protection calls and audibles must stay synchronized. When multiple skill players and playmakers miss consecutive days, coaches typically lean more heavily on next-man-up reps, which can raise questions about how quickly replacements are ready to execute the same system.

The 49ers have to balance short-term reps with longer-term evaluation. An injury that appears in the middle of camp often forces staff to decide whether a player should be held out for precaution or eased back in with limited practice. With Evans’ quad strain, the immediate question is whether the team views it as something that will clear during camp or something that will require extended caution.

Kittle’s Achilles recovery is another factor shaping the offense’s summer workload. Achilles injuries are commonly managed with a slow return-to-load process, and even when a player is progressing, teams often keep practice availability conservative until the player can handle the speed and movement demands of full participation.

What to watch next for San Francisco is not just whether Evans returns, but how the 49ers use the reps they do have. With Pearsall already out for the season and other key names missing practice, camp performance from the players taking those roles, plus any changes to practice participation descriptions, will be the clearest indicators of what the offense can look like as the summer winds down.