The San Francisco 49ers will be losing wide receiver Braylon Edwards for a decent period of time. Edwards suffered a knee injury during the Niners-Cowboys game this Sunday, and has apparently ruled to be out indefinitely. The 49ers offense never looked quite the same with Edwards out of the game (not that his impact was incredible, he did have only one catch, but he did force Cowboys defenders to pay extra attention to him), and sputtered down the stretch without that additional receiving threat.
The 49ers could get a reprieve before this week's game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Matt Maiocco of Comcast Sports Net Bay Area reports that wide receiver Michael Crabtree is slated to return from his foot injury according to head coach Jim Harbaugh. If healthy, he could immediately move back into being the #1 option for the team, complementing Josh Morgan and Ted Ginn, Jr. But Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee says that Crabtree himself doesn't know how ready he'll be for Sunday's game, so his effectiveness is probably still at best a 50-50 proposition. Alex Smith is going to have to be ready to work with the personnel he has; he can't count on Crabtree being in tip-top shape.
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