49ers Defensive End Mykel Williams Suffers Another Knee Injury

SANTA CLARA -- Uh oh.

Mykel Williams seems to have re-injured his surgically repaired knee during the 49ers' Week 6 win over the Washington Commanders.

Williams seemed fine after the game. But today, head coach Kyle Shanahan mentioned that Williams has a knee injury and listed him among the players who would not participate in Wednesday's practice. When asked if Williams' surgically repaired knee "flared up" on Monday night during the game, Shanahan said, "Just knee," meaning that's all the information he was required to divulge.

It sounds like Williams did indeed re-aggravate his knee during the game on Monday night. If Shanahan could have provided some reassuring nugget of information, he probably would have, but he didn't. He allowed us to use our imaginations, which usually is a bad sign.

Williams tore his ACL on Nov. 2 last year. He missed all of training camp and the first four games of this season as he recovered as quickly as possible. As soon as he was eligible to be activated from the Physically Unable to Perform List, the 49ers activated him. That was two weeks ago.

Since then, Williams has come off the bench as a rotational defensive lineman and played fewer than 50 percent of the time. Clearly, he was not quite ready to play, even though he recorded his second career sack on Monday against the Commanders. The 49ers were trying to manage him prudently.

And Williams still re-injured his knee. That's disconcerting.

In hindsight, the 49ers once again allowed a player to play before he should have. I'm guessing the 49ers asked Williams if he felt ready to go, and he said yes, as almost any professional football player would say. They're programmed to want to play no matter what.

That's why teams have to protect players from themselves. You've heard that cliché a million times because it's true. Teams must prevent players from making shortsighted decisions. Teams have to be the ones who consider the big picture and worry about the long haul.

The 49ers don't do a good enough job of protecting players from themselves. Just last week, the 49ers let Mike Evans play through Achilles tendinitis, and he made it worse. Earlier in the season, they let Nick Bosa return from his third ACL tear before he had completed a full practice, and he wound up injuring his calf.

When players come back too early, they often reinjure themselves. If anyone should understand that by now, it's the 49ers.

When will they realize that they have to be more careful?