First, San Francisco 49ers cornerback Nate Clements had his spot as the starting left cornerback taken from him. And then, on Sunday, Clements suffered an injury that could put the rest of his season in jeopardy.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Clements suffered a fractured right shoulder blade in the 49ers’ loss to the Colts. More will be known after X-rays today, but it’s possible that the injury could land Clements on injured reserve.
At this point, Clements’ primary role on the 49ers is as a punt returner, which is certainly not what the team expected when it signed Clements to what was advertised as an $80 million contract in 2007. Even though the contract wasn’t really worth that much, it was still a seven-year, $64 million deal that made clear that the 49ers considered Clements one of the league’s marquee players. He hasn’t played like it in San Francisco.
Clements will turn 30 next month, and he’s owed $6 million in 2010. He might find himself a free agent again next year, and if he does, it’s safe to say he won’t be getting any offers as lucrative as the one the 49ers gave him two and a half years ago.
The cap hit they would suffer for cutting him is 5 million and if he is the 4th CB like he was in the Colts game they will probably be better off letting him go. They may ask him to take a pay cut but at this point it seems like he will just be cut. He isn’t an awful player though and played well the first few game before he went back to gambling too much vs Roddy White.
Sucks for Nate, but he’s been very inconsistent this season. He’s has sparks of brilliance, but also smudges of big mistakes. Hard to judge him properly, honestly.
PLEASE convert him to a safety position – he would be great and hurt a lot of wide receivers.
As a corner back the guy plays well 95% of the time during a game. However, the other 5% of the time – he is a complete bum – giving up GIGANTIC plays – plays that cost games!!!
How do you go from LOCKDOWN to BUM in one quarter!!?
A broken shoulder blade? Wow. Man, does that sound like it hurts. How exactly does one splint a fractured shoulder blade???