The San Francisco 49ers will open the season without one of the young pieces they hoped would stabilize the middle of the defensive line.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan said Tuesday that second-year defensive tackle Alfred Collins tore his patellar tendon in practice and will miss the entire 2026 season. The news landed as the team prepared for Thursday’s Week 1 game against the Los Angeles Rams at AAMI Park.
Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area reported Shanahan’s update directly.
“DT Alfred Collins tore patellar tendon in practice and is out for the season, Kyle Shanahan said,” Maiocco wrote.
Collins had traveled with the club to Australia and was listed as a limited participant in the first practice of the week. The 24-year-old from Texas was expected to take on a larger role after seeing regular snaps as a rookie.
San Francisco selected Collins in the second round of the 2025 draft, 43rd overall. He played 16 regular-season games last year, starting one, and finished with 17 tackles, one tackle for loss, one sack and two forced fumbles.
One of those forced fumbles still lives in 49ers highlight packages. In a Week 5 overtime win over the Rams last season, Collins punched the ball loose from running back Kyren Williams near the goal line.
That kind of play is exactly what the front office wanted more of this year. The 49ers finished last in the NFL in sacks in 2025 with just 20, a number that reflected the damage of season-ending injuries to Nick Bosa and first-round pick Mykel Williams.
The club used the 2025 draft to restock the line, taking Williams 11th overall, Collins at 43 and C.J. West in the fourth round at 113. Williams remains on the physically unable to perform list after last year’s ACL tear and will miss at least the first four games.
San Francisco tried to add experience in March by trading a 2026 third-round pick to Dallas for Osa Odighizuwa. The veteran started 13 games for the Cowboys last season and recorded 44 tackles and 3.5 sacks.
Odighizuwa is now the most proven interior lineman on the 53-man roster. West, who had 21 tackles and one sack in 14 games as a rookie, should see a bigger workload. Rookie Gracen Halton and undrafted James Thompson Jr. are the other tackles on the active roster.
Even that thin group is dinged up. Thompson missed practice with a hamstring injury and Halton was limited with an ankle issue. The team may have to elevate a practice-squad player such as Sebastian Valdez or Kevin Givens for Thursday’s game.
Former 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh, now the Titans’ head coach, had singled Collins out this offseason as a player on the rise.
“As the season went on, I really think he’s going to be special,” Saleh said. “His mindset to get better, his work ethic, he’s only going to get better. And when it triggers for him, he’s going to be a bear to stop.”
Patellar tendon tears in big interior linemen typically require 10 to 12 months of recovery. Chargers tackle Rashawn Slater missed all of 2025 after a similar injury and returned to practice the following spring.
The 49ers still have Bosa working his way back and a group of young players who will have to grow up quickly. Collins’ absence leaves a hole in a defensive front that already had little margin for error heading into a Thursday night opener on the other side of the world.
