The San Francisco 49ers signed outside linebacker Khalid Kareem off the Atlanta Falcons practice squad on Friday, filling a sudden hole on the defensive line before their season opener.
Kareem is already heading to Melbourne, Australia, so he can join the team for the Week 1 game against the Los Angeles Rams.
“The 49ers are signing OLB Khalid Kareem off the Falcons’ practice squad. He’s on his way to Melbourne ahead of their opener against the Rams. He’s 28, former Bengals draft pick who spent the last two years with Atlanta,” Greg Auman of Fox Sports reported.
Kareem stands 6-foot-4 and weighs 268 pounds. He has spent most of his six NFL seasons on the defensive line even though the 49ers listed him as an outside linebacker in the latest move.
The addition was a direct response to an injury. Defensive lineman Sam Okuayinonu hurt his foot in practice Wednesday and never made the trip overseas.
“DL Khalid Kareem, whom was on the Falcons practice squad, is scheduled to arrive in Melbourne this morning, per source. The plan is for the 49ers to sign Kareem after DL Sam Okuayinonu did not make the trip to Australia due to a foot injury sustained in practice on Wednesday,” Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area wrote on X.
The team later made the injury official.
“DL Sam Okuayinonu (foot) has been downgraded to OUT for the Week 1 game against the Rams, the 49ers announced,” Maiocco reported.
Okuayinonu had been listed as questionable earlier in the week. Once the 49ers decided he could not play, they left him behind while the rest of the roster flew to Australia.
That left the defensive end group looking short. Nick Bosa is coming back from an ACL tear and has been dealing with knee tendinitis. Third-round pick Romello Height is working through an ankle injury. Before Friday, Keion White was the only fully healthy defensive end on the roster.
Kareem is entering his seventh NFL season and already knows the defensive coordinator. He spent the last two years in Atlanta under Raheem Morris, who coached the Falcons in 2024 and 2025 before joining San Francisco.
David Lombardi of the San Francisco Standard explained why the 49ers liked the fit.
“Raheem Morris has enjoyed stocking up on defenders with long arms. Like Jaden Dugger, new DE/OLB Khalid Kareem has a 7-foot wingspan. He played under Morris past two seasons so 49ers get a player with system familiarity,” Lombardi wrote.
Kareem played in six games over those two seasons in Atlanta and finished with 11 tackles. He has also spent time with the Cincinnati Bengals, Indianapolis Colts and Chicago Bears.
His career numbers include 41 tackles, three tackles for loss and one sack.Cincinnati drafted him in the fifth round in 2020 after he played at Notre Dame. He has mostly been a rotational lineman and special-teams player since then.
The 49ers needed someone who could arrive late and still know the calls. Two seasons in Morris’ system gave Kareem that advantage over most other available options.
The Rams will be a difficult first opponent. San Francisco now has to generate pressure without one of its regular rotation pieces and with two other edge players not at full strength.
Flying a new defender halfway around the world on short notice shows how thin the 49ers felt at the position heading into the international game.
