The San Francisco 49ers suffered their share of significant injuries last season on defense. One of the players whose 2025 season was cut short was rookie defensive lineman Mykel Williams, who suffered a torn ACL and lateral meniscus in his right knee during Week 9.
San Francisco is likely hoping that a healthy Williams will boost the team’s sack total, which was one of the worst last season due to injuries. Nonetheless, any hope of the 21-year-old being ready for the early part of the season took a hit with the latest information from the 49ers on SI reporter Grant Cohn.
Cohn noted that Williams was one of the few non-rookies at the 49ers’ rookie minicamp and shared what he saw as Williams rehabbed.
“It’s early May, and he tore his ACL in early November,” Cohn said in a May 9 YouTube video. “So we’re talking about roughly six months. That is not a short amount of time, but he was not running. Mykel Williams was sort of bouncing back and forth…
“If all you’re doing is bouncing back and forth and trying to acclimate your body and tendons to bearing weight on one leg, it seems to indicate you probably still have a ways to go, which, again, is to be expected.”
Before his injury, Williams played 385 snaps for the Niners, recording a 53.9 overall PFF defensive grade in the 2025 season. Moreover, the former first-round pick generated 19 total pressures as a pass rusher, including one sack, 16 hurries, and two hits.
When Could Mykel Williams Return for the Niners?
With Cohn providing what he saw, the next aspect of his update was more speculation regarding when exactly Williams will be ready to see the field again for the 49ers.
“I would expect he would start the season on PUP, and I wouldn’t expect him to be back before November,” Cohn added. “… I think these days it’s probably fair to expect a young athlete in his 20s to make a full recovery from a torn ACL, but I don’t know if he does it in the first year back.
“Usually, that second year back, they’re just as explosive and quick as they were before, if they’re young, if they’re not 35 when they did it. So, there’s a long way to go for Mykel Williams, according to me.”
49ers Get Major News Ahead of Australia Game
Speaking of the early season for the Niners, Kyle Shanahan and his team will open the 2026 NFL season abroad in Australia against the Los Angeles Rams.
Moreover, there was news about this game. On May 7, The Athletic’s Dan Shanoff and Andrew Marchand reported, citing sources, that Netflix will air the NFL’s first-ever regular-season game from Australia between the Rams and Niners.
San Francisco will have a busy 2026 season from an international perspective, as they will open the season in Australia and play a game in Mexico City. The NFL has not yet announced when the Mexico City game will take place or who the opponent will be, but it will reveal those details when it releases the schedule on May 14.
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