I’m starting to get legitimately concerned about the San Francisco 49ers injury totals. The Niners had 20 players sidelined in camp on August 5th due to injury, per Ari Meirov, which is over 20% of the 90-man roster and is an absolutely absurd number at this point in the preseason.

We’re talking about key players here. Mike Evans, Ricky Pearsall (who’s done for the year already), George Kittle, Christian Kirk, Jordan James. On defense, Nick Bosa is out, Mykel Williams is still recovering, and Keion White is sidelined too. So many core contributors are missing time for San Francisco, and it’s only training camp.

Yes, some of these situations carry over from last season. Kittle got hurt in a playoff game against Philadelphia, and Bosa got hurt during the season as well, to name a couple… but it’s getting ridiculous at this point.

And that’s the key, as well. Many could legitimately argue the 49ers make it to the Super Bowl if they stayed even remotely healthy in 2025. It’s a tough way to start camp, especially with last year’s wounds still mending.

The substation theory is getting harder to ignore

I’ll be honest. I thought the electrical substation theory was a bit off at first, that people were just looking for an excuse. But now I’m starting to believe it a little bit, because the 49ers’ injury struggles over the past decade have been really, really bad.

How bad you may ask? Well, Bleacher Report posted a staggering graphic on Instagram that showed San Francisco has ranked top 10 among the NFL’s most injured teams in 12 of the last 13 seasons. They were No. 1 in 2024 and hovered around that top-five mark last year as well. For a team with this much talent, a team that has been a legitimate Super Bowl contender for years, that track record is brutal.

Now, to look into it a little further, the Niners started practicing beside the substation in 1988, and it was expanded in 2014. So it isn’t anything new. For those who may not be familiar with the theory, the idea is that practicing near the substation exposes players to high levels of electromotive force (EMF), and that the EMF exposure over many days out of the year contributes to the injury plague that haunts the 49ers.

Look, John Lynch, other members of the 49ers organization, and highly-educated people on the internet who have done independent research have all shot this theory down. They all know more about it than me, I understand that. But at the same time, when this stuff keeps adding up season after season, it looks very fishy, and coincidence seems less likely.

What it means for San Francisco’s 2026 outlook

I don’t know what the 49ers can do about it right now. Probably nothing. Maybe this becomes a future discussion about whether to move their practice facility to a different location because you can’t exactly move the substation. 

What it does mean for this season is that the Niners are going to have to manage another year with a lot of moving pieces along their roster to field the 53 best players they can put out week in and week out. If these injuries keep stacking up, it could prevent San Francisco from making a run in the postseason, like we know they are capable of doing.

This team still has plenty of talent, plenty of veterans, great leadership, and great coaching. They should be in the running for Super Bowl contention again. But the number speaks for itself — twenty players sidelined in training camp is staggering, and it’s fair to wonder whether this franchise can ever fully get past this problem, and if maybe the internet conspiracy theorists were right this time around.