Alfred Collins Tore His Patellar Tendon and His Season Is Over

A practice rep in Australia, two days before the opener, and a twenty three year old who had just earned a starting job is done for the year. This one is horrible.

Alfred Collins tore his patellar tendon at practice in Melbourne on Tuesday. He's done for the year. Kyle Shanahan confirmed it Wednesday morning over there, two days before the season opener, and I've been sitting with it since I read it.

A patellar tendon. Not a strain, not a sprain, not a two week thing. That's the tendon connecting the kneecap to the shin, torn clean, surgery required, injured reserve, season over before it started.

He's twenty three years old and he was about to be a starter.

What Shanahan said

"Alfred tore his patellar tendon yesterday," Shanahan said. "That was a big loss. We've lost two D-lineman pretty much for the year after cuts and before the first game which has been a huge challenge. I'm hurting for Alfred. It was real unfortunate for him."

I'm hurting for Alfred. That isn't a coach speak line. Shanahan has said a lot of careful things about a lot of injuries over the years, and that one didn't sound careful.

It happened right before the team got into eleven on eleven work. A practice rep. Half a world away, on a field they flew nine thousand miles to reach, four days before anybody hits anybody in a game that counts.

That's two defensive linemen gone in a week

Sam Okuayinonu is already on injured reserve with a broken foot that needs surgery this weekend. Add Collins and the Niners walk into Thursday night at the MCG with C.J. West and rookie Gracen Halton as the only healthy bodies on the 53 who can start next to Osa Odighizuwa. James Thompson Jr. is an undrafted rookie and he's been out with a hamstring.

Sebastian Valdez and Kevin Givens are on the practice squad and both made the trip, so somebody is getting elevated before kickoff.

"Any D-lineman is a possibility unless you guys can name some guys we can fly here real quick," Shanahan said, which is funny for about four seconds and then it isn't.

What we're actually losing

Collins was a second round pick out of Texas in 2025. Sixteen games as a rookie, 17 tackles, a sack, two forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries. Those aren't enormous numbers and they were never supposed to be. He was a rotational rookie learning a hard position in a hurry.

Then Week 5 against the Rams happened. Fourth quarter, lead hanging by a thread, and Collins forces a fumble and falls on it at our own one yard line. At the one. That's the play that saved that game, and if you were watching it you remember exactly where you were when it happened.

The whole plan for 2026 was that the rookie year had been the on ramp and this was the season he took a starting job and kept it. Everybody in that building said some version of that all summer.

Now it's Thursday against the Rams and he's getting fitted for a brace instead.

I'm tired of writing this column

I wrote almost this exact piece about Ricky Pearsall's PCL. I wrote the one about camp in August. I have written some version of "a good young Niner is out for the season" more times in the last three years than I've written about anything else, and I'm sick of it, and I would like one single year where the roster we argue about in July is the roster we watch in December.

There is good news in the same breath, and it feels strange to type it. Nick Bosa and George Kittle are both expected to play Thursday, Bosa off the right ACL and Kittle off the Achilles, both of them managed carefully. Shanahan said they both look great. Aaron Donald isn't even traveling with the Rams.

So we'll probably be fine Thursday night. That isn't the point.

The point is that a twenty three year old did everything right for a year and a half, earned a job, got on a plane to Australia to go take it, and blew his knee apart in a tempo period before the first snap of the season. Football is a horrible sport sometimes. This is one of those times.

Get well, Alfred. We'll see you next year.

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