If Anthony Davis is going to be making an NFL comeback this year, it won't be happening with the team that originally drafted him.
The 49ers announced on Tuesday that they've decided to cut ties with Davis, who was selected by San Francisco with the 11th overall pick during the 2010 NFL Draft. Although Davis ended up playing in parts of six different seasons with the 49ers while starting 71 games, he retired twice during his time with the team and hadn't played a regular season snap since Week 1 of 2016.
The 49ers' decision to cut Davis likely came because he was set to count against the team's active roster starting this week. Although the 29-year-old had been retired for two full seasons, he was trying make a comeback this year, and that started on May 3 when he wrote a letter to the NFL asking to be reinstated.
When Davis announced his first retirement in June 2015, he said he was doing it because was what was best for his body and mental health. After sitting out the entire 2015 season, Davis came out of retirement in July 2016, only to retire again one week into the regular season. The second retirement came after Davis suffered a concussion in the 49ers' 2016 opener.
Davis, who had always been worried about possible brain injuries, said his decision to return this year came because he felt that football was now a safer sport.
"On January 24, 2019, I read articles by three different sources pertaining to there being a significant decrease in concussions in the NFL, down by 29 percent in the 2018 season," Davis wrote on May 3. "Excited to see that the changes you and your staff have made to the rules, and the allowance of safer equipment to be worn has had a positive effect, I confided with my family and on January 28, 2019 I made the decision that I'd love to play in the NFL again."
Davis was officially reinstated on Tuesday, which meant he was going to count against the the 49ers' 90-man roster unless they got rid of him. The decision to cut Davis likely wasn't a difficult one; not only has he been out for two years, but he doesn't exactly have a good relationship with the 49ers' front office.
During his career in San Francisco, Davis started every regular season game the 49ers played over the first four years of his career. However, he played in just seven games in 2014 due to shoulder, knee, ankle and hamstring injuries that hobbled him all season, plus, he also suffered a concussion. After an injury-plagued year, Davis missed the entire 2015 season due to his first retirement. He then played in one game in 2016 before retiring again, which led to him sitting out the past two seasons.
With Davis now a free agent, he's free to sign with any team in the NFL.
