49ers sign Khalid Kareem, put Sam Okuayinonu on IR before Melbourne opener

San Francisco isn't exactly loaded at edge rusher right now, so when Sam Okuayinonu went down with a foot injury in practice, the front office didn't wait around. They went straight to the Falcons' practice squad and plucked Khalid Kareem, a 28-year-old former fifth-round pick who spent the last two seasons in Atlanta.

Kareem's career line so far is thin — one career start, one sack across stints with Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Chicago and Atlanta since Cincinnati drafted him out of Notre Dame in 2020. But there's a real football reason San Francisco knows exactly what it's getting: Kareem spent his last two years playing for Raheem Morris in Atlanta, and Morris is now the 49ers' defensive coordinator. This isn't a scouting department taking a flier off tape — it's a coordinator vouching for a guy he already coached.

The timing matters, too. Okuayinonu wasn't just organizational depth — he logged 39 tackles, six for a loss, and 3 sacks last season, so losing him to IR right before Week 1 stings. And this isn't a normal Week 1: the 49ers open the season against the Rams in Melbourne, Australia, a trip that leaves zero margin for scrambling once the team's already overseas. Signing Kareem now, with time to get him on the plane, was the whole point.

Back in Atlanta, Kareem's exit didn't leave a hole for long. According to Daniel Flick, the Falcons immediately re-signed Bralen Trice to the practice squad, essentially filling the exact spot Kareem just vacated.

It's a small, almost mechanical roster swap on paper — one team's PS cut is another's active-roster fill-in, and the vacancy gets backfilled within hours. But for San Francisco, it's a real answer to a real problem: an already-thin edge group, an international opener, and no time to figure it out on the fly. Watch Kareem's snap count in Melbourne — if Morris trusts him early, that Atlanta history will look like it was worth the roster spot.