The regular season is fast approaching. Will the 49ers be ready?
SANTA CLARA — Kyle Shanahan hates the NFL preseason. Four games, three games, two, since taking over as head coach of the 49ers, he has shown nothing but disdain for the tryout schedule.
It wasn’t hard to tell. Shanahan stopped commentating on the offense in preseason games, only to announce that he was bored to death.
Us too, Kyle.
But Shanahan can afford to be one of the regular guys and hate fake NFL football because his teams often had a practical opportunity to improve during training camp: joint practices.
The 49ers had spent all of training camp preparing for Thursday and Friday’s game against the Saints in Irvine. The sleepy, energy-depleting practices at the beginning of training camp, with workouts continually shortened, were no problem – this week they would finally get going.
But they won’t have those training sessions now. The team is too small to participate – a combination of contract problems, injuries and poor squad composition is forcing the Niners to cancel the joint training sessions.
“Ultimately, I waited so long to make the decision because we enjoy it so much,” Shanahan said. “I love doing this stuff… but the risk was too great. It outweighed the reward.”
Which raises a big question: How will the Niners prepare for the season?
Training together promises that the players of the 53-man squad will be able to test their mettle against the top players of another team, but do so in a controlled environment.
Coaches can work on the intensity of situational football according to its importance – there are no 3-and-outs in joint training.
They can also work on their advanced offensive and defensive schemes since the sessions are not broadcast worldwide on the NFL Network.
Oh, and then there’s the advantage of keeping the quarterbacks out of the line of fire and out of the risk of injury.
Training together is a pretty effective way to prepare for the season. Definitely much better than a few repetitions in a preseason game.
And yet, the Niners will only have the latter option available to them in the future.
Will Shanahan even bother to use it?
Let’s get one thing clear: The 49ers need to get out of the starting blocks quickly this season. Their schedule is a Bears game – from October 10th through the new year of 2025, 11 games between Weeks 6 and 17, the team plays eight playoff teams. The three non-playoff teams are the rival Seahawks (home and away) and the Bears, who FanDuel Sportsbook says are very likely to make the playoffs this year.
The Niners need at least three, if not four, wins in their first five games.
That record gives the team a head start. The last thing they want is to be dependent on wins on Thanksgiving, a week that includes away games at Green Bay and Buffalo.
These are the benefits of a peak schedule, folks.
And even though experience is sometimes deceptive, I see no reason to believe that the Niners will deliver the required performance right from the start.
Points for new defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen – his defense brought some long-awaited momentum on Wednesday. They were on full swing despite incorporating some complex schemes for the first time this preseason. Good stuff.
But the downside – the offense – left a lot to be desired at the beginning of the fourth week of camp.
The absence of Trent Williams (breach of contract) has made the team’s offensive line look downright terrible. It has gotten to the point where any success of the defensive line has to be questioned.
The fact that Christian McCaffrey is not in the backfield is also a problem. After all, he is the team’s first choice on offense.
Brandon Aiyuk’s absence from the practice field has also significantly impacted the Niners’ preparation. The Niners are missing their two best receivers at X-Receivers, with Aiyuk out (this is getting more and more bizarre by the day) and rookie Ricky Pearsall out due to injury.
All in all, the Niners offense looks like a huge mess.
Under constant pressure, Brock Purdy wrong-foots passes to the other side of the field and throws wounded passes all over the field – passes that are only caught by Deebo Samuel (who looked chipper) and George Kittle (who constantly risks his health to catch these passes).
I can’t remember a single practice game in recent weeks where the 49ers’ offense – whether first, second or third line – looked crisp and effective. A good play is regularly followed by a bad one or three.
Maybe the 49ers’ defense is that good. I have my doubts, but I can’t completely rule it out.
Regardless, the Niners offense appears to be still developing and we’re at a point where we’re running out of time to get it right.
And what makes the situation even worse: If the Niners’ offensive problems are indeed due to the absence of Williams, Aiyuk and McCaffrey, they are not expected to be on the field anytime soon.
Playing against another team’s top defense could either allay or confirm fears that this offense is in trouble.
The only opportunity to see these appearances, however, will be in the Niners’ final two preseason games – on Sunday against the Saints or next Friday against the Raiders.
And given what we’ve all seen so far, can Shanahan put his top players on the field and risk further injuries?
The Niners did the only sensible thing by canceling joint practices in Irvine. Shanahan was right, the risk was not worth the benefit.
But the same will certainly apply to a warm-up game against the Saints.
The Niners still have time to get back on track with their own training sessions. The season opener is not until September 9th.
But San Francisco is currently in a hopeless situation.
And the longer the current form lasts, the more likely it is that the team will not have enough wins to start the season.
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