The San Francisco 49ers travel to face the Indianapolis Colts this weekend, and the Week 3 preseason game means dress rehearsal time. This is not completely what we can expect of the team come the regular season, but it’s the closest we’ll see to it in the preseason.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan told the media on Tuesday that starters will likely play through roughly the end of the first half. He called that the standard, but also said flow of the game and individual performance could result in less or more playing time.
The 49ers are using the whole week as a way to show some of the younger players what the regular season will look like. The team is holding three days of practice and media availability on the same schedule they would for a regular season Saturday game. It sounds like they will do some game-planning for the Colts, but Shanahan said it is still more about getting the team ready for the regular season than planning something extensively to win this game.
Next week, the 49ers will host the Los Angeles Chargers for the annual preseason battle of California. Most of the starters are unlikely to see the field in that final game. The big names are not surprising, but that game will be worth watching to see which players we think are on the bubble get the day off. In the meantime, we get about a half of starter snaps this weekend against the Colts.