The 2022 49ers are boldly going where no Kyle Shanahan team has ever gone before - into the final three weeks of a season with a division title firmly in hand. At his press conference yesterday, Kyle Shanahan laid out his approach for the rest of the regular season.
Don’t expect healthy players to get a lot of time off.
“I think that’s one of the biggest mistakes people make just watching it over the years. That’s my opinion, I would understand if you were getting ready for a seven-game series, I don’t think football is like that. It’s three and a half hours. It’s one shot.
I’ve been on a lot of teams where you rest guys and or give guys a few more weeks and those are usually the guys who struggle the most in that first playoff game. I think where situations are different is like last year when it came down to our last game you have guys that are fighting to play because they’re right on the bubble of not being able to play. In this situation those guys you would definitely rest. Anybody who has an injury that could risk them for the following week or something like that- to me the decision is now that there is no decision. Definitely rest them.”
The team is on a seven-game winning streak, and everybody knows you never mess with a winning streak.
Separate from that, the top seed in the conference is still technically available to the Niners (maybe even more so with the injury to Jalen Hurts’ shoulder), as is the second spot currently occupied by the Minnesota Vikings. It might not seem like a big deal to some, but the more home games you can get in the playoffs, the better.
How Kyle would handle these last three games was really the biggest question facing the team after clinching their division on Thursday night. He set the tone pretty clearly yesterday that it’s business as usual for the Niners.
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