SANTA CLARA — Kyle Shanahan hates the NFL’s preseason. Four games, three games, two, he’s shown nothing but disdain for the exhibition schedule since he took over as the 49ers’ head coach.
It hasn’t been hard to spot. Shanahan has stopped calling the offense in preseason games, only to then proclaim he was bored out of his mind.
Us, too, Kyle.
But Shanahan can afford to be one of the regular folks, hating fake NFL football, because his teams have often had a practical outlet for improvement in camp: joint practices.
The 49ers had spent all camp gearing up to face the Saints in Irvine this Thursday and Friday. The sleepy, juiceless practices, with periods constantly being truncated, to start camp wasn’t an issue — they would finally get after it this week.
Only they won’t have those practices now. This team is too short-staffed to participate — a combination of contract issues, injuries, and poor roster building all coming together to force the Niners to cancel the joint sessions.
“In the long run, I waited so long to make the decision because of how much we enjoy doing it,” Shanahan said. “Love doing that stuff… but the risk was too much. It outweighed the reward.”
Which raises a big question: How are the Niners going to prepare for the season?
The promise of joint practices is that 53-man roster players can test their mettle against another team’s top players, but they can do it in a controlled environment.
Coaches can work on situational football at a rate commensurate to its value — there are no 3-and-outs in joint practice.
They can also work on their advanced schematics on both offense and defense because the sessions are not being broadcast to the world on NFL Network.
Oh, and then there’s the upside of quarterbacks not being put in the line of fire, risking injury.
Joint practices are a pretty effective way to prepare for the season. Way better than a few reps in a preseason game, for sure.
And yet the Niners will only have the latter option available to them moving forward.
Will Shanahan even bother to use it?
Let’s be clear about this: the 49ers must come out of the gates fast this season. Their schedule is a bear — from Oct. 10 until the calendar flips to 2025, eleven 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 are considered to be more likely than not to make the postseason this year, according to FanDuel Sportsbook.
The Niners need at least three, if not four wins, in the team’s first five games.
That kind of record gives this team a cushion. The last thing they want is to be needing wins down the stretch come Thanksgiving, a week that’s bookended by trips to Green Bay and Buffalo.
Such are the perks of a first-place schedule, folks.
And while practice can be deceiving, I’ve yet to see a reason to believe the Niners will do what is required out of the gate.
Points to new defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen — his defense brought that long-sought-after juice on Wednesday. They were flying around, even as they were integrating some complex schemes for the first time this preseason. Good stuff.
But the flip side — the offense — has left so much to be desired as the fourth week of camp begins.
The absence of Trent Williams (contract holdout) has made the team’s offensive line look downright awful. It’s to the point where any defensive line success has to be thrown into question.
Not having Christian McCaffrey in the backfield matters, too. He’s the team’s No. 1 option in the offense, after all.
Brandon Aiyuk’s absence from the practice field has tangibly hurt the Niners’ preparation, too. The Niners are down their top two receivers at the X receivers with Aiyuk’s hold-in (it’s getting stranger by the day) and rookie Ricky Pearsall’s sidelining injuries.
It’s all amounting to the Niners’ offense looking like a massive mess.
Brock Purdy is back-footing throws amid the constant pressure, tossing wounded ducks of passes all over the field — passes that are only caught by Deebo Samuel (who has looked spry) and George Kittle (who keeps putting his health on the line to make these catches).
I can’t recall a scrimmage session in recent weeks where the 49ers offense — first, second, or third string — has looked crisp and effective. One good play is consistently followed by a bad one, or three.
Maybe the 49ers’ defense is that good. I have my doubts about that, but can’t rule it out entirely.
But either way, the Niners’ offense looks like a serious work-in-progress and we’re at a point where time is running short to get things right.
And, to make the situation worse, if the Niners’ offensive woes are, in fact, tied to the absence of Williams, Aiyuk, and McCaffrey, there should be no expectation they’ll be on the field anytime soon.
Reps against another team’s top defense could either assuage fears that this offense is in trouble or confirm them.
But the only opportunity to see those reps would be in the Niners’ final two preseason games — Sunday against the Saints or next Friday against the Raiders.
And can Shanahan, seeing what we’ve all seen so far, put his top-string on the field and risk further injury to them?
The Niners did the prudent thing by canceling those joint practices in Irvine. Shanahan was right, the risk wasn’t worth the reward.
But the same will certainly be true of a preseason game against the Saints.
The Niners still have time to right the ship within their own practices. The season opener isn’t until Sept. 9.
But right now, San Francisco is in a no-win situation.
And the longer the current form holds, the more likely the team is heading towards not enough wins to start the season.
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