Don’t expect Kyle Shanahan to shut down his players until the postseason.
The 49ers, at 10-4, currently have the No. 3 seed in the NFC, and would have been at No. 2 had the Indianapolis Colts not melted down in historic fashion this past week.
They are a game back of the Minnesota Vikings, and would leapfrog them in the standings should both teams finish with the same record.
As Shanahan put it on Wednesday with Tolbert & Copes, “there’s too much at stake to think about shutting players down.
He’s a coach who is something of an NFL history buff and recalled how teams who have rested their players in the lead up to the players often have a tendency to come out flat.
He cited a pair of legendary coaches, in his father, Mike Shanahan, and Tony Dungy, who both had issues when they rested their teams:
Watching teams my whole life, I just strongly believe that some of the biggest mistakes people make when you sit there and you win too early and you try to shut guys down.
I could totally understand it if we were playing a seven-game series, but I can’t understand it for three-and-a-half-hour event. It’s only one shot and I mean just in my experience over the years, guys that have gotten hurt at the end that we’ve rested or that have been on IR you bring back for the playoffs, those are usually the guys that hurt you at first because they’re just rusty and they haven’t done much.
I’ve watched, just talking to guys — Lynch talking to Tony Dungy last week, they used to do this with Peyton all the time. And he said some of the biggest mistakes was when they rested, their guys struggled.
I know watching my dad and I think it was ’95 they were 13-3, clinched the division, rested their players for three weeks. And they opened up the playoffs versus Jacksonville who was a second-year expansion team, and they lost, I think it was 30-27 and that was maybe their best team.
They went on to win the Super Bowl the next two years but I still believe they should have had three in a row and I think it goes all the way back to resting the players. So I could go through 100 stories like that.
That said, this is a statement with three weeks to go and with the No. 2 seed very much up for grabs.
“We’re not going to do anything stupid,” Shanahan said. “But it’s different. We got to play each week. One, it does mean a lot. It’d be great to get that No. 2 seed and if not, we’re gonna fight for it all and at least, worst-case scenario we’re sitting here at the three.”
The distinction Shanahan made in talking to media on Tuesday is that because the 49ers have clinched the No. 3 seed at worst, they don’t have to force players who are “on the bubble” health-wise to play in these late regular season games.
“In this situation those guys you would definitely rest,” Shanahan said. “So anybody who has an injury that could risk them for the following week or something like that’s to me the decisions now that there is no decision. Definitely rest them.”
Deebo Samuel, Shanahan said, is in that group.
Samuel, who was seen jogging and doing rehab work on the sideline before Wednesday’s practice, got a week-to-week designation from Shanahan.
He could have had a chance to play this week if the 49ers were “desperate,” but instead, Shanahan said he didn’t even look into it. They’ll evaluate him Monday, with Shanahan intimating he may not return in the regular season if his health is questionable and there’s nothing left to fight for in the next two weeks.
Listen to the full interview below. You can listen to every KNBR interview on our podcast page at knbr.com/podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Catch Tolbert & Copes weekdays from 2 p.m. – 6 p.m. on KNBR 104.5 / 680 and streaming live on KNBR.com.
