Kyle Shanahan issued a compelling rallying cry Monday, and it’s one the 49ers should carry through training camp and into an uncertain season.
“Football doesn’t matter if you don’t handle COVID right,” Shanahan said Monday in a video conference with reporters.
So far, the 49ers are handling it impressively, at least judging by their apparently minimal COVID-19 issues since players began arriving for training camp two weeks ago.
Only two of 80 repeatedly tested players have gone on the NFL’s COVID-19 reserve list, those being Richie James Jr. and Jeff Wilson Jr. On Monday, James came off the list after a week and reverted to a non-football-injury list for a fractured hand from June.
“The main thing that’s changed (with camp) is how you deal with it when people get COVID,” Shanahan added. “But then, our first thing is going to be: how do you set up camp without preseason games.”
Perhaps with live tackling drills, at a time when social distancing is demanded everywhere else.
So how else are the 49ers bracing for a training camp’s further impact from COVID-19? Let’s look:
1. PRACTICE PLAN
Safety protocol will limit the 49ers to walk-through practices, plus strength and conditioning over these next two weeks. The first full-team practice in pads is not allowed until Aug. 17.
“We’ve got a plan and everything’s on the board that we’re supposed to do, but I’m not acting like that plan isn’t going to change,” Shanahan added. “We’re going to be ready to adapt to anything. You have to with the COVID stuff.
“You never know when you’re going to lose people. But the practice stuff is going to be fun, I think.”
That could mean allowing players to tackle each other, a no-no in modern-NFL practices because all-out contact is typically frowned upon outside game action. Shanahan has never been on a staff that’s tackled in camp, but he acknowledges unusual drills might be needed if players are waging tight job competitions.
2. EXTINCT EXHIBITIONS
The elimination of exhibition games comes with pros and cons.
A positive: Shanahan can better schedule out practice reps for improved balance without being interupted by on-again, off-again dates around meaningless exhibitions, especially the time lost traveling for the typical pair of preseason road trips.
The bad: Evaluating running backs and punt returns just got harder in terms of their ability to break tackles. The 49ers know what they have in their top four running backs, so undrafted rookies Jamycal Hasty, Salvon Ahmed and fullback Josh Hokit better impress in practice. Richie James Jr.’s hand injury opens the door for a new punt returner, and the 49ers surely will audition 2017-18 specialist Trent Taylor along with first-round pick Brandon Aiyuk, Dante Pettis and Travis Benjamin.
3. GETTING COMFORTABLE
Rather than delve into football chatter and Super Bowl revenge, Shanahan steered his Monday team meeting into addressing concerns about the COVID-19 safety measures.
“Before I got here, I was a lot more nervous, ‘How can this work out? How can we social distant?’ I had a lot of skepticism,” Shanahan said. “Then each day it got better and better, and you see the protocols and you get so much more optimistic, ‘Alright, I get how this can work.’ “
General manager John Lynch praised Al Guido, the 49ers’ president, and Ben Peterson, their head of player health and performance, for leading the way in not only implementing the NFL and NFL Players Association’s safety measures but government guidelines.
“So many people have been working their tails off to equip this place such that our players feel comfortable, their families feel comfortable and our staff feels comfortable,” Lynch said. “Does that assure us of anything? No, but it sure allows us to mitigate any risk and we’re proud of what they’ve done.”
4. COACHING DEPTH
Shanahan’s staff is relatively young, but a couple seasoned assistants figure to have a greater risk of catching COVID-19. Bobby Turner (running backs), Johnny Holland (linebackers) and Stan Kwon (special teams) each have coached over 20 years in the NFL, while other long-time assistants include Robert Saleh (defensive coordinator), Richard Hightower (special teams coordinator), Jon Embree (tight ends) and John Benton (offensive line).
Shanahan said all coaches needed permission from their doctors to report for camp, and now that they’ve been embedded for two weeks, concerns are receding.
“When we got back in here, that eased a lot,” Shanahan said. “The guys who had high concerns and guys I had concerned for, they felt a lot better.”
Shanahan noted that coaches discovered this past offseason how flexible they can be teaching via video conferences, which they’d be summoned to do if quarantined. Eagles coach Doug Peterson is isolated after testing positive for COVID-19 and being asymptomatic.
5. MEETINGS MOVE
Levi’s Stadium’s spacious United Club, on the west side’s suite tower, hosted Monday’s team meeting. The stadium’s east side’s auditorium, where team meetings and press conferences have been held since 2014, is now reserved for only the defensive backs meetings with a 30-person capacity.
The 49ers’ locker room is just down the hall from the auditorium, and Shanahan doesn’t eye too many full-team meetings that would force players to walk halway around the stadium and up to the third-floor United Club.
“Going through all these protocols is to really make sure you have a right to go outside and play football against each other,” Shanahan said.
“We all know once we play that sport, social distancing during that is a little bit impossible,” Shanahan added. “But if you do it the right way, and we have 10 days before start, then you get the right to go out there and practice with us.”
Reminder: Practices are closed to the public, unlike recent years that would attract drown daily crowds of about 2,000 fans.
