Kyle Shanahan on the 49ers’ high injury count: ‘It feels pretty normal

INDIANAPOLIS, IN - DECEMBER 22: San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan exits the field after an NFL football game against the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium on December 22, 2025 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images) | Getty Images

San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak shared the benefits of the team changing up their practice schedule as training camp was underway a week and a half ago.

Head coach Kyle Shanahan spoke to the media on Saturday and was asked about the injuries and the practice schedule. Chris Foerster said the team was healthy .

The 49ers have been pretty banged up for the second straight year in training camp. When Shanahan was asked whether it felt like a lot or if the team was minding the camp injuries to make it through, he said:

“It feels pretty normal, give or take three. I think it does happen a number of times in camp. We also have a number of guys coming into camp that didn’t go on PUP that we weren’t trying to throw back in there right away. And that stuff’s always frustrating. That’s why you sometimes want it a little bit longer, but the thing that frustrates you the most is when you lose a guy, and there’s one guy like that right now, which we’ve had to grieve for a little bit. Then you’ve got to figure out how to adjust and move on from it.”

Shanahan is referring to Ricky Pearsall. He said, “Losing Ricky was a real big deal. We’ve had a number of injuries in camp, but that’s really the only one that’s actually been not just a camp injury. Losing a player like Ricky is a huge deal. It ties to everybody. A lot of people have to step up, but no one here is wired exactly how Ricky is. So you do lose a big part of what we were planning on.”

Shanahan was talking about how Pearsall and Deebo Samuel are completely different skill-set-wise, and that’s not a 1-for-1 swap. It’s hard to imagine Deebo filling the same role as Ricky. Samuel was never the type to beat press coverage consistently or stretch the field vertically.

As for the practice schedule, the 49ers have a jog-through to break up their practice blocks and avoid going three days in a row. In Shanahan’s mind, it makes sense “science-wise.”

“We used to go three days on and take one full day off and then go three days on again. We look into everything, and we thought that it would be better for us this year to never go three full days in a row. But, if you only go two full days in a row and then take a day off, you don’t really build anything. So, we thought it’d be better to go two full days full speed, then have a kind of mental day where they’re not totally off their feet. We’re jogging through, no one’s competing, we’re not throwing a football, but they’re still moving their body, which kind of is a little bit of a recovery. And then the fourth day you get our hardest practice of that set and then you get a day off. So, it ends up being about the same, just trying a different way on how you juggle it. It makes sense science-wise and everything, but there’s a lot more that goes into it than just science.”

Even last week, there still seemed to be an injury, at least per practice. While it’s football, the other 31 teams in the NFL aren’t getting hurt at the same rate.

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