Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo already
fielded questions about potentially playing for a tie rather than the win against the Seattle Seahawks on Monday night — a game the Niners lost in overtime.
"It's hard to play for a tie," Garoppolo said. "I don't know if I've ever done that before, and I'm glad we went for the win."
The 49ers received the ball on their own 20-yard line with just under two minutes remaining in overtime. San Francisco could have run out the clock and stayed undefeated because Seattle didn't have any more timeouts.
They didn't, and the 49ers suffered their first loss of the year.
After Wednesday's practice, it was Kyle Shanahan's turn to deal with a similar question. The head coach was asked if he ever considered playing for a tie during overtime.
"When you say 'play for a tie,' do you mean just take three knees?" Shanahan asked.
The reporter clarified: "Or just run the ball three times."
"That's not necessarily playing for a tie," Shanahan responded. "If we would have thought three runs were the best play to go with, we would have done that. But just running, not trying to get yards, to run the clock off, I think you know that answer. I'm pretty sure that we all know that answer. I would hope everyone in the world would be pretty disappointed in that.
"When I look back at that, I wish we had the clock moving, and if we had incompletions, then I could take it over. I should have just called a play that we didn't have an incompletion on. It would have kept the clock running."
So, in short: No.
The San Francisco 49ers are hoping to sign tight end George Kittle to a long-term extension. The two sides don't sound as though they are very close in the negotiation process, however.
NFL insider Ian Rapoport reported earlier this week that the 49ers and Kittle's camp are not "particularly close on anything."
Mike Silver of NFL Network seems to be hearing the same thing and on Friday provided an update on Kittle's contract situation.
"There remains a pretty significant disconnect philosophically between the 49ers and George Kittle's camp. The 49ers believe they want to reset the tight end market and give him a great tight end deal.
Raheem Mostert has some big aspirations. The biggest football-related one might be the San Francisco 49ers running back being motivated by Canton. He hopes to have a good enough career to one day find himself in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
If last season's Green Bay Packers defense were the voters, Mostert might be a shoo-in. The former undrafted player rushed for 220 yards and four touchdowns on 29 carries against the Packers defense in the NFC Championship Game, helping to punch the 49ers' ticket to Super Bowl LIV.
"[The performance] really opened up my eyes," Mostert said in April. "[I said], 'Hey look, I did this. Why stop? Just keep going. Keep doing the right
The Seattle Seahawks' trade for safety Jamal Adams gives the San Francisco 49ers' division rival one of the players best suited to defend an offense that features running backs and tight ends in the passing game.
The San Francisco 49ers have perhaps the league's top offensive mind in head coach Kyle Shanahan while the Seahawks have a defensive guru for a head coach in Pete Carroll. When the 49ers have the ball the two go toe-to-toe on play calls in a manner that can only be compared to a game of chess.
Shanahan calls passing plays designed to get tight end George Kittle or one of the bevy of players who line up in the backfield open as much as any coach in the NFL.
Just fewer than 50 percent of the 49ers' passing yards in 2019 went to a back or tight
