49ers coach Kyle Shanahan explains what he looks for as soon as the schedule is released

The San Francisco 49ers schedule, along with the rest of the league, for the 2020 regular season was announced on Thursday. It's easy for fans to quickly scan through a schedule and point out easy wins and potential losses. 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan used to do that, too, when he first entered the NFL.

That isn't the case anymore.

The 49ers have what looks like a potentially difficult stretch starting around Week 7. But it's easy to say that in May.

Colleen Wolfe on NFL Network spoke with Shanahan on Thursday, and the coach explained why he doesn't jump to any conclusions this early in the offseason, and what he actually looks for when the schedule is released.

"Then you get into the season, and you learn half the stuff year-to-year flips," Shanahan said. "Injuries completely change (things). ... Through experience, when schedules come out, I rarely look at how many tough games you have in a row or where that tough stuff is because it changes year-to-year."

So what does the coach look for?

"I just want to know when the Thursday game is; who you have; whether it's home or away," Shanahan responded. "How many Monday night games, how many Sunday night games, how many trips you've got to travel through two timezones. That's a really big deal for us being on the West Coast. How many days you have to recover in some of those tough times. When is your bye week and when [are] your Thursday games, so you can plan on the recovery throughout the whole year?

"To me, that's the biggest thing in the schedule. Yeah, you always want to look at how good the teams are ... but no one knows what the team is going to be or what your opponent is going to be until that time comes because the NFL changes too much."