No one at the San Francisco 49ers team facility is taking the Seattle Seahawks lightly. On Monday night, the Seahawks lost their third straight and sixth of the last seven games, falling to 3-8 on the season. The 49ers, however, appear to be surging. They have won three straight and four of their last five games. After being cast aside earlier in the season, San Francisco is now entrenched in the playoff hunt.
This is 49ers-Seahawks, though. Oddsmakers favor the 6-5 Niners in the road matchup, but Seattle coach Pete Carroll has had 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan's number in recent years. The Seahawks have won the last three meetings between the two teams and four of the previous five. San Francisco's last win in Seattle came during that memorable last-second Week 17 victory in 2019 that sealed the NFC West title for the 49ers.
San Francisco's players know they have to bring it on Sunday at Lumen Field.
"I think one thing about it, I could[n't] care less about Seattle's record," linebacker Al-Shaair said Tuesday morning on KNBR's Murph & Mac show. "I know who they are. Obviously, that's not like them and what their history has been, for their record to be what it is. But I know one thing's for sure — whenever you line up against them, you've got to be ready to go.
"I think when the 49ers and Seattle play, it don't [matter] what the record [is]. Even you look at last year, when our record wasn't as good, even that last game, it came down literally to the last play. So, I don't think it's ever, with us, about a record or sleeping on anybody.
"Even when it's not Seattle, let's say it was somebody else, even Jacksonville, I don't care who we're playing. You're in the NFL, so you better show up since the guys that's lining up across from you are getting paid millions of dollars to do the same thing that's you're supposed to be doing. So you've got to bring your A-game every single week, or else somebody's going to hit you in the mouth."
The 49ers will be without star linebacker Fred Warner on Sunday. That means Al-Shaair and the other linebackers will get another hefty workload against Seattle.
"He's doing good," Al-Shaair said of Warner. "Obviously, Fred is superhuman. He's going to get himself ready to go. Obviously, he hasn't missed a game in his career for a reason. He takes care of his body and does things the right way. ... I just know that Fred's going to do everything in his power to make sure he's ready to go, whenever that may be."
The 49ers hope Warner will return for the next game, a Week 14 matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals. The linebacker is dealing with a hamstring strain.
On offense, the 49ers will be without their leading receiver, Deebo Samuel. The 49ers expect him to miss one to two games due to a groin strain.
"Deebo's my brother," Al-Shaair said. "Me and him hang out all the time, and we sit [next to each other] in a lot of the meetings, whenever it's like team meetings, special teams meetings, we're together, and we're choppin' it up or whatever just throughout the day. It was really hard to see him go down.
"I'm happy that it's not anything too serious. Obviously, it's going to be a huge hit to the team that he's not able to play, but guys just got to step up. It's just the next-man-up mentality."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Al-Shaair below.
