The San Francisco 49ers will hit the Levi's Stadium field for practice just after 5 p.m. tonight. It will be their only practice of the week as the team prepares for Thursday night's game at Lumen Field against the Seattle Seahawks.
It's a big matchup, not just because it features division rivals, but because the 49ers can clinch the NFC West with a win, ensuring they open the playoffs at home. Meanwhile, the Seahawks are looking to rebound from a Week 14 loss to the Carolina Panthers and sneak back into the playoff picture.
This week, no one needs to remind the 49ers about what's at stake. The team remains laser-focused on the task at hand, looking to go 1-0 each week and let everything else sort itself out.
"Everybody understands what it is," wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk said this morning on KNBR's Murph & Mac show. "Everybody understands the type of football that we want to play. Even if that wasn't the case this week, or in a couple of days, I'm sure the style of football that we play would be the same. That's what we're focused on doing this week."
San Francisco has won six consecutive games, so whatever the team does is working. We'll see if that continues into Thursday night.
"It's going to be more of a mental week, with it being a short week," Aiyuk continued, "so we're just trying to be as clean as possible, get as fresh as possible, recovered as possible, so we can go out there and play the same type of football that we've been playing for the past couple of months."
Aiyuk has caught passes from three quarterbacks this season, the latest being rookie Brock Purdy, who earned his first win as a starter on Sunday against Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
"He's about business," Aiyuk said after being asked about his young quarterback. "One thing that I've noticed from him since I've been around him is that he's going to be about his business and take care of it. The past two weeks, he's shown us nothing different.
"He's shown us a little bit more of who he is in terms of the way he plays football. You get an understanding for it and respect it even more, about how he carries himself and how he goes about his business."
Aiyuk is on pace for his best season as a pro. He has 58 receptions for 755 yards, a career-high seven touchdowns, and still has four games to go. However, Aiyuk knows that he and the rest of the receivers will need to step up in the coming weeks with Deebo Samuel out. The star wideout suffered MCL and ankle sprains against the Buccaneers but is expected to return at some point during the regular season.
Aiyuk had his ups and downs throughout his three NFL seasons but is now showing everyone why the 49ers drafted him with the No. 25 overall pick in 2020.
"As the season goes on, you play more football," Aiyuk responded when asked about his confidence level. "You get more and more confident just going out there. Just the more football you play, that's the reason we say, at this point in the season, now that it's December, you want to be playing your best ball. I just feel like I've laid down the pieces to be able to allow myself to go out there to be able to play my best football as the season continues.
"That's the main thing about the confidence, and you get to build it every single weekend. You get more and more [confidence] when you win football games, so six in a row, we're very confident."
You can listen to the entire interview with Aiyuk below.