Kyle Shanahan wishes he could just focus on planning for Sunday's game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. However, the San Francisco 49ers coach has team obligations, many of which he most likely wishes he could avoid.
On Wednesday, Shanahan learned that his superstar pass rusher, Nick Bosa, had agreed to sign a five-year, $170 million contract extension. The defender arrived in the Bay Area on Wednesday night and was at the team's facility at 6 a.m. Thursday morning.
Bosa had finally rejoined his teammates after a six-week-long holdout.
The defensive end wasn't a full participant during Thursday's practice. He worked with a trainer in the weight room and then on a side field. The team is ramping up his workload, fully expecting the reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year to be on the field against the Steelers.
After Thursday's practice, Shanahan joined KNBR for his weekly radio interview. The coach was asked how involved Bosa might be on Sunday, based on what he has seen from the defender so far. You know, in one day of limited work. He offered a pretty amusing response.
"Yeah, I mean, I've thought about it a lot, and today was our first time seeing him out there on the field, and I can't wait to go discuss it with people, but I'm forced to do a TV show and a radio show as soon as practice ends," Shanahan said. "So as soon as these are over, I'm going to go in and watch it with the guys, and we'll start discussing this right away.
"It's funny because they all sit in there and wait on me, and they're all annoyed with me, but it's obligations."
I guess we'll have to wait until Shanahan's Friday press conference, once he has had an opportunity to speak with his coaches, to learn anything about the plan for Bosa against the Steelers.
Obviously, Shanahan is happier today than he was earlier in the week, when he believed the 49ers would face the Steelers without the defense's best player.
"He was the best player in the league last year on defense, so whatever team you add him to, he's going to do a ton for them," Shanahan said. "But we also got a lot of good players around him, and ... we had to be prepared to play without him. And we were trying to do that and we feel confident to do that. But when you add the best player in the league on the defense to our team, it kind of just unlocks everybody, allows everybody to be in some better situations."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Shanahan below.
