The San Francisco 49ers announced that the following 27 players won't suit up for tonight's exhibition game against the Minnesota Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium.
- QB Trey Lance
- QB Jimmy Garoppolo
- RB Elijah Mitchell
- RB Jeff Wilson Jr.
- FB Kyle Juszczyk
- WR Brandon Aiyuk
- WR Deebo Samuel
- TE George Kittle
- TE Charlie Woerner
- OL Daniel Brunskill
- OL Jake Brendel
- OL Mike McGlinchey
- OL Trent Williams
- OL Jaylon Moore
- OL Colton McKivitz
- DE Samson Ebukam
- DE Nick Bosa
- DT Arik Armstead
- LB Azeez Al-Shaair
- LB Fred Warner
- LB Dre Greenlaw
- LB Curtis Robinson
- CB Emmanuel Moseley
- CB Charvarius Ward
- S Jimmie Ward
- S Dontae Johnson
- S Talanoa Hufanga
This was expected. Head coach Kyle Shanahan stated before the preseason that he planned to give his starters playing time during Weeks 1 and 3, resting those players for tonight's game. The 49ers' exhibition schedule includes three games in 14 days. Just four days are sandwiched between tonight's game and Thursday night's preseason finale on the road against the Houston Texans.
The 49ers held joint practices with the Vikings this week, and Shanahan values those more than meaningless preseason games. On Friday, the coach was asked if he gets more from the scrimmages with other teams.
"Yeah, definitely, because you can dictate stuff in scrimmages," Shanahan said on KNBR. "You know down and distances. You know the plays. You've got the substitutions. You can put the guys through all the situations that you need to prepare them. Where in a game, you don't know how it's going to unfold. So, it's much different."
Not only is it just five days from this game to the next, but the team must also travel to Houston, limiting preparation time.
"The dilemma of game two, it's more about that game three is so close with us getting back Sunday morning because it's a Saturday night game, and having to fly out to Houston on Wednesday," Shanahan explained. "So if I play many of the guys in that second game, I can't in the third. So we're going to have to really just get through the game. And you've got to get guys out there, and there's definitely a number of guys who you want to still evaluate, but the biggest part of that is from practice.
"Now, you've got to put some guys into the game, and make sure they don't freak out under the lights, or freak out on TV or whatever that is, and make sure the game's not too big for them. But a lot of the evaluations have been done. Then, hopefully, we can get through that game, and we can play a little more people on our Thursday night game because that will be the last time before we suit up for Chicago. And we want to make sure the guys don't have to take too much time off before they hit someone."
You can listen to the whole conversation with Shanahan below.