SANTA CLARA, Calif. — With accidents mounting, the San Francisco 49ers have made a major adjustment to their preseason schedule, asserting Sunday that they’ve canceled their deliberate joint practices with the New Orleans Saints.
“The 49ers and Saints have mutually agreed to cancel the joint practices that had been scheduled in Irvine on Thursday, Aug. 15 and Friday, Aug. 16,” the Niners stated in a press release.
These joint periods had been slated to happen in Irvine, California, the place the Saints have been coaching, earlier than the groups had been set to play a preseason sport subsequent Sunday on the Niners’ Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara.
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A supply advised ESPN that the driving pressure behind the choice was the quite a few accidents which have plagued the 49ers throughout camp. A wide range of delicate tissue illnesses have prevented a number of gamers from collaborating in observe for greater than every week.
When the Niners practiced Thursday, a whopping 23 gamers didn’t participate for numerous causes. And damage hit once more within the their preseason opener in opposition to the Tennessee Titans on Saturday night time, with cornerback Ambry Thomas struggling a damaged proper hand that’s anticipated to maintain him out for an prolonged interval.
Operating again Christian McCaffrey (calf), linebacker Fred Warner (foot), guard Spencer Burford (hand) and large receiver Ricky Pearsall (shoulder) are among the many key Niners who’ve been out of shape of late. That does not account for the absences of left deal with Trent Williams and wideout Brandon Aiyuk, who’re holding out and holding in, respectively, amid contract-related disputes.
Canceling the practices is a disappointing growth for Niners coach Kyle Shanahan, who historically has considered these periods as a greater gauge of his group than preseason video games.
“It is superior to get an opportunity to scrimmage in opposition to individuals,” Shanahan advised reporters Saturday in Nashville. “We’re just a little banged up. So, we have to determine how we will pull that off and stuff like that.”
The reply, it seems, is that they cannot. The Niners would have needed to stretch to have the wanted our bodies for these practices to be as productive as hoped. As a substitute of touring to Irvine, the Niners plan to observe at house in Santa Clara on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week earlier than Sunday’s exhibition sport in opposition to New Orleans.
Saints coach Dennis Allen stated it was disappointing to need to cancel the joint periods however that he was not involved about it. He stated his group would take a look at presumably scheduling practices in opposition to one other squad however that he did not anticipate it coming to fruition.
“I believe we’ll in all probability take a few of that deliberate work we had in opposition to the 49ers and the skeleton of that and simply make the most of that to work in opposition to ourselves,” Allen stated.
ESPN’s Katherine Terrell contributed to this report.
