Still, San Francisco 49ers HC Kyle Shanahan did not want to make any excuses
Following yesterday’s OTA session, which was open to the media, Kyle Shanahan spoke about player availability, Nick Sorensen and Brandon Staley’s working relationship, and the 49ers schedule and rest differential.
According to Warren Sharp, the 49ers will face eight teams with a rest advantage, which adds up to a -32 days negative rest edge, the most in the NFL since 1990. Last season, the 49ers had a -21 day rest differential, the highest in the NFL. The 49ers will also face seven opponents who have extra time to rest.
Shanahan opened his press conference by addressing the schedule:
How long after seeing the schedule release did you learn about your rest differential disadvantage for this coming season?
“You mean with the bye weeks? Before I came in here. I promise I didn’t really think about it. And he gave me some questions before, he said we have four of them coming off a bye. I was like, ‘Isn’t that what we had last year?’ So maybe we had less, I don’t know what we had last year, but I feel like we had a lot last year too. So I try not to think much of it.”
Not a big deal in your mind?
“I know what our preference would be. But you never know whether that affects you or not until you get there. And there’s lots of things that go into the year, lots of things that can hurt you on the schedule. I’d rather it be a different way, but there’s a lot of things that could be worse too.”
Shanahan is confident his team can handle the scheduling issue after dealing with the problem last season.
Some other quick notes about the 49ers’ schedule from Warren Sharp’s article on SharpFootballAnalysis.com:
From Week 7 on, the 49ers play the NFL’s #4 most difficult schedule of opponents.
And during that span, they are at a rest disadvantage in 6 of those 11 games:
- Week 7 vs. Kansas City when KC is coming off their bye week
- Week 8 vs. Dallas when DAL is coming off their bye week
- Week 11 vs. Seattle when SEA is coming off their bye week
- Week 13 vs. Buffalo when BUF is coming off their bye week
- Week 14 vs. Chicago when CHI is coming off a mini-bye
- Week 18 vs. Arizona when ARI has extra rest with SF coming off MNF
The 49ers’ four games against teams coming off a bye is tied for the most in the 35 years since 1990 with only two other teams.
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