Arguably the toughest opponent for the 49ers in recent years has been the injury bug, especially last season.
In fact, it’s been such an issue for San Francisco that conspiracy theories have arisen online around the cause of the injuries, including one attributing them to the electrical substation next to the 49ers’ facility in Santa Clara.
While a team-hired scientist since has declared the area safe from any substantial effects related to the substation, that hasn’t stopped the 49ers from doing whatever they can to address this frustrating problem.
General manager John Lynch was asked how the team is planning to adjust during NFL training camp this year in the hopes of alleviating some of those injuries.
“I won’t get into the details. I’ll let [coach Kyle Shanahan], when he’s back and healthy, if he chooses to,” Lynch told reporters Saturday before camp begins. “But I think you guys will see some different things. We kind of audited everything, because we always do that. I talked about it at the league meetings, I think $9 million went into our hydro area back there. It’s beautiful. I went in there. We’ve got the whole team in there right now, and they’re loving it.
“And so, credit to the Yorks. A thank you to the Yorks for always giving us every resource that we need. We’ve added personnel to our health and performance staff. We take a hard look at everything, and there’s a lot of different dynamics this year with going to Australia, later in the year with going to Mexico City with the season, but we took a hard look at training camp.
“And there will be some adjustments, some of them minor, but everything counts. And so, you try to do your absolute best to give ourself the best chance to stay healthy. The reality is, in this league people get hurt, but I’m real proud of the changes that we have made, and we’ll keep doing the things we’ve done well. We’ll see where it ends up.”
Though Lynch didn’t mention any specific changes being made, it’s clear the 49ers are looking to be more proactive around injury prevention this season. Perhaps Shanahan, when he has recovered from injuries sustained in a recent car accident, will provide more specific details later in training camp.
As of October 2025, the 49ers had accumulated over 2,000 games missed due to injury since Shanahan took over as coach in 2017, the highest mark in the NFL.
The team obviously had to try something different, particularly after injuries essentially doomed their 2025 NFL season.
Now, the question becomes whether or not those adjustments will prove to be effective this year.
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