{"id":658215,"date":"2026-01-06T10:49:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T10:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/658215\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T10:49:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T10:49:11","slug":"golden-nuggets-linebacker-we-hardly-know-er","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/658215\/","title":{"rendered":"Golden Nuggets: Linebacker? We hardly know \u2018er"},"content":{"rendered":"

49ers\u2019 Kyle Shanahan sees few ties to previous playoff meeting with Eagles (paywall)<\/a>
\u201cOf course, their thrashing of the Chiefs in last year\u2019s Super Bowl was largely the work of offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, who left to be the Saints\u2019 head coach.<\/p>\n

His replacement, Kevin Patullo, has been highly scrutinized for stumbling backward with a similar embarrassment of riches.<\/p>\n

The Eagles rank toward the bottom half of the league in most major offensive categories, including yards per game (24th), passing yards per game (23rd), rushing yards per game (18th), points per game (19th) and third-down conversion rate (24th).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know how good Philly is, how good they\u2019ve been,\u201d said Shanahan, who added the Eagles still have a \u201cSuper Bowl defense\u201d under coordinator Vic Fangio.\u201c<\/p>\n

Linebacker Tatum Bethune will miss the playoffs. Can 49ers survive until Fred Warner returns? (paywall)<\/a>
\u201cHowever, Kendricks had offseason shoulder surgery and didn\u2019t return to the NFL until he signed with the 49ers\u2019 practice squad on Nov. 26. He\u2019s since had six tackles in three games while playing 46 snaps.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m real confident in Eric,\u201d Shanahan said. \u201cHe\u2019s been here long enough. These games he\u2019s gotten in the last couple weeks, he\u2019s done a good job. I\u2019m glad that we got him for this situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Shanahan said Winters and Gifford would be evaluated during the week. Winters didn\u2019t return after he was injured in the second quarter when Seahawks left tackle Josh Jones stepped on his left ankle. Winters walked with a severe limp to the locker room. If Winters can\u2019t play against the Eagles, Garret Wallow or Curtis Robinson, both of whom have primarily served as core special-teams players in their career, would start in his place.\u201c<\/p>\n

49ers minutia minute: Linebacker-light defense draws well-rested Eagles on Sunday (paywall)<\/a>
\u201cPleasants, however, had plenty of company when it came to pass-protection struggles, with McKivitz and Burford surrendering more pressure than he did. The only offensive lineman with a clean sheet \u2014 no quarterback pressures \u2014 was right guard Puni.<\/p>\n

After the game, Shanahan indicated Trent Williams (hamstring) was close to playing against the Seahawks, which suggests he\u2019ll be ready to face the Eagles.\u201c<\/p>\n

49ers lose linebacker Tatum Bethune for playoffs after groin injury vs. Seahawks<\/a>
\u201cWeakside linebacker Dee Winters sustained an ankle injury on Saturday and played 29 of the 49ers\u2019 69 defensive plays. He will be evaluated throughout the week to determine his status for Sunday\u2019s game, Shanahan said. Winters leads the 49ers with 101 tackles on the season.<\/p>\n

The top backups for Winters are Garret Wallow and Curtis Robinson.<\/p>\n

Another linebacker, Luke Gifford, also is battling a quadriceps injury and his status is uncertain, too. Gifford was chosen to the NFC Pro Bowl team as a special-teams player.<\/p>\n

Defensive lineman Keion White also will be evaluated this week due to a hamstring injury. Safety Ji\u2019Ayir Brown (ribs) and defensive lineman Kalia Davis (knee tendinitis) are listed as day to day, Shanahan said.\u201c<\/p>\n

49ers open 21-day practice window for second-year wide receiver Jacob Cowing<\/a>
\u201cCowing had a strong offseason program and looked as if he put himself in position to be a contributor on offense this season. However, he sustained a hamstring injury on the first day of training camp then aggravated the condition upon his return approximately three weeks later.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kyle Shanahan shares 49ers updates ahead of playoff game vs. Eagles<\/a>
\u201cGoing back to Philly, obviously it\u2019s a different team than \u201822 and \u201823, but going back to Philly in \u201823 and winning the way you did, for the guys that are still on the team now, do you think that helps them in terms of it\u2019s not all about getting revenge for the 2022 NFC Championship Game knowing that you\u2019ve already been back?<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I think those storylines and stuff are great for fans and for people to talk about throughout the week and stuff. But, I don\u2019t think the players think much about that. Especially how many years it is removed on both sides. The guys who were there in \u201823 or \u201822, I think the best deal is understand the atmosphere of Philly, what it\u2019s like to go there and play a big game and how it can be. It helps guys be more prepared for the moment, but I don\u2019t see much correlation into the previous meetings to this one.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"49ers\u2019 Kyle Shanahan sees few ties to previous playoff meeting with Eagles (paywall)\u201cOf course, their thrashing of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":658216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2080],"tags":[220,52307,7,6,1161,252,1137,2624,2623],"class_list":{"0":"post-658215","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-49ers","8":"tag-49ers","9":"tag-49ers-links","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-san-francisco","13":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","14":"tag-san-francisco-49ers-news","15":"tag-sanfrancisco","16":"tag-sanfrancisco49ers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115847768583945085","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=658215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}