{"id":658293,"date":"2026-01-06T11:31:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T11:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/658293\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T11:31:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T11:31:19","slug":"49ers-news-tatum-bethune-will-miss-the-playoffs-fred-warner-could-return-in-2-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/658293\/","title":{"rendered":"49ers news: Tatum Bethune will miss the playoffs; Fred Warner could return in 2 games"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan announced linebacker Tatum Bethune will miss the postseason after suffering a significant groin injury in Week 18 against the Seattle Seahawks. Shanahan said Bethune might need surgery for the tear.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Linebacker Dee Winters, who appeared to have gotten his calf stepped on, has an ankle injury, and Luke Gifford, who has a quad injury, will be evaluated as the week goes on.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Eric Kendricks will take over for Bethune as the starter. He played well in Week 18 and was arguably the 49ers\u2019 best defensive player.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">As for Fred Warner, the 49ers are eyeing a potential return in the NFC Championship, if they can make it that far. That would bethe time when the 49ers would open Warner\u2019s practice window.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">So, until then, it\u2019ll be Kendricks playing MIKE linebacker, and Garrett Wallow or Curtis Robinson filling in for Winters at WILL if he can\u2019t suit up. Then, if Gifford can\u2019t play, the other linebacker between Wallow or Robinson would play SAM linebacker.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Trent Williams and Ricky Pearsall will be evaluated throughout the week. Pearsall reaggravated his PCL, per Shanahan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Jacob Cowing\u2019s practice window will open. He\u2019ll practice on Wednesday. This past offseason, Shanahan said, \u201cI thought Jake had one of the best OTAs out of anybody on our team, in terms of the most improved and the most prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Brock Purdy checked out OK after a left shoulder stinger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan announced linebacker Tatum Bethune will miss the postseason after suffering a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":658294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2080],"tags":[220,7,6,1161,252,85370,52067,2630,3148,2624,2623],"class_list":{"0":"post-658293","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-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-san-francisco","12":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","13":"tag-san-francisco-49ers-analysis","14":"tag-san-francisco-49ers-roster","15":"tag-san-francisco-49ers-depth-chart","16":"tag-san-francisco-49ers-injuries","17":"tag-sanfrancisco","18":"tag-sanfrancisco49ers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115847933821966492","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658293","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=658293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}