SANTA CLARA — Brock Purdy has never been one to think he’s above it all, but had little choice when he and his wife joined George Kittle and his wife on a bye week getaway to Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Purdy turned off his phone, gasped as he watched Kittle unleash a 330-foot drive on the golf course at an altitude of more than one mile above sea level, and got in a little fishing before getting back to the grind.
“It was nice to go out there and breathe,” Purdy said Thursday as the 49ers (4-4) continued preparations to visit the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4-5) in Week 10.
For whatever reason, and even Kyle Shanahan isn’t sure what it is, the 49ers have often used the bye week as a starting gun in his previous seven years as the 49ers head coach.
The 49ers have a 43-19 record under Shanahan following a bye, compared to 25-36 before the yearly one-week break.
In the last two seasons, the 49ers were 16-2 following their bye, both of which took place in Week 9 just like this year. And one of those losses came when several starters took a seat for the last regular season game against the Rams in 2023 with the NFC West already wrapped up.
Purdy hopes that’s the case this season as well. The division race is up for grabs with Arizona at 5-4, the 49ers and Rams at 4-4 and the Seattle Seahawks at 4-5.
“It’s nice that we had a bye to get guys healthy and you get guys back together it’s like, `OK, we know how important the second half of the season is,” Purdy said. “We know that from the last couple of years, but every year is different. That doesn’t mean we’re going to go and do the things we’ve done the last couple of years. It’s put our heads down, go to work one day at a time and chip away at it.”
The 49ers could get a shot of adrenaline in the form of running back Christian McCaffrey, who is coming back from Achilles tendinitis in both feet and practiced for the third time this week. The 49ers can wait until Saturday before activating him from injured reserve and on to the 53-man roster.
Shanahan isn’t sure the bye week has all that much to do with what happens when play resumes.
“I always like to feel we’re going to be better at the bye, I like to feel we’re better the following week, always,” Shanahan said.
Left tackle Trent Williams hasn’t given the 49ers success following a bye a great deal of thought.
“I’m not a big stats guy, so I don’t really look at it like that,” Williams said. “I don’t know if there’s anything to do with the bye. Maybe as the season goes on the games get more important. Maybe the heightened sense of urgency, but I can’t really put my finger on any particular things that make a difference.”
Middle linebacker Fred Warner likes the way the 49ers have played …read more
Source:: The Mercury News – Entertainment
