The San Francisco 49ers are rolling in 2023, scoring 30 points in all of their first three outings of the year and enjoying their best start since the 2019 campaign. Thursday night's 30-12 primetime victory over New York Giants extends their regular season win streak to ten-consecutive games dating back to Week 13 of the 2022 season. Here are the three biggest takeaways from head coach Kyle Shanahan:
The 49ers had three players suffer injuries in Thursday night's matchup.
San Francisco's injury list now includes wide receiver Deebo Samuel Sr. (ribs) and linebackers Dre Greenlaw (ankle) and Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles (ankle). The good news is all three injuries appear to be minor in severity with Shanahan listing the trio of players as day-to-day headed into the long weekend.
Initially, there was concern Samuel may have sustained rib fractures after going down following a 19-yard gain in the fourth quarter. He underwent evaluation that revealed no fractures, and the head coach reported that the receiver was "pretty sore" on Friday.
Shanahan was pleased with the performance of his three running backs in Thursday's primetime matchup.
After a heavy workload for Christian McCaffrey against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 2, Shanahan's plan for this game was to work in Elijah Mitchell to keep the running back corps in their best possible shape, and he did just that. Third-year back Elijah Mitchell was in on 28 snaps and closed out Thursday night's game with 11 carries for 42 yards. Sophomore back Jordan Mason also saw action towards the tail end of the contest, amassing three carries for 11 yards. Per Pro Football Focus, McCaffrey saw his workload decrease to 51 snaps versus the Giants.
"The week before, not getting Elijah in was an anomaly for us," Shanahan said. "This was a little more of what we expect. Each team is going to be different, but I was happy with how yesterday went. Both of them played well, and I thought JP did an awesome job when he came in."
The 49ers have signed multi-year contract extensions for two key figures in the organization.
General manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan are sticking around The Bay for the foreseeable future. The team announced this afternoon that the duo, who were hired together in 2017, have put pen to paper on multi-year contract extensions with the 49ers. Lynch and Shanahan have put together some notable seasons together that include a Super Bowl LIV appearance, three trips to the NFC Championship Game in the last four seasons and two NFC West division titles (2019 and 2022). With this pair at the helm, the 49ers have posted a regular season record of 55-46 over the past seven seasons and gone 6-3 in the postseason.
