It's been an eventful offseason for the San Francisco 49ers and head coach Kyle Shanahan.
The team has had to deal with the ongoing Brandon Aiyuk drama, plenty of injuries at training camp, and Shanahan's offseason car wreck. The head coach was driving his Tesla on July 14 when he crashed into another driver.
Shanahan received some serious injuries, such as broken ribs, a broken hand, and a concussion. When news of the wreck became public, general manager John Lynch said there wasn't a timetable for the coach's return, but he wasn't expected to miss the Week 1 opener in Australia.
On Saturday, Shanahan made a surprise media appearance and provided some updates on his status.
Shanahan Plans to Coach 49ers in Preseason Opener
Shanahan told reporters that he has been "at or near full strength" for a while now, and he intends to coach in the preseason opener against the Titans.
"As far as the important stuff, I feel it's about 100%," Shanahan said. "The biggest thing I have learned with this stuff is just when you deal with fatigue and headaches and stuff is if I kind of do everything, I kind of pay for it in some ways later. That's like the routine that I found out. I really tried to eliminate stuff that I would say is just the fake work stuff."
Shanahan has been at practices and has still been meeting with his coaches and players, but assistant head coach Chris Foerster has been acting as the head coach. The coordinators have also taken on larger roles in Shanahan's absence.
"I try not to come in here every single day because I feel like, if I did, I wouldn't be able to pull off my normal routine, which is watching hours and hours of tape and getting to walk through the night being able to watch stuff after that," Shanahan said. "Eventually I will get there."
It's getting closer and closer to the regular season, though, so Shanahan knows he needs to be prepared. This coming week, the 49ers are holding joint practices with the Tennessee Titans before facing off against the team in the preseason opener.
It's more important for Shanahan to be ready for the regular season, obviously, but it will be nice to see the head coach back on the sidelines in the preseason. Shanahan will try to get his sea legs under him to make sure he's ready for the 2026 season.
"My head feels so much better," Shanahan said. "Concussions do linger a little bit. All the things I really deal with now is just headaches and fatigue, but that's why I'm not always exactly in the same routine, but pretty damn close."
