49ers head to Las Vegas hoping to get preseason finale vs. Raiders out of the way
· Yahoo Sports
Thursday in Las Vegas is just a game the San Francisco 49ers need to get through while looking ahead to resolving major questions about their roster. A quarter of their team is injured. And given the quick turnaround time before the team's trip to Australia, you won't see many familiar faces playing against the Raiders at Allegiant Stadium, according to Kyle Shanahan.
"I don't think you'll see many starters," Shanahan said. "We just don't have enough time as we usually do, so I'll be surprised if any of them are out there. There might be a couple, but it will be closer to how Week 1 (of the preseason) was."
Visit sportbet.rodeo for more information.
The 49ers fly to Melbourne next Wednesday, arriving a week in advance of their season opener against the Rams, expected to do the exact opposite by arriving the day before.
Shanahan grumbled about the trip in the offseason. He more recently tried to show some excitement for what is the first NFL game to be played in Australia. But with Sunday cuts looming and 23 players on the mend, the impending roster tetris has the head coach focused on trying to get his team to that game on Sept. 10 (Sept. 11 in Australia) in one piece.
"I'm just hoping our team's healthy enough and has the time to get there," Shanahan said. "Those are the challenges of it, just to get there to prepare for it. Guys still trying to recover to get there, the plane flight and things like that. But once you do get there and stuff, we're going to have fun playing in another country and it's going to be a cool atmosphere, things like that. That'll all be good. But right now, I'm just thinking of the challenges of getting our team ready for those three and a half hours."
Those among the 90 players still in camp who do play Thursday are vying for one of 53 spots, or the 17 on the practice squad. But even for the select group of fringe guys that might make the team at that point, final cuts can be misleading, an annual Shanahan reminder. There is no rule against releasing or waiving a player after Sunday.
"I always tell everyone the final 53, all that means is the final 53 that day," Shanahan said. "This is the NFL. You're having to prove this every single day. And even if you feel comfortable because you beat everyone else on the roster, our personnel department is getting a list of people who don't make other rosters to see if they're better than our last guy."
Subscribe
There’s more to San Francisco with the Chronicle. Subscribe today for just 25¢.This article originally published at 49ers head to Las Vegas hoping to get preseason finale vs. Raiders out of the way.