Niners Nation
What will the San Francisco 49ers get in Eric Kendricks? For head coach Kyle Shanahan, it’s too early to tell:
“Yeah, I definitely think he has a chance to, that’s why we liked him coming here. But you know, last week we had three days, and it was a short week, and we didn’t do anything really full speed. So, those were his first full practices getting back since last year without having an offseason, and he looked good in those three practices. I know it’ll be good for him to have this Bye Week to continue working out just for his conditioning and everything. Then next week we should get a bonus practice and have an extra one. So, we have four next week. So hopefully, we can get all that conditioning and football stamina in, and next week he can really show us where he is at a linebacker.”
Shanahan is hopeful Tatum Bethune returns after the bye week, but acknowledged it might be too soon since Bethune is coming off an ankle injury.
Lynch rehashed the first time when the 49ers reached out to Kendricks in 2024, and how they’ve been keeping tabs on the linebacker ever since:
If you ever ask a girl, and she says no, and you keep coming. I joke around with Eric on that. I was not happy with Eric in free agency a few years ago when he had given us a commitment. But then, you step away, his old coach Mike Zimmer, had become the DC at Dallas. He could play MIKE, where he could be the signal-caller. We were asking him to come play next to Fred, where we were not going to have Greenlaw.
So, that transpired. But we ended things at a certain time on a good note. Eric reached out and told us how sorry he was. We kind of monitored him this offseason. He had some surgeries and whatnot to get healthy, and he didn’t have a place. We kind of kept in touch, and then we lost Fred. And Tatum went down, so it kind of became pressing.
So we reached out, and you really know a guy is wanting to play when a guy is willing to take a practice squad job. Eric was willing to do that. We’re excited. Just one week here, he’s moving around really well. He’s a really good football player who we’ve gone against for a long time. Anyone who goes against him will tell ya, that guy knows how to play and he’s played at a really high level. We’re happy and fortunate to have him, and we’ll see how this goes.
The best-case scenario for everybody involved might be Bethune plays on early downs, and Kendrick comes in during obvious passing downs or sub-packages. You’re never going to replace Fred Warner fully, but that duo is as close as the 49ers can get.
The 49ers are on their third-string linebacker...
