Consider 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan unenthused about starting the 2026 season in Australia.
Speaking to reporters at the annual league meeting on Monday morning, Shanahan delivered a response characterized as sarcastic when asked about the team’s international schedule for 2026, which will see the club begin the year in Melbourne as an away team while also going to Mexico City later in the year as a home team.
“I was so fired up. That was our goal, to go 19 hours away to play a game,” Shanahan said, via David Bonilla of 49erswebzone.com. “I think we’re going back in time or into the future. I think we gain a day or lose a day — I’m not sure which one yet.
“But it is what it is. We’ll deal with it. I think there’s eight international games. We got two of them, so I’m fired up about that.”
Shanahan added he doesn’t see any positives to playing the first regular-season NFL game in Australia.
“No, not at all,” Shanahan said. “I don’t see any pro. I mean, it’s cool for the league to play globally. I think it’s awesome, but as far as the team doing it, there’s not much benefit to it.
“Sometimes it’s nice to get a bye week after, but it doesn’t happen for Week 1.
Shanahan noted teams don’t get much of a say in the international slate.
“No, they tell you, you deal with it,” he said.
The 49ers’ matchup in Mexico City is expected to land much later in the season, potentially in December.
49ers Clips
The 49ers have made a number of changes to their coaching staff since the end of the 2025 season and they officially announced all of them on Monday.
Among the new members of the staff are former Falcons head coach Raheem Morris and former Bears head coach Matt Eberflus. Morris was fired in January and replaces Robert Saleh as the defensive coordinator. Saleh is now the Titans’ head coach.
Eberflus spent last season running the defense in Dallas and will have the title of assistant head coach defense on Kyle Shanahan’s staff.
The 49ers have also hired seasonal coaching assistant Micah Foerster, defensive passing game coordinator Jerry Gray, defensive quality control coach Angel Matute, and assistant offensive line coach Roman Sapolu.
In addition to those new hires, the 49ers also announced new titles for tight ends coach Cameron Clemmons, run game coordinator Joe Graves, passing game coordinator/wide receivers coach Leonard Hankerson, defensive run game coordinator Johnny Holland, offensive assistant/tight ends Deuce Schwartz, offensive assistant/quarterbacks Jacob Webster, and linebackers coach K.J. Wright.
Todd Bowles will be back as the Buccaneers’ head coach in 2026, but two franchise mainstays will not be in Tampa with him.
Linebacker Lavonte David has retired after 14 seasons with the team and wide receiver Mike Evans left after 12 seasons to sign with the 49ers as a free agent. During an appearance on NFL Network on Monday, Bowles discussed how difficult it will be to move on without the two veterans.
Bowles said that David’s decision “really stung me” because of how much he has meant to the defense over the years.
“He was the guy off the field that got everyone going,” Bowles said. “He practiced that way, he carried himself that way. He was, right now, the cream of the crop of who you want to coach and how you want that guy to play. He was that guy. He was that guy for us for 14 years. I can’t say enough good things about him. He was like a brother to me.”
Bowles called it “very hard to see [Evans] leave sentimentally and professionally” and that they will miss the wideout’s presence on offense, but he also noted that Emeka Egbuka, Chris Godwin and Jalen McMillan mean the cupboard isn’t bare at receiver now that Evans is in the NFC West.
49ers General Manager John Lynch said in January that wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk has played his final game for the team, but Aiyuk remains on the roster as March comes to a close.
According to head coach Kyle Shanahan, there’s no timeline in place for that to change either. The 49ers voided the remaining guarantees on Aiyuk’s contract last year, which likely contributes to the team’s decision to keep looking for a potential trade partner rather than simply releasing the wideout.
“Don’t have date,” Shanahan said from the league meetings on Monday, via Cam Inman of the Bay Area News Group. “Eventually will resolve itself. Hopefully we can get something for it. We’re in no rush. We have to do what’s right for the 49ers.”
Neither the prospect of the 49ers releasing Aiyuk nor the knee injury that limited the receiver to seven 2025 games is likely to do much to help generate trade interest, but the 49ers are content to keep waiting before making any move to jettison him once and for all.
During the week of the Scouting Combine, word emerged of a potential contract impasse that was described, at the time, as potentially resulting in left tackle Trent Williams being released by the 49ers. It didn’t happen then, it hasn’t happened since, and there’s no sign it will be happening in the future.
Instead, the 49ers seem to be very optimistic that everything will work out.
“We’ve had good communication throughout,” G.M. John Lynch said Sunday, via Nick Wagoner of ESPN. “I would say in the last week it’s kind of intensified and feel like we’re on the precipice of something good happening, but we’ll see. Don’t want to make any statements that, like, ‘Hey, we’re right there,’ because these things have felt like that before, but I do feel like we’re in good communication and hopeful.”
Williams has a 2026 compensation package of $33.06 million. The 49ers didn’t pick up a $10 million option bonus, pushing his cap charge to $46.341 million. A new contract could reduce that number significantly by converting much of his base salary of $32.21 million into an option bonus.
“This one’s never got ugly,” Lynch said. “It’s been very straightforward, direct. And I just think there’s a lot of nuance to that situation. He’s one of the great players, I think, to ever play the game, but there’s a reality with his age. It’s like, how do you thread that needle and how do you find a deal where everyone’s taken care of and happy?”
The 49ers surely prefer not to pay him $33 million this year, none of which is currently guaranteed. The question becomes determining a structure that also gives them the ability to keep him around for 2027, and possibly beyond.
This one isn’t about Williams wanting more. It’s about the 49ers not wanting to pay $33.06 million.
Consider how it all began, with this tweet from Adam Schefter of ESPN on February 24: “With five-time All-Pro left tackle Trent Williams scheduled to carry a $39 million cap number this season, he and the 49ers currently are struggling to find a contractual solution, per league sources. If the two sides can’t bridge their differences in their standoff, Williams would be expected to join this year’s free-agent class, making him one of the premier players available.”
Again, it didn’t happen then, it hasn’t happened since, and there’s no sign it will be happening in the future.
The lack of a deadline for making a large payment or guaranteeing the salary has given the 49ers leverage. They owe him nothing until the Week 1 rosters lock. By the time the situation with Williams comes to a final head (if it ever does), other possible suitors may have made other plans and/or spent their available cash on other players.
Time is on the team’s side. The breathless notion from late last month that a split could be imminent was, if nothing else, a signal to the rest of the league (undoubtedly from Williams’s camp) that it would be wise to hold back some money, in the event Williams eventually becomes a free agent.
The 49ers hope to have Nick Bosa back in action during training camp, but it doesn’t sound like anyone should bank on him sharing a locker room with his brother.
Joey Bosa remains a free agent and the mother of both pass rushers recently posted a fabricated image of the two brothers next to each other in 49ers uniforms on social media. On Sunday, General Manager John Lynch said he was aware of the post but isn’t sure there’s a way to work out a family reunion.
“I know Mama Bosa would love that, but I don’t know if we can afford him,” Lynch said, via Matt Barrows of TheAthletic.com.
Joey Bosa is one of the top remaining unsigned players on PFT’s list of this year’s top free agents. He had 29 tackles, five sacks and five forced fumbles for the Bills in 2025.
The 49ers will be in Melbourne, Australia for their first game of the 2026 season and tight end George Kittle could be in the lineup for that game.
Kittle tore his Achilles during the team’s first playoff game in January and General Manager John Lynch offered an update on his recovery on Sunday. Lynch said, via multiple reporters, that the team is hopeful Kittle will be ready to play against the Rams when the 49ers kick off their season on September 10.
Kittle is not the only member of the 49ers recovering from a serious injury.
Defensive ends Nick Bosa and Mykel Williams both tore their ACLs last season. Lynch said that the two players are expected to be ready to work during training camp, so they could also factor into the team’s plans for Week 1.
The 49ers had a perception problem, regarding the proximity of the practice facility to an electrical substation. More than a few players, fueled by an online conspiracy, wondered whether the ambient voltage was contributing to injuries.
Last month, tight end George Kittle said he and his teammates just want to be sure it’s not something. The team is now saying it’s not anything.
Addressing reporters at the annual NFL meeting, 49ers G.M. John Lynch turned the page on the substation predicament.
“We did hire an independent scientist.” Lynch said, via Cam Inman of the Bay Area News Group. “He basically [said] it was a big nothing burger. We’re safe. We’re in a safe place of work. The levels are 400 times less than an unsafe zone.”
Now, the 49ers need to get the players to accept it. That’s one of the problems with the modern age. Facts don’t matter. Some people believe what they want to believe. And they’ll ignore anything that contradicts their preordained beliefs.
It didn’t impact the 49ers in their effort to sign receiver Mike Evans. He apparently could have gotten more elsewhere. Despite his own history of hamstring problems, he disregarded the possibility that the power plant could become a soft-tissue problem.
All the 49ers can do is keep banging on the facts. The only alternative is to move the practice facility.
Two years ago, the NFL seized on a quirk in the calendar that allowed the league to televise a Friday night game, Friday Night Lights be damned. With Friday a Week 1 option only when it’s the first Friday in September, the league can’t do it in 2026, when Week 1 coincides with the second full weekend of the month.
Enter Wednesday-Thursday.
The NFL has announced that, this year, the Seahawks will host the opening game on Wednesday, September 9, with the 49ers and the Rams playing on Thursday, September 10 in Australia.
That’s likely the new formula, for the years when Thursday-Friday doesn’t work because of the league’s broadcast antitrust exemption.
Wednesday-Thursday will be the likely plan in 2027 and 2028, with the Super Bowl champion hosting the Wednesday game and an international contest happening on Thursday. In 2029, Friday will be in play. Ditto for 2030, 2031, 2032, and 2033.
Of course, none of that matters if/when the league expands to 18 games and two byes. At that point, Week 1 likely would be moved to Labor Day weekend, which the NFL abandoned after 2001.
Here’s the other catch. If the current approach continues, with no NFL football on Labor Day weekend, the league’s effort to find more ways to cram cheese into the pizza would entail not a Thursday-Friday two-pack of games but a Wednesday-Thursday-Friday trifecta.
The NFL announced the date and time for Australia’s first regular-season game.
The Rams will face the 49ers on Friday, Sept. 11, at approximately 10:35 a.m. AEST at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground. The game will air live on Thursday, Sept. 10 at 8:35 p.m. ET/5:35 p.m. PT.
The network that will air the game is yet to be announced.
“We are thrilled to kick off our season in Melbourne, enhancing an already historic moment for both the NFL and the Rams,” Rams Head of International Stephanie Cheng said. “Every time members of our organization visit, including earlier this month, we see first hand the growing excitement from folks across Melbourne in anticipation of this game. Not only will it be special playing the 49ers on a Friday morning in Australia, it also will be great for our fans back at home to be able to watch this matchup in primetime on Thursday night.”
Final preparations are under way for tickets to go on sale for the game. Qualifying Rams’ season-ticket members will have access to an exclusive presale beginning on Wednesday, April 1, at 2 p.m. PT.
Hospitality packages will be available to purchase from Ticketmaster starting Monday, April 6, at 5 p.m. PT, and general access tickets will go on sale to the public starting Tuesday, April 7, at 5 p.m. PT. All tickets and hospitality packages will be available to purchase directly from the Ticketmaster website.
“We are thrilled to be able to confirm the time and date for Australia’s first-ever regular-season NFL game at the MCG between the Rams and 49ers — a match-up that has created plenty of hype and excitement,” NFL Australia & New Zealand General Manager Charlotte Offord said. “We know that there is already plenty of appetite for this game, both in Australia and internationally, and we’re looking forward to getting tickets on sale in the coming weeks for what we know is going to be an incredible NFL experience for our fans down under.”
