SANTA CLARA — Brock Purdy has never been one to think he’s above it all, but had little choice when he and his wife joined George Kittle and his wife on a bye week getaway to Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Purdy turned off his phone, gasped as he watched Kittle unleash a 330-foot drive on the golf course at an altitude of more than one mile above sea level, and got in a little fishing before getting back to the grind.
“It was nice to go out there and breathe,” Purdy said Thursday as the 49ers (4-4) continued preparations to visit the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4-5) in Week 10.
For whatever reason, and even Kyle Shanahan isn’t sure what it is, the 49ers have often used the bye week as a starting gun in his previous seven years as the 49ers head coach.
The 49ers have a 43-19 record under Shanahan following a bye, compared to 25-36 before the yearly one-week break.
In the last two seasons, the 49ers were 16-2 following their bye, both of which took place in Week 9 just like this year. And one of those losses came when several starters took a seat for the last regular-season game against the Rams in 2023 with the NFC West already wrapped up.
Purdy hopes that’s the case this season as well. The division race is up for grabs with Arizona at 5-4, the 49ers and Rams at 4-4 and the Seattle Seahawks at 4-5.
“It’s nice that we had a bye to get guys healthy and you get guys back together it’s like, ‘OK, we know how important the second half of the season is,’” Purdy said. “We know that from the last couple of years, but every year is different. That doesn’t mean we’re going to go and do the things we’ve done the last couple of years. It’s put our heads down, go to work one day at a time and chip away at it.”
The 49ers could get a shot of adrenaline in the form of running back Christian McCaffrey, who is coming back from Achilles tendinitis in both feet and was limited in practice for the third time this week. The 49ers can wait until Saturday before activating him from injured reserve and onto the 53-man roster.
Shanahan isn’t sure the bye week has all that much to do with what happens when play resumes.
“I always like to feel we’re going to be better at the bye, I like to feel we’re better the following week, always,” Shanahan said.
Left tackle Trent Williams hasn’t given the 49ers success following a bye a great deal of thought.
“I’m not a big stats guy, so I don’t really look at it like that,” Williams said. “I don’t know if there’s anything to do with the bye. Maybe as the season goes on the games get more important. Maybe the heightened sense of urgency, but I can’t really put my finger on any particular things that make a difference.”
Middle linebacker Fred Warner likes the way the 49ers have played in the second half of the season, which also serves to annoy him about what happened leading up to the bye.
“I would hope that we’d win more before the bye,” Warner said. “For some reason we like to make it hard on ourselves. There’s something about playing desperate that makes you play a little better, I guess.”
Offensive line coach/run game coordinator Chris Foerster remembers coaching under Tony Dungy at Tampa Bay in the 1990s when the Bucs were awful and Dungy “started from scratch” and conducted full padded practices for a week.
“The league slowly mandates less and less (work),” Foerster said. “We kind of go off what the league says and we’re hesitant to do much banging around in the bye week and I think it’s paid off.”
Also helpful is the kind of peer pressure among veterans who lead by example in terms of getting the proper amount of rest and recovery.
“I think a lot of that goes to our players and how they handle byes too, because they usually use that the right way,” defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen said. “If guys use it the right way, you should come back feeling pretty good.”
Christian McCaffrey (23) participates in a 49ers practice before going on injured reserve in September with Achilles tendinitis. Dai Saguno/Bay Area News Group
Here’s how the 49ers have fared following the bye week under Shanahan:
(Year/Bye week/Post-bye record)
2023: Week 9, 7-2 record. The 49ers staggered into their week off with three straight losses with Shanahan saying his team looked tired. They roared out of the break with six straight wins en route to a division title at 12-5.
2022: Week 9, 9-0. McCaffrey had just arrived and Jimmy Garoppolo was the quarterback going into the bye. McCaffrey and Purdy changed the offense, and Nick Bosa played at a Defensive Player of the Year level as the 49ers went 13-4.
2021: Week 6, 8-5. The 49ers lost two of their first three coming off the bye to Indianapolis and Arizona before catching fire with a win over the Rams and a strong finish to squeak into the playoffs as a wild card at 10-7.
2020: Week 11, 2-4. Bosa was out with a torn ACL, Garoppolo was done with a foot injury. The 49ers finished 6-10 in a nightmarish COVID year.
2019: Week 4, 10-3. The 49ers actually came out of the gate strong with a 3-0 record and were good after the bye as well, going 10-3 to win the NFC West for Shanahan’s first division title as a head coach at 13-3.
2018: Week 10, 2-4. Garoppolo went out in Week 3 with a torn ACL and the 49ers had little to cheer about other than a breakout season by George Kittle (88 receptions, 1,307 yards, 5 TDs) in a 4-12 season.
2017: Week 11, 5-1. Jimmy G was all the rage after arriving in a Halloween trade with New England. The 49ers went into the bye at 1-9, and then after a post-bye loss to Seattle, Garoppolo became the starter and the 49ers went on a 5-0 finish.
Shanahan totals post-bye: 43-19
Shanahan totals pre-bye: 25-36
Shanahan record as HC: 68-55
MCCAFFREY UPDATE
McCaffrey participated in practice for the third time this week, and the first time on back-to-back days. Shanahan will give an official report Friday but McCaffrey doesn’t have to be taken off injured reserve and placed on the 53-man roster until Saturday.
With Thursday being the heaviest practice day, McCaffrey’s recovery Friday could be the determining factor in how much he plays if at all.
“What he brings to the table is just firing everybody else up,” Purdy said. “All of us coming off the bye week, feeling good and fresh, and you get two-three next to you in the backfield, it’s been awesome. Looks great moving around and he’s trending in the right direction. I’m excited to see what happens.”
McCaffrey is expected to speak with the media Friday.
For what it’s worth, former 49er Richard Sherman said on his podcast he expected McCaffrey to face Tampa Bay, that he could have faced Dallas and that the information came “from the horse’s mouth.”
“All signs point to him playing, and probably a significant role in this game,” Sherman said.
PEARSALL CATCHING ON
Rookie first-round pick Ricky Pearsall Jr. said he’s getting more and more comfortable with Purdy after missing the first six games of the season, the result being shot in the chest on Aug. 31. He had seven catches for 84 yards and is looking for more.
“I think from the first game to the second game I already felt a lot more comfortable being out there,” Pearsall said. “I think that’s going to continue to improve and I’m going to get faster and faster.”
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Pearsall had mixed emotions about the bye.
“It was good to go back to Arizona and see my family but I’ve only had two games, Pearsall said. “I’m trying to get in a groove.”
NOTABLE
— Edge rusher Nick Bosa (hip) went through drills with his teammates but adjourned to the weight area during the media viewing period and was listed as a limited participant.
Others who were limited included guard/center Jon Feliciano (knee), defensive end Yatur Gross-Matos (knee), wide receiver Deebo Samuel (rib, oblique), running back Jordan Mason (shoulder), place kicker Jake Moody (ankle) and punter Mitch Wishnowsky (back).
Safety Malik Mustapha was added to the injury report as a limited participant with a calf injury.
Those who did not practice were wide receiver Chris Conley (hamstring), defensive lineman Kevin Givens (groin) and cornerback Charvarius Ward (bereavement).
— Sorensen said it’s going to take some time to see how veteran free safety Tashaun Gipson fits in after being signed to the practice squad. Gipson signed with Jacksonville but had to serve a six-game suspension for violating the policy on performance-enhancing drugs and was released without playing in a game this season.
“We’re just excited to have him back, see how he feels,” Sorensen said. “He hasn’t done a whole lot, so we’ll just kind of figure it out as we go.”
— Tampa Bay quarterback Baker Mayfield missed practice with a toe injury for the second straight day but told reporters “I’ll be good to go by Sunday.”