49ers Preseason Opener: Opponent, Time & TV for Tonight’s Game

The San Francisco 49ers open their 3-game preseason schedule tonight against the Tennessee Titans. Here’s how to watch the 49ers tonight as they make the slow march toward their regular-season opener on September 10 against the Los Angeles Rams in Melbourne, Australia.

The key to any preseason game is not expecting to see much of the stars but paying close attention to the backups competing for spots on the 53-man roster.

• Who: Tennessee Titans vs. San Francisco 49ers
• What: Preseason Game 1
• Where: Levi’s Stadium (Santa Clara, California)
• When: Thursday, August 13, 9 p.m. EST
• TV: NFL Network
• Odds: Titans -6, Over/Under 39.5

How 49ers & Titans Finished 2025 Season

The 49ers bounced back from a 6-11 season in 2024 to go 12-5 in 2025 and were 1 of 3 teams in the NFC West Division to not only qualify for the playoffs but win a playoff game.

San Francisco opened the playoffs with an upset road win over the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Wild Card Round before suffering a 41-6 blowout loss to the eventual Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks in the NFC Divisional Round.

The Titans were 1 of the NFL’s worst teams for the 5th consecutive season, going 3-14 in 2025 after having gone 3-14 in 2024. The Titans fired head coach Brian Callahan following Week 5 and hired former 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh as their head coach following the season.

Biggest Thing to Watch for 49ers: Kyle Shanahan

The biggest thing to watch for the 49ers is their sideline, where the 49ers kicked off training camp with the shocking news that head coach Kyle Shanahan would miss the entire preseason due to a serious car accident on July 14 in northern California.

The 49ers disclosed on July 25 that Shanahan would be sidelined for training camp after a crash  in which he broke his hand, nose, and 3 ribs, and needed over 40 stitches in his face, along with a “severe concussion.”

“49ers coach Kyle Shanahan just spent some time describing the events of July 14,” ESPN’s Nick Wagoner wrote on his official X account on July 28. “He wanted to clarify right up front that the accident was his fault. He took eyes off the road briefly to find his phone which fell between seats and when he looked up he had gone over the line and into an SUV. The CHP database had a clerical error attributing accident to the girl. Shanahan says that is not accurate.”

Shanahan has seemingly been ahead on his recovery and has appeared on the sideline at practices in recent days.

According to Shanahan’s friend, former NFL quarterback and Pro Football Talk’s Chris Simms, Shanahan narrowly avoided an even worse tragedy.

“I get a text from Kyle’s wife, Mandy,” Simms said on PFT Live on Monday. “She texts myself and my wife, and it’s like, ‘Oh no, Kyle’s been a part of some horrible accident,’” Simms said. “And she sent us some pictures right off the bat, and it was like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ So just to let you know, paint the picture, you’ve seen the injury report, the broken ribs, 40 stitches in the face, the broken nose, broken left hand. Of course, the bad concussion. But when you first see it, and it’s fresh, and some of the cuts are still wide open, I mean, it’s jarring. It’s jarring. He was this close to maybe losing his right eye, right? The scar is so big right here. And so all that stuff was just crazy to see. And, of course, I was thinking of my friend, but yeah, it’s tough. And he’s still battling with this concussion. . . . He’s healing. His face looks a whole lot better, but this concussion, of course, being a part of that kind of accident is lingering and it’s giving him issues, and he’s certainly still dealing with that.”

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