SANTA CLARA – A day after De’Vondre Campbell Sr. refused to play and walked off the job, coach Kyle Shanahan made it clear Friday that Campbell won’t be returning to the team.
“We’re working through the semantics of exactly how to deal with it,” Shanahan said on a media conference call. “You heard from me last night and the players. His actions from the game are not something you can do to your teammates or your teammates and still be part of our team.”
Whether Samuel’s one-year, $5 million contract is terminated or he’s released or suspended, Shanahan only said the 49ers would handle it “appropriately.”
Campbell’s did not play a snap in Thursday night’s 12-6 home loss to the Los Angeles Rams, refusing to budge from the bench once the 49ers needed him in the third quarter to replace a fatigued Dre Greenlaw in the latter’s season debut.
Shanahan said he wasn’t aware of Campbell’s boycott until asking the defensive coaching staff over their headsets about it in the third quarter. “I addressed De’Andre and found out. It was pretty simple to see how he was,” Shanahan said. “Then we moved on with our lives after that.”
Campbell, who started in place of Greenlaw the past three months, walked off the field in the fourth quarter to the 49ers’ locker room, where he was gone once reporters entered to seek his still-unanswered motive for his in-game desertion. Shanahan said he did not order him off the field, nor did Campbell reveal exactly why he refused to play.
“Not sure exactly what led to him leaving the field,” Shanahan said. “Once I found out he wasn’t playing, I moved on to people we could count on.”
Teammates seethed over what they deemed Campbell’s “selfish” act to leave their defense in a lurch, seeing how Greenlaw’s troublesome left leg sidelined him after a 30-snap debut and seeing how Dee Winters’ first-half neck injury kept him from working as the No. 3 linebacker, a role that perhaps Campbell thought he deserved in this week’s demotion.
This conceivably could spell the end of Campbell’s nine-year NFL career that’s earned him $38 million. He’ll be gone before playing out the one-year, $5 million contract with the 49ers, who turned to him in mid-March after linebacker Eric Kendricks backed out of a deal and defected days later to the Dallas Cowboys in free agency.
Campbell, 31, never quite meshed as a linebacker tandem with All-Pro linebacker Fred Warner. Prior to Thursday night’s benching, Campbell was a full-time starter, although he was not in the Week 3 opening snap at Los Angeles when the 49ers instead deployed five linemen and five defensive backs around Warner. Campbell’s 79 tackles rank second to Warner’s 106.
“We needed a starting-caliber linebacker to fill in for Dre until he got back. (Campbell) had ups and downs throughout the year,” Shanahan said. “He started off slow. He got more used to our defense and how we expect people to play, and he improved throughout the year.”
In the 49ers’ previous home loss before Thursday’s, they fell to another NFC West opponent, and it was Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith racing past Campbell for a go-ahead touchdown run in the final seconds of that 20-17 collapse on Nov. 17. “They just made plays at critical moments,” Campbell said afterward at his locker.
Campbell had at least seven tackles – and no more than eight – in five of his six final games, not counting Thursday’s boycott that had teammates fuming in its aftermath.
“I have never been around anybody that’s ever done that and I hope that I’m never around anybody that does that again,” tight end George Kittle said.
Cornerback Charvarius Ward, who’s been playing through grief after the Oct. 28 death of his toddler daughter, was aghast at Campbell’s ploy. “If he didn’t want to play, he shouldn’t have dressed out. He could have told them that before the game,” Ward said. “I feel like that was some sucker (expletive) that he did. … That’s some selfish stuff to me, in my opinion. Probably gonna be cut soon.”
Part of the 49ers’ attraction to Campbell stemmed from his connection with Shanahan, who was the Super Bowl-bound Atlanta Falcons defensive coordinator in 2016 when Campbell arrived as a fourth-round draft pick. Campbell played four seasons in Atlanta, 2020 in Arizona, then began a three-year stint in Green Bay by making All-Pro in 2021.
It’s not a certainty Greenlaw will be healthy enough to make an encore next Sunday when the 49ers visit the Miami Dolphins. He expressed concern about his knee’s stability in the left leg he’s been rehabilitating the past 10 months because of his Achilles tear in the Super Bowl.
“His Achilles and knee checked out good. He’s dealing with soreness,” Shanahan said, who listed Greenlaw and Winters (neck) as day to day.
Warner (ankle) and Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles (knee) all have health concerns, too. Jalen Graham and DaShaun White are on the practice squad. Curtis Robinson, Campbell’s potential replacement earlier in the year, is on injured reserve because of a knee injury, as is the case with Tatum Bethune.
As for Campbell, “In my opinion, as a (NFL) brotherhood, he should never play again. Why would you want him on your team?” former NFL safety Ryan Clark said Friday morning on ESPN’s “Get Up.”
His in-game exit drew comparisons to those marking the NFL farewells of Vontae Davis (2018 Bills) and Antonio Brown (2021 Bucs). Whereas 49ers tight end Vernon Davis got sent off by Mike Singletary during a 2008 game, Davis rebounded from that viral moment and stayed with the 49ers into the 2015 season as a two-time Pro Bowler.
The 49ers (6-8) play next Sunday at the Miami Dolphins, before a home finale on Monday night Dec. 30 against the NFC-leading Detroit Lions, then the regular-season finale at the Arizona Cardinals.