Looking ahead to Eagles, 49ers rematch: When is San Fran ever healthy?

It is no secret that the Philadelphia Eagles‘ whomping of the San Francisco 49ers in the most recent NFC Championship Game soured many citizens in the Bay Area. Once the game wrapped, we saw placekicker Robbie Gould saying Jalen Hurts can’t play quarterback. We have also heard Deebo Samuel’s tirades during interviews. Once he stated that had the 49ers executed every drive in the same manner that they attacked their lone scoring sequence, they would have produced a higher point total… Well, yeah… Duh…

Niners coach Kyle Shanahan chimed in with some really chaotic coach talk. If you have been paying attention, you have heard some all-timers.

Take a look at one of his most recent. Thank 49ers Insider Dave Lombardi for the tweet.

That’s truly a phenomenal theory Mr. Shanahan. Thanks for chiming in. Oh, and have you heard? Now, Deebo is saying he hates Philly. It’s been quite the offseason for these guys, and it doesn’t appear that anything will silence this team except for another loss in another game. Then again that may not do it either.

We all hope San Fran is fully healthy for the Eagles versus 49ers game, but the fact of the matter is this. They never are.

As much as we’re taking the liberty to pick on the NIners, Shanahan has a point. It would be sweet if every game by every NFL franchise was played “when our whole team is right there”. Wouldn’t that be nice? If only we could access a settings menu like EA Sports’ Madden NFL game and ‘turn injuries off’ before every Eagles season. Wow, what a world we would live in if we were able to do so. Welp, here are some cold hard facts. That isn’t the case.

San Francisco complained about playing the Eagles while short-handed. Get over it. Football is a demolition derby. Then again, while we’re on the subject, when is San Francisco ever healthy?

If Trey Lance isn’t hurt, it’s Jimmy Garoppolo. If Jimmy G goes down, so will Brock Purdy. No one complained when Donovan McNabb was injured and couldn’t complete an NFC Championship Game versus the Carolina Panthers, and no one gave Philly a pass when fog descended on Soldier Field.

Take the loss and move on. The 49ers lost their quarterback in The NFC’s Title Game, and if history is an indication, they’ll probably be shorthanded for the next meeting.. Here’s a look at their injury history the number of players they have had who were ruled “Out” or on the injured reserve for multiple games during the past three seasons. These numbers exclude players who sat out due to the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020) per Pro Football Reference:

• In 2020, they had 26 guys miss multiple games.
• In 2021, they had 26 guys miss multiple games.
• In 2022, they had 22 guys miss multiple games.

The average number of multiple-game absences for the other 31 NFL teams is 12.5. It’s unfortunate, but it’s an ugly fact of life that these things will happen in a collision sport.

In 2021, San Francisco lost Raheem Mostert to a knee injury in Week 1. We have already mentioned the quarterback carousel. By the looks of things, injuries within the Niners organization are the rule, not the exception. There’s never a time when the “whole team is right there”, and if they believe they’re never going to have a shot unless the health bar is at 100%, they may need to rethink their strategy because more often than not, they’re operating at somewhere around the 50-percent threshold.

Here’s a message for San Francisco 49ers fans everywhere. There isn’t an Eagles fan walking that isn’t of the hope that your team will be fully healthy leading into Week 13’s clash. No one wants you to have an excuse when your team walks into Lincoln Financial Field and they walk out with a loss… again. Just remember there’s a possibility you won’t be which means we’ll have to hear more excuses.

Frankly, it’s going to be fun watching the creative and laughable excuses that they come up with this time.