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Due to not having joint practices, Kyle Shanahan says the San Francisco 49ers will join the New Orleans Saints in playing their starters in Sunday’s preseason game. There is one major difference: The 49ers won’t play all of their starters, while the Saints will play any starter healthy enough to play. Shanahan specified that not all of his starters will get on the field as they monitor players’ reps this summer though he plans for those who do dress out to play a series or two.
It’s a safe bet to say San Francisco, as the defending NFC champions, feel better about the state of their team. There’s no major adjustment in scheme to get accustomed to, either, after the 49ers promoted from within to swap out defensive coordinators.
Saints offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak comes from the 49ers staff, so that would have made practices interesting. The quantity is different. The scheme will be vanilla, but there is still a level of interest in seeing the Saints go against a defense familiar with the offensive scheme. Defensively, they’ll see a unit who operates this offense at a high level.
It’ll be a brief but valuable evaluation on each side of the ball. San Francisco won’t play all their starters and may not play them as long either.
For New Orleans, this will be the first time they’ll face a starting unit this preseason. The Arizona Cardinals sat all their starters last week and now the Saints will play at least some of the 49ers’ starters.
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