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The San Francisco 49ers are defying all logic this season. Despite the many injuries the team has suffered before and during the season, they are still standing strong with a 6-0 record. They’ve done that while beating some of the best teams in the league, including the contenders in their division. However, the injuries keep piling up for San Francisco despite their winning record.
Because of that, one NFL analyst proposed a rather unique solution, at least in the NFL. Dan Orlovsky said that maybe the 49ers should consider “load managing” their players. A popular tactic in the NBA, Orlovsky reasons that with a six-game cushion, San Francisco could afford to rest their players a bit to prevent more injuries from occurring.
“I will say, and I’m not being hyperbolic here, like, are the 49ers gonna be the first NFL team that kind of does the NBA load management?” Orlovsky asked. “Sitting at 6-0, almost a three-and-a-half-game lead in the division, they’re so beat up… I’m not gonna overreact because they are 6-0, but I would not be surprised if this team just decides to, at some point with such a lead, try to pull back the burden on some of their really, really important pieces.”
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Load management is a term popularized in the NBA by the Toronto Raptors, though the practice has existed long before their championship run. It essentially means resting key players in non-meaningful games to keep a playoff team as fresh as possible for the postseason. That concept is usually hard to execute midway through an NFL season due to the importance of every game in a 17-game schedule. However… the 49ers are in a unique position at this point in the year.
As Orlovsky and his colleagues noted, the 49ers have a huge lead over their division rivals. The closest team to them right now is the Seattle Seahawks with a 3-3 record. In addition, San Francisco has won one game against all of their division rivals, which means that they hold the tiebreaker for now. That gives them a considerable advantage in the playoff race.
Mike Evans was just the latest name to join the 49ers’ long list of injured players. That list includes Christian Kirk, Ricky Pearsall, DeMarcus Robinson, De’Zhaun Stribling, Jake Tonges, Nick Bosa, and Deebo Samuel.
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