San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan elected to go with a youth movement during his team’s 14-9 Week 16 loss to the Chicago Bears, partially because he had to but also in an attempt to gauge what he has towards the back end of his 53-man roster heading into the offseason.
Case in point, Shanahan benched veteran defensive tackles Earl Mitchell and Sheldon Day in favor of younger players, D.J. Jones and Jullian Taylor, who figure to be more active in the Niners’ long-term plans heading into 2019.