On Monday, a day after his team fell to 0-7, head coach Kyle Shanahan suggested the 49ers wouldn’t lose sight of their long-term rebuilding plan to chase largely meaningless victories this season.
“We’re just not trying to win enough games to make it look acceptable,” Shanahan said. “We’re trying to build an organization, build it from the bottom to the top the right way, so we can have sustainable success.”
The 49ers still have nine games left in 2017, but they clearly have an eye on 2018.
On Sunday, for example, they had 11 rookies combine to play 405 snaps on offense and defense in a 40-10 loss to the Cowboys.