In San Francisco, the next man up is a man who once had a hand in fueling a 49ers run to the Super Bowl.
Linebacker Eric Kendricks steps in, as the replacement for Tatum Bethune. Who was the replacement for Fred Warner. And it was Kendricks who helped dramatically reshape coach Kyle Shanahan’s offensive approach during the 2019 postseason.
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Bethune is out for the balance of the season with a groin injury. With Warner not expected to be back from a serious ankle injury until the NFC Championship, Kendricks steps in at middle linebacker.
Kendricks, 33, had seemingly retired. He had a chance to sign with the Ravens’ practice squad. He passed. Instead, Kendricks joined the 49ers’ practice squad in late November.
Since showing up, Kendricks has appeared in three games with one start.
“I’m real confident in Eric,” coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters on Monday. “He’s been here long enough. These games he has gotten in the last couple weeks he’s done a good job, and I’m glad that we’ve got him for this situation.”
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Kendricks had been a fixture in Minnesota for 10 years. He spent 2023 with the Chargers and 2024 with the Cowboys.
In January 2020, Kendricks intercepted then-49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo during the first half of a divisional playoff game between the Vikings and 49ers. Garoppolo threw two other passes that Kendricks had a chance to intercept.
The last one came on a tipped pass on the second play from scrimmage in the third quarter. The drive ended with a field goal, which extended the score to 17-10.
After that, Shanahan shifted Garoppolo into Bob Griese. For the balance of the game, the 49ers called 23 runs, three passes.
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The following week, in the NFC Championship, the 49ers had 42 runs and only eight passes.
By the Super Bowl (which, obviously, the 49ers lost), Garoppolo was back to throwing the ball, with 31 passes and 22 runs. And, of course, Garoppolo missed Emmanuel Sanders for what could have been a late win.
Regardless, the 49ers may not have gotten to the point where they had a chance to blow a 10-point fourth-quarter lead but for taking the ball out of Garoppolo’s hands. That happened in part because he nearly put the ball in Eric Kendricks’s hands, three times in one game.
Now, Shanahan is figuratively putting the ball in Kendricks’s hands as the man to handle the middle linebacker position until Warner is ready to return. If the 49ers can get that far.
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For Kendricks, it’s only his second playoff game since that day at Levi’s Stadium. And he’ll get the start in Philadelphia, on the same field where he played his only career NFC Championship game.