NFC Notes: 49ers, Cardinals, Rams

49ers

49ers HC Kyle Shanahan said it was time for the team to move on from WR Jalen Hurd since Hurd is out for the season.

“We realized he wasn’t going to come back this year,” Shanahan said, via Eric Branch. “We were giving him as much time as we could. We all felt very strongly that if he ever could come back how much he could have helped us. But for the third year in a row, just with his (bad luck) with these injuries, how it was healing, we knew it wasn’t going to be this year.”

• Shanahan mentioned RB Jeff Wilson Jr. should play on Monday, while RB JaMycal Hasty will miss the game. (Nick Wagoner)
• 49ers LT Trent Williams said he has mostly recovered from a high ankle sprain. (Wagoner)
• Williams is also confident fifth-round OT Jaylon Moore can handle starting at right tackle: “He has a very high ceiling.” (Wagoner)

Cardinals

Back in 2019, the Cardinals made the decision to move on from HC Steve Wilks and QB Josh Rosen after one season and then hired Kliff Kingsbury and used the No. 1 overall pick on Kyler Murray. The decisions completely changed the trajectory of the franchise and they’re now in position to compete for the top spot in the NFC.

“I just felt like the decisions …” Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill said of the moves, via Albert Breer of SI.com. “If you just stick with the principles, and that’s whatever’s best for the team is the right direction to go, that part made it easy. I knew there was going to be criticism. But in football, you gotta be willing to accept criticism. I knew it was coming. That wasn’t going to stop me from making the right decisions.”

“As the season progressed in 2018, it just seemed like things weren’t working,” Bidwill explained. “I don’t want to belabor the point too much, but we were last in almost every category. And we weren’t getting better. I just didn’t believe in the plan going forward, and when things aren’t going well, you look in the mirror. That’s the first place you ought to look—right in the mirror. Did we make the right decision?

“And so we decide to make the change and move on and start a coaching search.”

Kingsbury had just been fired as Texas Tech’s head coach, so the idea of hiring him to coach an NFL team seemed questionable.

“The name that kept popping up, when you get some of the background, who people were thinking about having their coordinators be, it was Kliff Kingsbury,” Bidwill said. “His name kept coming up as a coordinator candidate. But he also had head-coaching experience, considerable head-coaching experience, in addition to running offenses. Now, it was all at the college level. But that still counts for something.”

Rams

Rams GM Les Snead said he’s not concerned with Odell Beckham Jr. building immediate chemistry with their offense and is confident he will evolve into their system. 

“Not concerned but that’s still evolving,” Snead said, via Gary Klein of the Los Angeles Times. “We wouldn’t have, let’s call it, partnered with Odell if we felt like it was going to be a concern, but the chemistry aspect still has to evolve.”

Snead added that “winning was important” to Beckham, leading him to sign with Los Angeles. 

“The neat thing in Odell’s process is winning was important to him and we were a team that offered that chance,” said Snead. 

Snead mentioned that many players on the Rams reached out to recruit Beckham. 

“It is pretty neat when you have players who, let’s call it, get on their platform, and recruit,” Snead said.