NFC Notes: 49ers, Cardinals, Seahawks

49ers

49ers HC Kyle Shanahan acknowledged that their amount of injuries sustained last season made it “hard to compete.”

“What I’ve learned with some of our luck here, especially last year … when too many of those add up, it’s hard to compete,” Shanahan said, via Nick Wagoner of ESPN. “And I think that hit us harder than anything last year. That hit us before COVID and that’s something we can’t do again. So, we’re not saying that we’ll never take a risk again or anything, but we definitely wanted to make a point because of what’s happened the last couple of years, at least to try to avoid that.”

49ers GM John Lynch said they made changes to their grading system on how they evaluate players. 

“We did tangibly change some things, like our grading process,” Lynch said. “Not what the doctors are telling us, but how it’s delivered just to make it clear. Like, ‘OK, is this grade with a high risk or low risk?’ Just really clarifying that, and I think that was a positive step because it made probably easier. Like we’re not touching these guys, the ones that were really bad.”

Shanahan explained that he’s still open to taking players with injury concerns. 

“Sometimes you debate it the whole time, and I’ve been a lot of places where a guy we love is taken off a board and then you watch them go play somewhere else for 10 years and you’ve got to go against them and you’re like, ‘Man, I’m never doing that,'” Shanahan said. “And then we’ve been here and we’ve had a few guys we’ve had injuries issues with or they’ve had a history, but we like the player and we’re willing to take that risk and some have worked and some haven’t.”

Cardinals

• Cardinals’ WR DeAndre Hopkins implied on Twitter that he would gladly be willing to restructure his contract in order for Arizona to add Falcons’ WR Julio Jones: “Somebody at the gym asked me would I restructure my contract for Julio?” 
• However, the Cardinals are deep at receiver and they wouldn’t gain a lot by reworking Hopkins’ deal to help facilitate a trade. 

Seahawks

Texans’ C Justin Britt was happy with the way he was treated in Seattle but felt like the team did not want him in the end.

“I felt, leaving Seattle, I felt unwanted, but like they were good to me,” Britt said, via TexansWire.com. “I enjoyed my time there and the friendships I made and playing with Russ (Wilson), I’m forever grateful for that.”