The 49ers and the Saints cancel joint practices because of injuries for San Francisco

AP Pro Football Writer

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — The San Francisco 49ers and New Orleans Saints canceled their scheduled joint practices for this week with the Niners dealing with several nagging injuries.

The teams announced Sunday that they jointly agreed to call off the practices that were supposed to be held Thursday and Friday in Irvine, where the Saints are training this summer. The teams will play their second exhibition game of the preseason on Sunday at Levi’s Stadium.

San Francisco coach Kyle Shanahan had been in contact with New Orleans counterpart Dennis Allen throughout the weekend and decided on Sunday that the Niners didn’t have enough healthy players to pull off a successful joint practice.

“He reached out to me yesterday, making me aware that they have some things going on there in terms of having enough able bodies to have some good practices,” Allen told reporters in Irvine.

This was the only scheduled joint practices this training camp for both teams and the coaches had been looking forward to the opportunity to go against another team in a structured environment.

Shanahan said Saturday after an exhibition game at Tennessee that the Niners had about 23 players who were unable to practice last week because of various injuries. San Francisco then lost cornerback Ambry Thomas in the game to a broken forearm.

He held out hope that he would get enough back this week to practice but decided on Sunday that it wouldn’t work. Both teams will now practice on their own before the game this weekend.

“I enjoy the joint practices,” Allen said. “I think it’s good to go up against somebody else. But other than that, we’re still going to get some good work here so I’m not that concerned about it.”

San Francisco had held joint practices in all but one non-pandemic season since Shanahan arrived in 2017, skipping only 2020 when there were none because of COVID and in 2021.

But the Niners have had several players hit with minor injuries, including running backs Christian McCaffrey, Elijah Mitchell and Isaac Guerendo; receivers Ricky Pearsall, Danny Gray and Jacob Cowing; linebackers Fred Warner and Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles; cornerbacks Isaac Yiadom and Darrell Luter Jr.; and offensive linemen Jaylon Moore, Spencer Burford and Jon Feliciano.

San Francisco also is without receiver Brandon Aiyuk, who is refusing to practice because of a contract dispute, and All-Pro left tackle Trent Williams, who is holding out in search of a new deal.

Shanahan said after the game that he is optimistic that a deal will get done with Williams but the situation with Aiyuk is less certain. Aiyuk has asked for a trade and has been given permission to talk to other teams to find one willing to pay him the salary he wants and give San Francisco enough compensation.

Shanahan still would like Aiyuk back and has met with him during training camp without any resolution.

“I’ve met with Brandon a bunch here since we started out camp, and I’m not going to get into any personal things between us,” he said.

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