Kyle Shanahan found a little loophole in the calendar, and he was more than happy to use it.
With the 49ers in Melbourne preparing for their historic NFL season opener against the Rams, Shanahan leaned into the massive time difference to sidestep early injury talk. Australia is 17 hours ahead of Eastern Time, and from his point of view, San Francisco was effectively living ahead of California.
“Because we are technically in the future, and the Rams are in the present, I don’t have to talk about injuries until tomorrow,” Shanahan said.
He added another line that captured just how strange the trip has felt.
“We’re a little confused with when I look at my clock, and it says the time, and then I try to see my family’s time, and it says the time, but it says yesterday,” Shanahan said. “I don’t get how that’s possible. So I feel like I’m in the future.”
The setup is unlike a normal NFL week. The 49ers are spending a full week in Australia before Friday’s local kickoff, while the Rams have taken a different path and plan to arrive shortly before the game.
San Francisco will meet Los Angeles at 10:35 a.m. local time at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, with the game set for 8:35 p.m. ET on Thursday in the USA.
That unusual schedule has made the adjustment work just as important as the football. Shanahan’s group has been focused on sleep, training and all the little details that can get thrown off when a team crosses the world for a division game.
Christian McCaffrey said the 49ers came prepared for that part of it.
“There were big packets on the plane…,” McCaffrey said. “So any questions you think you would have had, they answered it in these packets.”
The injury picture only adds to the significance of the week. San Francisco has already lost defensive end Sam Okuayinonu to a fractured foot, while Nick Bosa and George Kittle have dealt with their own recoveries. Against a Rams team that can put stress on a defense and chew up long stretches of clock, the 49ers need as much health and readiness as they can get.
So Shanahan’s time-zone joke did more than get a laugh. It also bought a little space before the real answers have to come. Now the 49ers have to make all that prep count when the lights come on in Melbourne.
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Watson and McDuffie arrive with different resumes, but the common thread is that each gives the Rams a real chance to raise the floor of a unit that needed fresh answers. The broader league context matters here too, with Chris Johnson landing in Miami, Benjamin St-Juste going to Green Bay and Jamel Dean heading to Pittsburgh, but Los Angeles may have made the most intriguing bet on upside. How quickly that overhaul clicks will go a long way toward showing whether the Rams just added bodies or truly changed the shape of their secondary. [Read more 🡒]
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It is a more aggressive approach than the one other teams, such as the 49ers, are expected to take, with San Francisco planning to get to Melbourne a week early. For the Rams, the question is whether the league can turn a historic event into a workable football week without giving away too much on the front end, and the answer may shape how future international games are handled. [Read more 🡒]
Matthew Stafford Just Became A Bigger Threat For The Rams
Matthew Staffords postseason story has changed dramatically since he arrived in Los Angeles. After going 0-3 in the playoffs with Detroit, he has since built a 7-3 playoff record with the Rams, and that shift has helped redefine what this franchise can expect when the calendar turns. With the roster around him continuing to evolve, theres a growing sense that Stafford is no longer just the quarterback trying to survive January. He is part of a team that has learned how to lean into those moments.
The Rams have also put work into the rest of the operation, especially the rushing game and the defense, with offseason additions like Myles Garrett and Aaron Donald adding to the sense that the support system around Stafford could get even stronger. Looking ahead to 2026, the expectation is not simply that Stafford will be asked to carry the offense, but that he may have more help than ever if the group comes together the way the Rams envision. The upside is obvious, even if the full picture still has to play out. [Read more 🡒]