The NFC West had no shortage of frustration this week, with the 49ers, Rams and Seahawks all dealing with different kinds of pressure points.
In San Francisco, general manager John Lynch addressed the trade market and made it clear the 49ers are doing the usual deadline work behind the scenes. When asked whether he’s speaking with teams about a deal, Lynch said: “Just because the flow of the trade deadline is approaching, yes.
That’s our job to do that, to talk with our counterparts around the league. We receive calls, we make calls, just to see where the market is at.”
The 49ers also got a timeline update on wide receiver Demarcus Robinson. Head coach Kyle Shanahan said Robinson won’t be back until after the bye week.
In Los Angeles, Sean McVay was still fuming after the Rams’ overtime loss to the Bills. Special teams took the brunt of the blame, and McVay didn’t hide how much it bothered him given how long that phase has been an issue for the team and how much they worked on it this offseason.
“In the kicking game, especially with our PAT and field goal, not even close to good enough,” McVay said via the Associated Press. “It cost us the game tonight…”
He also took responsibility for one late decision that stuck with him.
“I’m sick that we came up short, and I’ll be regretting kicking that and not having a better call to be able to go for it on third down and go to fourth or whatever it was. And that’s on me.”
Up in Seattle, Sam Darnold’s night ended with two touchdown passes in a sloppy loss to the Broncos on Thursday. But the Seahawks quarterback put the spotlight on his own mistakes, saying he has to do a better job of protecting the football while the defense and special teams keep delivering.
“When you have a defense and special teams group that’s playing the way they are for us, for me, I’ve just got to protect the football,” Darnold said, via Pro Football Talk. “Dropping back and taking what they give me, I feel like I did a pretty good job of that in the first half, and then late in the second half, those two plays, you can’t have it.”
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Murphys impact has been hard to miss in games like Week 5, when he got to Brock Purdy and kept flashing the kind of interior burst that can change the tone of a drive. After being left out of the Pro Bowl last year despite strong fan support and strong numbers, he is again playing his way into that conversation, and this time the case may be even harder to deny. [Read more 🡒]