NFL ignores 49ers playoff scheduling request for divisional round: Why Kyle Shanahan pleaded with the league

When it comes to the divisional round playoff schedule, the NFL definitely didn't do any favors for the San Francisco 49ers. After pulling off the biggest upset of Wild Card Weekend with a 23-19 win over the Eagles, the 49ers will now be headed to Seattle for a Saturday game against the Seahawks. 

That means San Francisco will be playing on a short week. 

With the 49ers playing in Philadelphia on Sunday, coach Kyle Shanahan had been hoping that the league would schedule his team for a Sunday divisional game so that they would get a full week of rest, but instead, the NFL is making them play on Saturday. 

Following the win over the Eagles, Shanahan was asked 'how strongly' he would prefer to play on Sunday in the divisional round and he didn't hesitate with his answer. 

NFL wild card overreactions: Josh Allen is the biggest X factor of playoffs; A.J. Brown done in Philly?

Tyler Sullivan

"Very strongly," Shanahan said. "I'm expecting it to be Saturday, but hopefully, if the NFL is cool and understanding, they'll make it Sunday."

Unfortunately for Shanahan, the NFL decided not to be "cool and understanding" for the 49ers. The league didn't announce the start time for the 49ers-Seahawks game, but the NFL did reveal that it would definitely be played on Saturday at either 4:30 p.m. ET or 8 p.m. ET. 

The Rams and Bears both played on Saturday in the wild card round, so it would have made some sense to put their game on Saturday in the divisional round, but instead, the game in Chicago will be played on Sunday (Time TBA).

On one hand, the 49ers don't really have the right to complain about anything because they're a six-seed. If they wanted a more reasonable schedule, they could have beaten the Seahawks in Week 18, which would have given them the No. 1 overall seed in the NFC and a bye through the wild-card round. 

That being said, giving the 49ers a full week of rest for the Seattle game probably would've been the fair thing to do and that's mostly because this week's game will mark the third time in the past four weeks that the 49ers have had to play on a short week.

Here's how their schedule looked at the end of the season: 

Week 16 (Dec. 22): at Colts (Monday night)
Week 17 (Dec. 28): Bears (Sunday night)
Week 18 (Jan. 3): Seahawks (Saturday night)
WC (Jan. 10): at Eagles (Sunday)

The 49ers had to play at Indianapolis on a Monday night and then had to fly home across the country on short rest to play the Bears in Week 17. After that, they had to turn around and play another short week game in Week 18 with a Saturday game against the Seahawks. By the time the divisional playoff game rolls around, the 49ers will have played five games in 26 days. As for the Seahawks, they got to play on a Thursday in Week 16, so in that same 26-day span, they'll only have played three games. 

Making a team play on three short weeks in a span of month certainly seems like a competitive disadvantage, especially when the Rams-Bears game could have been slotted for Saturday with both teams getting a full week of rest. 

If there's any team that could have used an extra day of rest, it's definitely the 49ers. The team has been banged up all year and they lost George Kittle on Sunday to a season-ending Achilles injury. Kittle now joins a long list of key players, including Nick Bosa, Fred Warner, George Kittle and Ricky Pearsall, who won''t be on the field for this week's game against the Seahawks. San Francisco's players have missed a total of 263 games due to injury this year, which is the fifth-most in the NFL. 

With the schedule set up the way it is, the 49ers now have to fly 3,000 miles from Philadelphia to San Francisco and then immediately start preparation for their game in Seattle. This game will mark just the 16th time since 2002 that a team on a short week will be playing a team coming off a bye. In the previous 15 games, the team playing on the short week has gone 5-10. However, one of those wins did come from the 49ers, who played on Sunday in the wild card before turning around and beating the top seeded Packers in a Saturday game in the divisional round back in January 2022. 

Since the NFL expanded the playoffs to 14 teams in 2020, the top seed in the NFC has gotten to play on a Saturday in the divisional round in each season since then. The last time the NFC's top seed didn't play on a Saturday in the division round came in 2018 when the Saints were given a Sunday game, but that was back when the top two seeds in each conference were both given a bye, so the set up was different.