Kyle Shanahan: The atmosphere in the 49ers locker room is ‘exactly what you would imagine’

The 49ers are struggling at 5-6. They have a tough game in Buffalo on Sunday night. A loss would make their path to the postseason even more difficult.

What is the current mood in the locker room?

“The mood in our locker room is exactly what you would imagine,” coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters Wednesday. “We’re upset about where we’re at on our record, but we’re a tight group and we play together. I think if you live in the world online, whether you’re dealing with our profession or your children are studying social issues in school, you’re not going to be happy when you’re dealing with the world online. And I’ve definitely trained long enough that I don’t have anything to do in this world. I just watch movies online, rap battles and funny things animals do. Good or bad.

“When you hear good things, that messes you up more than anything else. And then when you hear bad things, it will crush you. That’s not why any of us do this. You have to work with younger people on this. I think it’s harder just because of the world they grew up in. But don’t make someone else’s reality your reality. You have to concentrate on your job and never step away from it.”

The reality is that fans and media, spoiled by numerous playoff appearances and Super Bowl berths, are becoming restless. Some have even made the ridiculous suggestion that Shanahan should be on the hot seat. Shanahan doesn’t try to judge himself in a bad year.

“It’s up to you guys to rate me,” Shanahan said. “I’m working as hard as I can to get a win this week and we didn’t win as much as I think we should have won. We lost three games that I think we could have won and should have won. These are the ones who are the hardest. As for my own grading, I will not be grading myself. I will work as hard as I can. I’m the same guy I am now, who I always was. We need to overcome some of the things we are in right now. I believe we can overcome it, but we are putting ourselves in a difficult position and that is why we have to be extremely good and successful here in the future to overcome this challenge.”

If they can get and stay healthy, they can definitely make it. Every team struggles with injuries, but the 49ers were hit the hardest. It likely has something to do with the physical strain of playing in so many additional postseason games from 2021 to 2023.

There is also a mental toll. It’s hard to put so much into a season without achieving the ultimate goal.

However, every year there are one or two teams that get really hot after Thanksgiving and carry that into the playoffs. The 49ers can be one of those teams this year.

And that effort would be helped tremendously if they could find a way to upset the Bills on Sunday night. After that, most games are winnable – Bears, Rams, at Dolphins, Lions, at Cardinals. Even if we lose on Sunday, a score of 9:8 is still possible. Whether that will be enough to clinch the Commanders for the No. 7 seed remains to be seen.

The rest of the playoff teams in the NFC should hope that doesn’t happen.