Kyle Shanahan said he “felt like crap” for three or four days.
For George Kittle, “it was really weird” getting back on his normal sleep schedule.
Fred Warner was groggy for “about a day,” he said. “And now we’re ready to rock.”
The longtime linebacker summed up the general sentiment in the 49ers‘ locker room now a week removed from their arrival home from Melbourne, Australia.
They admitted it took time to adjust to the 17-hour time difference going there. And they didn’t shy away from the impact the opposite adjustment made coming back.
Clearly, they were better prepared than the Rams last Thursday. But just like the outcome of the rivals’ varying travel strategies, whether the Niners’ jet lag has fully worn off can only be revealed one way — on the field Sunday at Levi’s Stadium against the Dolphins.
“You know, we can talk about the travel and all that, but that’s whatever,” Shanahan said. “Our whole team was locked into that game. I could tell from the first practice all the way to the night before the game, to pregame, to the end of the game. Nothing ever changed with them.
“That’s the goal, to do that same thing this week.”
Many 49ers didn’t wait long to resume their normal lives. The time difference allowed Shanahan to catch his son’s high school game the Friday night after they got back. Kittle hit the golf course Saturday morning before watching his Iowa Hawkeyes beat Brock Purdy’s Iowa State Cyclones.
Players were back in the building Monday, going over film and lifting weights, but they didn’t hit the field again until Wednesday, giving them five days to recover after touching down.
By then, at least according to Shanahan, all was back to normal.
“And it actually is our normal schedule now because our times were a little bit different in Australia with the travel to the practice field and stuff,” he said. “So, it’s real normal now.”
The season-opening trip robbed them of a cherished annual tradition: the preseason team party that typically takes place the weekend before the regular season.
Shanahan told his players they would celebrate on the flight back; it turned into a slumber party.
“I was so excited for the flight,” running back Christian McCaffrey said, “and then I passed out for like 13 hours. … I think I missed the fun part.”
“I think he beat me by like an hour,” Kittle added. “I think I slept for 11 hours. I literally teleported back here. But getting back on my sleep schedule was really weird, for me at least.”
Just as they did on their initial transcontinental journey, the 49ers’ training staff spelled out specific plans for the players to help their body clocks readjust.
“The next three days after we landed, they did a great job of giving us a regimen,” McCaffrey said. “When to try to go to bed, all that stuff.”
The preparation paid off on the front end. The 49ers seem confident that they put the right plan in place to set them up for success on the back end, too.
Now, they have to back up their words with their play.
With the Dolphins’ dreary outlook, there shouldn’t be much in the way of the 49ers playing their football game — as long as they’re as over the jet lag as they claim to be.
The only surprises on the Niners’ final injury report were second-string running back Kaelon Black and kicker Eddie Pineiro, who were both listed as questionable. Pineiro missed all three practices with an illness, while Black (quad) was limited Thursday but was back on Friday.
While Kittle remains limited in practice as he returns from Achilles surgery in January, he said the long flight had no impact on his calf and, in fact, “I’m actually so confident in my Achilles, my calf, the whole thing,” adding that there had been “zero setbacks, zero stepbacks.”
On the same note, Warner said he “felt like himself” and had “no residual effects” after his first game since fracturing his ankle in Week 6 of last season. “It had been a long time since I felt football soreness,” he added. “I’ll say that.”
Nick Bosa, who had knee surgery last September, said he didn’t feel “too sore” after his first game since Week 3 of last season. “So it’s a big positive, for sure.”
There were plenty of baked-in excuses for the 49ers not to take care of business against the Dolphins, whether it be jet lag, injuries or possibly having to bring in an outside kicker.
They could have thrown away the Week 1 game and cried about their circumstances.
But they didn’t. They let their play on the field do the talking.
And if they steamrolled the Rams by 20 points, well, imagine what they should do to the Dolphins. That is, if they don’t start to dose off in the second half.
