49ers have another short week to get ready to play the Seahawks. Is that fair?
The San Francisco 49ers will have to play on a short week for the third time in four games — and they are not thrilled about it.
“Hopefully, if the NFL’s cool and understanding, they’ll make it Sunday,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said to reporters after his team’s 23-19 wild card win over the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday.
The NFL wasn’t cool or understanding as Shanahan hoped regarding the scheduling of the next game in the divisional round of the playoffs. San Francisco will play the No. 1 seed Seattle Seahawks on Saturday, the league announced on Sunday night, while the game time kickoff has not been finalized as of Monday morning. It will be either 1:30 p.m. or 5 p.m. PST.
The banged-up 49ers, who lost star tight end George Kittle to an Achilles tear in the second quarter on Sunday, played on a short week against the Chicago Bears Sunday, Dec. 28 following their cross-country trip to play the Indianapolis Colts on Monday night football six nights earlier.
Then their Jan. 3 game against Seattle was scheduled for Saturday night to fill the second half of ESPN’s double-header in lieu of the NFL not scheduling “Monday Night Football” during the final week of the regular season. It left the 49ers to play on short rest in back-to-back weeks.
What does the weekend playoff schedule look like?
They’ll play at Lumen Field in downtown Seattle on Saturday after flying back from Philadelphia after Sunday’s game. They’ll begin their normal practice week on Tuesday instead of a normal Wednesday for a Sunday game. Teams typically give players Tuesdays off for rest and recovery.
Meanwhile, the other divisional round game between the Los Angeles Rams and Chicago Bears will be played on Sunday despite both teams playing in the first round of the playoffs on Saturday, giving each a long week to prepare.
Many 49ers fans have argued Rams-Bears should be played on Saturday to allow for the San Francisco, L.A. and Chicago to all play on normal rest while the Seahawks come off their first-round bye from earning the top seed.
It’s not fair, according to Dungy
Former Super Bowl winning coach Tony Dungy, a close personal friend of 49ers general manager John Lynch, pointed out the discrepancy on social media.
However, the 49ers have been on the other side of the rest advantage in past years when they earned the No. 1 seed after the 2019 and 2023 season. Then they hosted the divisional round games against the Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers, respectively. Those teams both traveled to Santa Clara on short rest after playing in the wild card rounds the previous Sundays.
As long-time 49ers beat reporter Matt Maiocco pointed out on X, there was logic to that scheduling in 2023 because the NFL had a game on “Monday Night Football” of which the winner would not play on a Saturday.
“That made sense because the Bucs had a Monday game in the first round,” Maiocco posted. “And there was no other choice but for them to face the Lions on Sun.”
The 49ers have also been in their current position before. They were No. 6 seed in the playoffs following 2021. They won their wild card game in Dallas and had to travel to top-seed Green Bay in the divisional round. They came away with a 13-10 stunning upset before losing on the road to the Rams in the NFC championship.
Suffice to say, there’s nothing the 49ers can do about the schedule. And they’ll get a chance to avenge their 13-3 loss to the Seahawks in the season finale that cost them the No. 1 seed in the first place. They’ll return to Seattle having won their last four games there dating back to 2021.
“I’m glad we get another shot,” Shanahan said. “They played us real well, definitely beat us. But I know we can play better than that. So glad we got another shot.”
This story was originally published January 12, 2026 at 10:24 AM with the headline "49ers have another short week to get ready to play the Seahawks. Is that fair?."
