49ers Talk: How much playing time will rookies receive during 2026 NFL season?
On "49ers Talk," co-hosts Matt Maiocco and Jennifer Lee Chan discuss how much playing time San Francisco rookies could see during the 2026 NFL season.
49ers Talk: How much playing time will rookies receive during 2026 NFL season? originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Video Transcript
What makes anyone think that Shanahan will play rookie running backs/wide receivers more in 2026 than in years past?
Do you wanna I have my feelings on this, Jennifer.
I'll let you start this one off.
Well, I think they don't wanna have the situation last year as they did, or this year as they did last year, where Christian McCaffrey is the entire offense.
I think they do wanna spread it out, and I think as of OTAs, Kalen Ballage looks like a guy who can do similar things to what Christian McCaffrey can do.
Jordan James is also, has, has a few examples of being able to run out of the backfield and catch passes.
But the problem in 2025 for them is when they tried to sub out Christian McCaffrey to Brian Robinson, Brian Robinson's strengths are not running routes and catching passes, and it didn't always work out.
So in the result of that, they had to keep Christian McCaffrey on the field the majority of the time because they were out of wide receivers ultimately.
They didn't have a trustworthy receiver that could stretch the field that defenses really felt threatened by.
George Kittle was injur- injured, so he's another target that is generally double-teamed or whatnot, so they loaded the box.
They had to defend Christian McCaffrey any way, any how possible, and that's why Christian McCaffrey was on the field so much.
So with the addition of Mike Evans and Christian Kirk and hopefully a healthy Ricky Pearsall, the younger wide receivers that are coming up, they can take Christian McCaffrey off the field a little bit more than they did last year.
And I think people are misreading the Shanahan doesn't like to play rookies thing.
Mm-hmm.
I think he doesn't like to play guys that the quarterback can't rely on to be in the right place at the right time.
So it's all on Dejon Stribling and Kalen Ballage to earn that playing time.
If Dejon Stribling can be where he's supposed to be and learn everything that he needs to learn, he's gonna play.
He's gonna play a lot.
And I'd say the same thing with Kalen Ballage, is that, you know, from what we saw on the off-season program, Kalen Ballage looks darn good.
I, I never thought that, you know, Shanahan has this aversion to playing rookies.
He has an aversion to playing guys who aren't sure what they're doing.
Right.
Right, and part of what could be on Dejon Stribling and Kalen Ballage's side is the fact that both have come in with their heads down, ready to work, humble.
From what Leonard Hankerson has said, from what I've heard from people that know Dejon Stribling, he is a student of the game, similar to Brock Purdy.
So if Dejon Stribling has the work ethic and the concentration and the mental capacity to remember everything like Brock Purdy does, then he'll be on the field as a rookie.
Both Stribling and Kalen Ballage had college careers, long college careers- Yes that helps with their transition to the NFL.
And so those, these are guys who, know the game and are very mature, and I, I mean, I, I can't say this definitively, but they gave the appearance on the practice field during OTAs like they definitely knew what they were doing.
