The San Francisco 49ers have opened training camp without their head coach on the field, after Kyle Shanahan was injured in a car accident earlier this month.
Shanahan sustained a concussion in the crash and has been limited in his coaching duties as camp begins at the team's Santa Clara facility. He has not been replaced.
The club has said it expects him back with the team at some point during camp, and the working expectation is that he will be recovered in time for the season opener against the Los Angeles Rams, a Week 1 fixture set to be played in Melbourne, Australia.
In the meantime, San Francisco turned to assistant head coach Chris Foerster, an offensive line coach by background, to run the operation. The club has been clear that the responsibility is not resting on one person, with the wider staff absorbing pieces of the workload rather than handing everything to a single interim voice.
Shanahan has not been absent entirely. He attended a portion of practice, watching from the sideline alongside John Lynch, the team's president of football operations and general manager.
On the roster side, the 49ers are leaning on established leadership to hold the standard through an unusual start. Nick Bosa, Fred Warner and Christian McCaffrey are among the veterans guiding the group while Shanahan recovers.
Camp is open to fans on selected dates at Levi's Stadium, with sessions scheduled through the summer.
A head coach missing the opening of camp is a genuine disruption, particularly for a team whose offensive identity is closely tied to Shanahan's play-calling. The early weeks of camp, though, are heavily install and conditioning work, which is the part of the calendar a staff can most readily absorb.
