After canceling joint practices this week because of a litany of injuries, San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan plans to play several of his starters, including quarterback Brock Purdy, in an exhibition game against the New Orleans Saints (Sunday at 8 p.m.
ET on FOX). Shanahan normally gives his starters plenty of work in joint practices and sometimes holds them out of the game that week, but said he will play many of his top players on Sunday to give them a chance to work against a different team. "It's always nice when you get to go up against a different look, different guys and stuff," Purdy said Friday. "So we definitely missed that this week.
But at the same time, we're doing it for the right reasons. So I'm excited for Sunday to be able to get some new looks and being able to run our offense against guys that haven't seen it every day.
So that's also going to be nice, but get in, be efficient, be clean with it and compete." The Niners won't play all of their starters.