How the 49ers are Spending their Playoff Bye Week

SANTA CLARA -- The 49ers have the week off, but they're not on vacation. They're practicing hard.

Both Thursday and Friday are full-speed practices for the 49ers -- they even will wear pads on Friday. They haven't worn pads in quite a while. It's like they're going back to training camp.

And that's because the starters barely played last week. So in a sense, they've had back to back bye weeks, which means they're more than rested. They're ready to go. And so they're practicing as hard as they can without tackling and bringing players to the ground.

The 49ers are in a similar position four years ago when they were the No. 1 seed, but their bye-week practices were much lighter back then.

On Thursday, George Kittle explained why they're practicing so hard this week.

KITTLE: "In 2019, we were coming off a must-win game in Seattle. And so we got that win, everybody played, high intensity, everyone was dialed in. The following week was more jog-through stuff. Today was definitely a full-speed day, guys flying around, guys competing. Kyle said to continue sharpening the sword. You just want to try to take every advantage when you're on the football field, to get a little bit better, to refine your skills a little bit, to focus on one thing, your first step, your release, your get-off, your back pedal, you just don't want to lose a step anywhere. And so it was a good day. Looking forward to tomorrow."