On Monday evening, the San Francisco 49ers pushed their record on the 2025 NFL season to an impressive 8-4 with a comfortable home win over the Carolina Panthers in prime time. It was a disastrous day overall for Brock Purdy and the 49ers' offense, but thankfully, the team's defense came to play, holding Carolina out of the endzone for the entirety of the game.
It's been an injury-filled year for the 49ers on both sides of the ball, but particularly on defense, where they are playing without star linebacker Fred Warner, among many others.
On Wednesday, the team made a move to add to its depth on that end of the field.
“The 49ers signed veteran LB Eric Kendricks to the practice squad,” reported NFL insider Tom Pelissero on X, formerly Twitter.
Kendricks is an NFL veteran who was a second round draft pick in 2015 by the Minnesota Vikings and has since spent time with the Dallas Cowboys and Los Angeles Chargers. He started 15 games for the Cowboys during the regular season last year and will provide some depth, experience, and playmaking to a 49ers linebacker room that could use some additional help in all of those areas.
Overall, the 49ers are in good shape to make a playoff push this year despite all the injuries they've dealt with in 2025, including to Purdy, who only recently returned from a toe ailment.
Purdy will have to perform a lot better than he did on Monday against the Panthers in order for the 49ers to have any chance of making some real noise, assuming they do indeed make it to the postseason this year.
In any case, the 49ers will next take the field in what could be snowy conditions against the Cleveland Browns on the road on Sunday at 1:00 pm ET.
