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While most of the rest of the NFL went about business as usual last week, the 49ers got to sit back, relax and enjoy the view from their perch atop the NFC playoff picture.
Before everybody went their separate ways, much of the team donned costumes for quarterback Brock Purdy and his wife Jenna’s second annual Halloween bash.
After the team was forced to skip its usual preseason party as it traveled to Australia, it was a welcome — and well-earned — chance to let loose and come together as a team.
And it couldn’t have come at a better time.
Just ask the wives and girlfriends.
“I think the boys would agree — this is the perfect time for a bye week,” Tatyanah Bass, the partner of tight end Brayden Willis, said in a social media video from the party. “We do in fact hate a super-early bye or a super-late bye. But late October, early November is just chef’s kiss.”
In the video posted to Bass’ more than 1 million followers on TikTok, she was dressed up as the SpongeBob character Mermaid Man. Willis, she said, “didn’t have an option.” He wore short shorts and a kerchief around his neck as Mermaid Man’s sidekick, Barnacle Boy.
By all accounts, it was a good time.
“I love the Halloween parties,” Bass said. “It’s midway through the season. Everyone gets to drink, have fun, get loose. And this is also the boys’ bye week, so you know they were turning up.”
The party provided the perfect reset for a team that aced its first portion of the season. A few days later, all the players and coaches were back in the building, getting to work to earn another bye week a couple months down the road.
As they host the Raiders on Sunday, the 49ers embark on the second section of their season. If all goes well, they’ll be able to break their schedule down into almost three equal parts, with byes in between. At 6-1, they control their fate for the No. 1 seed, which would give the veteran squad another crucial week of rest before hosting a divisional-round game.
How big of a deal is that extra bye week? For the NFL’s oldest team, probably disproportionately so. Just consider the impact their regularly scheduled week off had.
It didn’t just give the 49ers a chance to party.
It gave them a chance to get healthy.
Despite their sterling record in the standings, the 49ers have taken plenty of hits along the way. They lost six defensive linemen in two weeks, and at one point were missing the receivers who took up the top six spots on the depth chart at the start of training camp. Mike Evans has been dealing with two injuries, and Nick Bosa hasn’t played since Week 2.
It all came to a head two Sundays ago in Atlanta.
Evans’ first absence of the season proved to be one too many for the 49ers’ offense. Their pass rush finally wasn’t able to compensate for Bosa’s missing presence off the edge. They were handed their first loss of the season by the Falcons.
While linebacker Fred Warner said they “took a step back,” it only clarified his message to the team moving forward after the bye week.
“I said all along, it’s not just about winning. I said we have to continue to get better as a team,” Warner said. “That doesn’t mean that we can’t use this bye the right way, get healthy, get our mind right for what we have ahead of us and be better going forward.”
The loss, tight end George Kittle said, was “definitely going to sour our entire bye week.”
But, he added, “I think that’s good.”
“Because,” he continued, “I think when we get back next week, I think our guys are going to be incredibly focused and have a great intent going into …”
Kittle took a moment to orient himself on the 49ers’ upcoming schedule.
“We play the Raiders at home? That’ll be really fun.”
At the time, Kittle probably had some idea of the reinforcements that the 49ers expected back after the bye. Coach Kyle Shanahan said Evans, Bosa, Deebo Samuel, Demarcus Robinson, Luke Gifford, Garret Wallow, C.J. West and Marques Sigle could all return.
Kittle couldn’t have known that he’d share a locker room again with DeForest Buckner. The 49ers’ trade for their popular former defensive tackle was arguably the biggest development of the bye week. His debut should only add to the fun.
Buckner said he requested a trade back to the 49ers because he missed the mentality that infects every level of the organization, from general manager John Lynch to the support staff.
“I know the standard here,” Buckner said. “It’s very high. It’s Super Bowl or bust.”
So far, it’s looked like the only thing standing in the Niners’ way is their health. Now, as healthy and rested as they’ve been since Week 1, the lane is wide open for them to finish the job.
In his 10th season, Shanahan is still seeking his first Super Bowl.
Beginning Sunday, the next three months represent his best chance to finally get one.
And that party will blow the socks off a bye-week Halloween bash.
