49ers are done with De’Vondre Campbell after he leaves the team

De’Vondre Campbell, as expected, will no longer play for the 49ers after leaving the team during their Thursday Night Football game, with head coach Kyle Shanahan telling reporters that the organization was simply “working out the semantics” for Campbell’s departure. .

“I mean, you heard about me last night, you heard about our players, his actions during the game, that’s not something you can do to your team or your teammates while doing part of our team,” Shanahan said. journalists Friday. “We are currently working on the exact semantics, but we will handle the situation appropriately.”

It all came down in the third quarter of San Francisco’s 12-6 loss to the Rams when Campbell told his coaching staff he didn’t want to play anymore and walked off the field — he was standing on the sideline — towards the locker rooms.

Linebacker Dre Greenlaw, who injured his Achilles tendon in the Super Bowl, returned Thursday, preventing Campbell from recording a snap.

However, when the 49ers needed Campbell in the third quarter, that’s when Shanahan said he discovered that the nine-year veteran — who was named a first-team All-Pro with the Packers in 2021 – didn’t want to play anymore.

“We needed a starting-caliber linebacker to fill in for Dre until he could return,” Shanahan said. “We didn’t know how long it would take. I thought he had his ups and downs throughout the year. I thought he started slowly. I thought he got more accustomed to our defense and how we expected people to play and I thought he improved throughout the year.

Campbell was criticized by his teammates after the game, with cornerback Charvarius Ward predicting that Campbell was “probably going to get cut soon” and tight end George Kittle blasting the linebacker for the decision.

“It’s just stupid. It’s just stupid. It’s very immature,” Kittle told reporters. “I just don’t see how you could do something like that to your team.”

The 49ers’ loss marks their fourth in five games, and at 6-8, the defending NFC champions are struggling to even find their way into the playoffs.

San Francisco travels to face the Dolphins next weekend before hosting the Lions, and in those two games, as well as the others that follow this season, their defensive depth chart will look different.

Campbell’s decision Thursday certainly suggested that would be the case, and Shanahan’s comments a day later reinforced that sentiment.

“It was pretty easy to see how he was doing, and then we moved on with our lives after that,” Shanahan said, according to ESPN, of Campbell and the third quarter.