San Francisco 49ers Coach Now Regrets Signing Player Who Quit in the Third Quarter of Game: ‘Obviously Made a Mistake’

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San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan on Wednesday said that, in hindsight, the signing of linebacker De’Vondre Campbell was a “mistake.”

Last Thursday, Campbell stunned his team when he walked off the field in the third quarter of the Niners’ game against the Los Angeles Rams. Veteran linebacker Dre Greenlaw had made his season debut after suffering a torn Achilles tendon in last season’s Super Bowl, but soreness and fatigue kept him out of the second half. When the coaching staff informed Campbell that he’d be playing in Greenlaw’s place, he simply decline and walked into the locker room.

Campbell’s teammates were outraged and continued to call him out in the days following his decision. The team. Instead of immediately releasing him, the 49ers made the decision to suspend him for the final three games of the season.

During a press conference Wednesday, a reporter brought up a social media post from last season in which Campbell — who was with the Green Bay Packers — claimed he would never play through injury for the team again. The reporter asked if the team had any “hesitation” regarding Campbell’s fit within their culture.

“Yeah, of course,” Shanahan said. “We look into all that. It was tough losing Dre. We knew we were gonna have to need a starting-caliber linebacker; and we had two guys that we thought we had committed that we lost in free agency; and then another guy got cut after that and became available. I was with De’Vondre his rookie year in Atlanta, so I knew what he was capable of — not that I was really close or anything with the defensive guys, being an offensive coordinator there and everything — but I know we liked him in that building and a lot of guys who had coached him had been good. We obviously made a mistake, but it’s not something that you don’t look into. We look into everything and you weigh the risk and reward of stuff.”

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