Kyle Shanahan Says 49ers Get No 'Benefit' from Australia Game vs. Rams on NFL Opening Week Schedule

After being unhappy with the NFL's scheduling decisions for their playoff matchups in January, San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan is now displeased that his team will have to open the 2026 regular season in Australia.

Speaking to reporters from the annual league meetings on Monday in Phoenix, Shanahan explained the 49ers will get no "benefit" from their matchup with the Los Angeles Rams at Melbourne Cricket Ground.

"I don't see any pro," Shanahan said. "It's cool for the league to play globally. I think that's awesome. But as far as the team doing it, no, there's not much benefit to it. Sometimes it's nice to get a bye week after but doesn't happen in Week 1."

The NFL announced last week that the 49ers-Rams game will be played on Sept. 10, with a start time of 8:35 p.m. ET.

Due to the time difference between Melbourne and California, the game will kickoff at 10:35 a.m. on Friday morning in Australia. Teams typically fly back home immediately after road games.

Typical flight time from Los Angeles and San Francisco to Melbourne is right around 16 hours, so assuming they leave around 1 a.m. ET both teams would likely get back home by 5 p.m. ET (2 p.m. local time) on Friday afternoon.

It does give the teams more recovery time than normal, but there's also jet lag as players and coaches readjust their bodies to their regular time zone.

Shanahan also offered a sarcastic response when asked about playing in Australia.

"I was so fired up," Shanahan said. "That was our goal to go 19 hours away to play a game. ... We'll deal with it. And I think there's [nine] international games. We've got two of them, so we're fired up about that."

49ers general manager John Lynch said at the NFL scouting combine last month they received assurances from the league to "give us some grace on the back end" to ease some of the scheduling burden from traveling so far early in the season.

During his press conference at the league meetings on Sunday, Lynch added that the 49ers will likely travel to Australia roughly a week early.

The Niners-Rams matchup will mark the NFL's first-ever regular season game in Australia. It's also part of the league's nine-game international schedule for next season.

Games will also be played in London, Madrid, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Munich and Mexico City. The 49ers are the designated home team for the Mexico City game.

The trips to Melbourne and Mexico City are a big factor in the 49ers being on track to set an NFL single-season record with more than 38,000 miles traveled.

San Francisco's non-divisional road games in 2026 include trips to Kansas City, New York and Atlanta.