For a team standing right near the top of the NFC standings and featuring a defense among the best in the league, you’d think more than four 49ers would be selected as Pro Bowl starters.
Some of San Francisco’s players were vocally frustrated by the perceived lack of respect, including Arik Armstead, who is within the top-10 in sacks among all NFL players.
"I'm mad. I’m mad, definitely. It’s something you dream about getting," Armstead said. "You work hard for it and you feel like you deserve it and you don’t get it. It’s beyond my understanding but it is what it is."
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But coach Kyle Shanahan doesn’t want his players focusing on individual honors with the postseason and a chance at a trip to Miami for Super Bowl LIV on the horizon.
"We've got four guys who made it, but I told the guys yesterday it doesn't mean a lot to the team or the organization because it's a Pro Bowl and stuff," Shanahan Thursday said on his weekly KNBR appearance. "But it's a ton for the players to get that recognition and everything. They got four guys who made [it as starters]. They've got a number of alternates. But I do believe we should have more than four.
“That's kind of what I tell the guys because they all want to fight and get that stuff.”
The 49ers ended up with four starters on the NFC squad, including tight end George Kittle, fullback Kyle Juszczyk, defensive end Nick Bosa and cornerback Richard Sherman.
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Armstead, along with seven of his teammates, was listed as an alternate.
49ers players like DeForest Buckner and Raheem Mostert can use these selections as motivation, and I’m sure they’d much rather be packing up their bags for Miami than spending the weekend before the Super Bowl playing a somewhat meaningless contest in Orlando.