49ers to suspend De'Vondre Campbell final three games of 2024 season: Report

Linebacker De'Vondre Campbell's 2024 NFL season appears to be over.

The 49ers plan to suspend Campbell for the season's final three games, a source confirmed to NBC Sports Bay Area on Monday morning after NFL Media's Ian Rapoport first reported the news.

Source: The 49ers plan to suspend LB De'Vondre Campbell for the final three games of the season without pay for conduct detrimental to the team, confirming @RapSheet report. Campbell declined to enter the 49ers' game Thursday night vs. Rams as a backup.

— Matt Maiocco (@MaioccoNBCS) December 16, 2024

Campbell's 49ers tenure came into question after San Francisco's 12-6 loss to the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday night when the nine-year NFL veteran refused to play in the game at Levi's Stadium.

By suspending Campbell rather than releasing him, the 49ers are preventing him from signing with another NFL team.

While NBC Sports Bay Area's Donte Whitner and the rest of the NFL world called for the 49ers to cut Campbell, coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters last Friday that the team needed time to work through all the possible outcomes.

“We’re working through the semantics of exactly how to deal with it,” Shanahan said on Friday's conference call. “But you guys heard from me last night. You guys heard from our players. His actions from the game is not something you can do to your team or your teammates and still be a part of our team.”

Tight end George Kittle and cornerback Charvarius Ward were the most outspoken 49ers players immediately after Thursday night's loss.

"Look, if you're on the roster and you suit up, you're expected to play," Kittle told reporters Thursday. "I think anyone in this building that got asked to go in, I would say 100 percent of everybody would die to get on that football field. People are going through random things off the field, I can't speak on that. Whatever his decision was, it wasn't for this organization, for this team, and that's on him. I'm not very happy about it. ...

"Is that the reason we lost? Absolutely not, but it's hard to win football games when someone doesn't want to play football .. especially when you lose two linebackers and could have suited another one. ... I've never been around anyone that's ever done that, and I hope I'm never around anyone that does that again."

Campbell's decision not to play came as star linebacker Dre Greenlaw made his 2024 season debut following offseason surgery to repair a torn Achilles sustained in Super Bowl LVIII on Feb. 11.

When Greenlaw experienced knee soreness and couldn't return to the game, Campbell didn't take his place.

Ward didn't hold back on Campbell's actions.

"I mean, he's a professional. He's been playing for a long time. If he didn't want to play, he shouldn't have dressed out," Ward told reporters in the locker room on Thursday. "He could have told [them] that before the game. So I feel like there was some sucker s--- that he did that definitely hurt the team, because Dee [Winters] went down and we needed a linebacker, and I think [Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles] was banged up, too.

"So for him to do that, that's some sucker stuff to me, in my opinion. Probably going to get cut soon. It is what it is with that."

Campbell was seen leaving the 49ers' sideline and heading to the locker room, and FOX Sports' Jay Glazer reported Sunday that president of football operations/general manager John Lynch made Campbell leave the bench area.

"John Lynch actually went down there in the [third] quarter and confronted him on it, saying, 'You don't want to go in the game? You're refusing?'" Glazer said. "Yes. It was Lynch who sent him in the locker room.

"By the way, I got players who called me after and said, 'Hey, we've heard you talk about this alter-ego John Lynch, this 47 Red character. Man, we saw it. That dude is crazy.' They all saw it firsthand."

The 49ers have made their decision on Campbell, who signed a one-year, $5 million contract during the offseason.

Time will tell if the rest of the NFL has made its decision on Campbell when he becomes an unrestricted free agent in a few months.