Head Coach Kyle Shanahan Press Conference

Head Coach Kyle Shanahan

Press Conference – August 20, 2024

San Francisco 49ers

Opening comments:

“[OL] Ben Bartch will be returning today. [OL] Spencer Burford will do some individual. [RB] Isaac Guerendo will be back. And [RB] Patrick Taylor [Jr.]. Go ahead.”

Have you decided what you’re going to do on Friday, as far as the starters playing?

“Yeah, I’d like the starters to play. We’ll see how today and tomorrow go, but that’s the plan.”

What about S Talanoa Hufanga?

“He won’t play this week.”

Is he going to practice this week?

“No, he won’t practice this week.”

WR Ricky Pearsall?

“Not this week.”

With Talanoa, do you think that kind of leans toward him starting the season on the PUP list?

“Not necessarily. That’s still up for discussion right now. He got cleared last week, so it’s been good that he can do real football drills and stuff, with the trainers and everything. He’s been going a lot harder with that. I think two days on, two days off. Hopefully it goes real good this week and maybe we could ease him into practice next week.”

I think last year, you declared your backup quarterback before the last preseason game. Where do you stand now with that?

“Kind of like what you guys see. They’re pretty tight, so I’m definitely not declaring it now. Hopefully they’ll play out more in these two practices and hopefully a little bit more in the game.”

Is OL Jon Feliciano’s injury something that could linger for a while or where is he at?

“Yeah, it could linger for a while. He ended up having to get some type of, I don’t know exactly the surgery he got, but he got something done and he’ll end up probably starting on IR and hope to have him back towards the middle of the year.”

And that’s a knee surgery?

“Yes.”

As it relates to WR Jacob Cowing, are there any things that he shows you that make you think maybe he can overcome some of the things that can slow a rookie receiver down from contributing right away?

“It’s still early. He got his first full week in. It was good to see him do some things in the game. Really liked how smooth he looked as a punt returner. But, he’s still got a lot to go through. He is behind.”

Any sense on movement with WR Brandon Aiyuk or T Trent Williams?

“Zero updates. Nothing has changed.”

You guys missed 24 tackles in the first two preseason games. When you guys are watching the film, what’s it look like to you?

“I thought our tracking was a little better in this game than it was in the last game, over running a couple things. A few missed tackles in some tight areas, which you don’t like. But there are a lot of guys out there trying to make the team that haven’t necessarily yet. And when you miss a lot of tackles, it’s a lot harder to make the team.”

The addition of senior offensive specialist Mick Lombardi to the staff, did you know him before? What is it about somebody who has been an offensive coordinator coming into a new role? And I’ll just throw in another question. Did you talk to former NFL head coach Bill Belichick before hiring him?

“No. I didn’t talk to Bill before. But I’ve always liked Mick’s background, the people he’s worked for, like Bill. But he’s been with a number of people, being with [former Las Vegas Raiders head coach] Josh [McDaniels], things like that. I got to spend time or got a few weeks with his dad when I was in Cleveland, who I have a ton of respect for football-wise. I always like people who’ve kind of grown up in an intense football background since they were born, not just after they left college. So I think that always helps guys, gives them an advantage. And then I have a lot of people I’m close with who have worked with him. He worked here with when [run game coordinator/offensive line] Chris Foerster was on the staff. Some good friends who know him very well. And so everyone spoke, people who know him well and know me well, people spoke very highly of him as a person. I loved his background and after talking with him on the phone and stuff I felt like it was going to be a real good fit and it’s been great so far.”

Has TE Jake Tonges been better than you expected?

“Not really. We got him on our practice squad last year, so we got to see a lot of him, just on scout team and stuff. And he’s always done a real good job here and he’s taken advantage of his opportunities. He’s mixing around at a couple positions and he’s going to make this decision tough for us.”

Your veterans have said that with QB Brock Purdy, that one of the benefits of him having him all offseason is his voice has gotten even stronger and more leadership. Have you noticed that and in what ways can it benefit him to maybe have more command?

“I just think when you’ve done what you’ve done on the field, it’s always easier. I don’t care how you are, no matter what type of leader or how you want to command or demand things from people, if you haven’t had much success on the field, that doesn’t last very long. He did that as a rookie. But then he was so caught up just trying to come back from his injury. Now after having a second year in where he had an unbelievable year, he’s in a much more natural position to do it. I think he does do it naturally. But the team, based off of what he’s done, he’s earned their respect on the field, and they know him as a guy inside and out and no one respects anyone more as a person than how much they respect Brock.”

Brock has talked about seeing the offense the way you see it. He wants to get to that point. He acknowledged he’s not there yet. But understanding the why of a play call when you’re in the moment, like what are we trying to get set up on a third and manageable or are we trying get to this happen? Where is he in that process? He’s going into his third season. You have the potential to have a pretty long partnership with him. Are you excited about to see where he can get into this offense eventually?

“Yeah, of course. I was so excited with how he did right away. Just when we got him on the field with his few reps and then what he did in his rookie year, it was so exciting. Watching him overcome injury was unbelievable last year. He’s got enough tape out there that everyone has a good grasp of what Brock is, and that’s a very good quarterback. The way he’s built, the way his mind works, the way he works at things, how humble he is, usually any one of those situations only gets better with reps and being in more situations. Everyone wants to learn it or know it like the coach does, but the coaches only know it because we’ve been doing it for a long time and we’d sit in that room in a chair and with a slow motion remote and get to go over stuff all the time. And players don’t get to do that all the time. They have to go work on being an athlete and doing stuff on the field. And it’s not just all the mind. They have to work on the physical aspect of the game. So you always hope that they can count on the coach to help bridge that gap. But especially with the quarterback, it’s always good to know a lot. Sometimes knowing a lot doesn’t always help, you know too many of the what ifs. I have a scar on almost every single play, we’ve done it long enough. You give the quarterback all those scars that you have as a play caller, they might never throw the ball. ‘Watch out, this could happen, this could happen.’ So it’s kind of on a need-to-know basis, to help them be the most successful. But the more they play, the more they learn. Because eventually, you do need to know all that stuff and it’s about how you handle it and Brock has handled it very well.”

The three rookie offensive linemen all have good numbers. Does the film show the same thing? And what do you see? Do you like the competition on that offensive line for the backups?

“When you say numbers, you mean like their jersey numbers?”

Very few pressures and a lot of snaps.

“Yeah, I think the competition there has been very good. Just comparing it to other years in the past, I think we’re deeper there. I think guys who have been around here who, whether it’s practice squads or the last guys on the roster who haven’t started much, I think those guys have all gotten better. And the more you can do that, obviously the better these guys get. But there’s no harder position to develop than O-Line, because you get better at O-Line by playing football. And the O-Line, really that’s been taken away from them in the offseason. I think those guys get hurt the most, with just how offseason rules go. Training camp is so much faster, so they always are behind on it. And college football O-Line play is night and day different, I’d say like 95-percent of the schools, than NFL O-Line play. So it’s really a tough deal for those guys. But if they can hang in long enough, whether it’s the last guy on the roster, whether it’s practice squad. If they’re made of the right stuff, and they have the ability, all those guys usually do get better. But it’s very tough with their timeline.”

RB Christian McCaffrey is so adamant and borderline obsessive about reps and how important reps are at practicing and being out there. For him to not be out there, how does he get to Week One to be himself?

“That’s what’s good when you’re that obsessive about everything. When you’re hurt, you’re hurt, you can’t go. But when you take every rep, every walk-through, everything you do, you’re just so deliberate and everything. When he is probably walking down the aisle to get married, he’s probably thinking about his feet and how to do routes, no offense to Olivia [Culpo]. But he’s obsessed with it. And so when you do get in these situations where you do get hurt and you can’t go do all that stuff, at least he’s put the work in before. So that stuff does come back fast. But he understands what it takes to play in this game, especially at the level he does. And not many people play at that level unless they are like that.”

What quarterback would you say you had who was as close to being a peer with you as far as the master of the offense?

“Guys who aren’t very good at playing (laughter).”

Who are those guys?

“I can’t say those guys. Whenever a guy comes out the field and they want to talk like a coach, usually they’re saying what they think you want to hear. You’re in the pocket and that’s moving fast. You’ve got to have an understanding and preparation and how to get clues and how to react. But if you come out and you’re just talking all coach talk and everything on the field, it usually means you’re just guessing and trying to tell a guy what they want to hear. You don’t need too much explanation.”

When you’re potentially talking game plan and you’re like ‘this guy doesn’t know?’

“[Quarterbacks coach] Brian Griese, but he could play.”

Have you ever had a quarterback call plays?

“I haven’t.”

Preseason?

“I haven’t.”

Are you considering for Friday?

“No, I would hate to do that to somebody. If he really wanted to and stuff, I maybe would let him so he could learn how miserable it is. I couldn’t imagine having to think of all that stuff, get people in the right spots, spit the play, think of a play, spit it out, get to the line of scrimmage and actually think of how to play football. Playing this game is, playing the quarterback position as hard as anything in sports and to have to do other stuff to me would make it extremely hard. They better call a very simple game.”

Is offensive passing game specialist Klay Kubiak going to play call on Friday?
“Possibly. I really don’t plan it all out. It’s not that big of a deal to us.”

This isn’t something you’re considering doing in the regular season?

“No.”

You don’t feel like you need the preseason reps?

“No, I think I’m alright on it.”

How does it benefit Klay?

“Just giving him that experience. He did it in high school for a while. He’s been here, I’ve let him do it at practice a lot. Just allowing him to do it in the game, it’s something he’s earned. I think it’s good for his career. But a lot of guys don’t get that before and they’re fine too. So it’s more why wouldn’t I do it? What does it effect on the team? And when I was younger, I always felt like it was kind of disrespectful to the players, just in terms of not treating it as important as it can be. That’s why I hated doing that. I’d always call it. But then a backup guy would get in in the preseason and now I’m not going to do it. So that always kind of made me insecure just to those guys. I didn’t want them to think I wasn’t taking it as seriously. But Klay spent so much time with those guys. I don’t think they’ve taken it that way at all. So as long as they weren’t offended by it and stuff, I think it’s been great for him, it’s great for everybody and it’s been more relaxing.”

Is it important in interviews for him to be able to say that he’s had that experience and call those plays?

“I wouldn’t think so. It depends. All 32 teams are different. So it depends on the person hiring him. But I wouldn’t think so. There’s a lot that goes into play calling that’s more important and it’s more about how you put in a game plan, how you tie it all together, how you rep it throughout the week. Yeah, there’s stuff that you can make a little difference on timing it out right, but anytime you think you’ve made a great play call, just make a few more and stay humble with it.”

Does it benefit you at all with him having had that experience in the regular season where he’s now kind of seeing things through a little bit sharper lens as far as how you might be looking at a game?

“I don’t know. We’ll see. We’ll see if anything changes from him, but I wouldn’t think so. Klay’s had a very good grasp of since he got here. I put him with [Houston Texans head coach] DeMeco [Ryans] the first year and DeMeco was so mad at me when I took him. But I thought he had too much of a future on offense and we were going to need him there and he was right. Same thing that I did to him with [Houston Texans offensive coordinator] Bobby Slowik, also. Klay’s grown up around football a long time. He kind of knows what goes into a play caller’s mind, what they think about. That’s why he has been able to help me so much. As a head coach, you can’t always go through the same routine that I used to as a coordinator where I can just shut the door and not worry about anything except the 10 minutes I had to talk to people once a week and kind of just worry about the game plan. And when you’re a head coach, you’ve got a few other things you’ve got to do, but you can’t let that be an excuse for not being as prepared for the game. And that’s why you need people you can count on who can think like you and can prepare when you aren’t there. And he’s been great at that since he’s moved to offense for us.”