Head Coach Kyle Shanahan Press Conference

Head Coach Kyle Shanahan

Press Conference – October 23, 2024

San Francisco 49ers

Opening comments:

“Alright guys, injuries for practice today: [K] Jake Moody, right ankle, won’t practice, [WR] Jauan Jennings, hip, won’t practice, [DL Kevin] Givens, groin, won’t practice, [TE George] Kittle, foot, won’t practice, [S George] Odum, knee, won’t practice, [WR] Deebo [Samuel Sr.] wrist/illness, won’t practice, [T] Trent Williams is getting a vet day, [WR] Chris Conley, ankle, limited, [DL] Nick Bosa, elbow, limited, [RB] Jordan Mason, shoulder, limited. Go ahead.”

Was Deebo Samuel, in fact, pneumonia, did it turn out to be pneumonia? And what is his prognosis?

“Pneumonia. He’s out of the hospital. He got in here yesterday, doing better than you’d expect with that stuff, and we’ll see how he goes throughout the week.”

He’s still got a chance to play on Sunday?

“Yes.”

When I watched the film, there were some miscommunications between, it looked like QB Brock Purdy and WR Ronnie Bell, and Brock and WR Brandon Aiyuk, but it seemed like Kansas City’s defense sped him up quite a bit and he had some things open underneath and he got aggressive down the field. What did you see when you watched the film of Brock and how would you evaluate him?

“I think I’ve already said that. I don’t remember any of the miscommunications that you’re mentioning. There were a couple shots that he had, just like you do through every game. We didn’t hit any of them though.”

I know you’ve had a number of rookies that have already played kind of prominent roles and maybe more coming here with some of the injuries and stuff. What is your sense of just kind of the confidence level of that group as a whole and maybe the way they push each other to kind of produce?

“I’ve really liked our rookie class. They’ve been strong since the beginning, the way they came to OTAs. I was real impressed with them through training camp. I am now. None of them really, with the thought of drafting, didn’t have starting roles. But we were excited with how they practiced and everything and knew they’d give us some depth and now some are getting some opportunities because of injury and I’m glad we have a good group there. I think they’ll be ready for the challenge and they seem like a tight group.”

When those other guys see a guy like OL Dominick Puni, who does step into a role pretty quickly, do you get the sense that those guys are like, “Hey, there is opportunity out here for me, even on a team that has a roster like this?”

“Yeah, I do. I think, I mean with Puni, I don’t think he thought it the first week or so, or at least OTAs, and then you have two guys go down in the first four days of practice and it happens fast. So that’s a perfect example for everybody. You try to tell stories like that all the time to these guys. Don’t ever think it’s a redshirt year. There’s no such thing in this league. And it’s not just rookies, it’s the same for practice squad guys. You’re only, usually it’s one injury away, but sometimes it’s two, but it’s a matter of time. Some guys can get lucky and people stay healthy the whole time and they can really develop the right way. But usually in this league you rarely get that.”

How much room do you feel like there is to improve on maybe setting protections against the blitz?

“On what?”

Setting protections against the blitz?

“I don’t know what you mean by setting protections against the blitz.”

There was one play in particular where there were two unblocked.

“Oh, yeah. When people blitz more than you have, you’ve got to throw hot.”

In finding hot answers, do you feel like Brock did well or the offense has done well?

“Yeah, we’re usually pretty good versus the blitz. Sometimes they get you and they bring two to the back and sometimes your quarterback doesn’t see it and catches you off. And that’s where you’re hoping for, you don’t have a sack-fumble. But usually there’s a hole right there and you get to it. But I think we’ve been pretty good versus that, usually. We had a chance for a huge one last week, was kind of what we wanted and we were just about three yards off on the throw and the catch by B.A. It probably would’ve been a house call if we got it.”

I know we’ve talked about special teams like every week for the last six or seven weeks. What have you guys, I guess, going into this week, focused on improving? It doesn’t seem like there’s one culprit each week, it’s just, it’s usually something different each time.

“Yeah, it’s just continuing to work with all these guys. We’ve had to move a lot of guys around. From our starting gunners at the beginning of the year are now starting on defense. We’ve had to change our PP, our wings, I think our right guard, I think we’ve changed about four times. So there’s a bunch of movement on those guys, so you just keep developing them, you keep working with the individual drills. You can’t do all stuff full-speed, especially tackling and things like that. But we’re emphasizing everything and trying to get our group better.

What have you seen from the Cowboys on film? They’re coming off a pretty big loss.

“Yeah, they’re coming off a big loss, right after their Bye week and they’re in a situation similar to ours. They want to win, they need to win as bad as us. So I see a very similar situation.”

How has the mood been in the locker room and meetings? Have people pretty much flushed Sunday?

“Yeah, it felt good today. Monday is always a rough day. But we spend a long time on Monday, we do that from early in the morning until really right when I’m done with you guys, after that press conference is the first time we move on. And then we see the players today. They do their own thing on Tuesdays and they came in today and we’ve had good meetings. We just had a good walk-through and guys are ready for the week.”

S Malik Mustapha led the team in tackles, except for that one time where he kind of went head-to-head with Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes and he dealt with that in a kind of comical way on social media. What have you seen from him and his attitude throughout his rookie season?

“Oh, he’s been awesome. I thought he played a really good game. I thought he had one of the better games on our team. I thought he had some really good hits. He got in an unfortunate position on the goal line, but that’s what I like about him. He’s not going to sit there and take a creative angle, even if he’s not in position to have his legs under him he’s going to just throw his body out there and do whatever he can. And unfortunately, you’ve got to deal with social media these days. But I haven’t had to deal with it, so I don’t know how bad it is for him. I thought he had one of his better games.”

WR Ricky Pearsall said afterwards that “Hey, I’m ready to go again.” But it could have been adrenaline talking after he played way more than he thought. Have you talked to him? What’s his bounce back been like after playing as much as he did?

“Well, he was healthy going into the week, so it was just getting him back into stuff. And the more he plays, the better he is going to get. He got that, you could see, throughout the week in practice and then it’s only going to help him going forward, getting more reps in the game than anticipated with the guys going down. So, I expect him to get more comfortable each week.”

On the hits that Malik is delivering, can you hear a difference on the sideline? They look vicious from up top.

“Yeah, you can hear it, you can see it. He’s one of those guys that, we call it a sprint-tackle. He doesn’t really, you have a long-stride to eat up the grass and a short-stride to kind of hit guys and he’s just long-stride. He kind of goes right through them and there’s one speed and that’s the best way to tackle guys, as long as you don’t miss.”

When you guys get off to a slower start than maybe you would like, how much do you rely on like the leadership and the captains to kind of keep the calm or keep you guys pointed in the right direction?

“We’ve got great captains, we’ve got a great team. There’s not, we’ve been in this situation before where not everything is going perfect and you’re a little back is against the wall. But our group, our culture, it’s never really been an issue. I’ve never had to make a big deal about stuff. And anytime that there is, I’ll call guys in and address it. But our team’s got a, we know each other pretty well, I think they know me pretty well. And we’ve got a group that, a bunch of good people that don’t blame each other and know what you’ve got to do after stuff like this. There’s only one thing, you can sit and talk and evaluate all this stuff or you can get to work and find a way to be better the next week.”

Right now, special teams is ranked 31st overall in the league. I know numbers don’t always tell the whole story. What’s your take on the state of special teams right now?

“Similar to what everyone’s been saying, similar to the numbers, we’ve been struggling with it. We’ve got to, especially in the punt return, or sorry, in the punt and the kickoff, guys have gotten too big of returns on us. I know we gave up some blocks early in the year, which you’ve got to get that corrected with certain techniques and everything, but we’ve got to get a lot better at it. It’s pretty obvious to everybody. It’s obvious to us, it’s been that way for a few weeks and can’t give you guys one narrative on it, because there’s not one narrative. It’s about working with everyone, holding people accountable and coaching them up the best we can to get them better.”

Brock’s numbers are down this year compared to last year. Is that just a function of the injuries around him or are there things he needs to improve on?

“I think last year was one of the best years, statistically, ever, when you look at just the efficiency of a whole offense. So I think it’s hard to do that every year. I think when you’re missing the NFL MVP [offensive player of the year], that doesn’t help. Missing some receivers doesn’t help him. But I think Brock’s having a hell of a year, statistically also.”

You guys are struggling to run it in the low redzone. Is it more on the backs, you think, more on the line? What is the film showing there?

“It’s everybody. It takes 11 guys to run the ball, and coaches work on that too. So it’s all of us. It gets harder as you get down there. When you don’t run it in on first and second down, it puts a lot more pressure on the pass game. When you do better on the pass game, you get better run looks, so it’s all tied together.”

You’re not opening the practice window for RB Christian McCaffrey, so is there a timetable here kind of over the Bye week to reevaluate that?

“Yes. It’s not this week, so hopefully it’ll be next week.”

With Ricky Pearsall, he seems to be kind of a unique skillset guy. Do you put in stuff specifically for him or is he just, or as part of your offense, do you just kind of plug him into spots?

“I think he’s wired to run every route as a receiver, like most. I think Deebo is the one who is more unique, just in terms of using him as a running back and things like that. But Ricky is a plug-and-play with all routes. It’s not like he has a small route tree and only can do certain things, so he can run the whole tree.”

Is he proficient at all the three spots?

“He hasn’t practiced a lot. He knows how to do it on paper and stuff, but just like everyone, you need a lot more reps to be able to do all three spots. But he did a good job adjusting in the game. He went in the game only playing one spot and a couple injuries happened, just like always. So you’ve got to be prepared for next man up and he didn’t have any busts at the new position. So that’s what you always do. You only get five up on game day, sometimes four. We try to get six if we can, roster-wise, if we have some injuries, but that’s how wideouts are. You’ve got specific spots for guys, but someone goes down and you’ve got to roll everyone to the other spots.”

I’ve got another special teams question. On Kansas City Chiefs WR Mecole Hardman’s long return, he caught it closer to your guys’ sideline. There were like eight guys on that side of the field, a punter and then like two guys. Was that overloaded to that side of the field or is that how it’s supposed to be?

“No, it’s because that’s where their offensive guys were and that’s where their return was. They were going that way, so there was nothing there. So he just went on his own the other way. And when he goes on his own the other way and the whole offense and defense of special teams is on the left, we’ve got to have our two unblocked guys on the right turn it back in and they both slipped so they weren’t able to do that.”

Any indication whether Kittle’s foot sprain could be something that could keep him out?

“I hope not, but he can’t go today.”