Head Coach Kyle Shanahan Press Conference

Head Coach Kyle Shanahan

Press Conference – October 28, 2024

San Francisco 49ers

Opening comments:

“Alright guys, injuries from last night: [RB] Jordan Mason, he aggravated the same shoulder, we’ll evaluate here after the Bye, [LB] Dee Winters is in the concussion protocol, [WR] Deebo [Samuel Sr.] had a rib and an oblique strain, we’ll evaluate next week after the Bye, [CB] Renardo Green, ankle sprain, just day-to-day, [WR] Chris Conley, hamstring, week-to-week. And that’s it. Go ahead.”

Do you expect to have WR Jauan Jennings back after the Bye?

“Yes, I do.”

Is it also trending for RB Christian McCaffrey to be back after the Bye and potentially play against the Buccaneers?

“It depends how this week goes. It’s been, he’s had no setbacks, so it looks like we’re on track. But we’re going to, he’s going to hit it hard this week while we’re gone and kind of simulate some practice stuff for himself. And as long as it all goes good, hopefully we’ll get him back in practice next week.”

How hard has it been to kind of keep Christian McCaffrey restrained and not have him work too hard, making sure that his comeback is on schedule?

“I think it was tough at first when we did it in training camp and then felt like he was going to be ready for Week One. And then after we decided to put him on IR I think it’s been pretty easy. That’s why we did decide to do that because we knew it was going to be at least a month and shut him down for a while and now build him up slowly and things have been going well. Now it’s going to be nice to get him back, hopefully.”

And so, the plan would be to open his window on that Monday for the bonus practice?

“If everything continues going right, if he has a good week this week.”

Sticking with the running backs. What did you see from RB Isaac Guerendo and Jordan Mason yesterday?

“I thought they both had a good game. JP going down early and Isaac coming in, stepping it up. I thought [RB] Patrick [Taylor Jr.] also did a real good job coming in for us too. It was a real good game for the running backs.”

Do you feel like Isaac Guerendo could be more of that receiving running back? Not comparing him to Christian, but in that similar type of role?

“Yeah, I think very similar to JP, also, in that. No one is Christian in terms of the passing game, but neither one of them are guys that can’t run routes and can’t be linebackers, and they both have good hands. It’s something that he is decent at now and something that he should get better at as he continues to work.”

And from WR Ricky Pearsall, do you see a steady growth of kind of improvement over the last game?

“Yeah, big time. You could see it in practice. You see it really each practice with Ricky, just because he has been so limited in his stuff. But he picks it up fast. His stamina gets better and better and he just, he’s got a real natural feel for the game and now it’s about just getting a feel within our offense. And I think it’s gotten better each week.”

I don’t know if you allow yourself to kind of take a step back and analyze stuff in this way, but where do you feel this team is and how do you just feel about where you guys are eight games in with nine games to play, as far as what this team is capable of doing?

“I feel we’re capable of doing everything else we set out for. I don’t, I look at where our team is at and where I think our team can be, and I don’t think we’re there yet. I think there are a lot of things we need to improve on. I think we are gradually doing that. But I think we’ve got the guys here capable of doing it. We’ve just got to make sure we become a better team in the second half than we were in the first half.”

How do you feel about special teams at the midpoint of the season? Is that something that you’ll evaluate during the Bye? Will you think about special teams coordinator Brian Schneider and are there any alternatives that a team can make on special teams midway through the season?

“Yeah, we evaluate special teams every week. There’s not a lot that you’re going to do a lot different in the Bye. We could add one more game to what we’ve been evaluating throughout it all. I have no concerns with Brian Schneider, if that’s what you mean by that. I think that’s what you’re implying and that hasn’t entered my head at all. No, that hasn’t entered my head at all. I thought, I was proud of us last night. I thought we were up against a huge challenge. I thought our guys played real hard and did a real good job controlling [Dallas Cowboys WR KaVontae] Turpin, who is one of the bigger game changers in this game. I think we’ve dealt with a lot of stuff on special teams. A lot of changing on people, a lot of young guys starting out to play who we’ve lost and having to replace them with new guys and working with a lot of different people. I expect us to get better with that throughout the year. I know it hasn’t been good enough in this first half, not at all. But I thought last night was a step in the right direction and you’re going to get better or worse from that and I expect us to get better.”

With the injuries at wide receiver and the deadline coming up, how likely do you think it is that that’s a position you’d maybe try and address?

“It’s not necessarily just try to address certain positions. You look at what’s available that you think can help your team get better. And if there’s anything out there that’s available that we think can help our team get better in the immediate, without hurting us for the future, that’s something we always look into.”

With Christian, is the expectation that once he’s back, he’s back? That he will have ramped up to a point where you can have his standard workload?

“No, the expectation is just see how he is when he gets back and then evaluate him as he goes. Of course, the hope is that everything just goes back to normal and it’s perfect, that’s what we’re all striving for. But you’ve got to play that out smartly and you’ve got to evaluate that each day. What we see with our own eyes, what he tells us, that’ll be something we constantly are working through.”

DB Deommodore Lenoir has been ascending this year. He’s made leaps and bounds growth. What can you speak about from the moment you guys had him as a rookie to how he’s really like a setting into a really prominent, elite, high-end player?

“Yeah, DMo’s been a stud. He is exactly what you want of 49er to play like. He came in his first rookie camp and stood out, got me fined for illegally jamming people too hard and putting on the internet. So, I always mess with him for that. But he started out real well, made a couple mistakes early on as a rookie and lost his confidence just a little bit I thought his rookie year. Then that second season, the way he came back in the offseason, kind of just possessed to get that job back and he’s kind of owned it ever since. He’s been a stud for a while to me and he gets better each year. He’s having a hell of a year.”

Do you have any sense as far as LB Dre Greenlaw’s availability? What any kind of rough timeframe is for him?

“No, we talk about a lot of stuff and he is working through it, but I hate to give a rough timeline for you guys because we’re not exactly sure of it. I think once we get back from this Bye week, I think he’s going to be about week-to-week deciding whether we should get him back into the practice deal or not. But, we’ll see how this next week goes. We’ll see when we get back from the Bye week. I think once it gets past the Bye week then we’ll be looking each week on whether we should bring him back or not because it is getting closer.”

CB Charvarius Ward came out for a few plays yesterday. Is everything alright with him?
“Yeah. He is, I thought, I think he’s played his best ball these last two weeks. He got a little tight in his groin on one drive and had to get it checked out, but it was no issue and went back in fine.”

Can you just kind of quickly lay out what the schedule is for this week in terms of what you’ll be doing? I know they have a certain amount of time they have to be off, but just kind of how the next couple days will go and then when you get back?
“We have a long day today just evaluating all this stuff, putting this game to bed. We get to do our exciting team photo that we have to do for semantics once a year. Then tomorrow we’ll come in, they’ll have a big workout with [head strength & conditioning] Dustin [Perry], our strength & conditioning coach. They’ll get a big lift in, a big run. Then we’ll break up and we’ll meet some more. We’ll have a team meeting and then we’ve got to do some NFL video guidelines that we all need to knock out and finish. And then I’ll let them get away. When we finish Tuesday afternoon they get about five days off, and we come back and we get extra practice on Monday. Coaches work through a few more days on a couple things, but we all get a little bit of a break from each other and come back ready for this grind that’s ahead of us.”