Head Coach Kyle Shanahan Press Conference

Head Coach Kyle Shanahan

Press Conference – November 25, 2024

San Francisco 49ers

Opening comments:

“Alright guys, injuries from the game: [OL] Aaron Banks will be in the concussion protocol, [DL] Jordan Elliott also in the concussion protocol, [CB] Renardo Green hurt his neck, he’s going to be day-to-day, [LB Demetrius] Flannigan-Fowles, knee, he’ll also be day-to-day, and then [OL Dominick] Puni had a shoulder, we’re still waiting on the MRI to get back, so still being evaluated on that, the same situation with [DB Deommodore Lenoir] DMo, who banged knees in the game, we’re still waiting on his MRI to get back too. That’s it for the guys from the game. Go ahead.”

What about QB Brock Purdy? Did he do any throwing today or will he do any and what’s the plan for him early this week?

“Yeah, he did some light throwing today and it went all good. He had, we didn’t push it that hard, but did some light throwing, which was a good sign that the pain hadn’t come back. And we’ll rest it tomorrow and see how he feels as the week goes.”

It was reported over the weekend by FOX Sports analyst Jay Glazer that Brock Purdy had a second MRI on his shoulder. Is that true? And if so, why a second one?

“Because, yes, it’s true. Most guys get, we always get more than one when you get one and it seems alright then you have some pain later in the week, so you get another one to make sure you didn’t miss anything. And so, that’s what he did, I think, after the Thursday practice.”

What is the nature of his injury?

“A shoulder.”

Will you be making any move with OL Jon Feliciano today?

“Yeah, Jon is going to stay on IR. Knee hasn’t responded the right way, so unfortunately for Jon, and us, but just had a talk with him here a little bit ago and he’s going to have to stay on IR.”

Were there issues with the footing yesterday? K Jake Moody from the start of the game slipped on that first kickoff. Were there issues with that, that was causing some of the missed tackles and whatnot?

“Yeah, there were definitely issues with the footing. It happened to our quarterback on a number of plays, but it happened to a bunch of guys throughout the game. Guys were fixing their cleats, some did it pregame, some did it right into the game, but that’s an issue at Lambeau that time of the year.”

You talked yesterday about your frustration over the penalties. After watching the film, the video, how can you go about fixing that? Obviously, you still want players to play aggressive, but as you’ve noted several times, the penalties are really hurting you guys.

“Yeah, you look at each penalty and the ones that you can correct, you correct. Going back to, I think on the second play of the game for offense, Puni went a little bit early and that’s something he’s just got to have better patience with. Changing the, the cadences are always subtly different when you change quarterbacks, but that’s something we harped on hard, especially Thursday and Friday once we realized what was happening. And that got us there, the false start that they called on [C] Jake [Brendel] later in the game, we had been doing it that way all year, so we didn’t see anything wrong with that. We’re going to have to check with the league on that because he didn’t move or anything. They just said he snapped it too early. So it’s some disagreements there. Couple of the holding calls, especially on the long kick return, didn’t totally see it the same way, but the other two I did, and we’ve got be better with that. The timing of those penalties, and we didn’t overcome either. I think on one drive, we overcame one, the third-and-one penalty and other times we didn’t. So the pre-snap ones we’ve got to be much better at. Those are the ones we can avoid. But a couple of those, I’ve got to talk to the league on.”

To clarify, the assumption is that Brock would be available to play against Buffalo if he doesn’t have pain this week, and if not, then QB Brandon Allen would start?

“To clarify guys, with Brock’s shoulder, it’s exactly what I’ve worded to you guys every time. We got the MRI last week, his shoulder was bothering him, we thought it would be alright by Thursday and it hurt worse Thursday than it did earlier in the week. So we rested it throughout the weekend hoping that would help. He threw lighter today to see if that rest helped and the rest did help him. So we’ll see again, going through the same things we did last week. We’re going to let him rest all the way up to Wednesday. We’ll see how it feels on Wednesday, and then we’ll take the exact same course throughout the week and hopefully it responds better this week than it did last week with the rest.

With these back-to-back long trips and Thanksgiving this week, what will this week look like in terms of practice and workload, et cetera?

“Not much different. I try to, I start a little bit earlier on Thanksgiving. We start earlier so I can get the guys, so the guys’ families don’t have to wait as long for them to get home. My family gets very annoyed with me because I get home pretty late for Thanksgiving, so it ends up being a later dinner, for the coaches and stuff. But we try to move everything up, get going earlier so the guys can get out, have a Thanksgiving, and then the next day we’ll start a little bit earlier to catch up on stuff we didn’t finish with the film and then we’ll be on our way to Buffalo.”

With the long flights, is there anything you have to do differently in terms of treatment, just in having the two back-to-back?

“Always when you go on flights, you just, inflammation and stuff like that reacts differently. So those are things we’ve put in a ton of account into. But as far as us just changing things up, we’re not going to do that because of the long flights. We’ve got some injuries and stuff we’ve got to deal with this week, so we’ll see how our team is on Wednesday and everything as far as reps and stuff. But I’m not going to change anything up just because of the duration of the Buffalo flight.”

Are you planning to open the window for LB Dre Greenlaw this week or where does that stand?

“Yeah, Dre should, we are going to open it this week. He should be able to start practicing on Wednesday.”

Have you had a chance to talk to DL Nick Bosa and T Trent Williams and how are they doing?

“They’re in the same boat Brock is, really. We had the MRIs and everything, we kind of understand it, but just waiting to see how they respond. They didn’t respond great last week, that’s why they weren’t able to go. Nick and Trent are both in the same boat, Nick with his hip and oblique and Trent with his ankle. We’ll evaluate as this week progresses and hopefully it turns a better corner than it did last week.”

After seeing the film, how, how do you view the way Brandon played a quarterback and if Brock can’t go, is he definitely the starter then in Buffalo?

“Yes, unless something crazy happens during the week. But I thought Brandon did some real good things. He had one real bad decision at the beginning of the game, early, where he threw it to [Green Back Packers LB Quay Walker] number seven, and fortunately, that guy dropped it. But I thought he made some big plays in the game that gave us a chance to get back into it. Him going across the board and getting that touchdown to [TE George] Kittle, he had a couple big third downs, I thought he had a hell of a throw the one that [WR] Deebo [Samuel Sr.] tipped and ended up being intercepted. I think his two toughest plays were a keeper on second-and-seven where he slipped right before he threw it and the next play, I think, was that pick. But what he does have to do better is protect the ball in the pocket. The ball was on the ground too much.”

What are you seeing from LB Fred Warner? Do you think he’s just pressing? It looks like he’s missing the plays that he’s been making consistently over the last few years. How would you evaluate his play during the last couple weeks?

“I still think Fred is the man. I think Fred is playing at a high level. I know he had more missed tackles than he’s had, I think he had, I want to say four, which is too much for anyone, way too much for him. So, obviously he can do better in that way. But Fred is still playing like one of the best linebackers in the league. I know he’s got a real high standard, so when he has something like that, it’s going to stick out. But Fred’s still playing like one of the best players in this league.”

The defense had 19 missed tackles overall. Where’s the disconnect between the coaching and what they’re able to do on the field?

“I wouldn’t say there’s disconnect. I would say, especially in that first half, they got some guys in space and we sat in a chair a little too much versus that running back [Green Bay Packers RB Josh Jacobs]. And when you come to a jump stop on that running back, he is going to break your ankles, and he did it to a number of guys. It always helps if you can get two people there, but when we had one person there, he did as good as I’ve seen anyone make someone miss tackles in the way he ran. I thought we did better there in the second half. I think we ended up counting 12, so I know PFF has different numbers than we do, but it doesn’t matter. Twelve is still way too many also. I thought we’d tightened it up there in the second half and tackled better and got them in some third downs and got off the field, which I thought gave us every chance to get back in the game. But that was really tough to do when we led three drives in a row with three turnovers in a row. I thought that’s really what killed us.”

What will it take to get Deebo going? It’s been a few weeks now and he is struggling from scrimmage, struggling in the receiving. Does he have the burst that he needs?

“I think he has the burst that he needs. He didn’t get a lot of opportunities last night. He had a pretty good kick return that I thought would’ve changed the huge momentum of the game, unfortunately it got called back with that holding call. I thought he had a good screen. And then the two plays he’s got to do, he’s got to catch both of those balls and if he catches both of those balls he’s got a chance to do what he’s good at after that and run with it. And he didn’t get that opportunity because he didn’t catch both those balls. So, if he does then that would be two more opportunities. And as far as anyone, we didn’t get anybody going in that game. We weren’t consistent and we didn’t participate very much in the first half and the second half with those turnovers and everything just killing our drives. I think we had a total of 50-something plays but we really weren’t able to stay out there consistently enough to get any player going.”

Fred, after the game said that there were run looks that they weren’t prepared for. Is it more Josh Jacobs and his ability or is it just purely not being ready for what they were dishing out?

“No, you’re going to see different formations and different run looks every game. When you do see that you can’t get out of your gaps. And there were a couple times that we had guys get out of the gaps. I’d say on the second play of the game, they got a long one. They caught us just in a blitz. We were doing a blitz and when you blitz and they run the ball and you can get someone out of a gap, you’re going to get 15 yards like that right up to the deep safety. After that, a couple looks that they had, we had guys overrun it, they cut out our D-End and there’s not a guy in the gap which leads to an explosive. We had too many of those in the first half, without a doubt. And when you give a back like that kind of space and they’re getting 10 yards before contact he’s usually going to make that one guy left look pretty bad and that’s what we had way too many of.”

Is WR Jacob Cowing still in the concussion protocol?

“Yeah. Hit you guys up with all guys not from the game, Jacob’s still in the protocol. [DL] Kevin Givens with his groin, he’s got a possible chance to get back into practice this week. Hopefully he can get back Wednesday and see how he reacts. And then I think I mentioned everyone else. That’s about it though.”

Is CB Charvarius Ward going to practice in full this week?

“Yes, that’s the plan. He got a lot of work in last week, he just did most of it with the scout team and stuff. He seems in good spirits and hopefully he’ll come out there Wednesday and we’ll see how it goes. It’s not something I’m pushing him on hard and trying to go at his speed. But I know how he talked last week and everything and hopefully he’ll be able to take another step forward with that this week.”

How do you feel about sort of the big picture playoff race and to be at 5-6 at this point? How sort of urgent, desperate, do you view every game now as sort of must win to keep your chances alive?

“Yeah, without a doubt. I think everyone knows. You’ve just got to look at it for a couple minutes to realize where we’re at. It’s nice when you’re one game out of first in your own division. So that does say a lot, especially being able to play two of those teams left of our six games. But you also know, you look at the whole NFC picture and if you don’t win the division, it’s 10-7 not guaranteed to get in as a Wild Card by any means this year. So I think everyone understands completely outside and inside what the situation is. That’s why that Seattle game was so tough of a loss and that’s why last night was even worse. We know what we got ahead of us. We know exactly what that playoff situation is. That is what it is. But really all that matters is this week. When you do need to go on a run and put a lot of wins to even think of that, then you better make sure you’re only thinking of one thing and that’s Buffalo. And so, we’ve had to take care of a lot of stuff today. I’m hoping that guys will take care of their bodies stuff here over the day and a half they’re away from us. We’ll come back Wednesday fully understanding the situation we’re in and coming back ready to fight because that’s all we can do right now is just fight our butts off. And I’ll be very surprised that not every guy in this building when I see them Wednesday isn’t ready for that exact mindset that we’re going to need to pull off what we feel we can.”