Head Coach Kyle Shanahan Press Conference

Head Coach Kyle Shanahan

Press Conference – October 29, 2021

San Francisco 49ers

Opening Comments:

“Alright, the injury report. [DL Maurice] Mo Hurst is out. [DT Javon] Kinlaw’s out. [S Jaquiski] Tartt is out. [LB] Azeez [Al-Shaair] is doubtful. [DL] Dee Ford is doubtful. [DL] Samson [Ebukam] is questionable. [T] Trent Williams is questionable.”

With those issues at defensive end, is DL Jordan Willis a candidate to be activated for Sunday?

“Yes, he is.”

And what about linebacker? Who would be the next guy?

“[LB Tyrell] Adams.”

The guys who are in the concussion protocol, do they have time to pass?

“They still have a chance. That’s why we haven’t ruled them out, but they weren’t good to go today, so that’s why we got them at doubtful.”

What kind of vibe did you get from the team today. It’s a getaway day. Does everybody have a little pep in their step or how do they look?

“Yeah, I think the guys have had a good week. I think they’ve practiced hard. And today we do a half-speed deal, which I thought we needed. I think guys were pretty tired after yesterday. I think yesterday was our biggest day with missing the most guys from practice. A lot of guys had a double up to get those reps in and so, today was a big day and just getting our bodies back and focusing on the mental part of the game. I think it’ll be nice to get on the plane, sleep a little bit, get a little extra sleep and get out there and hunker down until we come back together.”

Because QB Trey Lance isn’t listed, does that mean that he will be your backup?

“Yes.”

And how did he look this week?

“I thought he got better each day. It was his first day out there Wednesday, we gave him some limited reps but he felt good on Thursday and we pushed him even harder on Thursday and him coming into the day, just talking to him. He didn’t have any setbacks and so, I feel good to go with him.”

How did T Trent Williams look at practice today?

“Today was his first day out there, so the fact that he was out there was a good sign. He wasn’t able to do it last week. Again, we just do stuff half speed, so he’s not challenged at ton on it. But he was moving around and able to do it. And we’ll get on this flight and we’ll see how it reacts tomorrow. And hopefully it continues to get better and it doesn’t get worse.”

There’ve been a few injuries this year where guys have been day-to-day and then something happened the practice, had setbacks, etc… How frustrating is that for you? And is there a common thread and that does that have to do with the performance stuff? And do you guys need to switch anything up from that standpoint?

“No, I don’t think everything’s an exact science and no one has, when it comes into an injury. You get MRIs and people have a lot of, especially Trent’s case, he’s had a lot of old injuries, some new stuff, and you can’t totally tell the difference. It depends how a guy reacts each day to kind of know whether it’s an old thing or a new thing. And I think I come in here and just, I don’t get totally concerned about you guys holding me to it eight days later. I just tell you what their best guess is right now. So I tell you guys that, and that’s not always the case. And if that was bad, then I’ll try not to say as much until I know exactly what the deal is. But that is a tough time. I’m not saying that for you. I’m just saying that for everybody, people ask me the same thing. My wife asks me the same thing. ‘I thought it was day to day, how’s it two weeks later?’ I’m like, ‘well, that was our hunch and obviously that’s not right.”

The injury of the season seems to be calf. Is there connecting dots to any of it even though a couple of guys have calf contusions and some calf strains?

“I don’t know. Calf contusions I think have happened from people kicking them there, which I think happened to [WR] Deebo [Samuel]. I think it happened to [QB] Jimmy [Garoppolo]. I think it’s happened to [TE George] Kittle. Then some guys that pulled their calves, just coming off the ball and things like that. So I think pulling it’s worse than the other, but it is a frustrating injury that I’ve seen over the last few years. Not just with our team, but around the league and in basketball. Last year, we had a lot of high ankle sprains, but yeah, I don’t know.”

I have a quarterback question.

“Alright, I haven’t gotten many of those (laughing).”

Obviously, you acknowledged Jimmy didn’t have his greatest game against the Colts. That he was not one bad game away from losing his starting job. Where is he going into — is he one bad game away now?

“I would never answer a question like that. And you guys can ask it a thousand different ways. I don’t think like that, we’re trying to get our team out of this losing streak. We’ve had four losses in a row. We’ve hunkered down this week, we’re trying to get our guys back and we’re going to go to Chicago and play as good as we can. When you play good, you play bad, you review the tape after the game, you go into Monday and Tuesday and you try to make decisions by Wednesday.”

I’ll ask you another question that you probably won’t answer, but because he’s cleared to play, does that mean that there is potentially a package in the game for him to go get in there like there was the first, whatever, five games?

“Every time Trey is up, there’s always potential for him to have a package in the game.”

There’s a notion and I think it’s romanticized a little, the way Jimmy played in 2017. I think that the bar was so low, just quarterback play here through the years and everything. And he was obviously he had the talent, like we haven’t seen. But there’s this notion like, well, he didn’t know all the playbook and he was kind of just playing on instincts and freelancing. And he still threw five interceptions in five games, so it wasn’t all like, it was great, but this notion like oh, now he’s had to be more regimented and do this, do this, do this has taken some of his instinctual play out. Is there any merit to that?

“Yeah, he played a whole year of football in 2019. So, we’re going back to 2017 talking about things, but he played a whole year of football in 2019. I thought he did some real good things. No one has a perfect game every game, but I thought he played at a very high level in 2019. And he didn’t get to play in 2018 and, and much of 2020. So here we are in 2021 and I think he’s played in three and a half, four and a half games, and we’ll see how the rest of the year goes.”

From a player accountability standpoint, I’m guessing that when you were a kid and on the sidelines and hanging around your dad’s team, you heard about player only meetings and players getting in each other’s faces and holding each other accountable. Is that still happening to the degree that it did a couple of generations ago? And if not, do you want to see more of that happening in your locker?

“Yeah, I don’t know about from generations ago. I think each team is different. I think it depends on the individuals. I would never come in and say, I want to see guys getting on each other more, but I do truly believe that the good teams, players hold each other accountable. You always got to do it as a coaching staff and you do do that, but when it gets real is when players do it to each other and there’s ways to go about it. You don’t have to get in people’s face and yell. You got to do it whatever way that gets the right result. And on the more the more guys you have do that to each other, I think the stronger you can get, but you don’t just do that to do that. Some guys do that and it looks the wrong way cause they’re doing it for the wrong reasons, but no matter how you are, when you do it and your intentions are right, guys usually respond.”

George is such an emotional player and that’s infectious at times. When he’s not in the game, in the lineup, is there a lack of that? Who’s sort of picking up that energy slack when he’s not out there?

“It’s not just George, I think three out of our four captains on offense are out. So, usually your captains do that, some of your better players. With Raheem, with Trent Williams, with George, yeah. Hell yeah, we’ve been missing a lot of that. Not just the vocal leadership of it, but most importantly, the guys on the field. And it both goes hand-in-hand, usually your best players do do that stuff. It’s hard for them to do it a little bit from the sideline so.”

I have a softball question for you.

“All of these are pretty soft man (laughing).”

I noticed this has proven pretty popular on Twitter today, NFL coaches being asked about their go-to Halloween candy.

“Really?”

Oh yeah.

“I’m a big Swedish fish guy, I like Swedish fish.”

That’s pretty rare, to get handed a Swedish Fish.

“My kids hook me up with it. They know I like it so, when they get it, I usually steal it from their bags late at night. So, I always like Halloween because it’s candy for me. Any other hard ones?”

Are you expecting some roster moves tomorrow?

“Yeah, we’re going to have to, yeah.”

Will you bring DL Kevin Givens up?

“Yeah, we need to get Givens up, he had a good week. Especially with what’s going on with our D-line right now. Lots of things still up in the air, but there’ll be some moves tomorrow.”

Did you say Willis will be up?

“I mean with the situation Dee Ford’s at right now, with him being doubtful. Nothing’s set in stone. I got to see how that plays, but we’re probably going to need him up also.”

Kinlaw, any update on whether he had surgery?

“Yeah, Kinlaw ended up having a surgery. They went in there and looked at the stuff, he’ll end up going on IR, he’ll be out this year. We’ll have an announcement on it, so there’s a lot of things that went into it that they found. But I think the good news is they feel they solved the problem. And obviously, it hurts, him not going to be with us this year. But just talking to the doctor and not me personally, but [general manager] John [Lynch] and our doctors talking to him. They feel, he feels that he found the issue and he thinks that’ll be good news for us next year.”

Is it Alatrosh? The doctor?

“Yes.”

K Robbie Gould’s status next week?

“I hope he’s back. Well, we’ll see that. That was the goal for it. We’ll test them here come next Monday, Tuesday.”

Was Kinlaw’s surgery Thursday?

“Tuesday or Wednesday, I believe. I’m not sure.”