Head Coach Kyle Shanahan Press Conference

Head Coach Kyle Shanahan

Press Conference – August 26, 2022

San Francisco 49ers

Opening Comments:

“Alright guys injuries from the game. [DL] Akeem Spence, he’s in the concussion protocol. [LB] Curtis Robinson had a high ankle sprain and [LB] Oren Burks had a knee sprain, but we should expect him back for Week One. That was it from the game.”

Just looking back at last night’s game, I don’t know how much you even want to look back on that, but do you look at the film and what’s kind of your major takeaway from what you saw after re-watching it?

“It was a lot like it felt. I wouldn’t say it was quite as bad as it felt, because it couldn’t have felt much worse. Anytime you get shut out and it seems that sloppy with all the penalties. But it wasn’t quite that bad when you looked at the tape. It’s hard despite the situation or the game or anything like that, when you commit that many penalties, we have some of the drops, just some of the sloppy plays, the sacks. Some of the first downs that we committed on third down with some of the penalties, it just wasn’t good enough. And we have to clean that stuff up and make some decisions this week to help it.”

Without knowing obviously, the assignments and everything just kind of to the naked eye it looks like OL Aaron Banks is struggling a little bit at left guard. How would you assess how he’s performed in training camp and the preseason games?

“I thought he had a better game this week than verse Minnesota. So I know there was definitely a couple that he missed, but I also thought it was a full offense there. There was a couple I thought we could have got rid of the ball a lot sooner. And there was a couple that the quarterback didn’t have a chance on, so as a whole, it wasn’t good enough. When you ask him in particular, I thought he did improve from the week before.”

After taking a look at taking a look at the film, what did you make of your running back situation yesterday?

“I like all our guys, that’s the one thing, it’s a good problem to have right now. Unfortunately, we can’t have all our guys on our team, so we’ll have to finalize that decision here over the next three days, which they haven’t made it easy on us. So we’ll see how practice squad works out and we’ll see how many we end up keeping. But we definitely don’t exactly know yet and those are things we’re going to discuss hard here over the next couple days.”

And you mentioned that RB Trey Sermon had really improved. Did you still see that from him? Is he still making more strides forward going in this last game?

“I think definitely still. They didn’t have much opportunities and much room. I thought he had a real good play on a, I think it was a third-and-one or second-and-one where we had an unblocked guy in the hole that he made miss and almost made a big play when nothing was there. But Trey’s come a long way here this year. And he’s someone we can count on and it’s not just him, it’s the whole group. So all these guys I think are good enough to help us. We just have to figure out which direction we’re going to go.”

You guys had DL Samson Ebukam be a full-time edge rusher last year. He came on strong towards the end of the season, but it really seems like he’s starting to figure out how good he can be. Can you just talk about the progress that he has made and where you think he’s improved the most since you brought him in last year?

“We just loved the all-around football player Samson is. The way he sets the edge in the run game, the way he pushes the pocket in the pass game, that he constantly keeps working. And if you fall asleep on him at all over the course of a game, he’s going to make you pay. And we learned that firsthand going against him those, I believe three or four years with the Rams. And he’s done that for us right away. And I think the more he plays in our techniques, the better he gets, he was in a 3-4 where half the time he was dropping and things like that. And our thing, he’s rushing that passer 90% of the time and at the same time being physical in the run, so the more he does it, the healthier he stays, the better he gets.”

How do you assess QB Trey Lance’s performance from last night? And is he where you want him to be at this point?

“I would love to get Trey more practice and everything and more experience, so I would always want more of that, but we’ve run out of those games and he’s just ready to go as he can be. He needs to get in these real games now and start playing and there’s going to be times he makes some mistakes and he has to learn from them and find a way to still win the game and overcome some of those things as he learns on the run. I’m glad he did get some experience in this preseason. Always wish he could have got more, but I am glad that he came out healthy this year, where last year he came out with that broken pinky that did affect him.”

Not that anyone would feel great after a game like last night, but it seemed like he was measured in his emotions. Have you seen him emotionally be appropriate for what the situations have been?

“Trey’s been very even-keeled throughout it all. And that’s why it’ll be fun to go through this season with him, because yeah, you know that’s not always going to be the case. So we’ll go through the fire together. He’ll go through with this whole team this year and what he’s shown and what he’s done throughout his whole life and what he’s done since been here. We’ve got the ultimate confidence in him handling the situation right, whatever that situation is.”

Looking at the offensive line as a whole through preseason and training camp, what is just your overall comfort level with that group knowing that obviously, you’ve had a lot of moving parts throughout this time also?

“Yeah, we’re not there yet. I think that’s obvious. We got some new guys and some young guys and also, not having [T Mike] McGlinchey in there and his little setback has hurt. I’m hoping to get him back, not having [OL] Dan Brunskill in there, who’s been a starter for us the last two years has also been rough. But what I’m excited about is all these young guys who are getting these opportunities and playing, they all have the ability to be very good in this league. And it’s tough with the o-line’s situation where, especially this year, you don’t do one thing for practicing football, from an online standpoint in OTAs. You really just start in training camp, so it’s been about three weeks to a month of football for those guys. And I really do believe in the ability they have and where they can go. But the season is now just 17 days away. And I do believe that the more they play, the better they’ll get, because they’re made of the right stuff and they have the ability to do it, but it does take time in this league. And we got a couple guys doing that right now that are showing up a lot, but they’ll get there. And hopefully we can have some good news with Brunskill, with McGlinchey, so we get some guys back who have done it before and they can give us a little more help in those areas.”

You had said the other day that you planned that you’d have CB Charvarius Ward back next week for practice, does that still seem to be on track?

“Yes, he should be back in practice on Sunday.”

What have you liked from what you’ve seen from WR Malik Turner just through the preseason slate?

“What you guys see in these three games, that’s what we see every day in practice. I mean that guy has more output and yards ran and energy used on the GPSs. He goes as hard as he can on offense and special teams. And it’s cool when he gets in these games and all the work that he does every day, just how deliberate he is in all the drills and everything. You can see it carryover to the game. So a guy I’ve been happy for and he’s really shown a good example of how to be a pro to a number of these guys.”