Head Coach Kyle Shanahan Press Conference

Head Coach Kyle Shanahan

Press Conference – October 28, 2022

San Francisco 49ers

Opening Comments:

“Injuries for the game. [DL Arik] Armstead will be out. [WR] Deebo [Samuel] will be out. [FB Kyle] Juszczyk is out, [LB Dre] Greenlaw is out. [CB Jason] Verrett is questionable. [WR] Jauan Jennings is questionable. Go ahead.”

What’s the process with all those guys being out, four of your top players, how do you kind of process that and go about the gameplan on both sides of the ball?

“We knew it was a chance earlier in the week, so we’ve had to work on it all week. We had hope, so you plan on both ways, but still hoping to get Jauan, still hoping to get Verrett, but we’ve been preparing that way accordingly.”

Will you have to elevate another receiver from the practice squad?

“Most likely. We’ll see how Jauan is tomorrow to see whether we have to do one or two, but most likely.”

How severe is Deebo’s hamstring injury or is this more of a precaution because you have the BYE next week?

“It’s not a precaution, he’s not good enough to go. The fact that he even had a chance hopefully means he’ll be good with the week off and be ready for the next game.”

Do you feel comfortable with where RB Christian McCaffrey is with digesting this gameplan?

“Yeah, I do. He worked real hard to get his stuff last week. We gave the whole team the gameplan on Wednesday. It’s harder for a guy when he hasn’t heard the stuff other weeks, but he did great in his three practices and he’s good to go.”

What has Verrett shown you from three weeks ago when you guys opened that window to where he is now?

“Just that he is getting more confident. The first week I think he was real excited to get out there because he’d rehabbed so hard. You get into a couple things from just moving full-speed with all 22 guys out there and you want to take a couple steps back because it’s so much different than rehab. Last week, he took a step forward, got more reps, got to do it a couple more days and I thought this was his best week.”

I’m not sure if it’s a combination, but do you think it’s more the mental barrier or the physical barrier right now?

“I don’t know. I’ve never torn my ACL. You’d have to ask those guys about it. I think it’s both. I think the physical part is done with the trainers and all the rehab of just sprinting and hitting times and making sure that you’re capable of being the same guy, but when it comes to playing football, reacting and covering people and doing stuff like that, that is a physical and mental thing. You have to get that and your body has to react to it, which I think takes time. The first few times you do it, I think you have a lot more soreness than usual. And then you have to be confident to put those feet in the ground and not hesitate, because that’s what happens to guys when they hurt it too, so it takes them a while to mentally get back, also.”

Does the fact that there’s an upcoming game on an artificial surface way weigh at all on whether Verrett plays?

“I don’t think so. Definitely makes it, I mean you better be 100% sure. I mean I truly believe that that stuff’s worse and I think the majority of people do, so if that was a huge concern of him, then that would be a big thing, but I take it all into account.”

That’s a fairly new surface. Have you guys found that to be as kind of springy as that MetLife Turf was a few years ago?

“I don’t really know. I just think turf is worse than grass.”

With Verrett, is it something where you would consider maybe getting him a few snaps as opposed to a whole game plan just to sort of get his feet wet a little bit?

“Yeah, that’s something we are considering. If we feel good about Verrett, whether he’s out there starting or whether he is out there getting 10-to-15 plays, I think that’s something that would help our team.”

We talked about the Super Bowl memories last week, so now I’m bringing up last year’s NFC Championship Game memories. Was that film also hard to watch and how fresh is that feeling still from losing that game?

“It was as fresh as it could be before we played them last time, which was only like three weeks ago, but that kind of put that to bed a little bit for us to where, that was our first time really hard as a team revisiting it, having to go through it all week. We even did it the night before the game, but it hasn’t been the same this week.”