Defensive Coordinator DeMeco Ryans Press Conference

Defensive Coordinator DeMeco Ryans

Press Conference – August 17, 2021

San Francisco 49ers

What happened at practice? It seemed like it ended kind of abruptly there.

“Oh, we were scheduled to do a two-minute period and [head] coach [Kyle Shanahan] just called it. So, I think guys got really good work in today. Got some good work with our ones. Some good move the ball periods. Just our guys competing, a lot of back and forth offense. They got us a couple of plays. Defense did good a couple of plays. It’s just good to see our guys out there, just competing.”

Looks like they’re ready to go hit some other people besides themselves now. What are you expecting? What do you want to see out of the Los Angeles Chargers practices?

“Yeah, I think the Chargers practice is coming at the perfect time because we’re at a point in camp where you are just tired of going against each other, tired of going against the same schemes. You know how everybody plays. You know what plays are coming. So, it’ll be good to just go against different people, different schemes, and just to face different challenges and to see how our guys respond together as a group. So, I’m excited for our guys to go out and practice against the Chargers. And I think it’ll be really good work on both sides.”

And so, have you communicated with Los Angeles Chargers offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi to sort of script things out and what are the things you want to see them do to test you guys?

“Yeah, we’ll meet with those guys when we get down there. We’ll meet with their staff and go over the scripting and all the things we’re going to do for practice. For us, I’m just excited to see just a different style of offense, a little bit of different styles so our guys can just see different things. So, that’s what I’m most excited about. So, when it comes to the scripting or whatever it may be, whatever they have for us defensively, we’ll be rocking. We’ll be ready to go.”

How do things stand at strong safety right now and does S Talanoa Hufanga have a legitimate shot in your opinion to potentially start there?

“Yeah, at that strong safety spot we have a lot of guys that are just competing. We have really good players there. [S] Tavon [Wilson] is a vet who’s done it. Talanoa has been doing great in camp, improving every day. We got [S] Ha Ha [Clinton-Dix] in. He’s a veteran who’s proven he can play and play well in his league. So, a lot of competition and those guys are still just battling it out to see who comes away with the top spot.”

It seems interesting that Ha-Ha has only been here a couple of days and he’s already showing up and making plays out there.

“Oh yeah, Ha Ha, he finds the ball or the ball finds him all the time. It’s seemed to be this way in his career. Throughout his entire career, he’s just always around the ball. And he’s found it a couple of days here in practice with him still new and learning the scheme it’s good to see him out there making plays.”

I think I saw DL Dee Ford in at least one rep or couple in the team drills. Do you foresee him getting some snaps down in LA?

“Whatever our medical staff and we have for Dee to go through practice, he’ll go through whatever he needs to go through there.”

With a new Linebacker like LB Mychal Kendricks, is there a process that you take those guys through as far as which position he starts out at? I know they have to learn all three eventually but, where is he right now? What’s that like for a newcomer to this defense?

“Yeah, right now Mych is starting out at the SAM position. So, we start him out there in our base, SAM position. And Mych, he’s familiar with some of the things we do in our scheme. So, it’s not all new to him, maybe new terminology and things like that he just has to translate. But Mych, he’ll grasp the concepts pretty quickly. He’s a good football player, a good veteran player who’s done it in this league and I’m just excited to add some depth to that room with a veteran who’s done it before.”