Head Coach Kyle Shanahan Press Conference

Head Coach Kyle Shanahan

Press Conference – October 16, 2024

San Francisco 49ers

Opening comments:

“For practice today: [K] Matthew Wright, shoulder and back, will not practice, [K] Jake Moody, right ankle, won’t practice, [WR] Jauan Jennings, hip, won’t practice, [DL] Maliek Collins, knee, won’t practice, [DL] Leonard Floyd is having a vet day, [DL] Jordan Elliott, knee, limited, [RB] Jordan Mason, shoulder, limited, [WR] Deebo Samuel [Sr.], wrist, limited, and [S Malik] Mustapha, ankle, limited. Go ahead.”

Is Deebo’s wrist, is that why he was shaking his arm out after the game?

“Probably, yeah. We didn’t know during the game though. Found out the next day.”

Did Jauan pick something up on Monday?

“No. He had something in the game. We just didn’t know about it Friday morning.”

What was it like to have WR Ricky Pearsall back in practice? Did you sense some kind of, players react to this?

“Yeah, I think everyone was excited for him to be out. We just had walk-through today, but Monday was our first day back with him and we let him break the team down. He was excited. We didn’t do much, we just had one two-minute drill. He was out of breath from it, so we were messing with him, trying to get him to talk right away. It was more just because he was so excited to be out there, but it was a good first day and pumped to see him out there this afternoon.”

Do you feel like his presence just in making his return kind of uplifted the team? I know they had a little extra time off and the rest as well.

“I think more of the guys are just happy for him. They know he’s wanted to be a part of this. It’s been a crazy story, him delaying to be a part of it and he’s worked to get here. I know the guys are just excited for him and ready to support him and help him come along.”

After DL Nick Bosa and Leonard Floyd, your depth, and those guys have potential after them, but they really haven’t done it at the NFL level and aren’t proven. How do you feel about that and is that something you think might need to be addressed before the trade deadline?

“I feel good about that. You always want, you’d love to have four Pro-Bowlers just in there, but I think that’s the reality of most teams. I think it’s very rare to have a situation that is better than that. It did hurt, we had big plans for [DL] Yetur [Gross-Matos], so him going on IR hurt, but we hope to get him back later this year. We know we have some possible guys on the horizon coming back too.”

How much Super Bowl film are you watching versus what they’ve put on tape this year?

“You stick with the five games they’ve done this year and you go back to our last game with them, so you also go to previous games of us versus them. When coordinators don’t change, the scheme doesn’t change. You tie in all those games.”

How do you characterize going up against a Kansas City Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo defense? Has it been about a similar feel going up against his defenses over the last few games?

“I think it’s gotten better and better each year. I thought last year was the best defense that we played all year and I feel that way this year so far. They’ve got guys who’ve been playing a long time together. They’ve been doing his scheme for a while, he’s been doing his scheme for so long, but they continue to add to it. They continue to fine tune it and I’ve got a lot of respect for him and his scheme.”

You guys have had a lot of success game planning for former Los Angeles Rams DL Aaron Donald over the years. I know there are exceptions to this, but usually he has quiet games against you. Why don’t you think you’ve had the same success against Kansas City Chiefs DL Chris Jones? What’s the difference there?

“There are just different variables they do with their stuff. It’s sometimes a little bit harder to eliminate him, where he goes, and just some of the pressures they do. But he definitely deserves that attention. He’s as good a player as there is and we try our hardest to take him out, but he makes that pretty hard.”

What are the hallmarks of a Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid scheme or an Andy Reid offense?

“I think it features around their quarterback, obviously. Puts them in a great position to make a ton of plays and he has a guy who can make a ton of plays. They always dabble in all screens, RPOs, you’ve always got to be ready for new plays, one that you haven’t seen. Always enjoyed watching Andy since he was back in Philly and he continues to evolve also.”

Their defense was so man-heavy against you guys in the Super Bowl. You’ve seen a lot of man this year, maybe more than in recent years, is that a coincidence or do you sense maybe teams are kind of trying to follow some sort of a blueprint?

“I think some games we have, some we haven’t. In our last game, I didn’t see it that way. They did more in the Super Bowl than they had in the past. I think in the past, they were like 20-percent man, and they went up to 35-percent in the Super Bowl. And that’s about where they are this year. Last year going into that game, they played more press and stuff than anyone in the league all of last year, and they’re still doing that this year too. So when you’re in crucial situations, especially the fourth quarter, they blitzed more than anyone in the league last year and that’s true this year too. So usually when that’s the case you see man, so it goes with their scheme and they definitely did a little bit more last year too.”

Deebo and TE George Kittle kind of mentioned that last week, ahead of the Seahawks battle, you said it wasn’t a must-win, but it kind of is a must-win. Is the conversation going into this one, given the history between you guys and Kansas City and then the ability to kind of put the rest of the league on notice with a win, is that the same type of conversation you’re having with the guys this week?

“I try to have the same conversation every week. I just word it a little differently. But you never, I never want to say the words must-win until if we don’t win we’re eliminated from the playoffs. So that’s the only time it’s a true must-win. But my words were last week that this is, I’ll never say it’s a must-win until it’s that situation, but it damn sure feels like one. And I think that had to do with just losing two tight games in our division, being 0-2 in our division, going against divisional opponent. I see this game like I see all games. I feel like they’re all as, every game matters huge, but I didn’t choose those words this week.”

You brought in another kicker, I assume, as insurance for Wright, whether he can go or not. K Anders Carlson is not really, historically, a deep-kickoff guy either. Would you ever consider bringing in a guy at least for a while just to kickoff and then have a placekicker do the placekicker or you just don’t want to use two spots for that?

“I’d love to, you’ve just have to see what position you want to go short at. That could always be a possibility, but that does take a toll on the roster big time. If you ever had one injury at the wrong spot you would, that would be a big regret. But that is an interesting decision, but probably something we won’t do.”

The numbers say Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes is having a down-season by his standards. What are you seeing from him in particular?

“I think everyone says down-year just because their numbers aren’t just crazy, but Pat is as good as it gets. He’s been as good as it gets since the first year that he got to play. All their games, I think except for one, have come down to the last possession and he’s as good as anyone in that last possession. Their running numbers aren’t quite what they were last year. Their redzone isn’t real high. So I think that equates to numbers, but Pat is Pat and he’s as good as it gets and I don’t see that changing at all.”

QB Brock Purdy was the number one quarterback in the league this year and last year on the play action, but I noticed that the play action percentage this year is down. Is there any reason for that, that you guys haven’t run as many play-action passes this year?

“No, we just try to run what we think looks good on tape and it kind of just depends on how people are playing us and sometimes we think it looks really good, sometimes we think it’s not so good. So it’s not like we don’t just do things every week because we do it. I think it’s just been just a matter of how the schedule’s played out.”

How do you feel like your receivers have done against man-coverage this season?

“I thought they’ve done some good stuff. I’m sure you guys have analytics on that, that I wouldn’t be well-aware of. I’m always trying to improve in everything, but I think we’ve won some and we’ve lost some, as usual.”

Bosa mentioned that the Chiefs are specifically a team you guys have not succeeded against recently and obviously in two huge games. I know as a coach, you can’t all the time make one moment bigger than the other, but do you feel that a little bit? You’ve had some fairly large losses against this team.

“Yeah, I think everyone understands that we’ve lost the two Super Bowls to them. So I mean, that can give a little post-traumatic stress when you turn on the tape, but I think that’s human nature. But you’ve got to make sure you don’t get caught up in that. This game has nothing to do with past games, that was last year. We’re playing a really good AFC opponent. We’re .500 right now. We want to stay on top of our division and get a win. I don’t really, you think about that stuff going into it, but in terms of what it plays out in a game, it really has no correlation, and you try to make sure that it doesn’t.”

I’m sure when you lose a game in a Super Bowl in overtime there are plenty of plays where you’re like, “Oh crap, if only.” But that fourth-and-one, you get a defensive stop and the game is over. Is that up there as far as plays where you’re like, “Man, that hurts?”

“Not necessarily. Fourth-and-one, it’s 50/50, so there’s other plays that are worse, but we can go through a lot of them. But that’s not, that’s your opportunity. You get a stop for one yard and then it’s over and you’re Super Bowl champs. So it’s hard when it comes to that. But I think there were a number of other plays in that game that were just as important.”

That play was a, in my expert opinion, a well-designed play. Was there something that could have been done? Was there anything quote-unquote wrong with the defense there or do you just kind of tip your cap and say, “Hey, you got us?”

“No, it’s just, it’s hard to defend everything. Fourth-and-one is one of the tougher spots in football. You want to start out with sneaks. You’ve got to defend the edges, you’ve got to defend the dive, you play tight man-coverage, you have to defend every rollout pick play. Then when you call a play like that, you’ve got to do 11-on-11 and defend the quarterback. You can’t defend every play. They got us in a good situation where they ran their quarterback and we had one guy on him, had a chance to stop it, but it’s not an easy one to stop.”

How did Anders Carlson do on his kickoffs during his tryout?

“I don’t go out to his tryout, so good enough to sign him.”

Is that a concern though, these guys coming in not being able to–?

“Everything is a concern, especially when guys are available, if there was zero concerns, I think guys would be somewhere right now. So, you look into all that and you try to make the best option. Thought our guy last week did a hell of a job coming in, being three-for-three. There were a lot of kickoffs we would wish would’ve gone into the endzone. We had that with [former NFL K] Robbie [Gould] towards the end of his career, he was an automatic kicker but didn’t always get it out there. We’ve tried it with [P] Mitch [Wishnowsky]. That’s stuff you always want, but it’s not guaranteed, especially as the year gets going and it gets colder. That’s why we’ve got to get better kickoff coverage as it goes also.”

Of all the one-on-one matchups this game can have, do you get time to appreciate a LB Fred Warner going against Kansas City Chiefs TE Travis Kelce?

“I don’t really get time to appreciate it, but it’s one that I’m glad that we’ve got Fred Warner because Kelce is as good as it gets, also. And so, we’ve got to have one that’s as good as it gets to match up and that’s a hell of a competition between those two.”