Head Coach Kyle Shanahan Press Conference

Head Coach Kyle Shanahan

Press Conference – October 14, 2022

San Francisco 49ers

Opening Comments:

“Alright, injuries, we’ve got [CB Emmanuel] Moseley’s out, [DB] Jimmie Ward, out, [DL Arik] Armstead’s out, [T] Trent Williams, out, [DT Javon] Kinlaw, out, [OL Aaron] Banks is questionable, [DL Nick] Bosa is questionable and [TE Tyler] Kroft is questionable.”

Did Nick look okay running around out there today and is it kind of a gametime decision?

“Yeah, he looked good, but everything is walk-through today too, so hopefully he would.”

With Nick, does his brother’s injury factor in at all, maybe even in his mind?

“I wouldn’t think so. I think they’re separate.”

I know that they’re separate, but they have similar injuries now.

“They do have similar injuries, but no, I don’t think it effects it. You have to be smart with all of that stuff. It’s not bad enough to say he’s out, but you have to be careful always with whoever has that, especially Nick.”

Now that you’ve wrapped up the three practices here in West Virginia, where would you say the focus level of this team has been this week?

“I think it’s been real good. To come here, I think it was a tough stretch going into that Monday night game to go across the country and then play Carolina on the short rest. So I think we were real tired on Monday and Tuesday. It took us a couple days, that’s why we took it a little easier on Wednesday, but you could see when we put the pads on on Thursday, our guys were fired up, ready to play, and I had to take them off halfway through practice just to settle them down a little bit.”

Among the other appealing parts of being here is the lack of distractions on that list? Just the fact that there’s not that the players always get in trouble, but the fact that they can’t if they want to, probably?

“I’m sure they could. Everyone can if you really want to, but surprisingly, there are a lot of things to do here for a hotel. They’ve got a bunch of stuff. Just talking to some of the guys they did the escape room one day, guys took ATVs out. There’s all these massage spots they can go to. There’s some pretty cool spots, different spots to eat dinner all within the area, so I think some guys take advantage of it and some guys sit in their room and play video games and study their book, so it depends on who you are, but I think when you’re away from your home, it’s hard to be for a long time, but you’re not around your family members, you’re not around people visiting and there’s not much else to do besides focus on the game.”

Did the ATVs make you a little bit nervous at all with the guys out there?

“How come?”

WR Deebo Samuel was driving one of them.

“They better be able to drive and they better be able to wear seat belts and I think they allow kids to do it, you should be alright. They’re not riding horses or anything.”

Horses would be out of the question?

“Yeah, you can fall off those. I think you can flip these things and you’re still in a seatbelt and you’re pretty secure. It’s a lot less risky than playing football.”

You’re going back to Atlanta for the first time since you were a coordinator there. Do you have any sentimental feels about this weekend?

“Honestly, no. It’s been a long time and I’ve played against them a number of times and it’s always about the people. [Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator] Dan’s [Quinn] not there anymore. The coaching staff has changed a bunch. And really when I think about the roster, without thinking about it, I think [Atlanta Falcons T Jake] Matthews is still there and [Atlanta Falcons DL] Grady’s [Jarrett] still there, but there’s such big turnover. It’s a totally different situation.”

Weren’t you violently ill during the NFC Championship game that final season?

“Yeah, I wasn’t feeling well. Yep.”

Was it just like a flu bug?

“It wasn’t COVID. I love how interested you are in the details of these things. Yeah, it was pretty bad that day.”

With CB Jason Verrett, was it always planned that he was going to practice Wednesday and then take a day off?

“No, he just had some soreness and once he had some soreness, we wanted to settle it down and make sure that it was just soreness and nothing worse, so hopefully that’ll leave over these next couple days, and we’ll hit it up again on Wednesday next week.”

OL Jason Poe was one of your scout team players of the week and he broke down the huddle the other day. He seems like quite a character.

“He is. Guys love him. He’s one of the funnier guys on the team, gets along with everyone. He got the player of the week because he had to go both ways for every single play on Thursday. A couple of guys were down on defense then Banks went down on offense. We had to pull him out of practice a little bit, so he ended up having to go both ways the whole practice. He played scout team defense and scout team offense, so it was a hell of an effort for him.”