Head Coach Kyle Shanahan Press Conference

Head Coach Kyle Shanahan

Press Conference – August 6, 2024

San Francisco 49ers

The longer this thing plays out with WR Brandon Aiyuk, do you have to do anything in camp to kind of adjust to the possibility or likelihood that he won’t be with the team?

“Like I said at the beginning of camp, I’ve kind of planned for everything, not knowing. It could go any direction, so we’ve been doing the same stuff. If that continues, we’ll keep doing what we planned on. The hardest thing is just not have as many wideouts out there. We have to make sure we get through that with some of the injuries and stuff. But no, nothing is changing right now.”

Do you expect or need this to be resolved pretty soon?

“No. You always want it to be, badly. But this stuff does take time. Every day I hope it gets resolved. But I have no timetable on it. It didn’t surprise me coming into this. Going about coaching our team, getting them ready for week one and hopefully it’ll get resolved though sooner than later.”

He’s here today?

“Yes.”

Normal stuff?

“Yeah.”

Is there a scenario where you do a long-term deal with him?

“There’s a scenario for everything. I don’t want to rule anything out.”

Would this team be better if you traded Brandon Aiyuk? Could you see a scenario where you’re better because of that?

“Brandon is a great player, so it’s real hard to be better when you lose a great player. So we have to look into anything, we have to understand the situation we’re in, what that looks like. And that does take time. So hopefully it’ll all work out best for him and best for us in the long run.”

He has the permission to talk to other teams, is that correct?

“Yes.”

Is there a disappointment it’s reached this point?

“It’s been, at this point, for a little bit. So it’s nothing really new to me. You’re always disappointed when you can’t keep a hold of all your players or it’s not going exactly right. I don’t like losing anybody. That’s why I’m hoping it does work out here. But right now, we don’t have that solved yet. I hope it does.”

Is the offer you guys made in May a final offer?

“I’m not getting into any specifics with offers, contracts, trades, anything like that. But what I can tell you guys is nothing has changed. I know a lot was out yesterday and stuff, but from the situation that we’re in with Brandon, nothing has changed.”

If a veteran receiver walked off the street into this offense, how long would it take that player to get up to speed and be ready to roll?

“Two and a half days [laughs]. It depends who it is. It depends on the situation, experience of the offense, where he is at in his career. So I have no absolutes for you.”

DL Nick Bosa’s deal took a while last year. Obviously, we know all the way to the regular season. Why is this one different?

“I’m not going to get into that. Each one is different and I’m not going to compare Bosa’s to Brandon’s.”

What is your current comfortability level with the wide receivers that you have? Obviously, WR Deebo Samuel is there. You have WR Jauan Jennings there. But with the younger guys, where is your comfortability level with them right now?

“I love the guys that we have in the building. I love the vets that we’ve had here that have played at high level, love the new ones we brought in for competition. And I love the young guys. They have been banged up, trying to get healthy. Battling a shoulder, battling a hamstring. But when they’re out there, they’re getting better. I hope that they can get healthy, continue to stay healthy so they can’t get the time in that they need to be ready. I know they will be if they get that time in. But that’s the risky and hard thing about football. Football is a tough thing to practice, tough thing to get prepared for and you have to do that at a very high level. And you hope they have no setbacks as they go along. And if they don’t, I feel very good about the guys because they have what it takes.”

From a coach’s perspective, is it potentially detrimental to the team to keep Aiyuk here if he’s unhappy and doesn’t have an extension?

“Everything could be, totally. We’re trying to figure out what the situations are, they’re always moving. I don’t know what the best one will be. But yeah, there’s pluses and minuses in every situation.”

Has Brandon talked to you a lot about this or are you keeping that separate?

“No. I think we did at the beginning. But we’ve kept, we haven’t been talking about it much with each other. Most of that goes through his agent and [president of football operations/general manager] John [Lynch].”

What is RB Christian McCaffrey’s status right now?

“Christian has a calf strain, did it a couple days ago. It’s alright. He didn’t pull it or anything, but you guys probably won’t see him this pre-season.”

You brought in RB Matt Breida and we haven’t seen RB Elijah Mitchell lately. What is Mitchell’s status?

“Elijah has a strained hamstring too. Didn’t pull it, but we’re going to be safe with him. He’s going to miss probably a week or so. So we had to bring Matt in, which was awesome to have Matt available. We needed some numbers out there and to be able to get a legit player who’s had a hell of a career, who’s been here before too, felt pretty fortunate.”

Are you in communication with T Trent Williams at all? And do you know what he’s doing right now?

“I don’t know what he is doing. I believe he is in Houston, I know that’s where he lives in offseason. But, I’m confident Trent’s working out, getting ready and stuff. Hopefully that’ll be resolved as fast as possible too.”

How long do you expect Christian to be out of practice?

“Probably a couple weeks.”

Would Aiyuk go with the team to Irvine next week, if nothing changes?

“I’m not sure. Haven’t even discussed that.”

What happened with WR Ricky Pearsall?

“He tweaked his shoulder, something that he did in OTAs. I don’t know if it’s too serious, but that’s why we removed him halfway through practice.”

How important are role players on your team like OL Jaylon Moore? It seems like he’s in a tough position where, obviously, Trent Williams is ahead of him, but you’re able to run your offense when he’s in the games. How important are those type of players?

“Role players are huge on our team and in every team. It’s always next man up and you can lose a guy at any time. If you don’t have a guy who can come in and do that job, at some important positions, that can take the whole team down. It’s not just Jaylon, but guys who back up [TE] George [Kittle], guys who back up the wideouts, our quarterback. You guys have seen it over the years. You keep your fingers crossed but you’re always going to lose some real good players and usually your season depends on how good those backups are.”

RB Jordan Mason was telling us that when he first came in that he didn’t connect right away with running backs coach Bobby Turner Jr. and he found out later, he didn’t really know how to be a ‘pro.’ Is that unusual for an undrafted free agent to come in and not connect, but you guys still see enough in him to hang onto him?

“Yeah, I think it’s relationships with everyone, whether you’re young or older, it takes time to get to know people and really what makes them tick. Bobby’s going to be Bobby, regardless. He has a coaching style to himself that is very successful. He has a standard and he demands a lot out of people. Sometimes I don’t know if that comes off always the right way to every single person. But I think when you’re as consistent each day and people realize you’re a good coach, you eventually don’t care about that style. You just respect that they’re making you better each day and challenge you in that way. Hopefully you look at it as that’ll help your career. Sometimes, especially on your history, how people have coached you maybe in high school or college or before sometimes that can shock some guys. But usually the guy, once he realizes that this person’s real and why he is doing it usually it’s not a problem. JP has been great.”

If Aiyuk was unavailable for Week One, regardless of the situation, how comfortable would you feel with Ricky potentially slotting in for him from the start of the season?

“I’d feel comfortable with whoever it is. It’s an issue as a coach, there’s times that I think Aiyuk missed a game last year and we had to do that. So it’s something you’re always prepared for. Aiyuk could also be with us and everything could be great and he could get hurt like it’s happened plenty of times. We lost a running back on a walk-thru the practice before our first game a few years ago with [NFL RB] Jet McKinnon and didn’t have him for the whole year. We had a quarterback who tore his ACL in Week Three one year. So that’s stuff that you’re always used to and ready for.”

Have you mapped out how much you want the starters to play in the first preseason game and maybe what the quarterback rotation is going to be?

“Yeah, I talked about it with our staff yesterday when the players were off, but I haven’t told any of the players yet. So I’m not going to say it exactly here, but we don’t plan on many of the starters to play. I know some guys will have to, but for the most part starters shouldn’t be in much if at all.”

Tomorrow is Dwight Clark Day. Curious of your first interaction or a fun story you have with Dwight over the years?

“I just always remember Dwight at all the camps up in Rockland when I was in middle school running around. I didn’t realize how good of a player he was at that time because I was too young. I just thought he was one of the coolest guys in the world just walking around like he was the man, like where everyone just respected him. I was like, ‘why is that guy so special?’ And I remember my mom crushing me for not knowing what ‘The Catch’ was when I was in sixth grade. I didn’t grow up here and didn’t totally know. I think I was two or one and a half at the time, so she should have been softer on me, but she wasn’t. And she made me feel stupid and now I get why because it’s one of the best plays ever.”

Now that you’re experiencing a hold in for the first time, do you have any thoughts on whether you prefer that to a hold out?

“No. It’s nice not fining guys, but there’s not much of a difference.”

We haven’t seen P Mitch Wishnowsky in a few days. Why?

“He has knee irritation. We’re taking it easy on him, having him not punt here for a little bit. We’ll have to figure out something for the game.”

As a coach, I assume you want Brandon Aiyuk on the field and taken care of contractually. I know you don’t ignore the financial part of it, but I think as you said, you’re a better team when he’s here, so you probably don’t want him to not be here. What’s the frustration level and your emotions as you’ve gone through this?

“Calculated and prepared. You want everybody out there. You’re frustrated guys are hurt and can’t get out there. All you want to do is practice and get ready for the tough season that’s ahead. But you also truly understand the business side of our league and what these guys do and put themselves through and what they have to go through in these deals. So whether it’s a hold in or whether it’s a hold out, this stuff is pretty common and you just got to be patient with it as a coach.”