Head Coach Kyle Shanahan Press Conference

Head Coach Kyle Shanahan

Press Conference – August 7, 2025

San Francisco 49ers

We saw DL Mykel Williams leave midway through practice. Do you have any early diagnosis there?

“He had a good exam. Hopefully just hyperextended his knee. We’re going to get a further evaluation now, but it looked good when we examined him. Hopefully it’s just a little bit.”

I know you were on the offensive side. How did you think those drills and that session went?

“I thought it was really good work. The one-on-ones I thought were good. When we got in the competitive periods, I thought they were real good. They’ve got a very good team, a real good front, challenged us with all three groups that went and I can’t wait to watch the tape now.”

Does going against another group change where you think you guys are or is it too early to tell?

“No, I think you always have an idea. We know our players pretty well and we’ve been in this long enough. You always stack up how you’ve been and where guys are at exactly. I like going against a new group because it just gets so monotonous here in camp. It gets old going against your own guys. But, when you go against a group like theirs, especially defensively what they did last year, statistically in all their phases and the guys that they added this offseason, we knew that was going to be a good challenge for us. I know they’ve got a bunch of good players on offense too.”

I’m interested to know how you felt about QB Brock Purdy out there? Did you think he struggled? Did you think he played well?

“I thought Brock had a really good day. I never know for sure until I watch the tape, but we put him in a lot of challenging positions and I thought he handled most of them pretty well.”

It looked like DL Alfred Collins and DL C.J. West were getting a lot of first-team reps. Was that intentional to get those guys ready? I know there have been some injuries there, but have they earned promotions?

“They’re battling just like everyone else, but you know, we’ve lost about five D-Linemen over the last week. I think we had six guys out there today, so those six are just trying to get us through the practice. I’m not looking too much into ones, twos, and threes right now. They’re all kind of in the same group.”

We talked about the challenging situations. Have you done many two-minute drills this camp?

“We do it every night. Yeah, we do it every night in the afternoon. When you do two-minute drills, you usually lose players. It’s just so exhausting for those guys. So, it’s something we try to stay away from in the mornings and we do it at a little more controlled pace every night. That was our first live one of just competing and going.”

How do you think that went?

“I thought it went well. I mean, you’ve got to always see like with sacks and stuff like that, but I thought we moved the ball offensively on both. We got a touchdown and a field goal on them with both groups, and we finished fast enough that I got to see the end of the defensive ones. It looked pretty good, but that last play, fourth down, they completed a post. We are supposed to have a middle-third player, so I’ve got to find out what happened there.”

Do you have updates on DL Jordan Elliott and RB Jordan James?

“Jordan Elliott has some back issues going. Hopefully he’ll be back next week. Jordan James broke his finger, so he is getting surgery on that. He’ll be out a couple weeks.”

You’ve played the Broncos before. What is it like going back against the team that you grew up around, with your dad out there? Does it bring back memories being back on the field with the Broncos?

“Not anymore. I’ve done it so much now. Nine years ago, my first year here, we scrimmaged them when [Denver Broncos defensive coordinator] Vance [Joseph] was the head coach there. We’ve been down there, scrimmaged Denver when [Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator] Vic [Fangio] was the head coach there, and now we’ve got [Denver Broncos head coach] Sean [Payton] up here. So, I’ve been through it enough and always loved their organization. I’ve got a ton of respect for them, ton of memories, but kind of used to it now.”

What’d you think of QB Mac Jones today? He had the deep ball to WR Robbie Chosen. He seems to be playing on time.

“Mac’s doing a good job. We’ve really liked what we’ve seen from him so far. We had an idea of what we hoped he’d be like, and he’s been exactly that. He’s been playing really well and hopefully he’ll continue that.”

DL Nick Bosa is always good, but does he look particularly good in this camp? I know you said early on that you want your top guys to show a standard of where you are. Is that what he’s doing and have you seen him do that?

“Bosa usually is pretty good, but I think he’s still working to get to his top self. He was a little sore earlier in the week. We took Monday off. I think he just did individual on Tuesday. So, this was the first day for him to get back there in about six days and really compete. I haven’t seen him because I was on the other field, but we’ll evaluate the tape on him hard.”

Seeing RB Christian McCaffrey in action like that for the first time in a while, what did he get out of this joint practice and what do you get out of it seeing him?

“With all the veterans and stuff and guys that have proven, I don’t put a lot into the joint practices. I want it to be a normal practice. I want us to go out with the goal every day just to get better however that is. I think the guys are getting a little bored trying to get better every day versus themselves. So, I think they were more excited to go against someone else today. But there’s nothing that I really make up like, ‘hey, today we’re going against someone else, so we have to do a, b, and c.’ It’s the exact same meeting in the morning that I’ve had all the other 12 days. It’s a different jersey out there.”

Did he seem to get just typical Christian, going through trying to hit other guys?

“He’s always like that. Christian’s as intensive of a player as I’ve been around. If he gets covered, I try to avoid him. He gets pretty angry and that’s what makes him great. So, he’s had an awesome camp as he always does. He’s prepared. He’s going through this, making sure he is as good as he can be for week one and making sure he is built to last the whole season.”

WR Russell Gage Jr. is obviously coming back from a very serious knee injury. What has he shown you and has he given himself a chance to make the team?

“Yeah, he’s definitely given himself a chance. I think Russ had a really good offseason. You know, I’ve always been a fan of Russell since he came out of college. I was a huge fan of his when he was in Atlanta and he signed that big deal with Tampa. Then he had some really bad luck with some injuries that almost ended his career, and I think he took about a year and a half off, I’m going to guess. We got him last year to put on our practice squad and you could see him throughout the whole year working to get his legs back and to get back in receiver shape and be able to handle the cuts after his injuries. I think the way he finished last year was really positive. He put the work in this offseason and I think he’s back to being a really good NFL player now and fighting to make this team.

Have you decided how many, if any, starters are going to play Saturday?

“I never like to decide until after this practice. Won’t play a ton of them. Doesn’t mean that we’ll rest all 22. But don’t expect to see a lot out there.”

WR Ricky Pearsall has been pretty active since he made his return. What have you seen from him in comparison to his rookie year?

“Ricky’s such a good football player and he works the right way. He’s got such natural hands, such natural route running ability, and the game’s not too big for him. Ricky’s biggest thing is just being out there and trying to stack days. He got off to a late start because of his hamstring, but he’s been able to stack days here over these last couple weeks. When he does that, he just gets better and better and really helps us out on offense.”

With Mykel’s minor ankle injury and then the possible hypertension from today, do you think he’ll possibly be sitting out on Saturday?

“I would be surprised if he went Saturday. We were going to play him. I’ve got to see what happened in there. Usually when you hyperextend your knee, it’s going to take at least a couple days, probably a week.”

Is Ricky up to his normal rep count now?

“Yes, he was today.”

Last year you weren’t even healthy enough to have a joint practice. I know you don’t want to compare things, but does it strike you that you’re significantly ahead this year than you were last year at this time?

“We’re still battling a lot of injuries. We had a couple out there today. So, I don’t feel necessarily significantly ahead but that was a couple more weeks into camp. This is a little bit earlier, so we’ll see how we are next week when we go to the Raiders. I think that’s the week that we had it scheduled last year. But we also have a lot more open spots this year than we did last year. There’s a lot of guys that need to get better and need to compete and hopefully make the decision for us on who makes this roster. This compared to last year is a lot different in that way. So even when we have guys down, I thought it was important to get some younger guys out there and stuff and really get to continue to show us what they’re made of because we judge off what we see. We still want to see a lot more before we have to make these decisions.”

In a setup like this, how much do you talk to Vance Joseph before and are you happy when he throws a lot at your offense?

“Yeah, definitely. I love working against Vance. Vance does so much stuff and we give him a lot of different looks too that they don’t normally get. I met with Vance this morning before practice started, but Vance and I have done this a couple times, gone against each other, so we kind of have an idea what to expect. He’s an ultimate pro with it, our players handle each other well. No big fights out there, which is your first goal. Vance is awesome to work with, hell of a coach.”

Going against Sean’s offense, what have you kind of seen with Denver Broncos QB Bo Nix? You’re no stranger to developing young QBs.

“Yeah, huge fan of him. We loved him coming out of college. I thought what he did last year was unbelievable, but anytime you’ve got a quarterback with a big arm who is very mobile, made of the right stuff, extremely tough. They got a real good one.”

Did you have much of an opportunity to talk to Denver Broncos LB Dre Greenlaw or Denver Broncos S Talanoa Hufanga?

“Yeah, I got to see Dre, got to see Huff, got to see [Denver Broncos DL] D.J. [Jones] and the only guy I missed was [Denver Broncos OL Mike] McGlinchey, which was harder to cross paths because I wasn’t on their side of the field but awesome to see those guys. I was glad Dre got the day off.”

I know you haven’t watched the film yet, but any impressions of WR Jordan Watkins today?

“I thought he had a better day. We’re pushing him hard. So, some days are going to be up, some are going to be down, but he’s just got to keep going forward because we’ve got to have him ready for the season and he’s still working his way to get there.”

Initial thoughts and impressions on the offensive line today?

“I’ll know more when I see the tape. I know they had a huge challenge today, especially having some of our guys out. Sitting behind them, I know we didn’t have enough time on a number of plays to get some balls off, but that’s why they’ve got a top defense. So, it was a good challenge and we’ll see the tape when we get in there.”

Is S Marques Sigle okay?

“Yes, I heard they got evaluated for concussion. I think it was him and [CB Darrell] Luter [Jr.], but they had both checked out good.”