Head Coach Kyle Shanahan Press Conference

Head Coach Kyle Shanahan

Press Conference – September 17, 2021

San Francisco 49ers

Opening Comments:

“Alright guys, injuries. [LB] Dre Greenlaw is out. [LB] Marcell Harris is questionable. [DT Javon] Kinlaw is questionable. [CB Emmanuel] Moseley’s doubtful and [DL Arik] Armstead is questionable.”

What kind of practice did Kinlaw have today?

“He had a good practice and we’ll see how he feels after it, how he looks tomorrow. But most of this was half speed and we’ve got one full speed period, but he looked good and made it through it.”

With him is it seeing how he does tomorrow and on the plane flight?

“Yeah, it’s each day. When he does a little work and seeing how he reacts the next day. So, he got a lot in yesterday. It was great today. Was on his feet most of the day today. We’ll fly out there tomorrow and we’ll see how he’s doing tomorrow.

What is your itinerary? You guys usually go on Fridays, right?

“Yeah, we usually go on Fridays if it’s a two-hour time change, but with us being out here and there’s no time difference, just like when we fly to Seattle or we fly to LA, we usually go on that Saturday. So, I think we get there at like four o’clock.”

With Greenlaw’s groin injury, did it happen on the pick six and how long is he going to be out?

“No, it was bothering him in camp. It started to get better. I think he re-tweaked it on that pick six, that’s when he started complaining about it. We took him out, hoping that calming him down it would get better, but it just hasn’t this week. So, we had to make that decision. I know guys who usually have had that around four to six weeks, hoping it’s that but you never know.”

How has LB Azeez Al-Shaair done? And how did he do the other day?

“I thought Azeez live was one of the best players on the field, just flying around. I bet it looked that way a little bit on TV too. And then when I watched the film on the plane it was confirmed. I thought that he had a hell of a day, hell of a game, and he’s got some playing time in for us over the last few years. I thought that he had his best game there and I expect it to keep just getting better.”

Offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel said yesterday that RB Trey Sermon responded to not being active by having a great week of practice. What did you see from him?

“Yeah, I thought he ran the ball better this week in practice so I think that’s accurate. Everyone as the season starts to get going, you’re getting better or worse and it was good, I thought he got better this week.”

T Trent Williams talked about the defensive line on Philly. How while it’s the same players, it’s different schemes this year. You’re playing against a different scheme. Did you see that same thing?

“Yeah, they just have a lot more multiple fronts. They’ve been the 4-down look for as long as I can remember. Going back to when I was in NFC East, almost 10 years ago. A lot of the same guys, they still play that way though, but they mixed in a 3-4 last week. We know they play 4-down, when they do play 4-down, they look the exact same as they always have, but we also know they have a lot of stuff we haven’t seen. So, they got a big package scheme wise and we have to be ready for anything.”

Guys have injuries and they play through them all the time. General Manager John Lynch on the radio yesterday said that Greenlaw had that for a couple of weeks. If he gets injured, ‘it’s like, so why’d you play him.’ But did you guys think that he may just have to deal with that through the season and you can just manage it?

“Yeah, that’s how a lot of people are with it. I think Marcell had a similar one last year. When guys have that stuff, you try to take the reps off and if it doesn’t get worse and if it doesn’t get worse, you can usually manage it. And that’s what he’d been doing with him the last couple of weeks, but it’s gotten worse. So, we have a feeling it’s not going to work out that way and once we saw that, we had to make that decision.”

I have not been inside the Greenbrier, but it seems really nice. And it seems like it’s kind of an expensive place to stay during the week. And I know that your team owner is from Youngstown, Ohio and probably if he had his druthers he would want to stay there. Was there any give and take on that from him? Was there any pushback from the owner about staying here as opposed to a place where he probably gets a discount?

“No *laughing*, [Owner] Jed [York] has been as cool as he could be about that type of stuff. He always just asks us what we think is best for the team and we give him our reasons. And when we say something’s best for the team and it makes sense to me, he’s never ever brought up something like that. And we don’t make the decisions on how nice the inside is, we make the decisions based off of, how close this football field is and they’ve got a football facility right here. And that’s why this place is so perfect in terms of what’s best for a football team.

QB Trey Lance, DL Alex Barrett, and DL Arden Key got the scout team players of the week, what did you see from them this week out here?

“They just did a hell of a job, Arden got it on defense where he gave great pass rush looks. And when you do that stuff, you’re giving the offense a look, but you’re also getting yourself ready to play, which I think he did a good job of too. Barrett on the special teams and then Trey just giving us a hell of a look of QB Jalen Hurts all week. It was really good for our team.”

I don’t think I’ve ever heard DL Nick Bosa complain about when he’s called for a penalty or when a penalty is not called on him. Is that something that you guys point out to the league? It sort of seems like he got called on a lot against the Lions and I don’t think anybody was called on him.

“Yeah, everything that we think is the penalty we turn into the league and then they give us whether they disagree or they say ‘sorry, they missed it.’ We get that later in the week, but that’s passed, so it doesn’t matter much. But Nick doesn’t complain about really anything. I think that guy blocked him pretty well. There’s always a couple that you could take, but he’s been held a lot worse in other games.”

You were mic’d up before the Super Bowl, you saw Bosa and you said to someone on the headset, ‘Bosa looks like he wants to kill somebody.’ Is that just Super Bowl Bosa or is that every week Bosa?

“Bosa loves football and he very locked into it and you don’t ever see him really go out of his personality in terms of talking or out of his character. He’s very comfortable in his own skin and he’s always himself. But you can see how obsessed he is with football on game day. And everybody feels like that in games. Everyone really feels like that before a Super Bowl. But Bosa there’s nothing fake about him. You can just look at him and kind of feel his energy and almost get an idea from him when you’re just by him.”

A couple of new additions this week with CB Dre Kirkpatrick and RB Trenton Cannon. Are they possibilities to be in uniform?

“Yeah, they definitely have a possibility. We’ll plan all that stuff out. I’ll talk more with the coaches since we’re done with practice here. But they both have a chance to be up. Yes.

WR Brandon Aiyuk have a good week?

“Yeah, he did have a good week.”

How do you evaluate that?

“Whether you have a good week? Just how you run your routes, how you do your blocking assignments, your M.A.s, how you take the new gameplan, what you do on Wednesday to Thursday to Friday and getting all this stuff. And it’s not just about Aiyuk. I know I keep saying this, but I feel bad for him that everyone is making it just like him. It also has to do with other receivers in the room and we’ve got a pretty good group. And I think all those guys had a pretty good week.”

Do you anticipate a roster move with Greenlaw on IR or maybe that can wait, like WR Jalen Hurd last weekend?

“Yeah, it can wait. I’m not sure that answer. I think we might do it tomorrow. I don’t know. I haven’t even asked on that yet, but I know we don’t have to do it, it could wait.”