Head Coach Kyle Shanahan Press Conference

Head Coach Kyle Shanahan

Press Conference – October 2, 2026

San Francisco 49ers

Opening comments:

“Injuries for the game. [DL] James Thompson [Jr.] will be out. [DL Nick] Bosa, out. [DL] Mykel Williams, out. [WR] Mike Evans, questionable. [LB Dre] Greenlaw, questionable. [DL] Keion White, questionable. [LB Jaden] Dugger questionable. Go ahead.”

What does Dugger have?

“Shoulder.”

That’s new, right?

“Yeah, it was from practice yesterday.”

Evans will be a game-time decision?

“Yes.”

Not to bring up a sore subject, but you know what it’s like to have broken ribs now, so how do you sympathize with him and how is he doing and how are you doing?

“Mine are good now, but it’s been two months and I would not be questionable. I would be out without a doubt. But, he’s definitely a lot tougher than me, so hopefully we’ve got a shot.”

How important do you think keeping Denver Broncos QB Bo Nix hemmed in the pocket is this week and defending that QB keeper game?

“Extremely important. They do it as much as anyone in the league and I can see why. It helps the run game in general. You can always get explosives out of moving the quarterback and stuff, and then their quarterback’s pretty elite at it. Just the arm strength he has out of the pocket, how good he is with his feet. It’s a huge challenge.”

I know every win in the NFL is big, but does this one provide a little bit more of a barometer for you guys when you consider the quality of opponent?

“We have a lot of respect for the opponent. We know how good of a team they are, but it really doesn’t matter to us. It’s just such a one week at a time thing. We don’t really look at the barometer of an opponent to prove anything. I don’t care whether you’re 3-0, 5-0, it’s how you finish. Our goal is to get in the playoffs and do something there and that’s a long ways away.”

What’s your reaction to the league’s decision to suspend principal owner Jed York today?

“Not much a reaction. Just waiting to hear the news and now we know how it’s going to be. It’s already been three weeks like that, just working that way and we’ve got three more weeks of it.”

What’s the protocol if a trade presented itself and it would require draft picks and lots of money and things like that? Do you talk to co-chairman John York and co-chairman Denise DeBartolo York during this interim, or how would it go?

“I’d probably mention it to John, talk to him that way. It’s something that I don’t think about too much because of how good Jed’s been here for our 10 years. There’s never been a situation where we’ve gone to him with a trade or anything like that and then him say no or anything like that. If it’s something that the football people believe and think we should do, he’s always been fully supportive of. So, I expect it to be no different if something like that comes up.”

What’s it been like for WR Brandin Cooks the last two weeks, his learning curve and getting ready to play on Sunday?

“He’s had a good two weeks. Came in last week right away learning the stuff. I thought it was good last week and even better this week the more comfortable he gets, so excited to have him here.”

Where do things stand with WR Christian Kirk and his calf injury?

“He’s trying to come back from it. I don’t think we’re expecting him next week. I think hopefully it can be the week after that, so hopefully he gets there.”

Offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak mentioned WR Jordan Watkins’ run blocking as something that stuck out to him on film. Is that something that you noticed too?

“Yeah, definitely. That’s some of the biggest parts. I know everyone notices his two catches, which I think were two really good catches and I liked what he did after he caught the ball. But, the biggest thing is just how you play throughout that game. Just so you don’t miss in drives, you don’t get behind the chains or anything. Always got to be ready for your moment, which you never know will come, which he was ready for, but it’s the other stuff that we were the most impressed with.”

QB Brock Purdy is doing a great job of not getting stuck in the pocket and he moves around. Is that something that you guys practice and work on or is there something that you can do to make somebody better at that?

“I think those are things you talk about in cut-ups. When they come back in April or whatever it is and we watch an entire season, those are things you’re constantly talking about with a remote in our hand where we can slow it down like, ‘Hey, there’s a soft spot there, there’s a soft spot here. Can you step up? Can you step back? Can you move? Can you get rid of it?’ So, there’s things that you talk about all the time. You try to drill it with coaches where we run around like idiots and make them move and hit them with towels and things like that, which is the closest we can get, but it’s really just getting live reps of that stuff. It’s cool that he can watch it and see where he needs to improve. I think Brock’s such a focused, detailed guy when he sees himself do stuff on tape that he thinks he can do better, when he’s with us he works on it, when he’s away, he works on it and then when he gets into games you see if he’s improved on it, and he has.”

You have a lot of top leaders on this team. What do you see as far as the different styles of leadership in the locker room? Do you check in with those guys often or how does that work as far as just getting the pulse of the locker room?

“I check in with those guys just one-on-one kind of when I run into them. I’m not a big just meet with the captains type guy because if I ever have something I need to talk about or address, I usually do it to the whole team. I’m not like a just do it to a few guys thing. Anything I’m kind of thinking, everyone kind of gets it as a whole team that day. But, I do like when you talk about style, I think the style of our leaders is everyone’s themselves. There’s not a certain way to be a leader. You’ve got to be respected with how you play, but it’s the consistency and it’s being yourself. When people try to be a leader, try to be vocal, try to do anything, it comes off very inauthentic and people usually don’t follow. So, I think we’ve got a bunch of guys for themselves. We’ve got all different types of dudes comparing [LB] Fred [Warner] and Greenlaw to [TE George] Kittle and [WR] Deebo [Samuel Sr.] to our quarterback to lots of guys, tons of different styles, but some true leaders.”

Sorry if you mentioned this already, but did WR Dante Pettis injure himself yesterday?

“Yes, he hurt his calf in practice yesterday.”

When you’re talking to your team about an upcoming opponent, do you find yourself have to talk up the opponent more or do you want to build your team’s confidence or appropriate fear? How do you approach it?

“All of the above. Depends where we’re at at the time, where the team’s at. It changes every week. You can have it come off a huge win and people question the team you’re playing. That happened to us in Week Two. A big win versus the Rams in Australia. Then people have us as huge favorites and stuff the next week versus Miami. I don’t try to talk people up because I don’t think people believe words. I think people believe what they see and I can’t talk people up unless I believe it. So, I usually try to find it in the tape and show people what people can be and what they need to be worried about. It’s something I usually do earlier in the week. I think that fear to fail or respect of people, however you want to word it, is what gets you to work a certain way. The whole goal is to work hard enough so you don’t feel that way, and to me, the goal is to not feel that way by Saturday night so you go into Sunday confident. And if you feel that way on Monday, I usually think you’re in trouble. You’ve got to earn that. It’s got to be real, and that’s through the work you do and the preparation. You prepare the right way if you respect an opponent and I believe we respect whoever we’re playing every week.”