Head Coach Kyle Shanahan Press Conference

Head Coach Kyle Shanahan
Press Conference – September 21, 2026
San Francisco 49ers
Listen to Audio I Media Center

Opening comments:
“Injuries from the game. [WR] Mike Evans had a hip, we’ll have to manage him this week. [DL] Romello Height, he broke his hand. He’s going to have surgery tomorrow. Outside chance to be ready for the game Sunday, but he needs to get surgery on that tomorrow. [WR] Demarcus Robinson has a high ankle. [DL] James Thompson has a high ankle. That’s it. Go ahead.”

Do you have a timeline at all for Demarcus Robinson?
“Anytime it’s a high ankle, we don’t have a timeline, but just high ankles in general are anywhere from three weeks at the best, which is very rare, to six weeks. So, we’ll see how it goes, but most likely will be an IR candidate here.”

Is there a plan to have some wide receiver tryouts or are you looking towards getting WR Jordan Watkins and WR Jacob Cowing involved?
“No. We expect those guys to be up and everyone’s got to get more involved. But, I know our guys, [president of football operations and general manager] John [Lynch] and his group, are working on all possibilities, looking at everything that’s out there and our options here for this week and going forward.”

Is WR KhaDarel Hodge also a guy that you can see being involved in the offense a little bit more as opposed to just special teams?
“Yes. He’s been out there the last couple weeks. He had a catch yesterday later in the game and he made some key blocks versus the Rams. Pretty much all our guys who are up, we always mix them in on offense, but as you lose starters and stuff, those guys have to be able to do more and more.”

I know that the PUP and IR lists have a limit as to how many guys you put on them you can bring back. Are you at a spot where you’re having to balance not automatically placing somebody like Demarcus on IR to potentially preserve one of those returns?
“Yes, definitely. Those guys are right in that area with him and James of how long those take, but we’ve got a lot of guys. It’s real early for us to have as many people as we’ve had, so we’ve got to balance all that out. So, we’re not settled on our decision yet on who will go to IR and who won’t.”

With Mike Evans’ situation, and you’ve managed him a lot since camp, but it seems like he and QB Brock Purdy have kind of that instant chemistry or is it just simply two guys playing at the top of their ability?
“Mike’s gotten a lot of work here in the last couple weeks. He’s been able to practice each day since us going down to Australia and last week, but no, I also think they’re two really good players, so usually when you have two really good players who are both instinctive guys, they gel together pretty fast.”

How would you assess the performance of your defensive line yesterday? It was a tough one and they couldn’t get off the field that quickly. What did you see from the film?
“I thought they did some good things. There’s certain plays we’d like to have back, but getting the four sacks, I definitely thought we could have had more too. I thought they did a really good job. We had big goals of not letting that quarterback scramble up in the pocket, like through the B-gap and things like that, so I thought they caged him really well in the pass rush and made him escape backwards, which was our goal. There were a couple run plays I’d like to do a little bit better on where we got out of a gap and allowed a big one. But, especially losing a D-Lineman in that game too, where we had some five-down fronts and only having three interior guys for the rest of the game. I thought those guys overcame some big challenges in that game too.”

Did you get any more information about whether DL Mykel Williams will be able to resume practicing this week?
“Yeah, we’re going to hold until next week on that. If we let him go, he was just going to do individual this week. So, just don’t feel the risk-reward of letting him go this week when he’s just doing individual. We’re going to try to hold him so we can hopefully replicate that on the side and get him going for practice hopefully next week.”

Is the same true with WR Christian Kirk?
“He’s not an option this week. He’s not there yet, so we’ve got to wait another week on him at least.”

What have you seen from your young defensive linemen, DL Gracen Halton, Romello Height?
“I think they both did some good things in Week One and I think they both took a step forward in Week Two. I thought Gracen flashed a lot. I thought Romello had a much better game too, really running his ass off all over the field. I thought both of them took a step in the right direction.”

How good did Brock Purdy’s film pan out?
“It was real good. He was almost flawless. His last play was probably his only miss on the intentional grounding. Besides that, he was pretty perfect. He had an unbelievable game.”

What have you seen from your safeties in S Marques Sigle and S Ji’Ayir Brown? I know S Malik Mustapha was a guy who you wanted to start last year. Where’s the competition between those three?

“I think they’ve been doing great. It was just unfortunate for Malik that he missed all of training camp and he didn’t get healthy until we were down in Australia. Those guys got a lot of work together and really kind of solidified that job by how they played throughout the preseason and I think it’s shown here in these last two weeks. I think they’ve both played very well. Malik did get in there for a few plays and I thought he played really well when he got in. He’s been looking great in practice too and getting right back to where he was. We’ve got three guys right there who could all start for us, so it’s a good problem to have.”

What did you see from your running game when you looked at the tape?
“I thought we had a chance for a couple bigger ones. We got that one holding call called back. I don’t think we ever really got the run game going as far as a playcaller. I mean, just only having 20 plays in the first half, only having two drives made that very hard. The only time we really stuck with the run was the last two drives in four minute and we were just trying to run out the clock. We never really got a chance to get it going. And then also the way they played us, they blitzed us so much that we felt there’d be a lot more holes in the passing game and it kind of worked out for us that way.”

Did TE George Kittle look like he was a lot more explosive this week as opposed to last week?
“No, I thought there was no difference. It’s just easier to see his explosiveness when he gets in space like that. And we got him down the middle on a double corner blitz, so they don’t have enough guys to guard everyone when that happens. So, you get him in space and his explosiveness will jump off the screen. He just didn’t have that opportunity versus the Rams.”

Two games in, have you been happy with the coverage units on both punt and kick? I know it’s the second year with special teams coordinator Brant Boyer. Where is that progress? How do you look at that from point A to point B from the start of last season?
“Well, I was real happy with how we played last year and I think we’ve done a real good job in these last two weeks too. I thought we were unbelievable versus the Rams. Miami did better against us yesterday, but I still thought overall that we played a real good game on special teams and on our kickoff coverage.”

You kind of alluded to it by bringing up Arizona, so I’m just wondering if you moved on and started just checking out what Arizona Cardinals head coach Mike LaFleur is doing down there and kind of anticipating and get the game plan going tonight and the next couple days?
“Yeah, that’s actually why I made that slip-up there, what’s on my mind right now. As soon as I’m done with you guys, I get to move on to Arizona. So, it’s lunch here and then we’ll start.”

What do you think of them so far? What have you noticed? Anything off the bat or what you’ve heard about them?
“No, I haven’t turned on their tape yet. I’ll do that as soon as I’m done with lunch after I’m done with you guys. But, I know how well they played in Week One. I know the score wasn’t close yesterday, but I was told that they played them a lot better than the score. I heard it was tight going into the second half and they just pulled away, but I haven’t seen any of it with my own eyes. So, I’m excited to get started with it. I expect it to be good. They’ve got a lot of good players. Mike LaFleur, I know how good of a coach he is. Their defense has been together for a very long time. I know how good of a job their D-coordinator does, how long they’ve been playing together. They’re a team in the offseason we expected to be good this year and I’m expecting to see that when we turn on the tape.”