Offensive Line Coach/Run Game Coordinator Chris Foerster Press Conference

Offensive Line Coach/Run Game Coordinator Chris Foerster

Press Conference – December 8, 2022

San Francisco 49ers

What kind of person is QB Brock Purdy?

“I don’t know him real well. He’s quiet, keeps to himself, which is a really good trait for a rookie. He works really hard. Serious-minded. That’s really all I can say, demanding as a quarterback. He’s a good leader. I think [T] Trent [Williams] commented on it yesterday, he’s not afraid to tell the guys in the huddle what he needs. He’s a really good guy, but I don’t know him that well. Obviously, as the backup, or when he started the year as the third quarterback, I don’t get to know him that well.”

When you put together your portion of the gameplan and scheme up against the opposition, does it change with him at quarterback?

“Not really, I think you have to give a thought to like, okay, [QB] Jimmy [Garoppolo] had been doing this for a long time, [QB] Trey [Lance] had been working through it for a bit and had all the reps as the starter. Maybe some check with me, some things that you might give a second thoughts say, hey, we could do that, or we could do this and not do that and just have the play be a call and run play instead. Maybe you do that a little bit, but at the end of the day, you’re going to do what it takes to win and you just have to make a decision. The whole game plan, that’s for [head coach] Kyle [Shanahan] to make the decision as to what might be too much, that’s really the only thing that I would have a role with.”

You got a fair amount of zero blitz last week, do you feel like that was a product of Brock coming into the game and how can it help you guys as an offense and an offensive line moving forward?

“Yeah, you just don’t know. There’s a lot of different ways you can approach a young quarterback. You can approach it as blitz, blitz, blitz, blitz, blitz or you could say, we’ll just stay back and see if he can play and can he sustain long drives? There’s a lot of different ways, I can’t say what it was from them. I think there was some feedback that there was maybe a little more pressure because it was Brock, but I don’t know that to be true, so like I said, each team will approach it differently. You always have to be ready for anything. I think in this offense with Kyle, the one thing working with him through the years has been that I think people are very aware that if he knows what you’re doing, he’s got such a really good command of the offense and calling the plays in the offense, so if he knows what’s coming, he’ll dial some stuff up to get after you so that it’s always going to be a little bit unexpected. There’s always going to be some looks that are unscouted. There’s always going to be some things that you’re like, oh wow, that’s not something we saw on tape or something we didn’t expect, so with Brock it could open up a whole new can of worms. We’ll have to see what happens.”

What surprised you the most this week watching him in practice?

“Surprised me? Nothing really because he was very well prepared. I don’t want to say that surprised me. Like I said, he is a real pro. He does work hard at it. Nothing really surprising, it’s kind of what you expected from him. He’s done a really nice job.”

Big picture, league-wide scoring is down for the second season in a row, despite the league changing rules to increase scoring. Do you have any theories as to why this might be?

“No, I don’t. I didn’t know that. Thanks for telling me. I didn’t know it was down. There’s a lot. I don’t know. I look at it every week and I’m real fortunate the guys that I coach up front and I always joke about it, I’m very confident during the week, I always feel like we’re going to do well. I always have a very great deal of positive energy and attitude towards we’re going to do good, here’s what we have to do, here’s how we’re going to attack them. Then I stand in the tunnel and I watch the defensive lineman run out of the tunnel and I’m like, how are we going to block these guys? And that’s what I go through every week because the skill on defense, the rushers, how fast they can get to the quarterback, even with the rule changes and everything that’s gone on. It’s just that NFL pocket closes so quickly. There’s such a fine line. There has to be so much precision in route running, protection, backs, everything to be able to execute at a high-level and if you can’t, if there’s injuries on your offensive line, if there’s injuries to receivers, if there’s injuries at quarterback and they’re not quite on point, all of a sudden you’re half tick late and you’re not scoring points, then you compound that when you start moving down in the red zone, the field gets tighter. There’s a whole lot of other things we could talk about, I don’t want to talk about them now, but just as far as style of offense, what you play, how you play, how teams are defending these days. Sometimes it’s an ebb and flow. There’s an ebb and flow of defenses start doing different things that takes the offenses a couple years to catch up or vice versa. So, I don’t have a real good explanation except for what I just said.”

What are you thinking when Tampa Bay Buccaneers NT Vita Vea is running out of the tunnel and what are the challenges of blocking someone like that?

“Say, ‘You want to be the line coach today? I’ll come sit and watch from where you sit.’ I’m joking. I think he’s a really good player. He is talented, he’s a big man. He can really push the pocket. He plays the run very well. I’ve respected him for a long time. He’s got a good game and I say my job is to try to help those guys inside [OL] Jake [Brendel], [OL] Dan [Brunskill], [OL] Spencer [Burford], [OL] Aaron [Banks]. They all have to do a good job and be ready to go and understand the challenges and what we have to do to help our guys be successful against him because if you spend the whole day one-on-one with Vita Vea, he’s a big, talented guy. He’s bigger than almost everybody else that plays the game and he’s going to make a difference in the outcome if you let him.”

What has surprised you the most about RB Christian McCaffrey?

“Christian’s awesome. I go up to congratulate he and Juice [FB Kyle Juszczyk], they’re sitting on a cooler after the game. And I go to dab them up and say, hey man, great job. Good job. Love you guys. And the first thing Christian does is stand up, look me in the eyes, serious as a heart attack and goes I missed too much today. I promise I’ll get better. I missed some holes and I left too much out there. I won’t let you guys down again. Just give me time. Be patient with me. And I’m like, Christian, relax man. We’re winning. We won the game. We’ll get to work next week and correct our errors, but the dude is serious-minded. He wants to be absolutely perfect in everything he does. He’s been like that since he’s been here and I really appreciate that about him.”