President of Football Operations and General Manager John Lynch and Head Coach Kyle Shanahan Press Conference

President of Football Operations and General Manager John Lynch

and Head Coach Kyle Shanahan

Press Conference – July 22, 2025

San Francisco 49ers

Can you bring us up to date on the PUP and the NFI guys? Which ones do you expect to be cleared to practice tomorrow? And specifically, Ricky Pearsall, what’s his situation?

President of Football Operations and General Manager John Lynch: “Yeah, I think we put them on PUP, all these guys for a reason. When they took their physicals, they weren’t deemed to be ready on that specific day. And in some instances, they’ll come off relatively quickly. It’s kind of a ramp-up situation where they’ve been away, we want to assess them, we want to get them off to the side and kind of build them up. Abundance of caution. And that also preserves the right, you know, in some cases with PUP, NFI to use that at the roster cut. But in some of these instances, we anticipate it being short term. [WR] Ricky [Pearsall] would be one of those.”

Is there a possibility he could practice tomorrow?

JL: “He likely won’t. You’ll see him out there off to the side, likely.”

Head Coach Kyle Shanahan: “Ricky had a bad hamstring in OTAs. I mean, not real bad, a normal one. He’s good now. He’s hit all his miles per hour. He is fine. We just haven’t seen him the last two weeks. We’re not going to throw a wide-out out there the first three days. We don’t want to pull it again until we see his conditioning and everything, which we should get in three days, and then he should be good.”

Was It a partial tear, like a grade two?

KS: “No.”

Where do you think stand with WR Jauan Jennings and what is kind of the plan to work things out?

JL: “Jauan reported, took his physical yesterday. We anticipate, I won’t speak for Jauan, but had a good visit with him. Anticipate him being out there. You guys know our feelings on J.J. He embodies what, you know, what we think a Niner’s all about. Plays the right way and we love him. And I think all that stuff. We’re not going to get into the contract talks and all that. That takes care of itself, but you know, we love him and he’s here.”

So is there dialogue, talk about a contract extension?

JL: “We love him. He’s here.”

Having gone through, obviously what we all know went on last season last training camp, is there some disappointment that there is at least public discussion about this? Is there some, you know, ultra motivation to make sure it doesn’t happen like it happened last year?

JL: “No. You know, it’s kind of a sign of the times. It’s just, it happens. And I think every team has this. We’re probably hyper focused on our team and you know, like I said, I told you what we feel about Jauan. He’s an integral part of this team and a guy we’d like to have around here for a long time.”

More wide receiver questions. What’s the latest sense of WR Brandon Aiyuk and when he could resume practicing? And any more information on WR Demarcus Robinson and whether he’ll be suspended to begin the season?

JL: “Yeah, that’s a League matter as with respect to Demarcus and we’ll let that play out. The League will handle that. We knew there was a possibility when we signed Demarcus and have accounted for that. So, we’ll see. That’s a legal matter that is playing out. With respect to B.A. you know, he did a lot to his knee, and I would tell you that he’s in a really good place considering all that. Now what does that mean in terms of a timeline and all that? We’re continuing to assess and get information. He did a lot of his rehab away from here. And so, you know, I think when you get these guys back, there’s all kinds of objective measurements that you want to do. And so, he’ll be working on his rehab and with our guys, and I think we’re encouraged on where he is at but not anywhere close to having a set in stone timeline.”

When it came to how the offseason went, obviously you guys are very familiar with the business side of this, did you kind of see this coming down the pipeline with Jauan given the injuries in the offseason and the moves in the offseason that he would possibly want to kind of ask for a new contract?

KS: “Yeah, I think you anticipate all situations that make sense when a player’s in that situation. I see the same thing with [OL] Colton McKivitz. I mean, those are two guys to me, and it’s very similar situations that I think the way they feel about us is the same way we feel about them. You know, that’s the easy part. The hard part’s the business side. You know, when people talk about how to avoid drama and stuff and things like that, and I’m trying not to say anything negative about it, I think that’s just business. I don’t call that drama, I call that business. I mean, if you want to avoid all drama, then just be really extremely bad at business. And just be ridiculous on everything. And I guess there’d be no drama until you tear your team apart doing that. So, like you look into all that stuff, but like we’ve got a great relationship with these guys. Those two guys, that does make sense. We can do everything we can to make that work out, but it’s not always easy to make it work out. So, we’ll see how that goes.”

Receivers, you tried out some receivers. I know you must be trying out various positions, but saw that come across. Do you feel a little light?

KS: “Anytime we don’t have 12 receivers for any NFL camp that I’ve been in 21 years, I feel light, and so we have 12. That’s a hard thing with PUP because when a guy’s on PUP, it counts on your 90. So even though we have 12 receivers in our building, with B.A. not being able to go throughout training key, it means you only have 11. With Ricky on PUP, for at least the first three practices, it means we only have 10. Which you can get by with 10, until one guy has a sore hamstring the next day and then you go with nine. And when you have nine in a practice, one of those is guys going to get hurt because you’re having to overload a guy because you’re now three less than 12. And if you do that for a few days, it’s tough. So that’s the hard thing with PUP guys, even though it looks like your numbers are there, they’re not. So, we felt we had to get a guy for the numbers, or eventually you lose one guy that’s going to lead to two more. So that’s really the thought behind all that. And we have that with every position really.”

JL: “And to help you guys all out, it just happened help me out with the name, [WR] Equanimeous St. Brown. We’ll have signed him, so he’ll be joining us off that workout yesterday.”

What tone do you want to set on day one of training camp this year?

KS: “I want it as, I mean, simple as can be, like my goal with everything is to be the best we can possibly be. And that means nothing except for each individual becoming the best they can be. And all that has to do with putting in work and getting better each day. Like we’re finally at camp, I think these guys have put the work in throughout the offseason, whether they’ve been with us or away. And they’ve given themself a chance to come in here and really grind. And we’re going to do that here for the next five weeks before we settle this team. And I think we have as most, as much position spots open, the final 53, the practice squad, is really we’ve had since probably 2018. And I really want everyone to come in and focus strictly on that. Be the best you can be, work every day, and we’ll see what that adds to make our team collectively. But if I could simplify me rambling better, it’s time to go to work.”

What mindset does the team need to carry into this year, starting today?

JL: “Well, you know, being around this League for a long time, each year is a new year. And you earn everything you get. And you know, there’s some excitement and newness every year in this League, with this team there’s a lot of young new players who we’ve added. And with that comes some unknown, but it’s also exciting. But what I would say is we have a tremendous core of players and they have to decide what they want this team to be. And a lot of things have to fall in place. But I do know that, you know, what happened last year and there’s a lot of reasons, fell short of our standard. And our guys understand that extremely well. And I think they’re very motivated, like Kyle said, to do everything and be very intentional. And it’s one thing I love about Kyle and the way he organizes practices. It’s all with one intent, to have the team as ready as they can be. And with that, at times takes some risk. We’re not going to go through a training camp 100-percent healthy. We understand that. We try to do everything we can to account for that and put our players in the best situation. But you have to work, you have to callous up. And I think it’s about that work and it’s really exciting. I watched, I think we all sat back and watched Scotty Scheffler win The Open and he’s starting to talk a little more in terms what his preparation and things. And the thing he said, and I think it translates to any sport, is how everything he does during the week in preparations is extremely intentional to try to set him up to do one thing, give himself the best chance to win. And that’s the same thing we try to do and how we put our roster together, how we organize practices. And that’s what this whole thing’s all about. I would just say the tone is that you’ve got to go earn it, and I know we have some very motivated players to do just that.”

What is OL Ben Bartch’s injury, and how did it happen?

JL: “He hurt himself working out away from here. You know, he’s one of those guys, not going to put a timeline, but relatively soon should be coming back.”

How does he stack up as far as, Kyle, when you look at that left guard position? Has he kind of put himself at the top based off the offseason program?

KS: “No. But he is right there competing with guys, you know, him and [OL Nick] Zakelj. We all know [OL Spencer] Burford can do that. He’s done it before. We’re starting him out working to try to get that swing tackle spot. We also know he can hop right in at guard and play because he started there for us in our ‘23 season with [OL] [Jon] Feliciano. You know, we had Bartch and Zakelj competing through OTAs, but like I’ll say since 2018, probably ‘19, what is OTAs when it comes to O-Linemen and stuff. You know, we have to actually go out there and do more football. But he’s in the competition, he’s in the mix.”

Can you map out what the workload plan is for RB Christian McCaffrey and T Trent Williams specifically?

KS: “I mean, it’s all on paper somewhere. It’s too confusing for me to memorize, or I’ll forget things that I can just read on paper.”

But is that something that you have to take into account to try to get these guys through camp healthy?

KS: “Oh, definitely. Which I mean, which we always do. You know, last year neither of them did camp, and that didn’t help them go through the season either. So, I’m glad that they’re both here and healthy and they get a chance to go back to have a chance to build their bodies where they have a chance to get through the season like they have in the past.”

What have you guys seen from last year’s draft class as far as taking that year or two jump?

KS: “I think that’s one of the most important things. I think the most obvious thing is how many rookies we’re going to be dependent on this year. Especially when you look at a defensive side. We hope we are. But that goes hand in hand with the second-year guys. Guys that came in here and did a hell of a job in their first year. Guys like [CB] Renardo [Green], guys like Ricky, [RB Isaac] Guerendo. You’ve got [S Malik] Mustapha who will be back sometime during the season, but it’s huge for those guys to take a second step. I mean, you talk about the sophomore slump a lot, and we’re not in a position that we can afford that. So, we’re dependent on those guys to not have a sophomore slump. And I mean, I see the same as some third-year players, I mean guys like [LB] Dee Winters and stuff he got some playing time a little bit more last year and he can’t take a step back. We need all these guys to take a step forward and talk about second year players have the same for the rookies, but I’ll go to our vets also. Our vets need to take a step forward. Anybody here, I mean, it’s the cliche thing, but you’re getting better or worse. You’re not staying the same. And I want to make sure I’m getting better. I want to make sure every player on our team’s getting better.”

What are your realistic expectations for the defense starting out the year? Obviously, you want them to produce and play well. You’ve seen defensive coordinator Robert Saleh have an effect on them already in the offseason, but when you guys kind of huddle, what do you think are the realistic expectations for the defense early on in the season?

KS: “Yeah, well one, I think we’ve got a lot of good vets who have established themselves in their League. I can go over numbers, but there’s not many people in this league better than [LB] Fred [Warner] and better than [DL] Nick [Bosa]. I love what [DB Deommodore Lenoir] Dmo’s done here these last few years and the vet he’s become. But yeah, there’s a chance we could have six new guys starting. There’s a chance we could have eight, we’ll see how it plays out. And anytime you say that, that’s different. That is a different team, that is a different side of the ball. And so, that does take some time. That’s why I’m so excited to get started with camp so we can start working that. I thought we got a really good head start in OTAs. When you have a young defense like that, you think of six out of our first nine games are on the road, I know that’ll be a huge challenge for them. But I think we have the capability with some of the veterans that we’ve had here, some of the new guys that we’ve added, some of these vets we’ve brought in to create some competition with these new guys. As long as we keep getting better throughout the year, I think we have a chance to turn it into a real good defense.”

Do you expect Jauan to be out there? You’re not expecting a hold in situation? Has he formally requested a trade?

JL: “I saw the same tweets you guys saw, but I’ll just stick to what I said. Jauan’s here. We expect him to be out on the field.”

KS: “He hasn’t formally asked for a trade.”

What’s your understanding of Dmo’s legal situation right now?

JL: “I know that something occurred down there. We’ve talked with Dmo. Of course, we would prefer our players not get involved in those things, but again, that’s a legal matter. It will work itself out and we’ve got a lot of faith in Dmo, who he is as a person, what he stands for.”

The last couple offseasons you’ve had players send you pictures about how their progress has been. Has anyone been extremely interactive with you about what they’ve been doing during the offseason?

KS: “Not really. The one in the past that got a lot is because I was on him a little bit before he left. I just saw a real cool video that Trent sent to our strength coach today. He didn’t send it to me, but it was neat. He can still vertical jump more than any man I’ve ever seen his size (laughter). So that was cool to watch. But I’m more excited to see the videos of them with some pads on playing football.”

Is it three practices without pads?

KS: “We have to do four. Yeah, that’s the rule.”

JL: Three, one day off, a fourth, that’s the acclimation period and then we roll.”

DL Yetur Gross-Matos and OL Andre Dillard. Are those two of the guys in the boat that you expect a little bit sooner?

KS: “I think it’s similar to Ricky because they’ve been away, we could put them out there right now with how they check, but we’re going to be safe, evaluate them for these three days with both of our Dustin’s [Vice President of Player Health and Performance Dustin Perry and Head of Sports Medicine/Head Athletic Trainer Dustin Little], we’ll have a day off and then we’ll decide if we want to put them in the next block.”

Malik posted a picture today. It looked like he’s walking out with some pads on. Is his recovery going maybe faster than you would expect?

KS: “His recovery and how he is as good as it could be, just the way he works, the way everything checks, it’s amazing, but it’s still an ACL. So, you’ve still got to give it the time.”

JL: “I think to add to that, it’s a revision. It’s one he had previously hurt. And so, I think with that, the time element, I think Malik is going to outperform every time because he’s a special athlete and then he’s a special human being who’s going to do everything and more. But I think especially with the revision, just a time element that doctors want to see you get to that he wants to be out there today, believes that he could be, but we have to hold him back.”

KS: “We don’t always want to give you guys timetables because timetables change all the time and then you’ll hold me accountable six months later. But when you look into like all three of our ACL guys, whether it’s [QB Kurtis] Rourke, Mustapha and B.A., they’re all kind of in the same boat of the time to come back, which isn’t going to be training camp. I mean it could be, but that would be very surprising. But it’d be sometime in the season, hopefully the first half and that’s what we’re hoping. And they’re all three kind of in that same area, even though they all did it at different times, have different situations, but they’re all about same health time.”

Obviously, you haven’t had a practice yet, but how have you seen kind of the infusion of youth excite and motivate some of your veterans?

KS: “I thought it was awesome during OTAs. I think you’ve heard us talk pretty positively throughout the offseason. I think the irritation of the year before had a lot to do with that, but I also think the added in so many young guys who when they came in, it’s not just adding, young guys don’t add the right type of energy and everything if they’re not the right type of guys. But what we saw throughout OTAs, after the Draft, those guys acted like pros. They worked, they were energetic, they communicated, they asked tons of questions. And I think that helped motivate some of the veterans. Alright, we want to do this, we want to definitely fix what we did last year, but we know we can’t do that with the help of all these young guys and new guys who came. I think they showed us in OTAs that we’re all very excited that they’re going to give us a chance.”

When you may have to rely on a number of rookies, especially defensively like you mentioned, how do you measure their readiness and maybe give them some grace as they develop familiar with the system and get up to speed on that?

KS: “The same way you always do. You go back to’ 19, we’re coming off a four-and-12 season as second pick in the Draft. And that year we started [Washington Commanders WR] Deebo [Samuel Sr.] was a rookie. We started, Bosa was a rookie. [Denver Broncos LB] Dre Greenlaw started, he was a rookie. You do the same way you’ve done it your whole career. There might be more than one at certain spots, which I think brings more light into it. But we’ve all been around enough to know that yeah, there’s some growing pains with rookies, but there’s growing pains with everyone. It’s easy to say it’s because of a rookie, but with vets there’s up and downs. You do that with everyone. You’ve got to understand though that rookies are going to struggle harder at first. They aren’t going to figure it out right away. You can’t just bench them as soon as they make a mistake early. That does take reps. No matter what you do, you need a lot of reps to get good at anything and these guys are going to need those reps. They haven’t had them, they don’t get them in the offseason. They get them through playing football and that’s why you hope as they get those reps, they’re not catastrophic because we’re all judged on wins and losses. But there’s some ebb and flows in it and if they’re made of the right stuff, you can overcome those mistakes and they eventually fix them.”

With that in mind, was there some pressure to get DL Alfred Collins done so he could actually get on the field and start working?

JL: “I don’t think there was pressure. That was a weird deal in that like the whole second round hadn’t moved and you can sit back and you can wait or you can, and I just asked our guys [Assistant General Manager] Brian Hampton, go call everyone in the League and let’s get an estimation where this thing’s going to break and does it benefit us to be, not first because some guys had signed, but does it? And at the end of that process, the recommendation from them was let’s go ahead and get this thing going. Alfred had worked really hard after not being able to participate in OTAs and getting himself in really good condition. He didn’t want to lose. So, he was extremely motivated and I think I was really proud of our guys and his side and Nicole Lynne and Alfred and coming together and kind of triggering the second round. I think we ended up in a good place for everyone.”

Are you committed to taking those lumps potentially and letting the rookies learn on the job early in the season, even if it costs you a game or two?

KS: “Yeah, is there a better vet behind him? You’re going to play the best player whether he is young or not. We are in a situation where we have a lot of opportunities for young guys to be our best players. We haven’t had that in a while, probably since ‘19. And that’s why there’s a lot more, there’s more room for young players to make it here and I think we’ve got the right young players to do that. But in any situation, if someone’s struggling and we’re going to put the best team out there possible, we have a chance for young guys to really earn that. But if there’s someone better behind them, we’re judged off wins and losses. You’re going to do what it takes to win that game and then try to get a guy ready for the next week. But you’re always going to put the best guys out there.”

Throughout the offseason program, where did you see QB Brock Purdy take maybe his biggest leap? What do you expect from him training camp and getting ready for the regular season opener?

KS: “I think Brock’s played at a very high level since he’s been here, since his first game in to his last game. I think Brock’s played at an extremely high level and that’s why he’s earned that contract. I think the hardest thing with this League and the amount of money and the amount of coverage when people get contracts, there’s all this other expectation of now what do they have to do? Brock needs to keep playing how he’s always played and continue to get better like everyone does. You get better or worse, you don’t stay the same. So like, Brock has had a hell of a short career so far, he had a hell of an offseason. When you have a guy who is to me real in those ways, it hasn’t been fake, the way he works, who he is as a man, what he’s put on film, what we see every day, he will keep getting better and that’s what we saw throughout OTAs.”