President of Football Operations/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 – January 21, 2025

San Francisco 49ers

Again, this season, so much scrutiny around the injury situation. Is there anything being considered or will anything be done this offseason to make changes organizationally when it comes to those areas, including injury prevention?

President of Football Operations and General Manager John Lynch: “Yeah, we’re always looking into trends, data, everything we do. The health and performance of our players is at the utmost priority each and every year. You know, this year it was tough and it took a toll on our team. We’ll continue to look. Now, having said that, we’ve spent a lot of time and effort in recruiting really quality people and I think being at the forefront of injury prevention. I think this year probably because the star players that that went down there was a lot of attention given on that. The fact of the matter is injuries are a part of this game. And so, what we strive to do is never to eliminate injuries, but to mitigate injuries, and I think we have a lot of good processes. We’ll challenge them all. That process has begun. It never frankly stopped, but yes, we’ll look at everything and we’ll examine everything.”

What were your conversations like with QB Mac Jones at the end of the season and would you be interested in exploring a trade in these next couple months?

Head Coach Kyle Shanahan: “Awesome conversations with him, just like I did with a number of players. As any player on our team, including myself and John, you always listen to people and trade offers, but we’re also not into getting rid of good players. So, I’d be very surprised if Mac wasn’t around us next year.”

JL: “Mac made this place better. He was outstanding this season. He picked us up in a huge way and it was it was a really fun process to watch him come in and the joy that he was playing with. He’s got an infectious attitude that affects everybody on our team. It affected that quarterback room. You talk to [QB] Brock [Purdy], Brock will tell how he made him a better player. Biggest thing he did is when we needed him which came early in the season, he went in there and won us a lot of football games and he kept us in this thing. So, I can’t say enough about Mac, not only his play, his leadership. I call it leadership. Do you make people around you better? And I think Mac did that all season. And so, he’s been an outstanding addition. Like Kyle said, you always listen, but I know we’re a better football team with Mac Jones on our roster.”

After letting go a lot of players last offseason, you talked about opening up a new kind of window of contention. Do you have a little distance on the way this season end? Can you touch on where you are maybe in this cycle? Was this season almost kind of ahead of schedule and what is it set up for you financially and roster-wise this offseason? Is it time to maybe make some more spending? Is it time to try to make some more dramatic moves to try to take a bigger leap?

KS: “Yeah, that is a broad question. Good one. I mean, last year was a huge challenge. Salary cap-wise and what we’ve gone for, for numbers of years, you can’t do that every year. That’s the way it’s set up. And we had done that too many years in a row so we had to make a decision to cut on money last year. That wasn’t us being cheap or anything. We actually spend more, almost as much, or more than everybody. That’s what you have to do in the cycle of how it’s all based. And more so than the injuries, that was the hardest thing to overcome is how many good players we had to let go out of this building that went and helped a lot of other teams. That’s why when we did have significant injuries to some very good players, yeah it was more daunting than it was in year’s past because some of the guys we would’ve hung on, when you lose a guy like [LB] Fred [Warner] or you lose a guy like [DL] Nick [Bosa] those guys we lost because of free agency and stuff that we had to do because of the previous year. So yes, if you would’ve told me that we lost those guys before the season with what we were going into, I wouldn’t have expected us to have the record and stuff that we did. But, that’s when you look at things as a whole and you try to give a narrative to a whole. We just prepare for a game each week. And there were very few Sundays that we felt by the time we got there that we didn’t have a chance to win. And I thought we did play well. I thought our players grinded and overcame a ton of things this year and it gave us a chance to make the playoffs. I never sit there and say like, ‘oh, this will be successful if we just get close to the playoffs or something like that.’ I mean, we always expect to try to compete for the playoffs. We know some seasons are going to be harder than others, which we thought this would be. And I am proud to a degree of what we accomplished. That doesn’t mean I’m sitting here three days removed and having great perspective. You know, once you get to that point, you believe you can get to the next point because you can’t get that far if that isn’t possible. So, we’re really disappointed right now with how the season ended and still dealing with that. It’ll get easier over the weeks and stuff. And then as we start to look into putting our coaching staff together, which obviously losing [Tennessee Titans head coach] Robert [Saleh] and stuff, there are definitely some holes there that we’ve got to replace. And then once you do that, then it’s me catching up with John with where we’re at financially, what we can do, what the options are, what’s available in free agency, what’s available in the draft, what helps you on this year, what helps you to the next year and all that stuff is connected. We’re going to always try to do as well as we can to compete each year. But, some years are harder than others in terms of what you can do financially. And I know I’m not there yet, but that’s stuff that I’ll be getting caught up from these guys over the next two months.”

JL: “I think just to add a little context to that, it’s a very fair question because we did watch the likes of [Indianapolis Colts CB Charvarius] Mooney Ward, [Denver Broncos S] Talanoa Hufanga, [Denver Broncos LB] Dre Greenlaw, [Minnesota Vikings DL] Javon Hargrave, [Cleveland Browns DL] Maliek Collins, [Atlanta Falcons LB] Leonard Floyd, a lot of guys left. I think that spoke to how good our roster was and people want what we’ve kind of created and we’ve built. What our players have built, what Kyle has built. And that’s tough to watch that. Now, I think the thing that sometimes gets lost, we did sign our franchise quarterback to a big deal. We signed [TE] George Kittle and Fred Warner to extensions. We signed [OL] Colton McKivitz that we felt like was a really smart move for our roster and needed. And so, those are some kinds, the ebb and flows of this thing that you have to, and like Kyle said, we’ve been pedal to the metal for a while. There always is reckoning. I think what that did too though is, we had an 11-person draft class. All 11 of those guys are still in this building. We got great contributions from a lot of them. A lot of them unfortunately, or some of them like [DL] Mykel [Williams], it was cut short. But we really are excited about the impact that that class is going to have moving forward. A lot of guys, because of the injuries, had opportunities to play, then we get guys back, we’ve got to keep them back. But, we put that all together and we’re excited. But yes, we will have a little more flexibility this year and we’re excited about that.”

As far as replacing Saleh, a lot of people are just connecting the dots and say assistant head coach defense Gus Bradley is waiting in the wings, that makes a lot of sense. Will he be an internal candidate? Do you have any other internal candidates and do you plan to cast a pretty wide net?

KS: “I wouldn’t say it’s a real wide net, but I mean, Gus is the obvious one to everyone and is to us too. Gus would be the main internal candidate. We feel very fortunate to get Gus and great about that. But also, we are going to go through the whole process. There are requirements we have to do and stuff that we want to do also. So, hopefully we can get it settled sooner than later. But, I see working throughout this next week on it.”

For both of you, what is the plan for WR Brandon Aiyuk and do you envision a scenario in which he’s on this team next year? If so, what would that look like?

JL: “You know, the plan in terms of the transaction, that will come in due time. I think it’s safe to say that he has played his last snap with the Niners. It’s unfortunate, a situation that just went awry. I will look long and hard at what could have been done differently, but sometimes just doesn’t work out. And I think that this was a case where that happened.”

When you look at the roster positionally, what do you circle as your biggest needs heading into the offseason?

JL: “I think in the day and age of football these days, it is yes you have core of players, and we love our core. And we just talked about the draft class that came in, the youth on this football team, but it’s always starting at ground zero. There’s a lot of attrition in this league. There always is. And so, Kyle spoke of it, I let him coach the team and man, did he this year, it was unbelievable what he did leading our team. Couldn’t be more proud to work with someone. I try to leave Kyle to do that because that’s a huge job. We’re always having conversations, but it’s not fair to talk about those things. We’ve been working on them, we’ll have a lot of work, a lot of conversations to prepare him for this offseason. Not going to get into specifics, but we need to continue to improve this team and get better and that’s exactly what we intend to do. We’re really excited about that opportunity.”

With WR Ricky Pearsall, are there things he needs to do in the offseason to put himself in a better position to be more available and to withstand some of these tougher hits?

KS: “Yeah, I thought he did that last offseason though. I thought Ricky had an awesome offseason this year. He got through all of training camp, was one of our few wideouts who did all of training camp, I think minus the first five days. And I thought he went into the season as ready, much more ready than the year prior. Added some weight, was able to get through a training camp because he did train the right way. And that’s why I thought he went into those first few weeks of the season ready to go. I think if you guys saw the film or you saw his stats, the stats did match the film. I think he was leading the league in a lot of categories before he got hurt, I want to say versus Jacksonville. And then he landed on his knee in the wrong way. And when you land on your knee in the wrong way and you hurt your PCL, sometimes that can last a week. Like [Los Angeles Rams WR] Puka [Nacua] last year, sometimes it can last seven weeks. And then when you do come back and you land on it again, it happens again. So, can he prepare to not land on his knee? No. He’s trying too. ‘What do I got to do different.’ I’m like, ‘let’s talk about what you did do and then let’s talk about what happened.’ So, I think the main thing from last year is, man, what can we do to come back from that faster? When you do come back, what can we do to maybe not redo it, so it doesn’t linger? Because when it was said and done, Ricky played as Ricky for I’d say four games this year. Even though I think he might have dressed in eight, but he was Ricky for four games and that didn’t have to do with how he went into this year, that had to do with an injury that he had in Week 4. And those are tough to overcome, but I think he found the right way last year and keep adding to it.”

Losing the last two games against Seattle, did that give you a measuring stick as far as where you want to be, where you need to be, as far as the roster? Or is it just two games in terms of the big picture?

KS: “I think anytime that teams got a better record than you, teams that beat you, especially when it comes to guys in your division, I say the same thing when we watched the Super Bowl last year and you see Philly. I mean, you’ll say it if am AFC team wins. So, it’s always closer to home when it’s in your division and their last two games versus us, the way it went. But you know, always the best teams, which they are one of them right now. We’ll see how it ends up. That’s always who you’re trying to stack yourself against to catch.”

You guys have always put an emphasis on the defensive front since you got here. So, when you have the league lowest sacks, with just 20, and obviously Bosa and Williams going out hurts, but does that make you revisit just how the scheme is or what other personnel you’ve got to bring in? How much of a priority is that going to be this offseason?

JL: “I think we look at everything there. I will tell you, I don’t think it was scheme related. Yes, everything ties together, rush and coverage, all of those things. Certain players, you never want to make excuses, but certain players are not only, it’s not only their impact, but they’re force multipliers. They make everybody else around them better. And I think Nick was that, I think Mikel was just catching on. You know, we’ve got to be better there. We understand that. That’s always been at the forefront of our philosophy to make life miserable on opposing quarterbacks and to wreak havoc and we need to do better there and we intend on doing that.”

You guys had a few years where you were among the fastest teams in the league. I think this year the numbers were definitely lower on that front. Is improving team speed a priority? Is that something you guys think you need more of this year?

KS: “Yes, definitely. I mean, being fast helps, being good helps. There’s lots of ways to do it, but you’d love it balanced out perfectly with your whole team offensively, defensively, special teams. But, we noticeably were slower this year than we have been in year’s past. Sometimes that’s substituted for a better football player. That doesn’t mean you’re always worse because of that. But, you definitely need more speed out there to handle things week-in and week-out for some of the situations that come up versus certain schemes and certain defenses, certain offenses too.”

Just a few housekeeping things. Are there any injuries from the game? The final game, I know TE Jake Tonges, LB Nick Martin. Are there any guys that are going to have procedures during the offseason?

JL: “You know, Nick was in the protocol, and I think he’s been improving, but the protocol’s the protocol. We hope to have him clear here soon.”

KS: “Tonges was three weeks.”

JL: “Yeah. Planter fascia.”

KS: “[RB] Christian [McCaffrey] had a stinger he’ll be alright from.”

JL: “From the game, anything else?”

KS: “[DL] Alfred [Collins] with his shoulder. He might possibly have to look into surgery, Alfred Collins. His shoulder went out in the game”

And Nick Bosa’s timetable?

KS: “We don’t have an exact timetable on it, but we’re hoping around training camp.”

JL: “And he’s tracking really well.”

KS: “He’s tracking well.”

JL: “He’s doing great.”

Obviously before the season, you and WR Jauan Jennings’ camp came to a compromise to keep him around, keep him happy in some respect. When you look at potentially bringing him back, do you expect to be any closer in terms of the discussions you had then and where that’s at now?

JL: “Yeah. First of all, let me just speak to Jauan. Gosh man, the passion that guy plays the game with is something I admire and always have. And this year was no different. He dealt with a lot of injuries throughout the course of the year, but Jauan always plays with a passion. We can always count on Jauan. We can move him around. He blocks, he does the little things. You can see by the way the other players respond. He plays the right way and I think it frustrates other people. He makes us better. We’d love to have him back. We’ll go to work to try to get that accomplished and we’ll see where that goes.”

You’ve got rookies who progress at their own rate, but a couple guys that you guys drafted, Nick Martin and WR Jordan Watkins appear to have a lot of speed at positions where you guys maybe need speed, but they didn’t really play much this year. Can you explain, are you dissatisfied with them or why did they struggle to get on the field as rookies?

KS: “I think the hardest thing was you’ve got to develop enough to be able to, which the things that we draft those guys for, like everything that we wanted to draft them for they do have. It’s about developing them, getting them ready to help you win a game. And I think both of them from somewhat similar standpoints but start like mainly with Jordan, Jordan got hurt in his first preseason game with a high ankle sprain, and he needed, he wasn’t ready yet, like 95-percent of guys who come into training camp aren’t. And then you take them through a few preseason games, you take them through an entire training camp and they’ve got a chance to get there for Week 1. And then they usually realize, ‘oh, I’m not totally quite ready. This is what I’ve got to do and maybe I can get there by Week 5, Week 6.’ When you get hurt right away in training camp and you miss a whole training camp it’s a huge window for guys who aren’t quite ready yet. That was their chance to get ready. And then when you come back, where are you when you come back? If it’s off a high ankle sprain, how’s your conditioning now? Alright, now it takes you three weeks just to get your conditioning back to where you can start to have a chance to improve. And when that happens, you have a setback, which he did. And so, you kind of miss that window where you had a chance to gain on people. And then where you sit in Week 12, Week 13 behind a group of guys that are more consistent at this time in their career than you are. And then it just, it becomes unfortunate for those guys. You know, when you have a losing season, you’re totally out of stuff and you just want to give guys chances and that’s all right. But, when you’re trying to compete for one seed, trying to compete just to get in the playoffs, you don’t experiment with that at the expense of the football team. And that’s kind of what both of those guys got in. I think Nick was working his way to have an opportunity with some injuries and that was going to give him a chance. And right when that happened, he got a real bad concussion that lasted a long time. And so that kind of ended it for him. If there were a couple more injuries for these receivers in the last month or so, then Jordan would’ve been up. It wasn’t that he wasn’t capable, it’s that he missed his window to pass some people. And I think that can end up being a good thing for a guy. If they understand why it happens and they use that from January to March to understand how to come into an offseason to make sure you get ready right away because you never know when that time’s taken away where you can’t get ready.”

Have you guys reached out to teams about potentially trading for a wide receiver and is that something you’d be interested in exploring this offseason?

JL: “We’ll explore anything to make our football team better. I think we’ve shown that. You know, right now we’re going to together and we’re going to put together our plan like we do each and every year. And like I said, we’re open to anything that’s going to make our team better.”

John, how much will your cash spending be impacted by the dollars that came free, in essence, when you voided Brandon Aiyuk’s guarantees for the future? Does that have an impact on the models that you guys have put together and changing how you approach this offseason?

JL: “Yeah, of course it does. But you know, those things are complicated. With the cash that comes, there comes cap acceleration and things of that nature. But yes, it obviously does affect things.”

Kyle, in a season of up and downs, was there a turning point you think this season either could have gone south or went up? Maybe it was after Fred’s injury that the team kind of galvanized? Obviously, you went on a long winning streak and got in the playoffs. Do you feel there was a point where it could have broken either way?

KS: “Yeah, definitely. I thought it could right after losing Bosa, then we had a huge win with the Rams at the Rams. I want to say maybe the next week we lost a tough game to Tampa that I felt like we should have won, but we didn’t get it done and then we lost Fred in it, which was like the second impact that was like, ‘alright, can we overcome this?’ But the way we showed up the next week and beat Atlanta was a hell of a deal. I forget who it was after Atlanta, I think it might have been Houston, but we lost the next game. I always felt that every time we lost a game that this could be it if you lose two in a row, this could be tough. And then our team never did lose two in a row. And I thought that was one of the cooler things that I would tell to our guys a lot that I noticed with them. Whenever we did lose games, it’s not like we didn’t try our hardest in those games, but when you lose a game, guys always were like, ‘alright, what can we do to not make that happen again?’ It wasn’t more like, ‘alright that was their fault this week’ or ‘I did my job but that guy didn’t so that’s why we lost.’ You could just feel every time we lost a game this team was a little different. And the fact that we never lost two in a row, I think is what allowed us to do all that stuff. And what really allowed us to have a chance for the one seed and to get in the playoffs, and then stringing together some wins in a row, overcoming some of the turnovers we had versus Carolina in the first half and finding a way to still win that game. To go on the road and then beat Cleveland, which we knew was a good defense and if we were sloppy that they would be able to get us. To go to Monday up to Indy on Monday Night and play that way and then to find a way to beat the Bears and that shootout and then all of a sudden, not only have we not lost two in a row, but we’ve we strung together six in a row and we started the year out winning three in a row. Alright, that’s why we’re here. And now what are we going to do in these next couple weeks?”

Kyle, you’ve talked about the Seattle defensive system and that’s the one that has been toughest for you to go against. Is that still you want to stay with the Seattle system? I know you’re going to be talking to other people, but in your mind as you go into this, are you going to want to stay with the defensive scheme that’s been working for you?

KS: “Yeah. One, I don’t even know when you say Seattle system I think you mean when we first got here. A four-down front and a team that majored in cover-three. And I feel like that’s what’s left from that, that we major in a four-down front. It really hasn’t been that since 2019. It’s been totally different. But yeah, we haven’t been a three-four base or anything like that, but we had a lot of five-down fronts this year. There are teams that are three-four base that didn’t get into base the entire year. They were in nickel throughout the whole time. So, I think the semantics or stuff, the way you describe something like that I think is a little overrated. I think defenses need a little bit of everything. Yeah, we have a four-down front, that’s what we like to do. But, I thought it was important that we had five-down fronts this year. And we did put that in. I think it’s important that you do have a coverage that you can really settle on and know this is what we do the best, but if you don’t have four to five coverages that play off that it doesn’t matter how good you are at that coverage. That’s how this league works now. Offensive coaches know how to attack things too much and so you have to up the variables on what they know they’re going to get and that starts with front change, it starts with coverage change and it goes with personnel change. And I think we’ve done more of that each year and we’ll continue to have to do more of that.”

With the electrical substation, I assume you guys think there’s nothing to that, but you do have guys in your locker room who aren’t sure. Based on some stories there are people in the league who aren’t sure and maybe it’s a consideration if they want to come to the Niners. It kind of seems ridiculous, but is that something that you have to address in the locker room or address in some way because it seems like it could be easily debunked, but there’s a feeling at least in the locker room and around the league that maybe there’s something to it?

JL: “What I would tell you, because it deals with allegedly the health and safety of our players, I think you have to look into everything. So, our guys have been, we’ve been reaching out to anyone and everyone to see does a study exist other than a guy sticking an apparatus underneath the fence and by coming up with a number that I have no idea what that means. That’s what we know exists. We’ve heard that debunked. So yes, we will look into it. We have. The health and safety of our players is of the utmost priority. We pour into it. Our ownership, [CEO] Jed [York], tremendous in terms of resources and we’ll always be cognizant of things. I know that a lot of games have been won at this facility since it opened. We aren’t going to turn a blind eye. We’ll look into everything.”

Special teams, obviously a huge turnaround this year. With K Eddy Piñeiro, P Thomas Morstead, LS Jon Weeks, what are the prospects of bringing them back next year? With special teams coordinator Brant Boyer, is there anything that you learned from him this year and his contributions that will help sustain the success that the team saw on special teams?

KS: “First, hopefully we get all those guys back. We love those guys as people and they played their asses off. So, they played at a high level and we’d love to get them back. Brant, was my first year with him and it was cool to go through it with him. Brant is a no-nonsense guy, played in the league for a while and kind of has that respect of playing in the league and the way he made it as a 10-year linebacker/special teams guy. And he kind of carries that over to his coaching style. He’s not going to make it complicated. He’s going to make it all about the film, all about executing and doing your job on a consistent basis over and over and over again, which is to me what you want. You don’t want someone to come in and try to overly impress you with some gurued up special team stuff because yeah that can be good and stuff, but that’s rarely what it comes down to. And it was really cool to watch Brant from day one. What he preached is exactly what he was preaching on day 200 or whatever it was. It was the same stuff that he believed in, the same stuff he talked about when we interviewed him and the same stuff I hear him talk to players about every single day. And usually when you’re like that and you believe in something you’re going to get what you emphasize. And it was cool the players have bought into it.”

Mykel told us the other day he should be ready around training camp. Is that your understanding as well? How have you seen him handle this process as a rookie whose season did get cut short?

JL: “Yeah, that’s around the timeline. Mykel handled that just like everything else that he has. Kyle and I, I remember during the 30 visit, we knew the film inside and out. You want to try to get to know the person. And I think each of us there’s an ease with his presence. There’s a wisdom beyond the years. He’s tough. He’s got that dark side he can go to on the field. I know he was really upset, and you’ve got to be very cognizant of that with these young guys. They pour into this. When they get hurt it’s really hard on them. And it was really hard on Mykel, but he quickly snapped out of it. I think it’s not a good thing because we would prefer those guys to be healthy. But, the fact that he’s had Bosa and Fred around to kind of be in his ear and be mentored in a sense as they go through, their rehab together has been an awesome deal for him. He spoke to me on that the other day. He’s a worker and so he’s going to work tirelessly. Surgery went well and all that. Had to be patient up front, but now he’s really starting to crank and he’s going to do well. I know that.”

Do you expect any more changes either with people leaving with Saleh or decisions of your own to your staff? Would you like to get some continuity at the coordinator spot after this would be five in five years?

KS: “Yeah, I do expect Saleh to ask for some people. We’ll see how that goes here over the next two weeks. And I would love some continuity. I definitely don’t like doing this for the fifth year in a row. I really would like to go on vacation, but these D-Coordinators keep making me have my family wait and get mad at me for it. But it is what it is. We’ve had some real good coaches and I’m very happy for Saleh and his family that they got what they deserve. Wish it was maybe a year later because I would’ve loved to have Saleh for another year, also would’ve loved a Draft choice. But, it’s part of having good people around here, so we’ll find another good one. We have a lot of good guys in our building as we’ve talked about already and we’ll end up figuring out and being okay.”

What is your expectation for George Kittle’s sort of return timeline, knowing that even when guys return, they’re not usually 100-percent? How does that sort of affect how you approach the tight end position going into the offseason?

JL: “Yeah, again going to be careful with timelines. What I do know, right out of surgery, Dr. [Neal S] ElAttrache called and just went into great detail as to why it was a real success. And went into a lot of things. George talked to you right over my head, but the outcome was really good and there’s a lot of reason to be optimistic where the tear was and such. And so, he’s doing well. He’s already been around our team with that infectious personality. George was down for a little bit, but he’s already flipped the switch to recover. George will attack it in a great way. We’re very hopeful to have him back. I remember when I first started playing, you had an Achilles, and everybody’s like, ‘oh man, that’s tough. You’re never the same.’ That’s not the case anymore. I think like a lot of things, they’ve gotten much better at the surgeries, they’ve gotten much better and more aggressive in the rehab and how quickly you get after it. And I think that will be the case for George and we expect to have him back next year and a big impact like he always has been for us.”

Both of your special teamers that are 40 years old, they haven’t discussed wanting to retire and they are open to returning?

KS: “Yes.”

RB Jordan James, your running back. I know he was not up a lot because you traded for RB Brian Robinson Jr., but what did you see from him? Is he a guy that can be a legitimate backup for Christian?

KS: “Yeah, I’m real excited about Jordan James. Wish we could have gotten him in there more. He was ready to go here these last six weeks of the year, big time. There wasn’t an opportunity for him. But, if he has an offseason that we think he’s capable of and can improve, especially the way he looked here at the end of the year, I feel very excited about him helping us.”

Not sure how much you guys pay attention to the conversation of the window being open or the window closing, but given the youth on the team and how far you guys were able to make it with so many injuries this season, does it kind of offset that conversation about the championship window closing in the next couple of years or coming up soon? Does it not really have much of an affect in your mind?

KS: “Yeah, we don’t have that conversation that way. If I read more articles and had to debate them after I read an article, I would probably talk that way. People talked about that a lot last year and how many people we lost and everything like that. So, I really haven’t thought about windows or anything like that anymore. We’ve got a lot of good players on our team that were a part of teams that got real close to winning the Super Bowl a number of years ago. And each year it’s going to be a whole different deal. I’m proud to a degree of what we accomplished this year, but we didn’t accomplish what we totally want to accomplish. We’re going to try to accomplish that every year. Some years we’re going to have better chances than others. But, I struggle when people talk about windows and things like that because you’ve always got a shot, you’ve always got a shot to get in the playoffs and you’ve always got a chance to win a playoff game. It’s never the best of seven in a series. Your whole goal is to get to those playoffs regardless of what type of team you think you have and if you get there you’ve always got a shot.”

JL: “Yeah, I just echo that. We’ve got a core group of players that are outstanding players, outstanding workers. Are some of them are aging? Sure. But, they’re still playing really good football because they take tremendous care of themselves and they’re special people. And kind of like that mix of having those guys and then 11-person draft class where they’re all still here. And so that’s good. We’ve got to find a way to get better as a team. I do want to take the opportunity just to talk about, I was able to talk to the team as was Kyle, but the pride that I took from this year because I’ve never had a group, I’ve been around the league for a long time that I’m more proud of for their fight, for their resolve. They didn’t blink. I think and know that a large part of that’s the leadership Kyle displayed in projecting that and really believing that. We had a lot of belief in these guys when a lot of people didn’t and all they did was fight. We’ll be better for that moving forward and we get everyone back. It leaves you really excited about what’s to come.”

If you look around the NFL, there’s so much volatility with 10 coaching changes and GM changes. You guys are going into year 10 together. How much did you have to lean on that partnership this year to kind of get through it in terms of John, you bringing guys in and Kyle coaching up all these new guys with your staff? How much longer are you guys going to do this together?

KS: “That’s what’s easy with working with John. We don’t have to sit there and make much up or sit here and decide how I’m going to act before I go into a meeting room or anything. I pretty much can act the same way with him in a meeting about free agency or the draft as I would having dinner with him at his house or something. When there’s not layers between things it allows you to just speak and give people a chance to get better from what everyone says and whether it’s right or wrong. And I think that’s how we’ve been since our first week together and it’s cool that it’s 10 years later and that hasn’t really changed. That’s to me why we bet I think more on each other as people before we knew how we would be. And I think that bet has worked out for both of us really well.”

JL: “I would just add that I think that’s every year that you rely on that. It’s a difficult business. You talked about all the moves out there and I always stop and understand that with every one of those moves there’s a number of families that are affected. It’s not just the coach. It’s his kids who are going to school, it’s all of that. There’s players, there’s staff. And so, that is never lost on us. I love the stability. I’ll also tell you that I’m more fired up than ever to get this thing, while I’m proud of this team, we have higher standards and we’ve knocked on the door for a long time here and came here to do one thing and that’s win championships. So, I’m never going to stop striving for that. I love working with Kyle and his staff and we constantly challenge ourselves, challenge each other to be better and that won’t stop.”

Brandon is a guy that you guys made a big investment into. And I know Kyle, you said that after his injury it was tough to get him in here and get involved, but it’s kind of an unprecedented move for him to forfeit that kind of money. Have you been able to determine why he was so upset, why wasn’t he showing up and any background you can give on that?

JL: “I wish I knew. I can’t help you there. Sorry.”

Has there been a line of communication with him?

KS: “There was, but not anymore.”

At what point did that snap?

KS: “Well, when I’m coaching, I don’t hang out in the training room at all. So, I don’t see guys much that way. But, I’d say it officially stopped for me when the last time I tried to get ahold of him and couldn’t and then tried a couple more times and still couldn’t, and then that matched everyone else that was trying to get ahold of him and couldn’t. And eventually there’s not much of an explanation because it’s really hard for us and anyone else to understand. That’s why it’s something I’ve never seen in 22 years of coaching. So, it’s unfortunate and it’s confusing because it’s confusing for all of us. But it eventually becomes it is what it is. You try as hard as you can to fix something that you don’t understand, but it’s not like we understand it very well still. But, eventually you understand that it’s not going to change and you’ve got to move on with your football team, which is always the most important thing.”