Run Game Coordinator/Offensive Line Chris Foerster Press Conference

Run Game Coordinator/Offensive Line Chris Foerster

Press Conference – September 19, 2024

San Francisco 49ers

Head coach Kyle Shanahan talked about how different the preparation is without former DL Aaron Donald on the Los Angeles Rams, who becomes your focal point on that Rams defensive front?

“I think they’ve got a good front regardless. [Los Angeles Rams DL Kobie Turner] 91 is kind of the heir apparent if there is a guy that assumes that position. He’s a good player, really a guy that wreaked lot of havoc last year and is doing the same this year. You can’t put anybody in Aaron Donald’s place. There just isn’t that focal point. It isn’t the same. You’re playing a good defense. They’ve got a lot of good rushers. They’re two edge guys are probably the best rushers, 91’s a good rusher. They’ve got three very good rushers, [Los Angeles Rams DL Michael Hoecht] 97’s a good rusher. They do a good job with their front five guys that rush the passer. And again, their second level players are good as well. When people ask me about voting for Hall of Fame players, I’ve got a couple guys I know and they say, here’s the list of this year’s candidates. Who would you put on? I say if you have to make a game plan around a guy, he’s probably Hall of Fame worthy. If you don’t, eh, he’s probably a really good player and he might get in the Hall of Fame and deservedly so. I’m saying when you talk about a guy that you have to game plan, that’s what Aaron Donald was. The whole game plan it feels like we’re not even getting ready to play the Rams this week because it’s just been so much emphasis has put on him all this time. So there really isn’t a guy to replace him. When he is gone, you just have to make sure that you have to take care of your business, but it’s a little more balanced of an approach.”

Last week they made it to QB Brock Purdy a few times in Minnesota. From your point of view, what did you see going wrong last week and how did you guys kind of focus on the adjustment?

“There were too many pressures. Believe me, you guys know, we’ve got to do a better job. I say that whether we win or lose, we’ve got to do a better job upfront. Anytime there’s that many sacks in the game, usually there’s a lot to go around. The passing game starts and ends, obviously the offensive line has to do their part, running backs and tight ends have to do their part. It’s just as much a product of the pass game, where we have to run the right routes to the right depths. Is the quarterback able to make the right reads? Is he making the right reads? Is he throwing the ball in time? If he doesn’t do those things, if the ball isn’t coming out, if the line isn’t protecting, then it’s just adds one more layer. So let’s say Brock misses a read, I’m not saying how many he did or didn’t. I’m not going to go into all that. But let’s say he misses a read and goes, ‘oh, I should have gone.’ He goes back there. Well, that’s that second hitch, and then all of a sudden, hey, [OL Dominick] Puni’s a little loose or [OL Colton] McKivitz is. If you’re throwing the ball on time, nobody would’ve even noticed a play. But he holds a little bit longer. The receiver busts a route or it’s a hot and we miss the hot. Then there’s the line. And then we had to play in the game where [TE] George [Kittle] released through the line of scrimmage and picked [OL] Jake Brendel and a guy looped around. The guy that Jake was supposed to block couldn’t block him because George was between them. And it just happens. It’s football. There’s a lot of that going on. Some of it was a product of the Vikings that are a really good defensive front. They do an excellent job of prepping how to rush a quarterback and to get after you. And some of it was us. Some of it was the crowd noise, no excuses. We’ve got to do a better job. We’ve handled noise better. We’ve handled rush fronts like these guys better. We’ve been sharper. But we weren’t sharp overall in the passing game, it starts and ends with the offensive line. We’ve got to do a better job, a hundred percent. I’m glad you brought it up. And secondly, I do think it’s always going to be a group effort. And I got chewed out once by the late Great [former NFL coach] Monte Kiffin when I was in Tampa and I made that point. He said, ‘hey, hey, hey.’ And Monte always animated, ‘hey, hey.’ He goes, ‘hey, don’t cop out like that. You’ve got to take responsibility.’ I said, ‘well Monte, I’m just being honest. It wasn’t all us.’ He goes, ‘yeah but you look like you’re pointing the finger’ and I’m not pointing the finger, so I want to make sure God rest in peace, Monte, I’m not blaming anybody else. It’s our fault. We’ve got to do better. But it is a group effort. Everything has to come together. Can I tell one more story real quick? I’m sorry. We were here in 2015, it was an epic season. [Former NFL coach] Jim Tomsula’s one season here. And we went in to do an offensive meeting and we talked pass protections and my assistant had never coached the NFL. He goes, ‘we’re going to have a good year pass pro, man. We’re going to do a good job.’ I said, ‘dude, let’s just wait until the next part of the meeting.’ Got the next part of the meeting, they talked about the routes and it was the quarterback coach, the tight end coach, the receiver coach, running back coach. And nobody’s fault, they’d never worked together. So it was the most disjointed pass game. And I looked and I said, ‘bro, we’re giving up 50 sacks this year. There is no way. It doesn’t matter how well we block them, it’s going to take a long time to get this all tied together.’ And we were uncertain at quarterback, receiver, it was all over the board. We weren’t very good. We got fired at the end of the season as a result of it. We couldn’t throw the football. And it’s the way it goes. So there’s just so many pieces to it.”

You’ve been around a lot of great, legendary players. There’s a lot of really great players on this team. They seem to be kind of stressed, maybe anxiety and it could come across as almost a lack of confidence, which is weird because they’re really great but tied to wanting to maintain the standard, staying elite. Is there any sort of common thread with the mindset of really great players and never being like ‘yeah I’ve got this?’

“Really great players. [RB] Christian’s [McCaffrey] unique. I mentioned Christian, I think Christian’s a really great player. Christian operates at a high anxiety level. There are other good ones. The great ones I’ve coached, they’re not anxious, they’re not uptight. [Former QB] Peyton Manning was uptight and anxious, but he was anxious about everything. His whole life was that. He is very organized and manicured, very well kept that way. The great players I’ve been around are more like [T] Trent [Williams], [former NFL OL] Jonathan Ogden. They were good at what they did. They were confident in what they did. They get beat. I’ll never forget when Trent got beat by [former LB] Aldon Smith one year in Washington. We were playing against the Niners and Aldon beat him and he goes, ‘Aldon Smith’s a good player. He’s going to beat you.’ No harm no foul. Right? Great corners, right? You have to have that mentality of, ‘if I get beat on a go ball, okay, fine, you beat me once. You’re not going to beat me again.’ The high anxiety guys aren’t usually the very productive players. So it’s just the opposite of what you’re asking. There’s a level of a great deal of confidence because they’re good at what they do. They have a lot of belief in themselves. They’ve had a lot of reps to back all that. It’s the guys that are trying to get to that level. They’re all different. Everybody kind of operates from their own personality. But usually I see it the opposite.”

What was your perception of the play where Minnesota Vikings LB Blake Cashman kind of ricocheted up Trent and got the quarterback and they were playing some kind of a game up front. What did you think of that play? Was there a miscommunication between OL Aaron Banks and Williams?

“No, but it’s Trent. Trent turned too quick and the guy ran a pick stunt. It’s a very common thing that happens. It was a byproduct of what happened. We had a very similar protection earlier and Trent set really good and did a good job on his guy. There’s another guy free and it forced kind of the one where Purdy got sacked. He kind of just backed into it and the whole thing kind of collapsed around him. There was that sack. There’s a lot to remember. But anyway, kind of collapsed in around him and that next. So Trent was feeling like, well I can’t set his vertical because he felt like that was his problem. It wasn’t. Purdy kind of ran into Trent. Well, the next time we got a third down, Trent said, ‘I got to go set wider.’ And it’s the exact thing you can’t do when they run that pick game because Banks can’t necessarily get his hands on a guy just by the angles and what it is. So Trent has to. I say you have to protect yourself from that pick and you have to. It’s harder when it comes from depth, you don’t see it as quickly. And it came and Trent flipped his hips too soon, which we did the whole game. We did a lot of things too much that caused the problem. But it’s good, like I said, I’m glad it happened Week Two and not Week 12. That’s something to build on and happened. But that’s a hundred percent. That’s on Trent. He’s got to feel it. He’s got to see it. It’s a good game by them, not pointing a finger. Trent’s got to see that and Banks maybe could have helped. But I don’t think Banks could helped much on that one.”

Shanahan said putting Christian on IR is a bit of protecting him from himself a little bit so that he’s sort of forced to rest. Was that difficult for him to do until he went on IR not be out there testing the Achilles?

“Yeah, I think it kills every guy that can’t practice. It really does. I think they want to be out there. They want to compete. They want be able to contribute to the team. Standing on the sideline and watching, it kills them. It just does. Then you have to go through the process of getting better. And the great thing is, like I said, 17 games and hopefully you can be good enough to play beyond that. You got to get yourself ready for the long haul and if you’re not ready, you got to do what it takes to get yourself ready. Hurrying back before you’re ready, whatever the reasons, it’s really difficult. It’s hard for all the guys. Christian in particular because he’s a guy that wants to be out there and wants to be working.”

You’re not necessarily involved in the pass game part of it. But with the tight ends in George’s situation right now, what’s your comfort level with TE Eric Saubert and TE Jake Tonges?

“I’ve always been the next guy up kind of guy. The second you start worrying about a guy and we don’t have this guy and this guy steps in and that guy goes and has the best game of the whole. I’ve had it before. We’ve got five offensive linemen. On game day, a guy wakes up with a fever and he can’t play and you put the other guy in there and shoot the four other guys play terrible. The one guy you were worried about has the game of his life. You just don’t realize it. So you got to assume the other guys are there for a reason. They prepped. They’ve done their job. Obviously, George Kittle’s a great player. Whatever George’s status is, I don’t know what it’s going to be, playing, not playing if the other guys have to step up a little bit more, a lot more, whatever it is. Or maybe George is there all day? But the point of it is, that I think those guys have all prepped to do it and this is their opportunity. I think guys see it like that when all of a sudden, ‘okay, this is my chance. This is my op.’ And when you get those ops, sometimes they really shine.”

My perception is that Brendel might have struggled when I watched all 22. I might be wrong. But you have a lot of centers here. You’re obviously going with him. He’s the starter. Why is he better than your other options at center?

“Well, first of all, he had a better game than he did the first game. Everybody did for the most part, hard to believe with the sack production and things like that. But we did take a step forward in a lot of ways. I think some of the bad plays stood out and so that’s it. Right now he’s a much better option, quickness, intelligence, experience, one-on-one pass blocking ability, ability to finish in the run game on the second level. His ability to snap off on double teams. I just listed off about seven or eight things there that he’s better than [OL Ben] Bartch. He’s better than [OL Nick] Zakelj. He’s better than [OL Drake] Nugent. He’s better than a lot of players, as to why he was an alternate last year at the Pro Bowl level because he does have a lot of those traits that do those things. He’s never perfect like all of us. Every year’s different and we got to work our way into this year and see. Maybe some of these issues that we’ve seen willstick around, maybe they won’t. We’ll have to see.”

With RB Jordan Mason looking as good as he has through the first couple weeks. When you guys are running zone, for a younger player like RB Isaac Guerendo, what are some of the challenges of just adapting to this scheme? How can you as a coach kind of expedite that when you guys are forced to dole out carries that normally would go to Christian if he was healthy?

“It’s really hard. You just have to coach me. You have to have the right kind of guys that can learn on the fly. They can watch other people and learn without taking the reps. He’s doing some of the things. Mas [RB Jordan Mason] had some problems early, when he was getting carries. One of the primary things in zone running is they want to take the ball and cut back too soon. It happened to all our guys in the game and there’s a reason we call it you got to press the line of scrimmage. When you’re zone running, when you’re double teaming on the line of scrimmage, the runner has to keep pressing the double teams to bring those second level defenders so you can zone to block them. If he cuts back too quick while we’re double teaming, the linebacker just goes, ‘oh, I’m going to go make the play.’ The runner’s tied completely together with the line. And so if you don’t press the line of scrimmage or can’t press the line of scrimmage because there’s a whiff and somebody’s in the backfield immediately, we can’t block second level defenders and Isaac’s run, he cut back entirely too quick. But sometimes you get the ball and you see this hole, you’re like, I got to go. No, not yet. And it takes reps, patience, to press the line of scrimmage and get to those holes and eventually they do open up. But you have to have that patience and that’s hard to get. But you just have watch it, you have to study it out here in practice, we have to do it. [Running backs coach] Bobby [Turner Jr.] drills it in his drill work, but there’s nothing like those live reps. But Mason was the same way. You can see their helmet stripe. When we watch the all 22, as soon as they get the ball, if they go like this [turns head], not if you’re running an outside zone, they’re looking too soon. You got to press and then that hole will appear. But if you see that helmet stripe, go there, nine times out of 10, they don’t go press where they should. And all of a sudden, we can’t get to that second level of defenders to block again. There’s a lot to it. It’s not as simple as that. If it were, I don’t know what would happen, but it’s not that simple.”