Run Game Coordinator/Offensive Line Chris Foerster Press Conference

Run Game Coordinator/Offensive Line Chris Foerster

Press Conference – January 2, 2025

San Francisco 49ers

It seems like the makeshift line that you talked about last week, did some pretty good things against Detroit. Would you agree?

“I’d agree. Yeah. It was a good night for us. Throwing the ball is sometimes easier than running it. There’s not as much precision needed sometimes. We were able to get in their way. The guys did a great job. The good thing was we were converting on first and second downs. We didn’t have a lot of third downs, a couple third downs, got a little bit loose, but converting. [Head coach] Kyle [Shanahan] did a great job of calling the game in a way that took the pressure off the linemen. And when they did have to do it, they held up decently. I was really proud of the guys and had kind of platooned the left tackle position with [OL Charlie] Heck and [OL] Austen [Pleasants] and they did a nice job over there, [OL Nick] Zakelj, they held their own. It was one week game. We had a big game. It was against a really good opponent. The the downside is we didn’t come away with the win and it’s disappointing. The guys did hold up their end of the deal, but we have to work a little bit better to get the win this week.”

Kyle said he’s never had a guy from another practice squad come in and start for him. Have you had that situation?

“No, never have. It was unusual to have a guy that was on practice squad. The good thing was he was with Houston for the majority of the last year or so, and I don’t remember the exact dates he was there and left, but he really had a good understanding of the system. So that helped him. But Austen hadn’t, and he hadn’t been in Houston all year. He’d been in Arizona on their practice squad. So Charlie Heck had a good recollection of it. But yeah, it’s the first time that’s ever happened for me too.”

OL Dominick Puni started every game this season for you, which is pretty rare for a rookie to do. Do you see him staying at right guard in his career or where do you see him kind of having success down the road?

“We always saw him as a guard. When we drafted him, we kind of thought he’d be a guard. We started him over at the right side because we felt where [OL] Aaron [Banks] was and we talked at times, but then when [OL] Spencer [Burford] got hurt and he took over the right guard spot during training camp, he just excelled. And so I don’t see him moving. There’d be no reason to move the guy. I’ve always had him in the back of my mind as potentially, a fourth tackle. But I don’t think that’s his best position. I do think guard is, and he’s proven that. He’s done a nice job there through the year. I just said it’s been the longest year of his life. And I might have said it before, but I’ll repeat myself because I’m old and I get that luxury. When you think about his season, it started his senior year of college, right? Whatever he did leading up to that, whatever they do in college, all their summer workouts. So whatever that was a year ago, July. Then as soon as his season’s over, Draft prep and the Combine, then the Draft, then Rookie Mini Camp, then the 17-game season. And here he is, 18 months after he started his senior season at Kansas without really a break. The little bit of break in July that we get but for the rookies, it’s not much. So he legitimately has hit a wall and not a bad wall from a standpoint of he’s been playing terribly, but it was really hard to stay focused and he did it, which is why so many rookies don’t start every game.”

Puni said he was feeling physically pretty good, but he’s emotionally a little tired?
“It’s just the emotion and that’s what is. You have to stay on point to be sharp every week. There’s no let up in the detail. It doesn’t matter how talented you are, the details will get you if you’re not on every little thing. Like the Rams game, there was some stuff they did that we talked about that I’m mad got him because we talked about it all week and it got us the first two passes and it was hard. Physically, I know during the season, t was funny, I said to him, ‘hey Dom, what do you do on the off day?’ He goes, ‘nothing coach.’ He said, ‘I come in on Monday after playing a full game. I throw some weights around the weight room and I feel great.’ I said, ‘well, that’s not going to be the same in about three years.’ So I told him, ‘you need to start getting into routine.’ And he did. He started going to the regen. He started all the things you can do, the acupuncture, massage whatever they can do, with [director of functional performance] Elliot [Williams] stretching and things like that. And he did it all as the season went on. So I think he’s young, so he probably isn’t going to hurt a lot, but he does have that. He started a process of learning how to be a pro.”

In your mind between left and right guard, do you want your best guard to be playing on the left side or does it not matter?

“Don’t think it matters that much. In the middle it doesn’t matter as much. I don’t think I’d switch if he were our best guard, say for example, in a year, if he’s our best guard, I’d still leave him on the right side. It doesn’t really matter. Sometimes the right guard positions put a little more, sometimes you’re naturally more of a right-handed team, which tends to be some ways you slide left more and the right guard’s more one-on-ones. But that’s random. That’s a random comment. I don’t know that would matter that much. Everybody says the tackles don’t matter and they pay them like it doesn’t matter because that’s what the market says. That’s just market value. Just because a Camry costs one thing and a Benz costs another, even if they were the same cost, one is still a Camry and one is still a Benz. It doesn’t matter what the market says they’re worth. If my back’s to the quarterback, that matters to me. That is worth more that I can see this issue. I can’t see. So that blindside theory, I don’t want to get into that. That’s a whole other discussion blindside. They had some issues with that, but yeah, blindside, I think it is the difference at tackle, guard.”

OL Aaron Banks is entering kind of an important offseason for him. How would you assess how he’s performed over the last four years here and how do you value him moving forward?

“I love Aaron Banks as a person. I loved him the minute we drafted him. I thought he is an outstanding guy. He works his tail off every single day. He’s always looking to get better. He was up and down with some injuries, in and out and this year he had just a tough start to camp. Aaron Banks got better. Working every single year, he worked a little bit harder. He came here, we had weight issues with him. We had to keep his weight down. He went away for summer and came back heavy. We had to get his weight down and he had the injury in the preseason game. And then all of a sudden, by the time you’re in years three and four, the guy’s getting better. And yeah, he still has some of the things that some players that never goes away. [T] Trent [Williams] has things that he did his rookie year that I’ve been correcting him since 2010 that still are there. So that’s every player. It’s just to what degree, I’ve loved Aaron Banks. I think he’s an excellent football player. He has some development to do still. He’s still got some work to do and to make it through seasons consistently, which he’s done a good job of that. But there’s still some things that we can correct, but I think he’s improved. That’s the biggest thing I could say about Aaron. And I love the guy, just love the guy.”

You have three new linemen in this room OL Matt Hennessy and Heck and Pleasants. You’ve just seen them in the game and now some practices. Is there anything about those three guys that stands out to you?

“Yeah, Heck has the movement skills. He’s a very fluid athlete, very smooth and shows a lot of the movement skills that are good obviously for protection on the edge and also in our run game. So he has some of those good skills. Hennessy is a real good scheme fit for us at center and guard. One of those more, I don’t want to say undersized, but a guy that’s a little more, like a [OL Jake] Brendel quicker and twitchier and things like that. He’s got a lot of that in his body. And then Pleasant’s a really big guy that will have to work hard in our system to be a great fit. But he did. I left him in at the end of the game. I was really close to pulling between he and Heck because Pleasants had the unfortunate play being downfield for no reason. And so I was mad at him and like, I said, ‘you thought it was a run?’ He goes, ‘no, I knew it was a pass.’ He said, ‘no, you thought it was a run. You were down.’ He didn’t, but, so then the next series I left him in and because he was anchoring good. He is a big dude, man. And when 99 [Detroit Lions DL Za’Darius Smith] and some of those guys started to push him, he could sit it down where Charlie has to work a little bit more on that. So they all bring a little dimension to it. Scheme fits a little bit more Heck and Hennessy than Pleasants.”

You’ve liked Zakelj as a center. He played guard these last two games. How’s he done there, and moving forward, is he showing you that he can be a guy who comes in at either spot perhaps next season?

“When he played guard in the preseason, we gave him start against, I think it was New Orleans. He had a very good game, which he made the team on that game and kind of beat [OL Ben] Bartch out as the backup center/guard. And then when he got his opportunity this year, got in a game, started a game against the Detroit Lions on a big stage in a big game. They came and played it as hard as they could. And we played as hard as we could. And he did well. I’m not ready to crown him as a guy that’s a potential starter, but he’ll have a really good chance to compete. And he’s earned that right to compete because of how well he played at center. He did really well at center in the preseason as well. I think it’s not his natural position. Both positions, he really has to work himself into solidifying both of them. He’s got to get stronger. He’s got a lot of development to do still, but how can you argue, he played well when he’s had an opportunity.”

He’s not natural as a center?

“Yeah, he was a tackle in college. Center’s been a stretch for him, but I had to give him, between him and Bartch, the way it played out with [OL Jon] Feliciano being the starter, we were trying to find another center to develop. And that’s why I gave him the chance because mentally he’s really smart. He was not quite as twitchy as you’d want for a center, but I said, I got to give him a chance and he found a way. Feliciano came up with a term. He said he’s got like a ‘wonky leg’ like wonky legs through – like somehow, some way instead of like an athlete accelerates through and gets to the next level. Zakelj kind of wonkies through there, but he gets the job done. And that’s a Feliciano term. So we’ve kind of kept it that. He wonkies his way through at center.”