Run Game Coordinator/Offensive Line Chris Foerster Press Conference

Run Game Coordinator/Offensive Line Chris Foerster

Press Conference – December 27, 2024

San Francisco 49ers

With all the injuries, has it been a challenge for you, as far as just trying to figure out how the pieces fit?

“Well, it’s been a challenge. But last week was the first time, I mean, believe me, I’ve been in a few games where we finished with a tight end at tackle, so it’s happened before, where you lose two or three players in game. Just to lose three players that are pretty much out, out that’s the hard part. So three guys that were starting on a team that already had guys down. Right now, if you took the guys that are, and I’m not sure of everybody’s status, but you got [T] Trent [Williams], [OL Jon] Feliciano, [OL Spencer] Burford, [OL Jaylon] Moore and [OL Aaron] Banks, that’s a starting lineup. Some of you would’ve been lobbying that being a starting lineup this season. So again, it’s a pretty good group of guys and unfortunately they’re down. It’s a challenge for me, but it’s a great opportunity for the guys. The way I look at it is, you’ve got guys right now, they’re going to get in the lineup to have an opportunity to show what they can do. Guys that normally wouldn’t get a chance to play, get a chance to play. Guys that get a chance to be exposed to the whole league and show that they can compete at a very high level against a really good football team. Even though the season for us isn’t, we’re not playing for spots in the playoffs and things like that, but it’s still a very, very important game for those players, for all of us to continue to put forward good film and set our best foot forward going forward. So I’m really excited for the guys, and I look at it as a challenge. Obviously, you want to have your best players out there, the best five. I feel really, really badly for the guys that are hurt. I think Banks is going to be okay. I was just so really, really distraught to think that he might have had a long-term knee injury and it seems like it’s something that won’t be as long-term. We’ll keep our fingers crossed on that. So yeah, challenging is a good word but encouraged and excited, really, for the guys to get the opportunity to go out there and compete and see how they can perform against a really good football team.”

In all the contingency plans that I’m sure you’re going through, is keeping OL Dominick Puni at right guard and OL Jake Brendel at center, are they locked in or is that something where you may have to move those?

“I’m trying to lock them in, yeah, because you’re trying to have as consistent play as you can from the two positions. You don’t want to make it more inconsistent. You like to move as few pieces as you can. So at least those pieces stay the same. And then we’re plugging in three guys around them”

Head coach Kyle Shanahan mentioned yesterday that you guys have had your eye on OL Matt Hennessy for a little while. What do you like about him? How long have you been following him?

“Well, the draft, obviously. The one good thing with Coach Shanahan and what we’ve done here is that we’ve always been very involved in the draft with [president of football operations/general manager] John [Lynch] and the personnel department. And so you’ve done, you always have a big list of guys. I don’t remember if I did Matt when I was here, or I was somewhere, I don’t remember when Matt, I don’t remember Matt’s year off the top of my head. But I remember talking with [Miami Dolphins head coach Mike] McDaniel about him and talking with Kyle. We all kind of looked at him and said, ‘Man, we really like this guy.’ It’s like when [Minnesota Vikings OL Garrett] Bradbury came out, the kid in Minnesota, same thing, a good fit for our system, a good player for our system. And Matt was that player. We really had high hopes for him. They took him in Atlanta, he was a good fit for them, but then they drafted another good fit, which was [Atlanta Falcons OL Drew] Dalman from Stanford. And then they put him at center, they moved Matt to guard. Matt’s more of a center than a guard, so whatever’s happened with his crew then. So it’s really exciting and because of the putting guys on IR, we’re able to claim, you’re not necessarily getting guys off waivers that are tryout players, you’re getting draft picks. [OL] Charlie Heck was a pick, Matt Hennessy was a pick. You’re getting some guys in here that are legitimate. They were drafted players with high stock in the draft. So Matt’s been a guy that we’ve always liked, is a good fit for us. And meeting him, I have not been disappointed at all. He is a good fit.”

You may have been asked this before through the years, if TE George Kittle were to have gained weight, probably a substantial amount of weight, could he have been a really good offensive lineman?

“Good question. George has a character trait that doesn’t lend to offensive line play sometimes. He’s a wild man, he’s crazy, he’s fighting. I’m not saying offensive lineman, just like D-Lineman do, an O-Lineman, there’s just a little bit of a calmer, there’s a lot going on. There’s a lot, there’s a little bit more thinking. And George is a very smart football player, I’m not saying that at all. I think George would be, George could have been a good offensive lineman. You would’ve had to corral him in a lot though. He loves to block. He’s a physical player. Obviously, he would’ve to put on a lot of weight to do that. But he definitely has the great block skills and a great attitude about being a good blocker. It’s really important to him.”

When he doesn’t play, how big a deal is that to the run game?

“Big, really big. And our, we filled in, obviously, behind him but they’re not, I’d say, last year when [Atlanta Falcons TE] Charlie [Woerner] was here, Charlie was much more of a blocking tight end. And we filled in now and our other guys aren’t as much of blocking tight ends. So George really holds up his end of the deal on that. The other guys are more move guys and do a nice job with all that. They’re more apt to be able to line up in the backfield and do that, where Charlie was less likely to do that, where Charlie was more of an inline and true Y type player if you’re gonna categorize him in any certain way. So it makes a big difference if George isn’t out there.”

The discussion this week is, with the offensive line in flux, how do you protect QB Brock Purdy? How much does Brock have to help your guys out as well? Because they’re so new to this, or some of them will be so new.

“Yeah. And obviously this week is, we’ve got a huge challenge in front of us with the team coming in, a great football team, a good defense. And as I’ve said before, I think sacks, pressures, hits, it’s a team thing. That sounds like the line coach deferring, and I’ve told the story before that I got chewed out for it by [former NFL coach] Monte Kiffin a long time ago, I’m not deflecting. We have our responsibility, but so does, ‘Hey, the ball should have been thrown on the first hitch. The ball should have been thrown as soon as his back foot hit. The first read was open or the first read busted.’ So Brock had nowhere to go with the ball, so then he has to try to get to three, four, five and then the pocket breaks down. Well is that the pocket? Is it the first receiver who would’ve been wide open but busted? Was it the quarterback misses the read? It’s a hot throw, he gets sacked. Do you see what I’m saying? It’s endless as to what could happen in a play. And then all of a sudden, a ball gets tipped and there’s an interception. So all those things fit together to say, whose fault is it? Every play stands alone. It’s really hard to say. Obviously, when a guy gets beat one-on-one, we all can see that he gets beat and he sacks the quarterback or hits the quarterback and causes a problem. So it’s a team goal always. And I’d say this week it’s imperative that everybody else be on point to pick up the slack or we do things to possibly help the guys on the edges if we can, the new guys we have starting throughout the line.”

How much discussion do you and Kyle have before that of Kyle asking you what are you guys capable of? What can I call?

“He’s very aware, so he rarely comes to me and asks. He knows the situation. The question may be more like can we hold up at all? Are we going to — no, I’m joking. It’s not that. Kyle’s very aware of what the situation is and Kyle’s very aware of the situation, what we have up front and what we’re trying to get done. But I’d say the guys that we have in there are obviously, [OL] Nick Zakelj has been here for a reason, he’s a backup and he’ll get his chance to start. We have Hennessy in here, who is learning quickly. Charlie Heck, [OL] Austen [Pleasants] at left tackle. We’ve got some guys in here that have played a little bit of football. And we feel pretty good with [OL Colton] McKivitz and then Puni and Jake’s still there. So, it’s not easy. We’ve definitely lost a lot of players. I couldn’t have felt better about the group we had coming into the season. I said it before, I think we had nine legitimate starters on our football team, nine guys that were starters in the NFL, in my opinion. And that’s really, that was a good depth to have and to think that that depth has been blown out of the water and we now have five guys sitting over there that aren’t going to probably play again, although there’s still some questions on some of those guys, that’s a lot of guys. But that doesn’t matter. And nobody, like I say all the time, the film is going to go up, whenever this game’s played, Monday Night Football in front of the world, we’ll play the game, it’ll be what it’ll be, win, lose or draw. And then you go up there in a month or so, everybody’s going to be evaluating film around the league and everybody’s going to look at that film and they’re not going to care what is what. They’re going to look at each guy individually. They’re going to look at his ability, they’re going to look at his talent, look if he blocked the guy, who didn’t and nobody’s going to care about the situation. Nobody’s going to care who was healthy, who wasn’t, when you got there, what you did, they’re just going to evaluate you as the player you are that day. And so it’s kind of unforgiving that way. You’ve got to go out and put your best foot forward and I’ve got to give them a chance. I’ve got to give them a chance to, we’ve all got to piece this thing together to find a way to win a game with less than. I remember we were in Tampa, we could not beat Green Bay for life of us. It was a really good team. And we were a decent playoff team too in Tampa at the time. And we finally played them in Tampa and beat them and it wasn’t because it was a hot day, it was a night game or 4:15pm kickoff, something like that. And we had three backups on the offensive line that that day starting. They’d been on our team all year, that’s different than guys that showed up this week, but three backups. That was the first time we beat them in like six tries. It was fun, it was unbelievable. And how we got it done, it was crazy how it got done, but it got done. And I’m not predicting anything this week. I’m just saying that I’ve been on a team before where you played with backups and you somehow managed. Everything clicked right. You got the ball out of your hand, you threw it on time, did what you were supposed to do. And the guys got in the way long enough for us to get it done and be productive enough now. The runners had to make plays, the quarterbacks, receivers had to make plays, but the guys were able to hang in there. And it was, funny story was the one time we beat them and like the first six tries.”