Kyle Shanahan discusses Garnett injury, 49ers roster following preseason finale

So that QB draw you called with QB C.J. Beathard?

"Yes, that's exactly how I drew it up. I probably yelled to get down seven times during the play, and he kept going. It was awkward to watch but it was a cool play to see."

So in a game like this why don't you give QB Matt Barkley any playing time?

"I sat Matt down after the Minnesota game. We know what Matt can do. We've seen Matt a lot. We've seen him in this league before. We've seen him in practice. There's nothing Matt could've done in that game to change our feeling on him. I needed to see more of C.J. We also wanted to see [QB] Nick [Mullens]. We haven't given Nick a chance to play. I didn't want him to just get in in the 4th quarter when pretty much we were just running the ball anyway. I wanted him to start the 3rd, and we thought C.J. needed more time to play"

Have you decided who your backup QB is yet?

"Yes, we decided. But I'm going to deal with that tomorrow."

Are you going to keep three QBs?

"I don't know yet. We'll see that tomorrow."

What's tomorrow? Everything?

"Tomorrow we're going to try to do everything. We're trying to get it down. I know there will be some that happen Saturday. You never can do it all. A lot of this stuff is going to go into play. I would love to keep three quarterbacks. That's going to be a hard debate. Not about the quarterback position, but how we look at the rest of the roster."

You have final say so--?

"I do. But, I don't have final say on keeping 70 people. We have to figure out how to get it to 53."

What do you like about G Laken Tomlinson and where do you see him fitting in?

"We brought him in to help us out at guard. We know we're going to have a decision here to make with [G] Josh [Garnett]. Which we're going to do here over the weekend. We know it's going to be one of those type of IRs. That's something we got to sit down with Josh and talk more about, which I'd like to do more tomorrow; and the doctors. We know we wanted to get a guard in here that has played. We saw him coming out of college. He's a guy who definitely has a lot of talent. Hasn't reached it all yet in this league. But, want to give him a new start and we think he can come in here and help us."

Is there potential for Josh to be on season ending IR?

"Yeah, it's potential. It's going to be one of those two. We've got to go through and talk about a lot of it. I haven't got a chance to talk to Josh personally. So, we're going to talk about the different options and what it means to him this year, what it means to him next year and all that. We'll discuss that tomorrow."

What exactly did he need repaired in the knee?

"I'm not sure exactly what it is."

Was it an ACL though?

"No. I would know it, if it was something normal. It's something different that my education is not there. We had to clean some stuff up in there and we know how long it takes to heal. But, it's how long it takes to recover. Those are the things you're not exactly sure about that we need to discuss what our options are. We'll find out tomorrow."

RB Joe Williams has had some fumbling issues. He had a big one. How big a mark against him is that right now?

"That's always a big mark. If you can't hold onto the ball it's very tough to play in this league. He's had a few of them so that definitely is alarming. Something that we have to get fixed. Wish he could've stayed back in the game more. He hurt his ankle a little bit there at the end, so we had to get him out."

WR Victor Bolden has two returns for TDs, is that enough to get him on the roster?

"Just returning two isn't just enough. It's got to be everything else that you do. I know they were two real good plays. But, it has to do with everything else also. How much can he help us out at receiver? Is he the punt returner? Is he the kick returner? What else can he do if he isn't? And again, what does the 53 look like?"

How about CB Asa Jackson, how did he look tonight? What's his chances?

"I think he's right there with everyone. Just to help you guys, I have too much respect for all the guys in there to get too much into predicting for you guys who's going to be on and off the team tomorrow. I'm hoping I'm going to get a chance to meet with all of them. All the guys that we decided to let go. Tomorrow's really a day off for our players. We'll get going again on Saturday. We have treatment and stuff, that's all mandatory tomorrow, but we're going to call all the guys in who aren't making the team. Get a chance to tell them personally myself, and [GM] John [Lynch]. Besides that, I'm not going to do any predictions on that."

Can you talk a little about his play tonight?

"From what I say he did a good job. He had the two picks, but I saw him making a lot of tackles too. Asa is a guy that we brought here in the middle of the deal, and he's brought some energy. He plays hard. Came in the middle of camp. Does a good job on special teams. I was excited about how he came here and helped us."

What are you going to do here with G Laken Tomlinson as far as presenting him with an opportunity perhaps to be a starter week one?

"We'll see. I think he landed here during the middle of that game. So I'm sure I'm not going to see him tonight. We'll see him tomorrow. We'll start getting him with our O-line coach and our O-line assistant and they'll start working. They'll start trying to teach him our scheme. It'll take until Saturday to get him out on the field with us and we'll do a little bit Monday. Then we'll jump into our normal Wednesday and have a normal week after that. It's a lot to put on a guy to expect him to be ready week one. But we're going to go at it as hard as we can. We'll see where he's at each week."

Would you expect him to be left guard?

"In this league, you've really got to be both guards. We're going to work him at both of the spots, but wherever he can find a starting position, that's where he's going to try to go. But, what he's played is both those guard spots and when you're a backup, you've got to be able to play both of them."

Everyone you're planning to release you'll speak to, you plan to speak to tomorrow?

"I definitely plan to. There's going to be 37 guys lined up, but if they're going to wait then I'll be there to talk to all of them and so will John. I hope to."

Do you still plan to announce it Saturday or will you announce it tomorrow maybe?

"I'd say we won't get through 37 tomorrow. There's going to be a few we get to on Saturday. I think we have to be done by Saturday at 1 o'clock (PT), so that's the cut line for us, but we plan to get most of them done tomorrow."

Philosophically how much can you glean from the fourth preseason game and was there anything you saw on the field today that maybe changed your opinion of a guy?

"Yeah, I wouldn't ever do that just from watching it the first time live. That has to do with getting in and watching all angles on the film that we have. Really watching every situation that they had. You can see some of the big plays wherever your eyes are looking, but you can't see all 22 on one play. You can see interceptions, you can see turnovers, you can see the big plays just like you guys can, but in order to make a tough decision, there's a lot more that goes into it. That's why I'll probably watch a little before I go to bed tonight and then we'll get up in the morning and try to do it. It's not a lot of guys that we have to do that for. Going into the fourth game you've got a pretty good idea on a bunch, but like I said earlier in the week, this is as many decisions going into a fourth game that I've been around in my career. It looked like a bunch of guys battled real hard at a bunch of positions and special teams spots, so we're going to have to look at that hard in the morning."

How helpful was it for you personally to get these four preseason games under your belt? Just learning to manage all the different things you have going on through the course of the game rather than just calling plays?

"I think it's good. It's all about reps and I was glad to get four of them before we start the real ones. You get more comfortable each time. I think the only time you're uncomfortable is a little bit of the unknown and I had a little bit more unknown going into that Kansas City game, which you'd think. Then you get into it and you realize it's what you've been doing your whole life. Definitely, have to pay a little bit attention to when to call timeouts and things like that, but I've enjoyed it. To click back and forth on the headsets, listening to the defense, being able to go back to the offense when we're up the whole time. I think some of the offensive coaches get annoyed with me sometimes because they think they're talking to me but I'm on the defensive headset a lot. But, it's been fun going back and forth and I enjoy it. Hopefully, the more I do it, the better I'll get."

One of the positions that, at least from the outside, appear up for grabs is the backup three-technique. You have three guys there potentially. What's the process as far as trying to figure out which of those three you keep?

"For a backup three-technique, there's lots of different things that go into it and especially with our defensive line. We have a lot of interchangeable guys. A lot of our inside guys can play outside and a lot of our outside guys can play inside. We'd like to get a pretty good run stopper because we know [DL DeForest] Buckner, we know that's what he's very good at, but we also want to make sure he's fresh for us to rush the passer too. So, the better run stopper we can have behind him the more fresh we think can keep him, whether that's his exact backup or moving around other people on the D-Line. There's guys competing for that spot. There's also other positions on our team that can play that spot too. There's so many different factors that could go into it and that's really what we're trying to weigh on and we'll be doing it tomorrow. It's good to see all those guys compete, the people behind Buck tonight. So, we'll have a whole other game film to watch them to see how they are and they're competing against each other. But, they're also competing against other people on the D-Line too, because we have some versatility there."

Have they always had the coach talk to each individual player instead of having the turk do it? How has it happened at the previous places you've been?

"I don't think all the places I've been. I'm not sure always. I know that's something that I know for sure we did that in Houston. I know for sure we did that in Washington. I think we did it in Atlanta, I'm not sure, but that's something that's important to us and we're going to try to get that done."

* Transcript provided by the San Francisco 49ers