San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan spoke with reporters after training camp practice on Monday. Here is everything he had to say.
Transcript provided by the San Francisco 49ers Communications staff.
DL Nick Bosa didn't come in after, was he hurt on that play?
"No, he wasn't hurt. After what play?"
He fell down and then he didn't come back in to, I didn't see him in.
"Was it the last period? I'm not sure. His reps were over though, I believe. I didn't know that he fell down. We only had 10 reps today in the last period. It was a shorter day, so I'm sure that was it."
What were your impressions of QB Jimmy Garoppolo now that the pads were on?
"It was more fun. I mean, you've got guys in there who can block better when you have pads on, so you get a little bit more time and it's a little bit more realistic. It was really nice in the team pass period and stuff to have an O-Line and D-Line. We've been doing all seven-on-seven, but when we have pads on, we rarely do seven-on-seven, so that was nicer."
To read too much into the first pass, he through the deep ball to WR Richie James Jr. Is that something he's worked on, obviously with the knee, but is there more to it rather than just stepping into the throw and testing the knee out?
"Yeah, it's getting it versus the right coverage and making the right read. We run that play a lot, but he got it versus the right coverage today. He made the right read, which is where it starts. We had the right pocket, so he had time to see it and then you've got to throw it right. And he did throw it right. He'll have more, I mean, he can throw it pretty well, and he's always done that. The harder parts are seeing it, getting to it on time. He did, and it was a hell of a play."
There was a moment where DL Dee Ford got in the backfield and fell down near Jimmy's legs. What goes through your mind as a coach seeing that and obviously with Jimmy come back from that ACL, what goes through your mind with that?
"The good thing is I keep my eyes downfield, so I'm not sure what you're talking about yet. But, I'll see it on tape and it'll probably bother me. When something's wrong and you want guys to stay away and stuff and you always show it in front of here and we try to address it. I'm looking down here when the quarterback's here, so I'm not really seeing him. The only time I look there is when I'm wondering why the ball wasn't out. If it's getting out, I rarely see him in a play."
It seemed like it was a good day from a number of receivers. A lot of guys are talking about gaining more comfortability within the system, the more time they spend. Are you seeing that early on in camp?
"It's still early. I thought maybe they took a little bit of a step forward today, but nothing to get real excited about. It's a long camp, and I want these guys to keep getting better. It was nice to have the pads out today, get a little bit more physical. Was able to do one-on-one and things like that, so that was fun. We've got some young guys in that group, and we're going to ride them hard. I expect they're going to have some ups and downs in this camp, but the pressure's on them and I want it to be because they have the ability and we need them all to step up."
How much better health-wise has WR Trent Taylor looked to you this year as opposed to last year?
"Much better. I mean, he had an offseason, and we were real excited about Trent the first year and he battled all the second year, and just never got back to where it worries you, but we knew what he was. It was really nice when he came back from his time away, his four months away that we saw it right away. He kept that going throughout OTAs staying healthy and 40 days later, he came back even better. We're excited about Trent."
What was your verdict on the WR Jalen Hurd fights from yesterday?
"Verdict in like who was right and who was wrong? Well, we fought, so everyone's wrong. You never know until you get in and watch the tape. It was a good teaching moment. I'm actually glad it happened, because we were allowed to cover a lot of stuff that we hadn't covered this camp yet that the older guys have heard, but the new guys haven't. It led to a lot of good teaching points in our meeting today. For the beginning part of it, I was proud of how Jalen handled himself. That's why we brought him here. We want him to be physical, we want him to irritate the heck out of every player in that secondary and I hope he pisses people off. I hope a lot of guys throw punches at him, and that's what happened. I looked hard to see if he was doing anything cheap in the play. Didn't see it on tape, but someone took a shot at him and then that's where I got upset with Jalen. He's going to piss a lot of people off and I hope a lot of people take shots at him and I hope he sits there with his helmet on and smiles at them and waves to them as they get ejected and gets us a free 15-yards. But, he failed in that yesterday. He got the guy irritated enough to lose his composure, the guy hit him and then he fought back, so we lost both of them for the game. We had offsetting penalties, so he didn't help us. But that was a good thing to point out. We want physical guys, we want to be able to get after it and compete. We want them on the tip of fighting. But, football's not fighting. Football is football. You get as close as you can to fighting and then you remember it's football and the play's over and you go back to the huddle. If you don't, it's a selfish act and it's fake toughness to me. All you're doing is hurting the team and Jalen's a tough dude. I think he'll be real good at this going forward."
Did his blocking jump out at you at Baylor when you were scouting him before the Draft?
"A little. Don't look much at blocking for receivers. I watch how they catch the ball and how they run and are they scared to hit? Do they have the size? If they're not scared and they have the size, then it's just about asking them to do it and demanding they do it. They usually can do it. Being a running back, being a physical player, and then the effort he showed these last two days, I think it'll be one of his huge strengths."
Any message by sending him out there the first 11-on-11 reps with the first snaps?
"I didn't notice. [WR coach] Wes [Welker] did that. Depends on what the play was and stuff, so I'm not sure."
Are you guys limiting any of the guys coming back off injuries in these padded practices?
"Yeah, we are. We are limiting a lot of the team and how we're changing the reps each day, so it's a little different. In the past, we've had some different reps and practice days for the players over 30. That won't be as drastic it has been in the year's past because of how we're balancing our practices out. But today, we did the first one with [T Joe] Staley. The guy's over 30, he's always trying to get the third day in a row off when we have a block of four. So, we did that with him today and we'll play it by each block. We kind of get four practices and we get a day off and then we get four practices again and we do that three times before we play Dallas. We'll evaluate on our day off who we want do that with on the next block."
What's the prognosis on G Joshua Garnett? You mentioned that he had a dislocated finger yesterday?
"Yeah, no prognosis yet. The doctor's here today. They might, he's probably meeting with him as we speak, but we should have one this afternoon."
With your running back group, as you try to evaluate that, how much are you kind of trying to identify roles for each guy or is it more just trying to develop a pecking order?
"It's more of a pecking order. Just let it play out. I think we've got a pretty good feel for all the guys. We kind of have an idea what they can do. Not many of them are new, except for [RB Austin] Walter, just with us being with [RB] Tevin [Coleman] in Atlanta, so he's not new to us. We're excited to get [RB] Jet [McKinnon] back and work him in. We got to work with him a ton last year, so we've got an idea of what he can do, too. That'll be more about getting him healthy, but we just want those guys repping. Right now, we don't really care what the play is. It's just, I don't even know who's in, Bobby just rolls them in every play. We want them to compete and hopefully it sorts itself out. If it doesn't, they're going to make me have to make a very tough decision."
What don't you already know about them? Are they complementary in ways?
"Yeah, definitely. They're definitely not all the same. There's not any of them who can't catch a pass. All of them can catch and all of them can run. But, there's some guys who can run routes better than others. There are some guys who can carry the load better than others, but there's not one of them that's pigeonholed into 'he can only do this.'"
Do you have a plan for McKinnon as far as when you expect to activate him?
"No, we'll look at it on our off day and where he's at. I would think we would get him off PUP sooner than later. That doesn't mean you guys are going to see him right out at practice right away. I'd like to get him off, when you get guys off of PUP, they can go on walkthrough, they can do individual and stuff like that, so we'd like to do it sooner than later."
Could it be Thursday?
"It could be. It could be any day. Yeah, it could be. What's today?"
Today's Monday? Meaning the day--?
"Yeah, that'd be more likely. More likely Thursday than Tuesday."
I was hoping that you could outline some of the benefits of having a bigger guy like WR Jordan Matthews in the slot as opposed to stereotypically the smaller, quicker guys that you have there?
"Yeah, it's just, you really want all shapes and sizes and different traits. I love big guys, but I like good receivers. So, I think that's the hardest thing that people always talk about. Like, you can't just go order a big guy. You try to get the best receivers possible and you'd like quick guys who can separate. You want guys who can blow the top off who are faster than everyone. If you do have a big guy who might not be able to do that stuff as well, because he is big, he might be able to make an impact in blocking, not having to be as open because he can big body some of these little DBs. Sometimes when it gets tighter in the redzone and stuff, it's just a bigger target for the quarterback. Not necessarily with jump balls and things like that, but just throwing over defenders and not sailing over the receiver on the next window. Having some more size out there does help, because all the receivers we had tended to be on the smaller side. Getting Jordan, adding Jalen, even someone like [WR] Deebo [Samuel], I don't necessarily look at just you have to be 6-4 to be a big receiver. I think it's a lot more how your body's built. You have to have a certain thickness to you. Everyone holds in this league, and some games it's definitely not consistent in how they call it. I think it's very tough when they're holding a ton and it's a game where they're deciding not to call it. I think it can be very hard for lighter guys to get away from people, because you don't want to coach people to push off, but you've got to be able to not let that affect you and bigger guys are easier with that."
This decision is probably a long ways away, but when do you start thinking about roster construction in terms of keeping two or three quarterbacks? Are you having sort of a really broad view of the numbers you'd like to have at certain positions? When is that process going to start to unfold?
"It's always in the back of my head. It's always in [general manager] John's [Lynch] head. It's something we're always kind of talking about. We talk about that every time you look at a draft pick, every time you look at a free agent. Every time a guy goes down. 'Alright, who do we need to bring in to get through practice?' When you do that, you've got to let a guy go. You have to weigh that in in every decision you make because you need 90 guys to get through camp, but also only 53 guys can be on a roster. It's confusing, but there's never a time you're not thinking about it."
I assume you liked OL Ben Garland from your time in Atlanta since he's back with you. What have your impressions of him been since he got here and do you feel comfortable if he does have to start a game or two?
"Yeah, definitely, that's why we brought him here. He's played in a lot of games, a lot of big games. He started out his career as a defensive lineman on the practice squad. We got him, I didn't know him very well, I forget who brought him to Atlanta, but they brought him from Denver. Got to know him there, I believe he was on our practice squad right away. He ended up making our team, playing a little bit. He got to play a ton in the Super Bowl. Alex Mack played that game with a broken leg and he only could do it until about the third quarter, so he was in there the whole second half. He's got a lot of playing time, he can play at center, which we know we have an issue with [C/G Weston] Richburg on PUP for a little bit. He also can play guard, too, so to have him available is very important that we got in a guy who had versatility to play all three."
There was a play today where Jimmy had scrambled up the middle. Is your message to him going to be different this year as far as scrambling out of the pocket? Do you want him doing less given the injury?
"No, I want him to do more, but I want him to get down. I mean, we never just look to scramble. That's why we've got a throwing quarterback who looks down the field and tries to get the ball to people. You never tell a guy not to scramble, because the other option is to just sit there and get it. If no one's open and if no one's sacking you, I loved what I saw today, because no one was open, the seas parted and he turned it into a draw. It was an exciting play. You've got 15 yards and then I think he fake slid, but hopefully that would be real in the game. That's tough when it's man coverage. When it's man coverage, no one's looking at the quarterback. Everyone disperses, covering the receivers, who's left in the middle? And if you have a quarterback who will run when the time presents itself, it hurts the defense."
Do you think he's more open to listening to you tell him to get down?
"Yes, I do. I do, definitely."
A lot has been made about CB Ahkello Witherspoon and his ups and downs. Have you seen a difference with how he has approached this offseason and training camp?
"Yeah, I do. I enjoy Ahkello. I think he's gotten better the whole time he's been here and I think he came back. He's been through a lot of ups and downs in his first two years, and I think he's trying to get after it this year. We're three practices in, so it's early, but I've been real impressed with how Ahkello came back with his time away and how he's attacked these three days."
T Mike McGlinchey was talking about he was somewhat in awe sometimes last year against Chicago Bears OLB Khalil Mack or whoever it was you had to face. He seems like a very mature guy. Have you seen him mature or taken the next step as far as, "I belong here," or not really?
"Yeah, I mean today was the first day with pads, but I joked the first time I met him, when he came in the room and I think he acted like the CEO of a company like the first time he walked in. It's exactly how [Atlanta Falcons QB] Matt Ryan acts, and they're cousins so I'm sure it has something to do with it. McGlinchey is very mature until you hang out with him outside of the football office. He comes off very mature and he knows the right thing to say and he knows how to handle himself. He knows how to act like a pro, and you get thrown into it your rookie year and you battle through a lot and there's a lot of ups and downs and he's a guy who's very conscientious. He's very smart and he's very hard on himself, so he's always working at it every day. He's a guy, it's easy to get on him hard. He's not going to get sensitive. You can tell him he looked like, he looked bad today, and he'll get pissed off, but he's going to come back tomorrow and try to prove you wrong. If you don't have that type of mentality, then you always have a sophomore slump. I don't see that being in him, and it better not."
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