San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan spoke with reporters after the team's 27-24 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers on Thursday night. Here is everything he had to say.
Transcript provided by the San Francisco 49ers Communications staff.
You seemed sure in Kansas City that you would keep three quarterbacks. Is that still the case with you?
"Yep."
How did you think QB C.J. Beathard did tonight?
"I thought he did a good job, not perfect. Some good things, some bad. Decent job."
What about his block?
"It was awesome. It was good. It was cool, got to reverse the field and he turned into a fullback on the play and did a good job."
What did you see out of RB Jeff Wilson Jr.? Obviously, the 41 yard reverse field run, but got a lot of runs tonight: 20 carries.
"Yeah, we wanted to run the ball tonight, and he did a real good job in that first half. I think he got a little bit there in the third quarter, I can't remember exactly. Jeff ran very well, [RB Austin] Walter ran well. I thought the guys blocked for him good also."
Have you told the guys who's going to be the backup quarterback yet?
"No, I haven't."
When will you do that?
"Probably by Monday."
Why did you bring QB Nick Mullens in for one drive in the second half?
"The plan was for them both to start the same amount of quarters. C.J. had six and we wanted him to get six. I was going to debate on how long to keep him in, but after he got hit a few times in protection, I just pulled him out."
You had WR Jordan Matthews playing a lot of special teams today. Is that kind of what he has to do in order to make that 53? Will he have to do more in that phase of the game than he ever has?
"I mean, I wouldn't look too far into that. We had a bunch of guys out today. We ended up sitting [WR] Marquise [Goodwin], we had [WR] Trent [Taylor] out, [WR] Jalen Hurd out because of injuries. We didn't want to play the guys too long on offense, maybe see the second half, and I think [WR Kendrick] Bourne got in for a couple plays in the second half. I don't think Jordan did at all in the second half, but those receivers were doing so much, we had to spell those guys a little bit with gunner work. When I saw those guys in the fourth quarter, I got Jordan out of there and then I ended up seeing Bourne the next series, I got him out of there also."
How solidified is that battle to make the team at receiver in your mind?
"It's not. There's a lot of things up in the air, especially with some of these injuries that have been a little more serious that we've found out over the last week than we thought previously. It still is up in the air. We've got to decide on whether we're going to go with six, whether we're going to go with seven and it's something we are going to be looking into hard over these next 48 hours."
I know you said an update on Jalen Hurd would be coming next week, but do you have any idea now?
"Yeah, it's a little more serious than we thought. Still don't know for sure, but we thought we would have a better chance at Tampa and now that's not looking as good."
Is that something where you have to consider a list for him?
"I don't think we'll have to consider a list, but just we're not as confident he'll be available Week 1 now. Still we aren't for sure, but I was a lot more optimistic about that two days ago."
General Manager John Lynch said on the radio yesterday that RB Jerick McKinnon had a setback. What can you tell us about where he stands right now?
"What John indicated is about all I can say. I can't get into the exact details of it, but it wasn't the type of two days we were hoping for for him. Just getting feedback from him and stuff like that. We're looking into a number of things here over these two days and we'll have to make a decision on that Saturday."
Considering the setback, what is the likelihood of you guys keeping a fifth running back on this roster?
"Are you counting fullback?"
No, I'm not counting FB Kyle Juszczyk.
"We're not going to keep five halfbacks."
End of the preseason, can you compare this year's preseason to last year's preseason, how you feel about the team?
"I feel a lot better. We thought coming into this training camp we had a better team than we've had the last two years. Felt that way consistently throughout practice and I felt that way consistently throughout these four games. By no means have they all gone perfect, but I've been happy with the style we've played with. I think we've played more physically. I think we've gotten better in some areas and I expect that to continue throughout the season. I do think we've had a better team out here in the preseason than we have in the past."
You said you wanted to see more consistency out of Bourne and he gets a drop and then comes back with a touchdown catch, so how do you digest that?
"That's not the most consistent right there, but drops from Bourne haven't been too much of a problem. I do consider Bourne having some of the better hands on our team. So, that's definitely one that he should've had and hurt a drive. I think we went three and out on that drive. He's earned a little bit more with that in terms of how good his hands are."
Has WR Deebo Samuel earned the right to be in the conversation as a Week 1 starter?
"Yeah, he's earned the right to be in the conversation."
What did you think of G Josh Garnett today? Obviously, his first preseason action. What did you see from him?
"From what I saw, I thought he played well. I know he had a lot of energy, I know he was excited to play. From what I saw, we ran the ball towards him, I thought he did a good job and he ended up getting cramps there towards the end, but when he was in, I thought he played well."
What did you see from DB D.J. Reed Jr.?
"D.J. Reed, he fights. He can play at a number of different spots. He helped us out at safety last year, we moved him to corner this year. We know he's got to capability to play all five of those spots back there and that's why I try to get them to punt again and decline that, because he's got a chance to return a punt all times, too. We wanted to give him that opportunity there where we did twice. I couldn't do it the third time. Didn't want to get – hurt, but D.J.'s a heck of a football player, and we're glad to have him."
Did you get a sense of how severe DB Adrian Colbert's hamstring was and if that's going to impact-
"It didn't seem like it was too severe, but I know it was his hamstring, which has been bothering him the last couple of weeks. I know he tried to go and stuff, but it limited him today and that's why we had to pull him."
Jeff Wilson, 20 carries, seems like a lot in a fourth preseason game for a guy that's going to make the roster. Is that fair to say?
"No, it's not. I mean, it's that or throw and we had two guys, we brought back [RB Brandon] Wilds for the week to see what happened. But no, you want to run the ball a lot in this last game and when you block well and you run hard, you usually get more carries, so that was a credit to him."
Why did you choose not to play TE Ross Dwelley? Had he shown you enough?
"Yup, he's shown us enough."