Transcript provided by the San Francisco 49ers Communications staff.
Opening comments:
"The injuries, [DL Maurice] Mo Hurst will be out. [RB JaMycal] Hasty, out. [RB] Elijah Mitchell is doubtful. Go ahead."
Do you expect to have S Jaquiski Tartt and LB Dre Greenlaw up?
"We haven't totally decided yet."
Is it headed in the right direction?
I know you were hopeful that Elijah Mitchell would play, he's not ruled out yet. Did his finger not respond as well as you'd hoped or what happened with his finger this week?
"It's just how he feels with it. And we thought it would be a little further along now. It obviously isn't. That's why he couldn't go today. We are holding out hope because we still got 48 hours, but anytime that someone doesn't go today, it's tough."
RB Jeff Wilson Jr. would be in line to start the game then?
"Yeah, they haven't decided what plays we're going with, but most likely."
What have you seen out of Jeff these last two weeks, now that he's kind of back in the fold?
"The first time Jeff came out there, he looked exactly like the guy he has been. Jeff plays with so much energy. The way you guys see him in games is exactly how he is in practice. So our team feeds off of him a ton and the more practice he's gotten, the more he's got his legs under him and he's ready to go."
"He's ready for whatever amount we give him. We don't decide that number, but whatever we give him, he'll be ready. He's been ready every week, so if Elijah is not up, that does give him an opportunity."
It's C Alex Mack's 36th birthday. What has made him such a productive player over the course of his career and what's it been like being with him in three different spots?
"Alex was a first-round pick. He was extremely talented coming out, but for him to play this long and still play at a high level there's so much more in there. He's one of the smartest people I've ever been around. Not just football players. He's extremely smart, works at it, the guy practices at a certain level that sets an example for everybody. He goes hard all the time, runs to the ball every single play and he enjoys playing football. He enjoys practicing, you can see why he's lasted so long."
Is the right tackle situation either OL Tom Compton or OL Jaylon Moore as possibilities?
"Yes."
Have you decided which one?
Can you give an indication or has it been determined when Elijah hurt his finger?
"Second quarter."
Does he remember-- but he didn't say anything at the time?
"No, he didn't say anything to anyone at all. He just thought he had jammed finger and it was hurting, toughed it out, but that stuff starts to hurt a little bit more when the adrenaline goes down."
He got 27 carries, were you kind of concerned that hopefully he didn't do it later in the game when you could have theoretically put in some backups at that point?
"No, I don't play that hindsight game, totally. We put in some backups when we were up 41-17 with 1:58 left and they had the ball to go have a chance to send it to overtime versus Detroit. It's got to be a long ways away before we stop giving him carries, just from some scars I've developed over the years."
"I think Emmanuel, I still don't think he's reached his full ceiling. Emmanuel's earned everything he's gotten here. He started the first year just playing on scout team the whole year. Ended up the second year, which I believe was 2019, being our starting corner, playing at a high level. I think he's played at a very high level this year. I think he'd been up and down last year. He's been up and down this year, just because of his injuries. He started out training camp missing the first 10 days because of COVID. Then he missed a number of days again in training camp after he came back with an injury. It's been up and down throughout this time, so he's just starting to get back, to me, to his level of play before. And now that he's there, the way he's made, the way he works, now I know he'll only get better."
Maybe my memory isn't serving me well, but it just seems like football now in the NFL, teams ride a roller coaster. A team like the Buffalo Bills could be mentioned as Super Bowl contenders one week and lose to the Jacksonville Jaguars next. Is that an issue in the NFL, that teams aren't playing as consistently as they have in the past? And what can you do as a coach to try to find that level where a team doesn't fluctuate too much?
"I don't necessarily see it that way. I get what you're saying and it could be, I feel like the NFL has always been like that. There's one or two teams every year that it seems like end up with a 13-3, 14-2 type record. But after that, there's very rarely that many teams aren't playing that last week of the season with playing for something. Whether it's a seeding in the playoffs or whether it's just to get into the playoffs. So, I always think it's so competitive. And that's what I think is so cool about the NFL. You watch Jacksonville and you can see why they beat Buffalo. It doesn't look surprising when you watch the tape. I know the records and what people predict to be Super Bowl teams or not always makes it a surprise, but that's I think why everyone loves watching the NFL because every game can be like that. You have to play very well to win consistently and I don't think people get how hard it is for the players emotionally and physically to do that every single week for this long. That's why the thought of 17 games sounded so crazy to guys because it's just the people in it. How much 16 felt like and that's why it's so important for people to take care of themselves when it goes to sleeping, to taking care of your body, to only investing in football throughout the year."
The added game has it changed anything with how you've approached the season up to this point?
"No, not at all. It's weird when you add up numbers that equal 17. That's the only thing. Usually you look at like 10-6 as playoff teams and usually percentage wise as the last teams that get in. And I don't really know how to talk about numbers when they're 17 games. So, we'll see at the end of this, but it's just one game at a time. And when you get to 16, that's probably the first time we'll actually think about, 'Oh, there is a 17th one.' We'll deal with it."
