San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan spoke with reporters via a conference call on Monday, the day after the team's 13-0 win over the New Orleans Saints. Here is everything he had to say.
Transcript provided by the San Francisco 49ers Communications staff.
Opening Comments:
"Alright guys, injuries from the game. [RB] Elijah [Mitchell] has an MCL sprain. It wasn't the news we were looking for. He'll be out longer than that, most likely six-to-eight weeks. [RB Christian] McCaffrey has some knee irritation, we'll manage him throughout the week. [OL] Spencer Burford had an ankle sprain. Hopefully we'll get him back later in the week, and that's it from the game."
How did QB Jimmy Garoppolo check out? Obviously, you didn't mention him, so he is okay, but was that kind of a relief that he didn't come in this morning with major swelling or anything?
"Yeah, it was a relief that no serious injuries came up. I know he is pretty sore today, so hopefully he'll work that out by Wednesday, but nothing serious."
Looking at the quarterbacks and how calls are made for the roughing the passer, do you feel like Jimmy gets his fair share of calls?
"No, I don't. I think a lot gets missed on Jimmy."
Do you think there's any reason behind that? Are there certain quarterbacks that are protected more than others?
"I don't think so. I think it's just coincidence, but I'm not sure. Each ref and crew is different, each game's different, so you try to adjust and feel it out during those games, but I do feel like Jimmy has had a number missed on him."
With Elijah, have you had an opportunity to talk to him with him just coming back and how is he doing mentally suffering another injury like this?
"He's pretty disappointed. Everyone knows how good Elijah's been, how hard he worked to get back from his last one, how good he has been playing since he came back and to kind of be right back there was, I know he was real down on it, it's unfortunate for him, he's just had some real bad luck. You see the hit that it happened on, again, he got rolled up on and it was just a bad position for him to be in, so the good thing is that he's proven that, and what I told him was he knows what's ahead of him. The stuff doesn't end up affecting him. He's ended up being able to recover great every time he comes back. He's always the exact same guy. He's just going to have about six weeks of frustration, but hopefully we can do our job here so when he comes back we're still playing."
That happened on the first play of the second half?
"Yes, I believe it was."
And he stayed in a little bit after that?
"Yeah, same thing that he did last time. He stayed in, hoping it wasn't bad and once he got a couple more plays in, he realized he had to come off."
I apologize for not knowing the rule, but can he go back on IR or do you have to keep him on the 53-man roster?
"Yeah, you can go back on IR."
Okay, and that's the plan to put him on there and then hope that he can be back in the postseason?
"Yes."
With CB Janoris Jenkins, obviously he's been available all season, why the timing now to add him to the practice squad?
"Because he was willing to do it, I don't think that was the case all year. We've been in contact with him for a little bit and he was willing to do it and I've always been a fan of Janoris. I know most people have. He's played at a very high-level in this league and to get a player who's been like that throughout his career to come to our practice squad, we felt pretty fortunate, so we'll get him here. I think he gets here today, possibly tomorrow, we'll see him out there Wednesday and start getting some looks at him."
You don't have tons of veteran depth behind maybe your top three corners. Obviously, there's still CB Dontae Johnson, but was that an important thing just to have a guy who's done it at a pretty high-level for a long time?
"You always want as good a depth as you can have and when you see someone on who's out there available, especially with the way that they do practice squad now, if there's someone out there who you feel is better than what you have and also ready to go into a game as far as just developing, that's something you always have to balance out. A number of DBs play, we've had a couple hurt this year. We have outside guys, we have inside guys, so to have a veteran who can play and get them on our practice squad. We love that. You try to get that at receiver with how quick that stuff happens when you just have one guy down and how quickly they're activated, whether it's Saturday night or something like that, so we felt Janoris fell right into that line, and the fact he was willing to do it. If he would've done earlier, we would've done it further time ago."
What's the plan with DL Arik Armstead this week?
"Armstead had a real good week last week. He had a real good day yesterday. I'm hoping to get him back here into practice on Wednesday."
With Elijah out for an extended period, how good was it to see what RB Jordan Mason did in that last 6:18 when you hadn't been able to really get anything going on the ground but were able to kill the last end of the clock?
"It was really impressive. The way he came in there and ran the ball, the way he protected it too. He wasn't loose with it at all and you could feel him like he did in the preseason when he got those carries. I know we could from the sidelines, we could see it on the tape and you could tell our players felt it out there when he was running, so that was real encouraging and it's going to open up some opportunities for him and also for [RB] Ty [Davis-Price] to get a chance to get back out there."
With regard to Jimmy, he had mentioned afterwards that that the play where he got hit in the knee wasn't the only time that he had gotten hit, which he thought might have been a little late in that game. Safe to say that there's film going to the league on more than one hit on him?
"Yeah, that happens every week. There's always stuff that we think they possibly missed and then we give our opinion and we send a number of stuff in and then they send back and tell us either they did or they educate us on why they didn't, so those are the things we always do and there'll definitely be some this week also."
Did Jimmy forfeit his low hit protection by getting out of the pocket on that play where he did get hit in the knee? He was was outside the tackle box.
"That's something that the refs can decide, he never forfeits it on his own, but I believe, that's what they called."
I know it's early, but have you had a chance to look at all at Miami and what jumps out at you so far about what Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel is doing down there?
"We jump into Miami really right after this, but just what I've seen throughout the year. He's doing what he always does, moving guys around well. Using his personnel very good. The quarterback seems to be playing at a very high-level. Their receivers are as scary as it gets and I know just from seeing some of the crossover of that defense and things like that over the years, how active they are, how aggressive they are in their blitzes, how aggressive they are in their coverage. And, to me, it's not a coincidence why that team's playing so well."
Miami Dolphins RB Raheem Mostert said, among other things, that last year when he decided to have season-ending surgery, the team was not happy and they wanted him to have just missed eight weeks. Is there any truth to that?
"Oh yeah, there was all different types of opinions during that. From where we were at, Raheem, his agent, everybody just like there always is, there's first opinions, there's second opinions, so yeah, there's always different opinions on those things."