San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan spoke with reporters after Friday's practice, providing final updates ahead of the team's Week 8 matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals. Here is everything he had to say.
Transcript provided by the San Francisco 49ers Communications staff.
Opening comments:
"We got [WR] Deebo [Samuel] out. [T] Trent Williams, questionable. [QB] Brock Purdy, questionable. Go ahead."
Is Brock on track to pass the concussion protocol tomorrow?
"That's the last thing he's got to do."
So just one step left?
"Yeah, just one step left."
If he did pass, would he start the game?
"Yeah, definitely. He was full go today, so he's just got to pass that tomorrow."
Is there a certain time that you guys can push this up to? Can this go all the way up to 90 minutes before kickoff?
"I don't think so. I'm not sure. I think we find out tomorrow."
You said he was full go today. Was he able to push himself throughout the week and just do the normal workload?
"Yeah, nothing's been different. Yeah, he only could do walk-through the first day. So, he missed a couple periods with that when we had helmets on versus the D."
Did Trent end up practicing a little bit today?
"He did the beginning part, but nothing really against each other."
How's he progressing back?
"Better than last week. I'm still not sure. He's got to improve here in the next 48 hours. He can go up to kickoff though."
Deebo was not practicing, but how is he doing?
"He's doing good. It is a little hairline fracture in his shoulder. So we got to wait for that to heal. But he's healthy enough everywhere else, so he is conditioning and working out, doing well. Hopefully that'll be good after the Bye week."
Is it beneficial at all to have the guy that sat in a quarterback room with Cincinnati Bengals QB Joe Burrow for the last two years simulating him this week?
"I mean, to a degree. I mean defensive guys draw what they see on tape and try to tell the quarterback where to go with the ball, what they see on tape. It's nice when they tell someone that the guy actually knows whether that's right or wrong. That's just our interpretation so he can actually say no, they don't go to that, we're going here and things like that. So that's always a benefit to have."
Defensive Coordinator Steve Wilks talked to us yesterday about taking responsibility for that zero-blitz call. What has your conversation been like with him throughout the week?
"Just about football, about the fact that happened. There was a time issue why we couldn't make that call and that's without a doubt on me. I'm the one who can stop that and that's why I hold the ultimate responsibility on everything. But when I was asked two days ago about the call, he knows we can't make that off of time and I messed up not calling a timeout so we couldn't call it. But I had no problem with the call in terms of what we do. I love all out blitzing. It's just not something you can do at that time. So we just talk like that. Talk football, nothing else."
He said yesterday that he understands the ability of his players and needs to trust that. Do you think that's been an issue for him for the past six or seven weeks?
"No, I don't think so."
Cincinnati Bengals Head Coach Zac Taylor told reporters in Cincinnati that while he was with the Rams he would watch you guys closely and he said that he used the 49ers as kind of a template as to what he wanted in terms of progression. Sure enough, they went two rough years and the third year, they were pretty good. Do you know him at all? I know he worked for Los Angeles Rams Head Coach Sean McVay, but do you know him at all very much personally?
"I've gotten to know him just at the owner's meetings and stuff like that over the last few years. I never worked with him and I was real close with his father-in-law, [Former Head Coach] Mike Sherman who was a coordinator when I was a quarterback coach in Houston, so connected through him. But getting to know him over the years as a head coach at the owners meetings and stuff. Always when first year coaches struggle with their team and everything, it's really easy for me to say, 'Hey, don't worry, at least you're not starting out 0-9.' So, I can always give that support to people and my wife can to their wives and things like that. But you know, he's done a hell of a job from where they've come and where they are now and they're one of the better teams in this league over these last few years."
With Trent, how do you kind of weigh, if he plays Sunday, he will have that Bye week to get back versus if he doesn't play, he gets all that time plus the Bye week to come back?
"I mean you weigh all that in. I mean that could be the reason you don't. It also could be the reason that we do in terms of it was a lot harder last week because we felt if he did go there was no chance that this week or we definitely don't want to hurt him two weeks from now. But he also has two weeks to recover as opposed to five and a half days to recover. So we weigh all that into account."
Given the fact that the concussion happened on Monday, was there any thought about just letting Brock have this week off and take that decision out of the equation?
"Yeah, if there was a decision, I mean based off of how he is and stuff. But to me that wasn't a decision because how he's been throughout this week and now that's why he's going to have a chance. We'll see how the protocol goes tomorrow."
You guys haven't lost here in over a year. After that Chiefs game, was there any kind of emphatic message about not putting anything like that on your guys' home field again?
"No, I'd like to say there was some special speech that I said 'never again on our home field', so only because of that is why it's been a year. But no, it's never really like that. When you lose and you try to when you win too, but especially when you lose you got to keep focusing. Everyone goes through it at times in the year and usually teams kind of fall behind and turn into the majority of the teams or you get better and you hunker down and you get better at football and usually that leads to wins. I think that's what we've gone through here in these last couple years and especially up to that Chief's game, that was a down spot. But no, it's one week at a time. I think we played pretty good football for a while."
Yesterday, RB Christian McCaffrey said being here and learning from all the coaching staff, it's like being a kid in a candy store. How much do you find it more enjoyable to coach a guy who's a fan of the game?
"It makes me feel like a kid in a candy store because sometimes people get bored with it. Sometimes they're like, all right, you've heard enough or we've heard enough just let me go home and rest. Or something like that, which is a big part of it. But what's so special about Christian that you don't know until you get him, he just seems like he's the guy no one will play because he is just working so hard and such an overachiever and he is just like, coach let me just be on the team. Everyone has those gym rats who just work so hard. That's how I'd probably describe myself more in college because I'm trying to turn myself into someone that I'm not. We got a guy like that, who's also one of the most talented people in the league. So that's the full package of him and it's how much he loves football, not just with his heart but also his mind. It's all he thinks about is what it seems like."