San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy, defensive coordinator Steve Wilks, and offensive line coach and run game coordinator Chris Foerster spoke with reporters after Thursday's practice, as the team prepares for its Week 15 matchup against the Arizona Cardinals. Here is everything they had to say.
Transcripts provided by the San Francisco 49ers Communications staff.
QB Brock Purdy
Is there any pressure because it's the first time you're going home and playing as a 49ers starter?
"Yeah, I'm excited to sort of just have, I guess my family, my friends, just people in my life growing up to just be there. So, should be fun."
How do you balance that? You've done such a great job with everything that's been thrusted upon you, but it's a little bit different when you're playing in front of family and friends. You still want to impress, I would imagine?
"Yeah, most definitely. But I feel like it's sort of been like that already. Every game I feel like there's family and friends that either come to games or tuned in watching on TV and stuff. Nothing changes. Once we line up, it's 11-on-11 football and I've got to do my assignments and play quarterback and that's about it."
Do you have a ballpark estimate of how many people you'll have at the game?
"I'm not really sure the whole number, but I'm only doing tickets just for my family. Just because there's a lot of people. But I know that there's a lot of people that have bought tickets and they'll be there supporting, so very thankful for that."
Can you walk us through your thought process on RB Christian McCaffrey's long run? What were you looking for as you sprint down there?
"Yeah, I saw him sort of just make his cut early on and I only saw a couple guys downfield and [WR Brandon Aiyuk] B.A. running. So I was like 'all right, I'm going to just try to get down there and if Christian ends up cutting back, I want to hopefully be able to get in front of a guy or make a block for him.' So Christian started pulling away and I was like, 'I don't know if I'm going to get there.' Then he made his cut back and I was like, 'dang it, I should have done it. I should've just kept going.' So that was my mindset. I saw B.A. doing his thing, blocking for him and if he had made any kind of cutback, I just wanted to be there for him, so."
You really want to sign the yellow hard hat. Is that what you're saying?
"Yeah, a hundred percent. I want to be a part of that club."
Before the game, former 49ers WR Jerry Rice came by and kind of dapped you up a little bit and had some words. Can you share what Jerry said to you? How cool is that the greatest receiver of all time touching base with you before the game?
"Yeah, it was cool. I sort of just got a pat on the back and I looked over and it was Jerry and just dapped him up and he just said, 'ball out today.' Sort of just kept it simple. But the fact that he did that and came over as I was warming up, that was pretty cool. Obviously, he's an idol to many and a legend here as a 49er. To be able to play in the same organization as him is really special, so that was cool."
Do you talk much with former 49ers QB Joe Montana or former 49ers QB Steve Young?
"When they've come to games, I've talked to them in person a little bit. But not in terms of calling or anything."
Head coach Kyle Shanahan was talking yesterday about how a lot of times the communication with players, he will FaceTime them or they'll usually text back with him. How do you usually deal with Kyle? How has that relationship kind of spawned over the last year and where you guys have meshed so well now?
"Yeah, he'll just shoot me a text every once in a while if he wants me to come in and meet. We like meeting more in person than anything. After a game or something on my drive home, he'll usually just shoot me a call and go over some things, how we're thinking, our initial thoughts and stuff. He does a good job with just all the guys in general in terms of keeping in touch and making sure everyone's good, but where we're at and how we can be better. So he does a great job with that. But yeah, over the last year it definitely obviously has. We've talked a lot more and stuff. We have to be on the same page. We're trying to obviously accomplish the same goals and stuff, so it's been cool to sort of see our relationship evolve over the last year and stuff."
If you have a question about the game plan in the middle of the night that comes to your mind, will you text quarterbacks coach Brian Griese instead or will you go right to Kyle?
"I'll probably wait until the morning. I'm trying to get my sleep and I know they are too. But if something ever did come to mind, they wouldn't mind if I shot them a text at all. So either one of them would be ready to answer."
Was the last time you were in the Cardinals Stadium when you got your Gatorade Player of the Year Award or have you been there since?
"I played in the Fiesta Bowl in 2020 against Oregon there, in that stadium. That was the last time I was there."
After the game you mentioned that Seattle Seahawks S Jamal Adams was flatfooted and it was something that you noticed. Do you remember in your quarterback career when you started noticing different tells of players and how you could take advantage of them?
"I mean, you could say film study and all that kind of stuff which is true to an extent. For me in that play, it wasn't necessarily just Jamal, it was like whoever's playing that safety position, with our play call and where we were at in the game. When we had called that play, the first thing was to identify what the safety structure looked like, and then Jamal happened to be playing safety there and just looking at him with a couple steps that I was taking in my drop, I saw that he was flatfooted and that kind of thing. But I mean, there are some things that you can see on film with guys and they show some tells and whatnot. For me, at the end of the day, I still have to catch the ball, drop back and react, and obviously anticipate things, which is great and which you can learn from film study. But for me, in the moment, being able to see the safety structure post snap, the rotation, things like that, and then react and hit guys that are open. So I like to sort of somewhat keep it simple. But in that play did I watch film a million times on Jamal Adams and say, 'I'm going to get this?' To be honest, no."
Has your processing got slower or felt slower so you feel like you can make or see more before you actually throw the ball?
"I mean, a little bit, yeah. Just playing within this offense and in this system with the guys up front blocking and then trusting and the guys running the concepts that we've run over games and since camp and stuff. All that has helped me and it has sort of has helped me just process things, help slow things down a little bit. But the game is still fast and it's not like I've mastered it at all. I feel like it'll always be a challenge every game, every snap, but I've gotten more familiar with what we're trying to do, so it has helped."
Do you consider yourself a game manager?
"I don't know. I don't want to comment on that. Like I said, I'm playing quarterback, trying to win games and we'll see at the end of all of it."
Your completion rate on deep passes is the highest that I've found on record. Is this the most comfortable you've been throwing the deep ball, not just in your NFL career, but going back to college and high school?
"Yeah, I'd say so. I forgot who I was talking to earlier this week, just in terms of, I feel like I've always been efficient with the quick game, the intermediate game, all that kind of stuff. But when it comes to pushing the ball down field, sort of just understanding what we're trying to do as an offense and once we get those kinds of opportunities, being aggressive and letting it rip. I feel like right now, probably, out of all the years I've been playing football, this has probably been the best in terms of pushing the ball downfield and being efficient in that area, not just throwing it up in hopes for someone to grab it, but being efficient when I take my shots. I feel like it is probably the best that I've been throwing the ball right now."
Just looking back at the course of this season, I remember Week 2 against the Rams you missed a couple. Since then, it's gotten better and better. Was there some kind of just physical knocking off of the rust that's happened over the course of this year as it relates specifically to deep passes?
"I mean, maybe. Obviously I was hard on myself after that Rams game, missing those couple deep shots. Then just being real with myself at practice and stuff and working on just mechanics, and little things, and timing with the receivers, and being on the same page with them. I think all those little things have helped and they've paid off, but I feel like there's still some areas where I can get better at with it and that's that. But yeah, I feel good with where I'm at right now."
Are the left-handed drop backs by design? Do you feel comfortable with that dropping back as a lefty, flipping your hips, taking a look at the field? What would be the purpose of that?
"Yeah, it's just another way for us to move the pocket, sort of just get some movement within our system, our play calls. In a sense it's another way of play action, but to be able to roll left and flip our hips and still get the ball where it needs to, wherever at on the field. Something we've been working on since camp. I feel like it's somewhat of a just a new thing teams are doing nowadays, the shotgun rolling left a little bit and then flipping the hips and then being able to deliver. I have never done anything like that growing up or college or high school or anything. But after last year of installing those kinds of plays I like it a lot. I like how we do it. So yeah, I'm down for it."
Kyle said that when he was a coordinator he's had a couple of quarterbacks where he would go over a chunk of 10 plays and eight of the were right and two of them were wrong, and he would spend all of his time going over the two that were wrong. Then the quarterback would go, 'hey, what about these other eight? How come you did those? Let's fix the ones that are wrong.' Does that kind of teaching resonate with you?
"Yeah, a hundred percent. I feel like we need it. I love that kind of coaching, honestly. At the end of the day you have a standard for yourself. You want to be consistent as best as possible. As a quarterback in the NFL, like there's little room to mess up. So, I think if you're in the NFL and you're a quarterback, you've got to be somewhat of a perfectionist. You want those two plays back. You want to learn from them and grow from them. If they're just telling you how great you are and stuff there's going to be a time throughout the season at some point where you'll probably get exposed with maybe those little things like that. So Kyle does a great job, all of the years of coaching and experience that he has of pointing those things out and harping on them, not just to down you out or anything, but to be real and help you. We're all trying to win and that's what it takes. So he does a good job with that."
On the radio you thought your elbow in part I think was due to all the maintenance you did and all the exercises you did, it may actually lead you to be stronger and you wanted to continue to do those exercises because of that. Was that discussed pre-surgery, like this could happen, your elbow could be stronger, or was that even not just a topic? Was it just like, let's get it back to where it was?
"A little bit of both. I think the main emphasis was let's get back to normal first. Let's get cleared. Let's get healthy. Let's compete again. Then if everything goes well, like obviously stick to the plan of whatever I was doing for my arm to get it stronger. I feel like regardless of getting hurt or not, that's something that as a professional athlete, you always want to find the little things to help you get better. If we're being real, like my rookie year coming out of college, I feel like there's so many areas I could have got better, like physically as a thrower. So, this whole last year I've still been trying to mold into the quarterback that I want to be, the thrower I want to be. Obviously I want to continue to do the things that I've learned throughout rehab and stuff to become who I want to be. But, I think at the time it was more about getting healthy and getting back for game one more than anything."
When did you have a conversation with Minnesota Vikings QB Nick Mullens?
"I want to say somewhat after the season. I was figuring out surgery, who I was going to go to in terms of a surgeon and sort of just what the whole process looked like. It's not that I was freaking out or anything, but I just wanted to talk to a guy who had been through it. So, a bunch of the guys here had recommended Nick. They said he is a great guy, so I shot him a text and then he called me right away and he was awesome. Just told me what he went through, what he felt right after, how long it sort of took until he got back to normal, and sort of what to expect. So, he was awesome. I'll always remember that conversation. Honestly, the things that I've been through so far have been to a T of what he said. So it's great advice from him."
Defensive Coordinator Steve Wilks
Opening comments:
"We stacked another good practice together again today. And we're definitely going to need it this week going against a good football team. I would tell you first off, do not look at their record. These guys are pretty good. I commend the whole coaching staff and how they've gotten these guys prepared each week and ready to play. You look at that talent level across the board, [Arizona Cardinals QB] Kyler [Murray] is back and we know he's a big play ready to happen at any moment. [Arizona Cardinals RB James] Conner's still running the ball extremely hard. [Arizona Cardinals WR] Rondale [Moore], [Arizona Cardinals WR Marquise Brown] Hollywood can take the top off at any time. They're doing a little bit more with Rondale, putting him in the backfield. He's running the football well. And the offensive line is doing a great job protecting. So, I've told the guys all week, we're going to have to go earn this one. It's going to definitely be a tough game, and I know we're going to be up for the challenge. So, with that, I'll take your questions."
Kyler Murray has given this defense some problems at times during his career. What's the key to defending him?
"Again, I think it's a combination of a lot of things. Number one, we've got to be sound in our defensive responsibilities as far as the zone-read, not allowing him to be able to get outside the pocket because he's definitely going to pull it. And then also his ability to be able to scramble and go make a big play. I think it's a little different than [Philadelphia Eagles QB] Jalen [Hurts] than what we faced a couple of weeks ago, but it's still the same premise that we've got to make sure that we contain him. And once again, I think he's doing an excellent job of going through his progression, trying to stay in the pocket, going through his different reads and putting the ball where it needs to go."
What's the difference? You mentioned it's different than defending Jalen Hurts. What's the biggest difference?
"I think when he gets outside the pocket, he can run, he can leave you, he can go by you. So, we've got to do a great job making sure we try to contain him. We felt different with Jalen, forcing him outside and not allowing him to get up vertical inside those A and B gaps and that we can go get him. Kyler Murray is totally different."
When you look at Kyler Murray previous to his injury and then now, how much different does he look or does he look like the same guy?
"He looks like the same guy to me. I think now with technology and how these guys bounce back from ACLs and those things he's still running well. Once again, I don't see any limp or glitch in his performance. So, it's always a concern when you have these running quarterbacks. We've got to do a great job by committee, you know, 11 guys getting to the football and making sure that there's no assumptions that he's down."
You're a bit banged up at defensive tackle at the moment. What's kind of your state of confidence in the backups there?
"Oh, a lot of confidence. You look at what [DL Javon] Kinlaw and [DL] Kevin [Givens] have been doing the last couple of weeks, I'm very confident in their performance and how they're going to play. We're not going to put the onus on them. It's going to be critical that they do a great job inside penetrating and trying to play on their side of the line of scrimmage, but across the board, we've all got to step up."
The first matchup, they went up-tempo on you I think in the first half. How did, looking back at that, how'd you feel like your defense defended that and do you expect that again?
"Oh, that's part of their offense and we've always got to be ready for that and we've just got to weather the storm. I think what happens in most of those types of situations, we've got to be ready for what I consider a minimum package in the things that I'm trying to get done when they start up-tempoing because sometimes they get you back on your heels a little bit where you can't really do what you want, but we have a certain menu that we like when they get up-tempo, so that's what we've got to get to quickly."
You used to be head coach down there. I'm just kind of curious, what kind of emotions does that carry for you?
"None. None."
You've gone back there before, right?
"Yes, several times. So we're beyond that."
If LB Dre Greenlaw and LB Oren Burks are out, are you looking at maybe doing DL Robert Beal Jr., LB Dee Winters? How are they going to fit into this team?
"Well, you know Dee is definitely up. He does a good job on special teams. I have total confidence if he has to go in there and play. He's played sparingly this year, particularly late in the game, so I have a lot of confidence in him and we'll see exactly what's going to transpire with Robert."
How have they progressed so far since the start of the season?
"Well, I think Dee I've talked about him on several occasions. I think he's gotten so much better. I think [linebackers coach] Johnny [Holland] has done a tremendous job in just the teaching and the progression that really him and Jalen both. And then I think Robert has a bright future. You know, I really do. [Defensive line coach Kris] Kocurek is excited about him and the things that I see as well. So, we've got some good young talent and hopefully when they get in there the expectation doesn't change, they'll step up and perform."
What have you seen out of LB Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles playing there?
"He's smart, can play all three positions. If anything happens with Greenlaw, we anticipate him playing this week, but if not I have total confidence that Flan can go in there and get the job done."
Do you anticipate LB Dre Greenlaw playing this week?
"Yeah, I do. Yes."
I see a special player in LB Jalen Graham. He looked great in the preseason. How's he progressed as the year has gone on and what do you see when you watch him?
"I see a lot of talent. I see a guy with length that can run. The one thing that Jalen, you have to remember, when we got him, he was really a converted safety, you know, played well out in space. And it takes a while, not just within this defense, but as a whole, just in the league trying to learn that position. And you can see the difference in Dee who actually played linebacker at TCU. He picks up things a little quicker and whatnot. So, that's the difference in the progression. But, I have total confidence in Jalen and how he's progressing and the things that he's doing."
Was that among your first messages this week? They are 3-10, but please do not look at that record?
"Yeah, I think it started with [head coach] Kyle [Shanahan]. Kyle does a great job in setting the tone each week and painting the picture that we all need to see as players and coaches. And I just echo that message. I see the same thing when we watch tape. This, you know, I don't even know what their record is and I don't really care, but they're a good football team. They're better than what their record states."
You faced a lot of criticism during the three-game losing streak. Now the team's winning and you're coaching the number one defense in the league and people don't have that much to say about you anymore. Does that amuse you?
"No. You know what, man, like I told you guys before, you know, I'm a very small piece of this puzzle. I knew coming into this situation when we didn't do well, I was going to get blamed and when we did good, we were supposed to, we were number one last year. So it is what it is."
You were a defensive back and you know defensive backs. What do you think of DB Darrell Luter Jr.? He's shown on special teams. Is he healthy now?
"Yeah, yeah. Luter going back, I mentioned Jalen, I talked about Robert Beal and then Dee Winters, a lot of credit man to [general manager] John Lynch and the whole entire scouting department. And I said this several times to the defensive staff, man, I think we hit on all our picks on defense, man. Those guys are going to be great players for us. Luter, I hate he got hurt, but the way he's bounced back, you know, I pointed out the special teams play that he did against Seattle on Thanksgiving Day, basically saving that touchdown and defense went out there and held them to three points, but just his performance on special teams and his ability to come in and do some things on defense. I think he's going to be well."
What's your assessment on CB Jason Verrett so far?
"Love Jason, man. You know, never had the chance, I just missed him when I left San Diego. Great player, an even better human being. All the guys love him. He's one of the favorites in the locker room with his relationships and being here before. Great movement, he's still moving well. I'm very confident that he's going to be able to help us at some point rather inside or outside and looking forward to getting him on the field sometime soon."
Run Game Coordinator/Offensive Line Chris Foerster
Defensive Coordinator Steve Wilks was just talking about how Head Coach Kyle Shanahan was talking about how Arizona is 3-10, but the message to the team is, do not look at 3-10, these guys can actually play. Does that resonate with you from what you see?
"Yeah, records really, win or losing games comes down to a lot of things that happen in a game, turnovers and you make a kick, you don't make a kick. Things like that. You look at the team, you look at the players that your guys are going against, you look at the side of the ball you're going against. You evaluate those players, you evaluate the scheme, and you look at what the challenge is and what you have to do every week. You get so ground down in the minutiae and you try to just stay in that world of, 'Hey, we have to take care of this, where I have to do my job.' The big picture thing just really doesn't weigh that heavily on what the record is or where they're headed or what they're doing. So, there's tons of stories about past teams I've been on where you've been in a situation where your record isn't quite as good and shoot these games become like playoff games for you at the end of the season. Your team's building towards something next season and so on and so forth. But all that stuff really doesn't matter. What we have to do is take care of business. What our job is every single play and do the best that we can. And that's where the focus is."
After the game, QB Brock Purdy said he noticed that Seattle Seahawks S Jamal Adams was flatfooted, and he recognized that before the play on WR Deebo Samuel's touchdown. Is that something that you don't see as often in a young quarterback?
"You're looking at something every single play. So I mean, yeah, he's an experienced thrower, we've talked about what a good quarterback. He's been through the years as far as he's played the position, he understands the position, and these are things, who knows when he picked that up during the course of his career? You never know. Every guy's different. Sometimes you're amazed when a guy comes in from college football and the things he knows and then you're amazed sometimes with things they don't know and you're having to teach them that. So you never know. He might've picked that up in sophomore year of high school football, noticing flat-footed defenders and things like that or he might've just picked it up recently hearing it from somebody else talk. So, you just don't know. You'd have to ask him that. But, he does continue to do really good things and things that seem to put him probably ahead of the curve for where a guy with his experience and the age he is."
How has the culture here made things self-sustaining for a coach? Do you not have to spend a lot of time to get this guy going because they're looking at their teammates to get going?
"Well, I think it's both things. I think that you always go back to, we've talked about, I know [General Manager] John [Lynch] and Kyle have talked about a lot the way we have decided to draft players. We've brought players in, they haven't worked out, they've worked out. But the type of player that we bring in traditionally has been the kind of guy that we feel really good about, and a guy that is self-motivated and does fit what our quote unquote culture is. I go back to, it starts with the expectation that Kyle sets for everybody and that expectation, it's in every part of the building. Whether it be on field, off the field, the way people work, all those things. There's just an expectation level that there's not much variance or give in it. And so that it kind of then becomes self-sustaining to a degree, but we have to stay on it every single day. It's not like I don't come to work. I know that if I'm not doing something right, I'm going to hear about it. If one of my players isn't doing something right, if there's a drop off during practice, they're going to hear about it from me. They're going to hear about it from other players. So, they work with each other. We've got a good veteran team that way. But it starts at the top and it really does. Kyle is just very demanding of all of us. That expectation level is why it is the way it is and then you bring in players that like that. So, then they thrive in that environment, so then they do keep it going."
You see a guy like FB Kyle Juszczyk who tries to show you every day all the different things that he can do and other fullbacks around the league that seem like they've kind of embraced that more. You've seen that position kind of evolve. How much do you think versatility and being able to do that, especially at that position, is kind of key to keeping it alive?
"Well, for us, it really is because the game is everybody wants to take the game and become a spread. That's been the trend over time. So then you can stay with the I formation and do the things, but being able to break out of the I and use your fullback in those other ways allows you to kind of do some of the spread things, some of the things that other teams are doing without a fullback, and yet still put the fullback in the backfield and put you in a position that you can run some of the traditional plays that you'd use a traditional fullback on. There's a lot of advantages to having a fullback. So put them in the backfield there and being able to do the things we do with him or the other tight ends, there's an advantage to how you can cut the defense, different things you can do. When you're a one back offense, you don't have a lot of leverage and things like that. That's why the quarterback runs. The zone read stuff becomes such a big thing because you regain an advantage that you don't have with one back in the backfield. So, that advantage that Kyle gives us and that it lets you do a little bit of everything, that's really cool. I've talked to the guys in Miami, the guy they have there in [Miami Dolphins FB Alec] Ingle, he has a heck of a job doing some of the same things. He's probably not quite as versatile athletically, but he still does a lot of those same things. Then it's still a good fullback."
Is there a tipping point of when that position had to evolve in a way because it used to just be like the sledgehammers going through?
"Well, I think what happened was, I ran into it when I was in Tampa. There was a really good guy, in fact, with [former Tennessee Titans TE] Frank Wycheck's passing, the Music City Miracle. One of the pieces of that was [former NFL FB] Lorenzo Neal, and Lorenzo was with us in Tampa, and Lorenzo was the definition of leverage. You say how do you get leverage? Well, you'd be about 5'9 and weigh about 240 pounds and be built like a fire hydrant. You have leverage on everybody you're going to block. Well, Zo was that, but the problem was that even in Tampa where we weren't going to throw the ball a lot back in the day, he played 15 snaps, you're paying him x amount of dollars to play that limited number of snaps. And so, all of a sudden, you're like, it's not worth it. Then you wanted to throw the ball a little bit more, do different things with different positions. So I think that if you're going to be on the roster, you can't have somebody that's that limited. So having that be more versatile it fits the salary cap, everything that goes into it."
Can you also just execute more blocking combinations with the fullback on the field?
"There's more things available. There really are. There's just more. Moving tight ends, it's all the same thing that halfback type position, but you're having guys that can just can cut the defense in different ways. Things that you see sometimes we have these plays that you just see, it just kind of opens up because we've cut it, we build a wall this way, we knock things out this way. But that allows with fullback. When it's one back, you're always in. We've had one our most productive plays, the one back play. The fullback might be up on the line of scrimmage, but we don't have the cut of the defense. We don't have angles on. It's been a productive play for us. This season, more productive than ever and it's still probably our best play. But those plays do, all of a sudden you're doing this, bam, you cut the defense with the fullback and it gives you some more flexibility."
We saw some prominent downfield blocking by wide receivers in this last game as there has been throughout the season. I'm just wondering how Kyle, you or WR Coach Leonard Hankerson highlights that. Is that something that after a game like that, it's sort of underscored?
"You caught me in a minute with Leonard. I call him Hank. Hank has a hard hat in his meeting room and if they get a good block, they get to sign the hard hat. So, [WR] Jauan [Jennings] is on there a bunch this year. They all do. I'll go back. When I first started working with Kyle and [former NFL coach] Mike Shanahan in Washington, every Friday we had what we called the run meeting. And what you did is you took Thursday's team run period, and it started with [former NFL offensive line coach] Alex Gibbs in Denver. And he'd go in there and it would be his chance to coach all 11 guys in the run game. And that's when, I can't speak for him, may he rest in peace, but he would get to rip everybody in the room not just rip his lineman. Now he got to chew out the receivers, chew out the quarterback for not carrying out the fake, and it became his chance to kind of bring everybody together in the run game. So, I get the meeting and I'm like, am I going to yell at [former NFL WR] Santana Moss, all these guys? So, I'm running the meeting and Coach Shanahan, as he did, he recorded all the meetings so he could actually punch in on a screen and watch everybody's meetings. He could go from meeting room to meeting room and listen on a video screen. So, he's listening to my meeting, and all of a sudden, the door flies open and he comes in from his office. I was in the middle of trying to run this meeting, I didn't know how Alex did it. And he's like, 'Hey, coach, this Santana, that's unacceptable. You have to get your ass in there and block that guy. And coach, you have to coach him harder to go do it.' I'm like, 'oh crap, here we go.' So, I'm like, I have to figure out how to do this meeting. This was a roundabout way to tell you the story, but this guy, they had a high expectation level for receiver blocking. From that point forward, I said, 'I can't do it that way.' So what I would do when Santana missed his block, I started going back and finding other film clips of game tape where Santana did. 'Hey, Santana, hey man, look at this. Great job, great job'. And then this, 'Hey, Tana, we know you can do better than that in this place.' Same thing here. You can show Deebo doing things excellent or [WR Brandon] Aiyuk and those guys. And so, it's just the expectation. Like we spoke earlier about the expectation of the building, when we run the football, it's all 11 guys, the quarterback carrying out the fake, the receivers doing their part. That expectation level was set a long time ago, and it's all of us. Hank has to stay on them. We all do. It's not acceptable to not do your job in the running game because it's a huge part of what we do. And that's why, knock on wood, we've had some success here running the football. It's all 11 doing it."
Much is made of the Niners and pre-snap motion. Kyle talked about how can't put a defense in a bind and they have to adjust. Some teams don't use it that much. Why is that? Like when you see the effect it can have, why would teams say that's not for us?
"Well, some systems you've heard quarterbacks mic'd up, right? Making Mike points, Mike 52, Mike. The more you move, [former NFL QB] Peyton Manning was when they beat [former NFL coach] Rex Ryan's defense in the championship game. I think it was when the Jets made it the one year and the Colts went, they lost it anyway. He went the whole second half and said, not only do I not want to move, I want to be in the same formation every single step, because I'll be able to know exactly what they're doing if I just stay in this formation. I have all the tells so I can put us in the right play. So, any motion would make it really hard for him to audible or check with me or do plays like that. Other teams have to have a Mike point. Everything's moving, right? So, you have to move and get set and it's impossible to make the identification. So, we've built a system through, the quarterback doesn't have to do all that and we've gone through the years, it's evolved. I mean because I was with Kyle in 2010 and then was apart for a little bit and came back together. It's just evolved. How we identify people, we came up with a way in 2010, some of that has changed with motion and movement. We've had to come up with different words as to how we do it to fix things. When you have jet sweeps going this way and that way to tell the center how to identify it properly. But because teams are predicated on we want the quarterback, everybody gets set, quarterback says we're going here, everybody goes here, it sets the table cleanly. We're not always clean. It's not always perfect. But there's a tradeoff. Neither are they. It's just a real challenge. That challenge, it's real. I mean, [C] Jake Brendel is challenged and as were the centers before him in the systems to really get up there and make sure that everybody's going in the right direction. They do a heck of a job with it. We have to still do better and sometimes we have all these moving pieces and you're like, 'oh wow, we haven't seen that before.' You have to kind of step back and say, maybe we have to adjust how we're doing this, that, or the other thing. It's all the nickel defense being played the base now. There's always a challenge as defenses evolve and we evolve with the moving pieces. It's a chess match always."
What do you think of OL Ben Bartch so far and where does he fit best on your line if you had to project?
"Ben's doing a great job. A real good friend of mine, [NFL offensive line coach] George Warhop, who was the line coach in Jacksonville, had him. Actually when we played Jacksonville, George and I got together for a breakfast and we just talked. He's not in coaching this year, hopefully he gets back. He should get back in next year. He is a great coach. George said, 'Hey man they just traded for [Jacksonville Jaguars OL] Ezra Cleveland. The Jacksonville Jaguars did. And they bumped my guy, Benny Bartch down to practice squad.' He said, 'if you get a chance to pick him up, he'd be a really good guy to pick up. And so, I watched the tape and he was really good. He had a knee injury and so when you watch this year's tape.' I said, 'George, he's struggling man,' but when you went back and watched the year before and sometimes it takes a guy a year after the knee, takes another year. So when you watch him and I got him here, he fits our system. He's quick, Guard, probably not yet anchoring well enough at Guard. You're a little bit concerned as an anchor in pass protection. That's what concerned me on the Jacksonville tape. But at Center he is good, he can play Center as well. Those interior three positions, he's got the quickness, he's got the length, he's got some size. And as he gets into our system, we keep working with him, I think he's got a real good fit for our inside three and gives us a chance to add another good quality player inside. I really like the guy."
Comments