San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen spoke to reporters on Wednesday as the team prepares for its preseason finale against the Las Vegas Raiders. Here is everything he said.
Transcript provided by the San Francisco 49ers Communications staff.
As you get down to the last practice or so before the cut down from 90 to 53, can you sense a difference in the players, the anxiousness and whatever goes into that?
"I think guys are excited, you can feel that. Everything has kind of been installed for a while now. So we're just tightening up the details of those things. Everyone knows we're getting closer, and it's just the excitement is starting to build as we grow closer together."
Did you see enough of CB Isaac Yiadom in the spring and early training camp that you feel good about him being the third guy or is that still in flux as we go into this last game?
"We feel great about Ike. He came in doing exactly what he did last year on tape. He competes at a high level. We love everything we've seen. Just like with anybody, once you have them come back, there's always going to be some type of ramp up period to show that they're ready to play. And then we just make the decision. There's no two that are exactly the same. But the stuff that he did, we know he's got experience. And he showed that when he got here. Just excited to have him get back and get him rolling again."
How's CB Renardo Green been playing on the inside?
"Both spots. That was kind of the plan. I wanted to give him the harder stuff early, because he hadn't played in there. It's always easier, I think, to move back out to what you're used to, then to try something really new. Then if we did it later, it would have been like, oh my gosh, blow your mind. Where when we gave him the hard stuff early, then he handled it while also playing corner. So now it's like, let's get you focused on playing outside and see if it clears your mind. Let you just play. Now he just kind of has to know both. Just like [DB Deommodore Lenoir] Dmo does. We like to challenge our guys and see what they can handle. And when you see that they can handle it, it's awesome. It gives you that flexibility. And he's just a competitive kid that's smart, that wants to do it right."
Do you see that it's cleared his mind and allowed him to play a little bit faster on the outside?
"Yeah, anytime you can, we told him in that block, it was like, 'We just want you to focus on corner this block.' So yeah, that's going to free anybody. It's just like when you're learning, you have a linebacker who's just playing one spot. It doesn't seem like a lot, but it's like moving an O-Lineman to a different position. Anytime you do any of that, it's just harder than you think. It may sound not that hard on paper when you just talk about it, but it is. It's a big difference. So yeah, it definitely cleared him out to play faster and it was good to see."
You talked about the ramp up. How much time, in terms of a ramp up, would S Talanoa Hufanga need when he gets back?
"We've got guys that, have been doing this for a long time and they're really good at it. So they have all the metrics and the measurements and all the checkpoints, which he's been going through that process. There's so many years and years of data and they've been with him. They'll let us know."
For football play, is there an amount of time a guy needs to get back comfortable?
"I think it just depends on the player. He's got a lot of experience. So with someone like Huf, you would trust him. As long as once he comes back and he's communicating like he did, he's moving like he did. You can trust what you're seeing, but also what they're telling you in their comfort level. It would be different than someone who's new or someone who's played eight years. So I think with him, it's once he feels good and ready to go, we'll go with that."
When you guys start having the conversations to cut down to 53, and say you're deciding between a guy who has been around, a veteran, a little while and a younger guy who maybe you'd have some upside there, what kind of goes into that and how much does, now that you can keep veterans in the practice squad, maybe change the equation of what it used to be?
"Oh, it makes a huge difference. It wasn't too long ago you only had five practice squad players and there were so many limitations on that. The standard elevations now that you can do with players and how many times you can do it, I think it's smart because back in the day or even in those days not too long ago, you would play through injuries. You wouldn't report them or you would just play through them. Where now it's you can be smarter because you can standard elevate guys. You've got guys that are in your program that you're developing, the 16 and six of them are veterans, which I think also extends the careers of these guys that all feel like you could play longer if you just had a chance that you could hang around. So it also makes the whole onboarding of players a lot better too, where they're not just showing up on a Monday workout and then you sign them in, meeting with them on Tuesday and shoot, they could play that week. That still happens, but you usually want to keep guys that are in your program. And I think that permeates throughout the league. Not only is it good for injuries, it's good for the product of football in the NFL. You see guys that already know what they're doing because they've been on your team on practice squad."
Your side of the ball has been pretty clean in terms of injuries. Do you feel good about where you're at? I know you said before you're never going to be totally satisfied. Is this about where you hope you'd be at this point?
"It is because of the mindset of the guys. I think everyone likes who they're playing with and they like how everything is progressing. Like I said, we try to make stuff harder for guys and the communication's good, the energy's good. And in that respect, I am pleased. You're never totally happy, but as far as our progress, how our coaches are coaching, how the players are getting coached and how they're working together and getting closer together, they work hard every single day. And that's really, to me, it's a day-by-day. I know I've said it before of work hard, get better and being shortsighted that is a good thing, I think."
As a play-caller, how much flexibility does LB Fred Warner give you in terms of kind of put him in any position and maybe experiment? How much flexibility does that give you and what makes him so unique?
"What makes Fred unique is he's a machine. I think he's the best linebacker in the NFL. He does it every single day. He's so consistent. He's a leader. He plays fast. He plays physical. He attacks the ball. He is a good tackler. He is good in coverage. To me, he's complete. But what he does is he practices like that every single day. That's why, I referenced that he's kind of like a machine. It's just an every single day thing with him and he's trained and it's very serious. I don't think any player I ever played with or have coached, it's never an accident. It's never a coincidence. A lot of times they are extremely dedicated. They have a clear plan, and they probably work the hardest."
You've had a month now to look at your new front floor with DL Nick Bosa and DL Javon Hargrave and DL Maliek Collins and DL Leonard Floyd. What are you seeing out of those guys? I know you like to rotate a lot on the front, but it seems like with those four they might be able to handle a bigger workload than normal.
"Yeah, they're fun because they do have such good movement and power. I think they really work well together. I think they enjoy working together on the stunts, but also taking pride in the run game that you've got to earn your pass rushes by being good in the run game. I'm just excited, excited to see those guys play together."
LB Jalen Graham looks pretty special. What does he need to do as far as development to get to that next level so he's running with the ones?
"The linebacker room is really a competitive group right now, as you've seen. [LB] Dee [Winters] and Jalen from last year to this year progressed a lot after that rookie season. But it's just all of them together have kind of made it competitive and progressed together. It's really going to be a tough decision for us."
S Malik Mustapha obviously plays like a hundred miles an hour, but it seemed like on Sunday there were maybe some missed tackles, overrunning guys. Does he need to dial it in? Obviously, you don't want to take away his aggression away because he was doing so excellent.
"No, I think there were two of them. You probably think of, both of them were kind of on the sideline. One of them, he kind of got tripped a little bit if you watch it and then another one he's just got to trust it and keep going. I don't think he overran it. I think he just needs to trust. And that's our tackling style of understanding that he can just keep triggering and go. He's already shown that he can do that. So now it's when someone shows that they can do something, alright, we're more concerned with what you can do. Let's try and do that as much as possible."
