San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan spoke with reporters after Friday's practice as the team prepares for its Week 16 matchup against the Miami Dolphins. Here's everything he said.
Transcript provided by the San Francisco 49ers Communications staff.
Opening comments:
"[T] Trent Williams will be out, [RB] Isaac Guerendo will be out, [LB Dre] Greenlaw, [DL Nick] Bosa and [DL] Robert Beal [Jr.] are questionable."
What is Beal?
"Hurt his ankle out there today."
Greenlaw, Beal and who else?
"And Bosa."
RB Patrick Taylor Jr. would be the starter?
"Most likely."
I know you've talked about him last week, but what has he shown you as far as, can you just plug him in and just do everything that you'd ordinarily do?
"Yeah. He's been here since training camp. He's done a real good job for us, played in this league before, has experience there at Green Bay and when he's gotten his opportunities with us he's ran the ball well. And when he hasn't run the ball, he's really helped us on special teams. So, big opportunity for him and glad we've got him."
People have described you and Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel as innovative offensive coaches. I don't know if you would consider yourself that, but who would you consider on your list of innovative coaches that you've come across in your run as a coach?
"Those I've worked with before. Always go, for sure, with my dad first. Starting out with [former NFL coach] Jon Gruden was awesome. He was always, he was in all that stuff, so that was a great place for me to start because I got to, my dad would always isolate it down to certain things that he did. John did everything, which was real cool because I got to learn a little bit of everything and then decide what you want to do and how you want to package it. [Former NFL head coach Gary Kubiak] Kub was awesome, coming from the same tree as my dad. But those are the best I've been around."
How's Dre come through the week with three extra days?
"He's had a good week. Yeah, he's done a good job."
Did you hear what QB Brock Purdy had to say yesterday about playing with a sense of urgency or chip on his shoulder, that he kind of feels like maybe he lost some of that? Is that, has that been apparent at all? Have you talked to him about that?
"No. I heard about it because I had a radio show yesterday and they asked me about Brock saying he's going to play with more of a chip on his shoulder. And so, that was the only thing I heard about it. He has as big of a chip on his shoulder as any player I've been around, so that throws me off. He's probably just trying to answer a question and come up with something to say for you guys. But, Brock plays as hard and competitive as anyone I've been around."
What do you think of Brock giving his linemen Toyota Sequoias and Tundras?
"I think it shows he's a hell of a guy and that he got a hell of a deal."
Your two playoff wins last year against the Packers and Lions were probably incomplete, certainly by last year's standards. Did they, going into the offseason, did those games give you any pause or have you worried about any cracks that might be on this team?
"No, not at all. Those games, when you have a game that, as you would say is incomplete, that's what you figure out for the next six days on how to get ready for the next game and then what shows up in the next game and then anything happens in those two games that affects you on those two weeks on how to prepare for the Super Bowl and stuff like that. But no, playoff games, you can win games any type of way. You look at the history of this league and you watch like the greatest show on turf who had all those points, for them to get to the Super Bowl, I think they had to score a touchdown on the last couple plays of a game, I forget the score, I think it was like 15-6 or something. But playoff games, you've got to do whatever you've got to win. What I remember about those is I didn't think we came out playing great right away. I think what frustrated me last year about those games was clinching the one seed so early, having to find that way to play that last game when guys were also going to get a Bye week the next week and how to kind of keep that routine going and stuff while you still wanted to rest guys a little bit. And I felt that a little bit in the first week, just as our team and stuff, but none of that leads into, 'Oh, this is the preview of next year.' When you get to the offseason, you evaluate all your personnel, which changes with contracts and all that stuff. You evaluate the draft and you build your team for training camp."
You guys run similar systems, but it seems like your weapons are quite a bit different. His weapons seem like they're just almost like a track team. You've got this incredible physical group. How do you see the difference? Is that a statement about what he likes and what you like?
"No, I think it's a statement of what you get. What I like is the biggest, strongest, fastest, most aggressive player possible who's extremely smart and very natural at football. So I'd love all those type of guys to build it around. What I'm trying to say is you always get the best thing that you can get, whether it's in a Draft, but you never like going into something and say, 'Hey, I need a guy with a good 40 time,' or 'Hey, I need a really tough guy.' You need a good football player who can be the best starting running back you have, the best starting tackle, the best quarterback, the best receiver, rusher, whatever it is. And then how do you get that guy? It's through free agency. It's through the Draft. It's through guys who are already on your team, building them, improving them, and then you put together a scheme that goes with that. When you're going to bring your scheme to another team, yeah you bring like what you believe in your foundation of football, but your scheme is based off of the players that you have around you and how you give those guys the best chance to succeed."
TE George Kittle says he still gets text messages from Miami Dolphins assistant head coach and tight ends coach Jon Embree telling him your stance is terrible, your foot work is trash. Is that tampering?
"If they were in our own division, I'd say yes. I'd try to get back at them. But no, I love Jon sending those texts. Jon's an awesome dude, a hell of a coach and that's his style and he's going to ride guys like that. I've got no problem with him riding our guys if it helps him."
A popular talking point on the radio is that you need to reinvent yourself. Your offense is all over the league and everyone's caught up to it and now you need to evolve or whatever. I assume some of that already happens every year. Do you agree with part of that or is that just as a coach you're always doing that?
"That's what you try to do every single week. That's what you try to always do. But it's kind of like the other question when talking about schemes, you don't just say, 'Hey, today I'm going to try to run the wishbone offense and stuff.' It's what are the players that you have, what do you believe in and what gives those guys the best chance to succeed? For a little bit here, we almost went with the running quarterback, possibly with [Dallas Cowboys QB] Trey [Lance]. You saw a different offense when he got out there. You see different things. You've got to adjust your players. I know what I want to do. I think we've got the players here to do that stuff. But reinventing yourself as you ask, I did that having a mustache this offseason for a little bit. That's how I would look at that. And I'm totally joking, but it's when it comes to football, football's, that's why I think coaches get a little too much credit too when a really good scheme is putting the players that you have in the best chance they have to max out and do their best. That's what we're gonna always try to do. The scheme will change with that."
Along those lines, I think there's 18 teams in the league that run some variation of what you do. Are you flattered by that or are you frustrated by that?
"It just is what it is. When they say they do what we do it, the team's motion a lot more now, they believe in play action a lot more. I think that comes from defensive coordinators and defensive coaches pushing that on offensive guys. I think the more young guys that come in the league that's what they see a little bit more of. That's kind of how it goes. When I got in the league, you see certain things and I ran a certain offense at Houston when I was there, went to Washington, tried to do a real similar offense and it was totally different personnel and I realized I couldn't run that same thing and I had to adjust and each year was different. Then we got [Washington Commanders former QB] Robert [Griffin III] in there, which was a quarterback who had a running element, then I had to do stuff that I'd never done before. Not because you're just reinventing yourself or trying to change the league because you're trying to figure out what can help the guys that you have be successful. And that can change all the time depending on the player's skillset. But, I'd say as a coach that if you want to make it in this league and you want to have some success in this league you better be able to adjust to anything or you're only going to be successful when you have the perfect situations."