San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan held their end-of-season press conference on Wednesday, reflecting on the team's 6-11 finish to its 2024 campaign. Here is everything they said.
Transcript provided by the San Francisco 49ers Communications staff.
Opening comments:
President of Football Operations/General Manager John Lynch opening comments:
"First of all, on behalf of [head coach] Kyle [Shanahan], our families, our organization, just wanted to let the folks in L.A., I'm a Southern California guy, know a lot of people down there and people who've been directly affected already, and I'm sure there's going to be more. So our hearts do, we've been sitting in what we call our mine meetings, talking about all our players on a closeout and your mind keeps drifting because man, that's rough down there. So our thoughts and prayers do go to the folks and people of L.A. and that things calm down. So, start with that and then we'll open up for questions."
Can you talk about your decision with former defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen and kind of what the overall plan is now at the defensive coordinator position?
Kyle Shanahan: "Yeah. First of all, it was a real tough decision. I love Nick as a person and I love him as a coach. Still trying to hope to keep him on board in another capacity, because he is a guy I don't want to lose. But just where we're at, really as a team, where I think we need to go. There are a lot of big decisions ahead for us. And as hard as it is for me to come to this conclusion, but I feel there are some options out there that can end up being a better option in the situation that we're in for our team. And when really it comes down to that, in the position I'm in, regardless of anything else, that's always the stuff I've got to go with. So, it was a real tough decision for me, and I'm still hoping that we can keep Nick here, but I do feel there are some other avenues that in the long run will be better for the 49ers."
Are there internal candidates for both of those coordinator spots?
KS: "There are candidates, yes."
Can you share the internal ones?
KS: "The internal one, I'll give [assistant head coach/defense Brandon] Staley a shot, just talking to him, he's been here. There will be a lot of guys outside the building too."
This is back-to-back years where you fired your defensive coordinator after one year. Do you have to go back through the process of this? I know both different situations. Were there things that went wrong in the process to find these last two guys?
KS: "I don't believe anything went wrong in the process. I think, I'll tell you what, it's a more opportunistic or easier process talking about right now, whatever the date is today. It's a little bit harder in February, which the last two were in. Just being the last team to finish last year and before that, being the second-to-last team to finish makes it a lot different. So, there are more opportunities out there and plan on looking into all of them."
Would experience being a defensive coordinator be important to you this time?
KS: "Yeah, I think some of the stuff that, just where we're at, some of the decisions that we've got to make and things like that, I think having the experience of going through this before, building things before, I think is definitely a bonus for me. It helps me with some stuff. So that's stuff I will look into. But again, you always, regardless, you don't want to put just any handcuffs on your decision. You're going to always try to figure out the best one. So, you've got ideas going into that, but just being so early I'm going to have an opportunity to talk to a number of guys too, so we'll see what that leads us to."
You've always kind of stuck to, "This is who we want to be defensively." Is that still, do you think that's the scheme you want or are you more open to potential changes this time?
KS: "I love the scheme that we've had here. I think it's one of the hardest things to go to when you've got the right guys in the right spots. But, I do think people adjust to schemes, and I think you have to adjust too depending on your personnel. And I think that was a tougher thing for us this year. Just going into the season, it was a little bit harder than past seasons and some of the injuries we had, I think, made it really tough for Nick. And I thought he got better trying to adjust and do different things, but I do think that's something that definitely, I'm not saying you've got to change schemes, but you have to have the ability, the history and the knowledge of how to change some stuff up when you're in some certain situations. And I think that we do need that more going forward."
Is Nick under consideration for that special teams coordinator spot or is that some--?
KS: "Yeah. Nick would be in consideration, yes."
And just to be clear, he's been let go and you're hoping to bring him back or no?
KS: "I just told him he is not going to be the defense coordinator. He's under contract still and I'm really hoping that he'll come back, but that's got to be something he and his family feel good about too and the exact role that we end up carving out for him, which I'll work on here over the next few weeks."
How challenging is that for him to go from being the defensive coordinator to being, and I'm not saying just another assistant, but from going from being the defensive coordinator to moving back into a different role?
KS:"I don't know. I haven't done it before. I'm sure it is a challenge, it has to do with, is that something that you want to do? Is it something you're comfortable with? I know our building would be comfortable with it. I know our players would be comfortable with it. There's, this was a tough year, but Nick didn't lose any respect or anything like that from any of our players or our coaches. And I think if you talk to anyone, whether it's with you guys in the media or it's just one-on-one, he's got a lot of respect from people here and everyone does think he's a good coach. I spent these last two days having exit interviews. It's been, to go through these two days where all I do is just talk to people and you talk to everybody, lots of good feedback on Nick and I think the guys would be real excited if he was here next year."
Is there any uncertainty about T Trent Williams and him playing in 2025?
JL: "No. Trent's doing well. He had a bruise in the ankle joint and it probably took a little longer than anyone anticipated, but sometimes that happens. And the good news is, it's taken a positive turn. Trent's mindset is where it always is and he's still very interested in being a great player that he is. And I think he's still got a lot left in the tank. So, Trent's committed as ever and we love having Trent Williams a part of us."
You mentioned options out there for the DC spot, also special teams coordinator. What are you looking for, for both spots?
KS: "I'm looking for a guy who I think will fit with our team the best. I like to sit and talk to guys about our personnel. I want to, obviously, talk to someone about their plans schematically and what they like to do, but that's all great, what do you plan to do with our team? And that's when it involves certain people in terms of when they look at what we have, what they think we need going forward, what we've got to go get. And so it's, I want someone that kind of meshes with what I believe in, but I also believe in that you've got to fit to come up with the best thing possible that fits our situation right now. So that'll be talking about our personnel, the roster, a lot of things like that and what their plan would be with it."
Would you be open to someone running a different scheme from the past seasons?
KS: "Yeah, I'm open to anything."
QB Brock Purdy talked the other day about wanting to get an extension done as soon as possible. Do you have that same optimism that it can get done by mid-April when spring workouts start?
JL: "Well listen, I think what we know about Brock is that he's our guy. We've got, we have interest in Brock being around here for a long, long time. He's done so much for our organization, he's won big games. Had a little tougher task, as we all did, this year with some of the things that happened throughout the course of the year. We just never could string games where we were all together. And through that, he continued to lead, he continued to play at a high level. So, we have every interest in him being around. The way this thing goes, these press conferences are necessary, but always kind of silly because Kyle's coaching, we spend time together all the time and there are big issues that affect the team, but he's just getting off coaching. He's had his door shut for two days doing exit interviews. We were just up, but we were talking about our players. We'll have some time here in the coming weeks to sit together and put our whole plan together. That's obviously a priority, that position, and we'll give it that attention."
When you guys last sat up there, in training camp, one of the big priorities you said was, "We have to have finishers this year." And you guys got outscored, I think, 165 to 88 in the fourth quarter. So what does that tell you about this team? What went wrong? Is it physical stamina? Is it mindset? Is it the personnel, schemes? What do you point your finger to?
JL: "You don't want to have excuses. A lot of our finishers weren't out there. And then on top of it, we still had opportunities. We still put ourselves in good position and we couldn't get it done. So we have to own that as a team. That's why we're six-and-11. We have a high standard, we had high expectations, we fell short of that. And it's our job to fix that. I know that Kyle and I are committed as we've ever been to doing just that. We don't plan on being in this place, don't like it. It's terrible to sit home and watch something that you expect yourself to be in, the tournament. And we're going to go about the work and we're excited about the work to do just that. But I do believe we have finishers on this team and we've got to continue to add to that. We've got to continue to infuse youth and good football players to this team and we'll do that."
The last couple of offseasons have had a lot of drama, and maybe Kyle can address this too. And a lot of it, you know, there's social media posturing or maybe some of it has already begun. Just, is there anything as the organization that you can do to kind of mitigate that, calm it down? It just seems like it's heated up at times in the last few off seasons.
JL: "Yeah, I think every team has a certain measure of that. I think we have a lot of good players and one of the things that comes with having a lot of good players is it's hard to feed everyone and you've got to make tough decisions. And we're certainly at a point where we've had a five-year run with four NFC Championships, two Super Bowls, and you know, you have to go back to the fundamentals of really building the thing. The lifeblood of your organization needs to be strong drafts because it gives you young players that you have under contract. And so, I think we had multiple, I think seven players that were starters off that draft class, whether we expected them to be, they did, and they gained really valuable experience. We even had free agent guys like [DL] Evan Anderson who contributed a lot. And so, I think we're really excited about this rookie class and that movement. We've got to continue to add to it. We have 10, probably right now, nine draft choices, we think we'll have 10 with a comp pick. But you know, we need to continue to add to it in that way and hope we continue to have hard decisions because we have a lot of great players here."
This is not the first year that special teams have struggled here and, widely noted, you don't take a real detailed interest in special teams. Does that need to change a little? Can you get more involved? Do you need to get more involved?
KS: "I mean, what do you mean by I don't take interest in special teams?"
Well, you say you're not watching the kicker tryouts and that kind of thing. I know they're offhand comments.
JL: "Let me help Kyle there. I would tell you, Kyle spends an inordinate amount of time with all phases of our team. Special teams is extremely important in the way we construct our rosters. The time is there. Now in kicking, neither of us are kicking specialists, so we don't sit here and profess to know everything about kicking and things of that nature. But the time issue, I'm sorry to interrupt Kyle, but no, he spends plenty of time there."
KS: "I just don't BS you guys. I just don't BS you guys with that stuff. But to say like, I mean, we spent some heavy draft picks on special teams players, which I think is investment. We spent some salary cap on guys. I mean, bringing guys like [S] George Odum, having [LB Demetrius] Flannigan-Fowles here these last couple years. I mean, that's bringing back, those are special-teams decisions. We spent a third-round pick on a kicker. Making special teams changes is why special teams is important to me. Because we do work at it, but it wasn't good enough this year. I don't put that just on [former special teams coordinator] Brian [Schneider] by any means. I mean, losing your kicker, losing your punter, when injuries do affect the roster, especially offense and defensively what it did affect the most was special teams, and I think that was unfair to Brian and a tough situation to put him in. But I do think it's an avenue we can get better in. And you can't change the whole thing out so Brian ends up being the fall guy for that and I really appreciate him. He did have a real good three years here and worked his tail off and was very loyal to us and is a very good coach and he'll bounce back on his feet and we'll be going against him soon, I'm sure. But no, special teams is a part of football and everything a part of football is extremely important to us."
You have some decisions when it comes to guys that, just period. Looking forward, you have some hard decisions to make when it comes to roster changes and coaching changes, right? So, there are some videos circulating on the internet from the families of a couple players that would lead some people to believe that LB Dre Greenlaw knows whether or not he will be here or not. Has there been any conversation where he's been given a definitive answer of his future as a Niner?
KS: "No, we don't even know, guys. We haven't, this is, we haven't spent much time together yet. I've had two days with exit interviews with players and coaches. But I mean, players don't know either. And that's what's hard for players. They're under contracts. They know when their contract's going to run up. That's an emotional time for players, for their families, for wives, girlfriends, whoever it is, kids. Just like it is for coaches when I can't always tell them exactly what their future's going to be the day the season ends, it's tied to a lot of other people. And I've been on that side. I know wives are texting you all day asking what the deal is, and they don't believe that you really don't have an answer yet. And I know what they look like when you walk home through the door and they're like, what are we doing with our lives? And you're like, I don't really know. There's a lot of things that you want to solve so fast for people, that is stressful for people sitting in our chairs, but you can't solve everything at once. A lot of things are tied together and when you hear things like that or Greenlaw, like, we're doing everything in the world we can to bring Greenlaw back and we're not into losing really good players who are unbelievable people. So, we're going to do everything we can to never lose really good players who are good people. But that's also a very hard challenge, very hard. And that's something that you don't just talk about in one meeting. There's too many things that connect to that. Draft, free agency, roster, years, all that stuff. And that takes weeks, months to decide."
JL: "And I think the only thing I'd add to that is the communication with the players is what's most important. And I know I sat with Dre and always have great discussions with Dre. I know about his want to be here and I know our want to have him here. And like Kyle said, there's realities and there's tough decisions and so many factors to all those things. But believe me, the desire on both sides is there."
You mentioned that the scheme because of personnel, it was harder on former defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen. When you look at the defensive line, I think the wide-nine has come into scrutiny. How much do you view, especially in the run game, the struggles there being schematic and how much of it is personnel?
KS: "Well, I think it's a little bit of both. I mean, first of all, regardless of injuries or anything like, this year's most disappointing to me because regardless of injuries, I feel we should have been a playoff team. And then you never know what happens in there. But when I go back to the hardest thing for me this year was those three games I've talked to you guys about. The first one versus L.A., first one versus Arizona, second one versus Seattle. I thought we did, I thought we should have won those games and we lost them at the end by I thought at our own mistakes, which means we would've been 8-2 going into Week 11. And that was the hardest thing because, and then we hit some real bad injuries which were going to be tough. But that's to me, what made it steamroll to where we didn't have a chance to make the playoffs. So, when I look at that stuff, like, that's the stuff that I feel we've got to fix the most. And is that scheme? Is that personnel? I mean, that's football. You've got to adjust. I mean, your scheme changes when people are getting hurt, when you can't do exactly what you want to do. It happens on offense all the time. You guys are going to see, I hear from you guys, but I mean the offense looks different when a different quarterback gets in there. It looks different when [RB] Christian McCaffrey gets in there. It looks different all the time and that's how defenses can be too. But you have to build it that way because it's really hard to just change something up in three days of practice. You've got to have that foundation of how you implement it and where you think the season can go and that's what you really truly try to build in the offseason and then into training camp. And you know, that's something I think will be better at building this offseason. Having a little bit more time to do it, being a little more prepared for it because we saw where it went last year and that starts with getting a coordinator in here who can help us map that out. And once we do map that out, it goes right to free agency and how to make sure we can get the best possible situation that we have out of the situation that we're in. And then it goes to the draft and when that's over, all the guys are here and then you get to work."
Along those same lines, you had mentioned a couple weeks ago that you wanted to find the root causes for the down season beyond the injuries. In your mind, what do you feel those root causes were?
JL: "Yeah, I think my point there was you don't just want to say it was injuries. Because like Kyle just mentioned, we had games within our control. Despite those injuries, we were in position to win a lot of games. So, I think you just want to dig deeper and you want to look at everything. And that's what we'll do. That's part of our process. That will always be part of our process. We can go more in depth this year. I think you always try to look for the positive in situations and there isn't a whole lot of positive of not being in the playoff run. You have to make it a positive because we have this time, how are we going to use it? And I think we can focus a little bit more on where we want to go, where we want to evolve in both personnel, scheme, all these things. And that's what we'll do, we'll take advantage of the time. In a sense, it kind of energizes you to come back and have this time to really put our minds and our staff's minds together to come out with the best, to give us the best opportunity to compete going forward."
You've been doing this for a while now and drafted Greenlaw and WR Jauan Jennings and Purdy and guys that are insane competitors. Did you know going into the draft those guys were insane competitors and how do you find more guys like that?
JL: "I can't say you always know. Like Jauan Jennings, we don't spend a lot of time watching highlight tapes off the internet, but up in the draft meeting someone said, 'you should watch this highlight tape.' And so we did that with Jauan and it was insane. It really was. So you kind of had an idea of the type of competitor. I smile when I talk about Jauan because I love the way he plays. I love the way he competes. You don't know on every player, but I think the process and the way we include everybody, the way we pair personnel staff with coaches and the thorough process we have, it's a good process. So, you find guys like that and I think we're going to rely on that process and challenge to continue to get better. What we know is when we have consensus up there, we do really well. We've done that and we need to continue to do that."
Are you planning to make any changes to the offensive staff? And related to that, I know offensive passing game specialist Klay Kubiak, you let him call plays in the last game, how did he do there and do you expect his role to grow or shift within that structure?
KS: "I thought he did an awesome job and Klay's role is going to be the same as it's been which has been the offensive coordinator. He just hasn't had that title yet. I mean, Klay has done as much as anyone on offense for these last two years. So, this was his second year doing that and he gets better and better each year at it. He just hasn't had the official title yet. And now he'll get the official title, which he more than deserves, but it's more about recognizing what he's already been doing and doing at a high level."
Will you continue to call plays or will you delegate that sometimes?
KS: "I mean, yeah I'll continue to call plays, but Klay and I have done everything here the last two years together kind of hand in hand. We put the game plan in together. Yeah, I call it, only one person can speak to the quarterback, but I mean him, [run game coordinator/offensive line coach Chris] Foerster, [tight ends coach Brian] Fleury, those are the guys I rely on through play calling throughout the game. It's not like I'm just in silence there calling every play. I'm discussing it with the guys we've prepared with in the week, discussing it with the guys who are talking with their players and what they see. And that's the same thing we all did for Klay versus Arizona."
Considering what WR Ricky Pearsall went through, how do you both judge the season he had?
KS: "I thought Ricky had an unbelievable season. I mean, I know the gunshot wound is the biggest obviously, but I've never had a rookie player miss all of OTAs and training camp and have much of a successful rookie year. It's tough to do that. For him to do that and then get into Week One, which I knew he would be way behind because of that situation and then get a gunshot wound kind of made me think that we were going to get nothing from him, just in terms of how could we and how hard that would be on him. But how quick he came back from that and then when he did, just to watch him go through rookie things in a live NFL game and then having to watch him come back from that stuff throughout the year and still hit a rookie wall without a foundation of an offseason and stuff like that, I thought it was a huge success for him this year."
JL: "I'd agree. You have these exit interviews and you always take away impressions. And the coolest thing, some of these rookies are typically they're just done. You think about it, long college year, right to Combine training, you get drafted, you go OTAs, all that. Ricky, one thing he said to me, 'Mr. Lynch, I just want to keep playing because I feel like I'm just getting my feet underneath me.' So that's really cool that he has that excitement and he's going to use that. I said, now the key is you use that to motivate you through this off season. And the best players, they don't ever take a rest. They shutter down the intensity and things like that, but they never rest. And so, his mindset I can tell is right. He's a really good football player. Proud of the way he handled a lot of adversity, things that nobody could anticipate and work through it. And I think we're going to have a really good football player."
On that note, behind the scenes, we talked to CB Charvarius "Mooney" Ward for the first time yesterday since what happened to him and Trent and Chris Foerster and Ricky, I mean, you guys had a lot of things that are not typical, pretty brutal behind the scenes. How hard was that behind the scenes and how did you both navigate that?
KS: "I mean, that stuff's always tough and the football season's so intense for everyone. I mean, that's why anyone who's really been my friend over the last 20 years realizes you're not going to know anything about him for about seven months because you kind of go into a hole and you get caught up in the season and all that stuff. But we all do have families and that does weigh on people, but you've still got to come and you've got to do your job. That stuff is hard and you watch guys go through it and you don't like to watch anyone go through something tragic, but you really watch how impressive people can be going through that stuff. When you watch people really grieve and things like that, you realize that's the hardest thing all humans have to deal with. But then to watch people who are grieving so badly and still have to come into a room and then go perform at a high level, which is a whole different type of pressure, and to watch them handle it and get through it, you realize how much stronger some of this stuff makes those guys and then inspires guys around them. And it does make you closer at times. I think our stuff was pretty documented this year, but there's stuff like that every year. Maybe not as big, quite as big or as many of them, but a lot of teams deal with that stuff and we've been through a number over these years. Just going through it with Chris Foerster and his wife last year, her passing away a week before the Super Bowl and things like that. And going through it with [linebackers coach] Johnny [Holland] over the years with him battling his cancer and things like that. Everyone has those tough moments in life, but when you have to do it through this, it is unique. But when you go through it, I think it does make people a little bit closer and a little bit stronger for going through some of those moments."
JL: "Yeah, and this a production-based business and we're paid to win games, compete for championships. The one thing I will say, acknowledging that we fell short of that standard, I am proud of this team, the way we hung together. Like Kyle said, there's always things and there's things behind the scenes that no one hears about. Frankly, one of the craziest things about this job, as a player, I prided myself with really knowing my teammates. There's so much stuff I never knew that I'm disappointed that I didn't because now as I sit in this seat, so much comes to you. The challenges people are going through. But I will say that this season I've never had anything like it in terms of the amount, the severity, the unique circumstances and I was proud of the way our team stuck together, had each other's backs and stayed together and I do believe we'll be stronger for that."
It's really tough to find instant-impact offensive linemen. Does OL Dominick Puni's success this year help you identify or further crystallize the blueprint in what you might be looking for?
JL: "I think it shows that our process worked there. But, I would say he really exceeded our expectations. We thought we got a good player and I think he showed us a little more than that. We were just talking about it upstairs, everyone saw the real strong play, the consistent play. I think there's more in the tank of where he can grow. I think the toughness, he had an AC joint one week and we were really questioning whether he could play on Sunday and he practiced on Wednesday and I've had that same injury. I always prided myself on having a high pain tolerance. That stuff hurts. And he didn't miss a practice. So, I think he's got the right mindset too. And we've got to continue to find guys like Dom because he's going to be a good player for us."
How would you assess Brock's performance this year and how important is it for you to have him back in time for OTAs just given that he's the quarterback and you want to go through that process?
KS: "Yeah, definitely it's important to have our whole team back for OTAs. Last year it was like eight weeks after our last game that our guys needed to be back for voluntary work and stuff, which I think is real important. And the year before that it was like nine or 10 weeks. And then when we all got back it was like, you could tell we all were back, but we wish we had a little bit more time. And when I look at a calendar now and realize we have 14 weeks until we need to get back, I expect everyone to be ready to go and excited to really get this going and play some football and that starts with Brock. Brock is the leader of our team. I've loved these three years with Brock. I plan on being with Brock here the whole time I'm here. So, Brock's been a stud. He's a guy I've got a lot of confidence in just as a human, but it starts with what he's done in the field these last two and a half years and capable of winning a Super Bowl with him. We just almost did. And I know he is capable of getting the Niners a Super Bowl in the future."
John mentioned a five-year run for championships. I know he wasn't saying that's it, but do you need to kind of set the stage for another kind of era or another refreshing kind of what's been going on? What went on there was really good and now it shifts a little bit?
KS: "Yeah, I think it shifted in that time, also. I think we went to the Super Bowl in '19 and the next time we went we had, we went in '19 we had a rookie receiver and a veteran receiver in [WR] Deebo [Samuel Sr.] and [former NFL WR] Emmanuel [Sanders]. The next time we went we had [WR Brandon Aiyuk] B.A., first time we had a different quarterback and four years later it's Brock. I think we did have different guys on defense. I think we look at, I don't remember the numbers, but I feel like there was like eight guys who played in the '19 Super Bowl. So, I think we have already done that. And I think you've got to do it again, without a doubt. I think when you do come up short like we did on February 11th last year, I do think in the offseason when you know how close that could have been and it just comes down to a couple plays and everything you want to think about is how to make that up because you do believe this. You do believe you can do that again. And I think that's when people talk about windows and stuff like that, and I think that's how we did spend our offseason trying to look at how we could come back and make that game up and get to that point this year and pull it off. And we took our best shot at that, and it didn't go right. And now we're going to do it again. Does that mean every thought is to try to get to that right now? I think whenever you think that way, you're selling your organization short, you've got to always think right now, but you got to think big picture too, which to me in football is always on like a two-to-three-year timeframe. And I think we've been doing that really since we've been here. We've never fully sold out for that year. But we always want to be competitive and feel like we have a chance to do that. And we felt that way about five years in a row and we've gone to it twice. I feel like we had very good opportunities to win both of those games and that's the thought process we're going to have every year."
What did you learn as a coach, as a GM, about yourselves and about the team with the whole LB De'Vondre Campbell Sr. episode?
KS: "What I already knew. That's something that we don't roll with and it was hard to stomach and once we saw it, we were done with it."
You guys have been doing this a while together now. You guys know the way football is. When you lose, it's a brutal game and yet you guys don't point the finger at each other. The discussion's always like, do we have enough talent? Was it coached well enough? How do you resist the urge to fracture? How do you stay united through the pressure of this whole thing?
KS: "I think that's why I really wanted him to be here with me. John got in this for the right intentions, it was to try to put together a team to win a Super Bowl, and that's what he is committed to. That's really the simplest way that everyone says, but in this business you always go through hard times, but it's never just coaching and it's never just personnel. It's everything. It's why there's never a quick answer on anything in football. There's 22 variables out there every play, there's a long season, there's lots of scheme that's involved, there's lots of talent that's involved. There's lots of just random stuff with injuries, referees, schedules, weather, there's so many things that goes into play. When you're in an organization where people's number one concern is surviving, which that doesn't mean they're a bad person. There's a lot of people who don't like to move their families and there's a lot of pressure on people in that way. But when you know the character of a person and why people get into it, John's not ever going to do something or talk in a way just to survive. And anyone who knows how I am like, I'm not like that either. You're not going to make a decision just to scapegoat somewhere or just to survive. It's hard to in this business because it's a cutthroat business and it's hard to tell your family to move and things like that. That's to me why John is who I wanted to work with because I knew why he was getting into it and those are the things, and I also knew what we were going to have to go through for a little bit, especially our first couple years. And anyone who says they're going to be a certain way, when you go through those hard times, that's human nature. It's a little bit tougher to be that way. And that's why I feel so fortunate in just the situation I am in with someone like John, with someone like [CEO] Jed [York], with how his parents are, I can always just tell what I think from a football standpoint and I know I'm going to get from John what he thinks from his football standpoint. It's not always the most fun answer. You've got to admit a lot that you didn't do right, but that's the truth of it and that's the only way that you can consistently overcome things and find a way to consistently be successful."
JL: "I would just say it's respect and respect is earned. And we felt alignment when we came in here and that's only strengthened since we've been here. And that's not always the case. And it's not just blind loyalty and blind trust, it's earned every year. But what I know about Kyle, he's a good person. I know he gives us, I say it all the time, he gives us an advantage I think every year, every week. And he's obsessed with always continuing to evolve. I think when you have that, you have his natural instincts as a coach. You have the staff, people want to work with him, people want to work with us. And you've got to come to grips with the successes, with the failures, but never lose what the ultimate goal is. And I think we've been able to do that. We challenge each other, but we have each other's backs and that's a good feeling. And we've got to keep forging ahead and get done what we came to get done here."
With the contract reworking for DL Javon Hargrave, kind of setting up the post June one, what have you expressed to him about the plan and what you would expect from him or whatever the case may be?
JL: "Just that. We had some salary cap challenges and that was something that allowed for the post one, you can early designate it. And what I told Javon is he's a player we really like. Same reason we went out and signed him. That hasn't changed. He's an impactful player. We did, we do have some challenges and so this doesn't mean we can't compete for his services. It allows him though, rather than waiting until post June one, and being S.O.L. because free agency already happened, it gives him an opportunity to go see what's his market and that may include us. So, we'll get into our plans. We know Javon, who he is. He's on a good track coming back from his injury. Would we be interested in having him? Of course. Is that something we can come to an agreement on and is it something that fits in our plans? We will see. And that's the exact conversations I've had with Javon."
Start of free agency he'll be free to sign?
JL: "Yes."
And with Deebo's situation?
JL: "Deebo's under contract."
Do you expect him back?
JL: "Yeah. A good player and has done a ton for this organization and we're not in the business of letting good players of here."
You had to with Jacksonville Jaguars DL Arik Armstead and FB Kyle Juszczyk last year, obviously different results, but that was something you had to do with the finances. Do you expect to have to do more of that this offseason?
JL: "We will see. We'll see what we do. There are realities, there's challenges. Like I said, we've got a lot of really good football players. The York family has been really good to letting us reward our players and we've done that in a number of instances. That becomes tougher and tougher to continue to do. We'll look at every avenue to become a better team and we'll see where that takes us."