San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh spoke to reporters Tuesday following the team's 14th training camp practice and ahead of Saturday's preseason game against the Las Vegas Raiders. Here is everything he had to say.
Transcript provided by the San Francisco 49ers Communications staff.
What do you think of LB Nick Martin?
"Nick's doing a good job. Obviously, he's a big-time running hit linebacker, so he just has to learn how to control himself at the tackle point and come together. It's getting his feet underneath him and just get his body on the ball carrier until the speed of the game catches up to him. If that makes sense. But he's young. It was his first real live action in over a year and a half, so we're not concerned with some of those missed tackles. I think we'll get those cleaned up."
Do you feel like his approach to it, like knowing he needs to learn from his mistakes, is a good sign for him?
"Oh, yeah. He's in a good place. The good thing is, he's got a lot of teammates who have had first preseason games that didn't go so well. So, you just put it to the side and find a way to get better. He's going to have another opportunity to do that against Vegas."
Does his range excite you and linebackers coach Johnny Holland?
"Oh yeah. He's got tremendous range, speed, and plays with a violent mindset. Just got reel it a little bit."
What's to be made from seeing S Marques Sigle run with the ones at this point of camp as much as he is?
"He shows a lot of good things. It's a combination of one, he's earned that right, and two, the safety group is a little beat up right now, so it's a good opportunity for him. He went out in the preseason game, and I thought he did a really nice job, especially out of the middle of the field and erasing tackles when it was just him in the back in the hole. But he's done a really good job. He's shown that he can handle both the free and the strong mentally. He's showing that he is got all the things that are required out of a safety from a movement standpoint, speed, instinct, and violence part. So, he's earned it. And as he gets those extended reps, he's got to find a way to cement it. But it's like we've said way back in OTAs, it's a wide-open group in terms of competition."
Your first stint here, you outlined your basic principles, just rush four, not blitzing a whole lot. We see we do it in preseason games now. Just how has your philosophy on blitzing evolved over the last few years?
"Well, it's a tool. I think in 2019, we could just rush four, probably one of the best d-lines in the history of football, but in 2020, we needed to go a little bit more. So, you just work off your personnel and what you have. With some of those pressures you might run-stunt a few, but it's calling what's necessary for that particular game. But I think I speak for every coordinator in football that the preference is to rush four if you can."
With CB Chase Lucas being a practice squad player last year, did his performance, especially in the first quarter, move the needle at all with him on the depth chart?
"Well, for Chase, it's his body of work since OTAs. I think a preseason game is cool because 31 other teams get to see what we've been seeing since OTAs. Chase is a good football player. He's been doing a lot of good things. He's embraced his role and he's finding ways to get better every day. So, whether or not it moved the needle, I think it was good that when the lights are on, it's a big moment, and pressure's on to make plays; that he was still able to perform at the level he has. So now the challenge for him is to stack up days on defense, get better on special teams, and find a way to be a viable corner to expand his game and find ways to earn his right on this roster.
CB Jakob Robinson, did you know much about him he got here and has he shown you something? Has he given himself a chance?
"For sure. He's been doing a lot of good things. Obviously, he's still a rookie. Rookies do rookie things, but he's definitely improved starting in OTAs when he got here and all the way through the Denver week. He's a competitive young man. The game's not too big for him. It's just at that corner spot, there's a lot of nuance to the game and things that he's still trying to learn. I think he's gotten the attention of the entire organization in terms of how he works and how he approaches it."
With his size, it seems like he'd just be a nickel. Can he survive out there?
"I think so. There have been, small corners before, it's just a matter of how strong he plays. I guess probably the biggest thing we're trying to figure out is whether or not he can hold up from a strength standpoint. But he's been doing a really nice job."
As far as Sigle, did he have a lot of experience as a deep safety, a deep coverage safety coming in? Was that at all a question mark about him?
"No, because he shows tremendous range, his zero to 60 speed is off the charts, and he can get to places in a hurry. So, from a range standpoint, it was never a concern. It's more about acclimating himself to the professional game, how he can fit in the run game, whether he can tackle, and whether he can make contact and not give up leaky yardage with big backs. He's still behind, he didn't play, he didn't participate in OTAs, and we have him playing both. So, he's doing a really nice job."
When you guys brought in DL Sebastian Valdez, what stuck out and what was your first impression of him?
"You bring him in and obviously he had a successful college career, but you take a shot on some of these undrafted free agents and because you see something. Whether it's foot speed, length, whatever it might be, and for him, he was just an overall good football player in college. Give him a chance and see if he can translate. Like I said, he is doing a good job. For him, it's cliché, but it is finding ways to get better. When he gets opportunities against the first group o-line, or even the second group, as he keeps proving that he's better than what he's going against, he'll get chances to go against better competition. From there, if he continues then he'll continue his rise. We've got, what, three more weeks of training camp and two more games? So, he still has a lot of time to prove that he can make it."
You see TE George Kittle out there making these big plays. I think he's missed only one practice. He's so excited to make the plays. I'm sure it lifts up the offense, but what does it do to your defense, to have a veteran guy pushing you?
"I think we have the equal in [LB] Fred [Warner]. I asked [defensive quality control coach] K.J. Wright who had a very good career and is on our staff. I said 'K.J., did you love practice as much as Fred Warner loves practice?' It's hard to find people who love it, I mean, the man loves practice. Kittle loves practice. They just love the game so much. So, how can you not be inspired when you're looking at a guy who's been in the league for a while? He's made all those plays and in practice, he still loves talking his crap and winning one-on-ones. It's important to him. You wish you had 53 guys like him, but you hope that he pulls a bunch of people with him. I think he does."
LB Tatum Bethune looks faster from last year to this year, maybe by a step and a half. You weren't here last year, but what do you see for him? You've seen a lot of good linebackers.
"Yeah, you know what, you go back to him being a rookie, he may not have seen it as fast, so he felt a step slow. I always tell people, if you're thinking you're not executing your 40 time, right? He comes out of college, he's running a certain time, he plays with a certain speed, but if you're thinking you're not utilizing all that. I think he's playing a little bit more without thought. Now, he's not all the way there yet. There are still some things that he's learning every day. But when these young men can play without thought, especially the young the ones that are fresh from college, they can utilize all their God-given ability. They flash and they pop on tape because of their speed. Tatum's no different. He's had a really nice off season, and we've bounced him around a little bit from Mike to Sam to Will trying to get him to have some versatility to his game. But he's been doing a really nice job."
How are DL C.J. West and DL Alfred Collins looking to you? I mean, how's their progress going?
"I feel like they've made really good progress. C.J.'s doing a really nice job. Alfred, I felt like Alfred took a really good step in the game. He's a big body and, again, I've said it to you guys before, not to make excuses for him, but he was kind of hurt in February. He hadn't done anything, no football stuff until August. So, he was way far behind the eight ball, and I felt like this past weekend, especially in the game, he took a really, really good step in terms of strain and power at the point of attack. I think the next step for him is to get off blocks, play with great pad level, go make some plays. But overall, I thought his footwork was better, his pad level was better, everything improved. So, if he just keeps stacking up days he's going to turn into a pretty good football player. C.J.'s been, not to take away from him, he's just been on a steady incline since he's gotten here. He's been doing a really nice job. And again, same thing for him. Just keep climbing. And we may not know who they are until the midway point of the season. They're rookies. As soon as we hit Week One, it's going to start all over. They're going to be leaning on new bodies, new blocking schemes, and they've got to learn week-to-week what they're putting on tape and understand that part of the game that's happening in there. So right now, you just want to see those guys play as hard as they can, as violent as they can and you trust that as they get more reps, they'll learn how to play the game a little bit better and get better every day."
When it comes to Collins, how you just mentioned, you probably won't see their full potential until midway through the season because they are rookies. But being that he was able to take a step in the preseason game with such a condensed amount of time to kind of catch on to everything because of what he was dealing with. What do you see as the potential of where he could be at the end of this three-week period in training camp to go into the start of the season?
"You know, like I said, if he can, one, get his legs underneath him because they weren't when he first got in the camp, his legs just, they weren't there yet. Like I said, he wasn't in football shape. You could see his legs coming back but, for our d-linemen, if he can play with great violence and effort, you trust that he's going to be good enough. And then from there you can fine tune his technique in the run game, fine tune his ability to get up field and rush the passer and win one-on-ones. But right now, for him, it's learning our techniques, getting his football legs underneath him, understanding different blocking schemes and how things are attacked. It's just way different in the NFL. But his mindset, he's got a tremendous mindset. He's a worker. You can coach him as hard as you need to coach him. And he takes it all in and he responds. So, he's, like I said, he took a really nice step in the right direction, and he's just got to continue stacking up those days."
I'm not thinking you might call 50 blitzes, but some of the blitzes you did call obviously got attention and were effective. What is the balance you try to strike between 'I'm just going to be vanilla, I'm not going to show anything.' Do you feel like, 'hey, we got a lot of new guys, we're going to try stuff,' what's your mindset for that?
"For sure. Well, the safety we've been running since 2010. That was like a staple preseason call. But it's tricky, because if you don't prepare for it, it can look exotic, but it's been around for a long time. But, just to give our guys, to present looks, I mean, the looks we gave, we've been running since 2017. So, in my mind, it's people have a history of tape now there's stuff in the back pocket that we won't show. But as far as stuff that they know we are, there's no point in hiding what they know we're going to be. But all the stuff that they don't know, they'll have to wait till Week One."
A loose end, when you asked K.J. Wright if he liked practice as much as those guys, what was his answer?
"I'm not telling you."