San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan addressed reporters ahead of Wednesday's practice as the team gears up for its Week 6 matchup against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Here's everything he said.
Transcript provided by the San Francisco 49ers Communications staff.
Opening comments:
"Injuries for today. [WR] Ricky Pearsall, knee, will be out. [WR Jordan] Watkins, calf, out. [DL] Robert Beal [Jr.], ankle, out. [QB] Brock Purdy, toe, out. [WR] Jauan Jennings, ankle/rib, out. [DL] Alfred Collins, knee, out. Yetur [Gross-Matos], knee/hamstring, out. [T] Trent Williams, vet day. [RB Christian] McCaffrey, vet day. [DL] C.J. West, thumb, limited. [Upton] Stout, ankle, limited. [QB] Mac Jones, knee/oblique, limited. [DL] Kevin Givens, peck, limited. [DL] Kalia Davis, hand, limited. Go ahead"
How would you assess Brock's progress and is there any thought at all of putting him on Injured Reserve?
"There hasn't been a thought on IR, and he's progressing. Yeah."
Is there a reason Brock didn't travel to Los Angeles?
"Just with where he was, we thought when he traveled the first time he was a little sore after it, so we just don't want him to fly and everything for that reason."
Same thing with all the other injured guys?
"Yeah. They don't do it because we think it helps to leave them behind."
You've always said try to get to be 50/50 run and pass. I know 4-1 is by far the most important stat, but you're 59-percent pass right now. Are you a little uncomfortable with that or did you approach these games thinking most of the time we're going have to throw a little bit more than usual?
"No, I think that's more how I feel during the games. I don't approach games that way much. Every game I've ever been in, I understand it can go either way, one sided or the other. So, you're always ready for that, for how a game goes. But no, that's how these games have played out and it seems like it's been important for it to play out that way."
Tampa's got the number one run D. Outside of Tampa Bay Buccaneers NT Vita Vea, what stands out when you watch them on film?
"Mainly [Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach] Todd's [Bowles] scheme. I mean, regardless of who they've ever had, he's always a good run defense. When they want to take away the run, they know exactly how to do it. From the calls he makes, how they play with their three/four front. Then when you have people like Vita Vea, who is as good as it gets in that area, but schematically they know how to make you one dimensional and that's why you've got to be able to win doing both."
Reports are out about the trade deadline and the possibility of you guys wanting to help out with the DL Nick Bosa void. Are you guys talking about that? How are you guys feeling about the possibility of bringing someone else in and to help out with that edge?
"Same as always. Those guys talk every day all the way up until the deadline and they'll let us know if anything ever has a possibility. But with Bosa out there's no difference than usual. So, the same."
With Givens, does that that mean his window is open to practice?
"Yes."
What's the plan for him and S Malik Mustapha? Is there a chance for those guys?
"Yeah, ease them back in. We'll see how the week goes. No guarantees they'll be ready for Sunday, but we'll kind of start basing that off how they look today a little bit, how they look leading up to this point, but we'll see how they go."
Can you give us a couple of updates on some of the other guys that are on IR like TE George Kittle and OL Ben Bartch? Are they progressing?
"Yeah, they're all progressing. Hopefully we'll have a chance for Kittle next week. Just a chance. I don't think Bartch is up next week though."
Back to the trade stuff. I think president of football operations and general manager John Lynch said on the radio that you're going to have to see how the season's going too to assess what the situation is. Four-and-one, as the guy coaching this, does that increase your interest in maybe making a trade or two?
"Not really. What increases my interest is who's the guy that can absolutely help us get better this year without hurting us next year and you balance both of those out. But, there's got to be a guy available and sometimes it's two different things. Sometimes there's one guy who can only help this year. Sometimes there isn't a guy available who's like that. So, we'll see what comes up. Sometimes things come up, but I don't see it any different right now than how I felt going into the year."
Like in the former WR Emmanuel Sanders trade, like really you said it, you were maybe one piece away. Do you feel at all similar? I know it's a little ways away to that time.
"No, I don't. I don't feel at all like that. I think at that time we had a Super Bowl defense that was as good as anyone in the League and probably had been for like 10 years and it was pretty obvious. And I thought at the time some of the receivers we were dependent on weren't there and we were playing some young rookies and we thought we needed to add another guy. But yeah, I don't totally see it the same situation as right now."
There's an epidemic in the League right now of players dropping the ball right before they crossed the goal line. Have you talked about this with your players? Have you ever thought about how you would react if one of your players did that?
"No, I don't think much about how I'd react. I'd always react pretty much the same, as upset as I could possibly be with trying to internalize it all. But yeah, we show stuff guys, everyone does and stuff happens around the League. Most people do that. We didn't last week. We had a short week. We do around the League on Fridays. We didn't get a Friday. But yeah, you would think you don't need to show that. You would think [former NFL WR] DeSean [Jackson] covered that like 20 years ago. But surprisingly you need to cover it because it keeps happening. I have a pretty good feeling people did see it two weeks ago, so I have a feeling sometimes you cover things and it still happens. I'm still curious if that guy let it go before the goal line or not. Looked pretty damn close to me."
What are you seeing as far as progress in the run game?
"What am I seeing? Well last week you didn't see much statistically at all. Kind of had an idea going into the game how big of a challenge that was going to be. I wasn't proud of the production in terms of yards and everything, but I was extremely proud of how our team got over 30 carries. When you can do that and you're averaging under three, that means you're doing a lot of good things. You're staying out there, you're executing, you're doing good on third down. But, we missed some opportunities earlier in this year, it got a little harder versus the Rams, it's going to get harder this week versus Tampa Bay. But, we've just got to keep pressing away."
You said after the Rams game that you've been impressed with your team's character for a while now. When did that first kind of strike you, that sense that this was a team that had grit, that had character?
"I mean, it's nothing against the old team. I think our old teams have had grit and character. It was just more it was a different deal this year just knowing how much turnover we had and how many younger guys were dependent on going into the season in comparison to the three years prior. When you had a team for like the three-or-four years prior that everything was about 'hey we've got to get back to the Super Bowl, we've got to win the NFC Championship Game, you've got to do all that stuff.' It was just a little bit different mindset. I knew it wasn't like that with all the young guys. So, when you break the team down in OTAs and everything for a few years about getting back to the Super Bowl and things like that, it's not going to be that way with this group, and it was a totally different deal. So, I wanted to just see how guys attacked practice and football every single day thinking we'd have to really work to get to that because it hadn't been that way for a while. But, that's what I was so excited about in OTAs because just talking with the guys in phase one and two about it and just watching how they reacted and how the practices went, it wasn't very hard for me. The guys were totally bought into it. We had the right guys and they haven't worried about really anything except being as good as they can be in practice and that carrying over to games. I think that's how it's been in these five games. Just as easily you can lose all five and be 0-5, and we found a way to be 4-1. Regardless of any of the games, even the one we lost, I've just been proud of how they've been going about it."
I know you don't want to get too high or too low throughout the season, but like you said, it's been a really good start to the season, and I asked earlier this season about the road games being that there's so many heavy road games on the front end of the schedule. How encouraged are you to see how their gutsy wins toward the end of these games on the road have turned out to go in your favor?
"I mean, I love finding ways to win games that you can easily lose. I don't really look into the road or away or when you do it. It really doesn't matter. I've been 5-0 and not made the playoffs. I've been 0-4 and have made the playoffs. So, you don't look into really any of that stuff. It just all matters what your record is when you add up to 17, not the order of how you do it."
What's the status of Ricky? Are you expecting him to practice tomorrow or is this a multi-week rest thing that he needs?
"We were hoping last week that he'd probably be able to get in this week. He wasn't able to Monday, he's not able to today. So, we'll see if there's a turn here on Thursday or Friday, but I'm not counting on it right now."
You almost put in QB Adrian Martinez the last game and then you looked out and you saw Mac out there. How much would you be able to do with him at this point? You've had him for a little while now, but he's also been running the scout team.
"We would've had to find out. Obviously, a guy who hasn't been in your system very long and hasn't gotten a lot of NFL experience very long, you want to be as careful as you can. But, when you're in a 20-20 game or whatever it was at the time and someone's taking over, you're going to do what you've got to do. So, you get in certain situations and you've got to find out."
One of the things that stood out in the film was that WR Kendrick Bourne dropped a pass and immediately Jones ran over to him, gave him a pep talk and helped him up. What do you think of Mac's ability to assert leadership as the number two guy and how do you evaluate that?
"I think guys need to be themself and be consistent. I think Mac's been that way. When you're yourself and you're consistent, as long as you prepare the right way, play the right way, then to me you're a leader and guys respect that. I don't know if him patting him on the shoulder is why he didn't drop the next one, but it sure definitely doesn't hurt."
Eddie Piñeiro is historically good. His field goal percentage is third, I think, all-time now. Can you provide insight on why he was available in Week 2? Also, when he screams at the opposing sideline or just his reactions exude confidence and he's got something to him, does that give you more confidence in him?
"No, making it gives me a lot of confidence. I don't really care how you act before or after. If it goes in, I'm good. However you want to act, as long as you don't hurt our team and get a penalty, be yourself, but don't hurt our team and get a penalty. I'm not sure why he was available. The percentages look really good, but I'm glad he was available."
When it comes to you and defensive coordinator Robert Saleh, why do you think you guys work so well together?
"We have experience together. We've been through a lot together. Just even those first four years, just where we started. We've known each other for a while. He knows a lot of football. We can communicate on a lot of different things and whether we're talking offense or defense or special teams or just philosophy and stuff. Saleh is a thinker and I enjoy talking to him on that stuff."