San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan spoke to reporters following Thursday's practice, providing final updates ahead of the team's Divisional Round playoff matchup against the Seattle Seahawks. Here's everything he said.
Transcript provided by the San Francisco 49ers Communications staff.
Opening comments:
"Injuries for the game. [S] Ji'Ayir Brown will be out. [WR] Ricky Pearsall, questionable. [LB] Luke Gifford, questionable. [LB] Dee Winters, questionable. [LB] Fred Warner, out. And Jacob Cowing, questionable. Go ahead."
Did Fred Warner have a setback?
"No."
How did he look yesterday?
"Looked good."
We asked a lot of the players how they felt about his energy being out there again. Did you as a coaching staff also feel it, just him being out there and his presence?
"I don't pay attention much to that. I mean, he was in individual and stuff. In the meetings and everything, anytime Fred's around, you feel it. So, love having Fred around."
Do you feel more confident than ever with Fred that he's put himself in a position to be available a week from now?
"Yes. I do feel confident in that. We'll see if it works out."
Going into the short week, do you maybe refer to last year where Washington was the sixth seed, they had the short week and played the number one seed and won or do you just have your own analysis for what you say to the team?
"Yeah, we didn't say anything. We just changed our schedule accordingly. But yeah, we don't really talk about it."
How do you feel about the way the team practiced this week?
"I thought we had a really good week. We got some work in on a short week, which was nice. We did some full-speed stuff yesterday and I think the guys have handled it really well."
You went into the Wild Card week and you gave a speech about playing out of desperation. How relevant is that to the Seahawks game this week?
"I feel that's kind of our message every week. I feel like that's kind of what's gotten us here. I was more about that I think our advantage in the season is we play desperate every game. I feel like that's what gives us an advantage over most teams that we play against. My message last week was more that's not an advantage in the playoffs. Every team plays desperate in the playoffs. So be ready for that and understand that when you're going against people."
What did you learn about LB Eric Kendricks from coaching him that you couldn't learn from coaching against him or just watching him on tape?
"I think he kind of just validates and confirms all the stuff that I thought I knew about him. When you don't know someone at all, but I always talk about it with our players all the time, I think you can know how a person is, you can see people's character, what type of guy they are by really watching the silent football tape. And I think he's confirmed that. We knew just going against him, it seemed like he was a hard worker. It seemed like he was on it. It seemed like football was very important to him. When you show that stuff on tape that usually leads to a reliable, accountable, good person that people can rely on. And since he's been here, we've seen exactly that and seeing him on the field last week confirmed he is still that same dude."
Were you surprised at how ready he was to go when you finally got him in the building?
"You knew he had a chance to because of the style of how he played. He wasn't a guy that, I mean, he was always so talented. I think he was a first-round pick. Pretty sure he was. So obviously he was talented, but when you watched him over the decade, it wasn't that you were just always noticing just height, weight and speed. You were noticing how good of a football player he was. And when someone doesn't have a training camp, doesn't have an offseason, doesn't come to any place until Week 12 or whatever it was, you'd be very shocked that they could pick it up. But, the reason we wanted him is because of the style of the way he played. We thought if anyone could do it, he would have a chance to. He did that right away. Now, when he had that setback in our Bye week and then tweaked his calf, it was like, oh yeah, that doesn't surprise me. That's what happens. I was surprised how he could come back from that and be able to be ready two weeks after that and be able to help us out and then pull out a whole game there last week."
What did you see from Ricky this week and is there a chance if he does play, that he's on like a snap count?
"We wouldn't put him on a snap count, but I saw improvement. He's still battling it, so that's why he's still questionable. But you know, we would never put a guy on an exact snap count, especially in a playoff game. But, we also understand where he is at and that it would probably have to be different than just his true status of when he is 100-percent healthy."
Is Fred going to make the trip with the team?
"Yes, he is. I asked that before I came in this week."
Heading into Week 18, you said there's not a lot of secrets between Seattle and you guys are division rivals and you know each other. Does anything change now that it's a playoff game?
"I don't think so. Last time we played them it felt like a playoff game. I'd like to say some things change every week because people get hurt and stuff, but they haven't played since then. So, we'll see if anything changes when they come out, but I'm sure they'll get some guys back. I know we've got some guys back, especially we didn't have [T] Trent [Williams] the last game. Hopefully we can get Ricky. But, it's probably as similar of a game as you can have in this close amount of time."
What makes OL Jake Brendel so valuable to this team and is there a way to quantify just how much you put on his plate?
"I think he's one of the better centers in this league. I don't think Jake nearly gets enough credit for just how good of a football player he is. Every year we study free agents, we study around the league and that's where you get to kind of study people and I've always been very happy with the center that we have. When you look into just schematically some of the stuff we ask our center to do with protections, what we ask him to do with run plays, we don't see our quarterback, any quarterback that I've had we don't ask them to point out a lot of stuff. We have the center do a lot of that. And Jake is as good as any center I've been around with doing that stuff."
Do you have any update on TE George Kittle after surgery and have you been able to talk with him?
"I talked to him through text. He sent a funny picture of him and his after surgery to my wife. He seemed like he was feeling pretty good, like most people are right after surgery. But, I heard it went great. I heard it was a very successful surgery and could have a chance to come back a lot sooner than we used to think back in the day with Achilles. So, it was all good news."
Some players are better than their stats and WR Jauan Jennings I think is probably one of those guys. If somebody hadn't seen Jennings and you were describing him to them, what would you say about him?
"A true competitor. Like, J.J. is one of the best competitors I've ever been around. And he is one of the best receivers I've ever been around, just in terms of how he plays down-in and down-out. J.J., I thought was as important as any receiver on our 2023 team. I believed if we won that game he would've been the MVP. And I think every time we've gone to him, no matter what the situation's been, he's always come through at a high level. And J.J. had guys ahead of him with [Washington Commanders WR] Deebo [Samuel Sr.] and [WR Brandon] Aiyuk for a number of years, but I thought he's really who we went to on third down and the guy who was the most consistent for us in those ways. He's gotten his opportunity with people not here as a number one receiver and like any guy who's competitive, like J.J., he's risen to that challenge and played like a number one receiver. So, ultimate respect for J.J."
How close is WR Jacob Cowing to being on the field?
"He's close. He's healthy. You know, he's had two good weeks and I think we've got one more week with him where we've got to make a decision, but he's looked really good out there."
QB Brock Purdy is 4-0 in Seattle. It's obviously a loud environment. What about Brock managing the game, being loud with his cadence or just what about Brock allows him to succeed in a loud environment?
"I think the big thing is that Brock doesn't get rattled. You can be as loud as you want, they're still probably not going to hear you there. Especially if you're in the gun. And then we know they'll be that much louder this week. But I think it's nothing really rattles Brock. He stays the same. As you guys have gotten to know Brock and all the situations, I don't think when you guys talk to him whether he's had a good game at bad game, I don't think he ever seems much different. He's always Brock. And you feel that on the sidelines throughout a game. You felt that last week. That's what I thought was so impressive, having that interception with like eight minutes to go, we lose the lead and the way he came back and played the next drive after that is the perfect example of that's what I mean by you can kind of see people's character, what type of people they are on the silent tape. And a guy who can act like that on that silent tape describes exactly the type of dude he is."
Seattle Seahawks QB Sam Darnold is questionable with an oblique. That obviously could be a big development. Does the possibility they could be starting their backup quarterback change anything about your preparation?
"No, not at all. We wouldn't change anything in the next couple days. I didn't know that, but I'm definitely not going to think too much of it. But, if that happens, we'll react accordingly which would still be the same football game."
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