San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan spoke with reporters before Tuesday's (Wednesday in Melbourne) practice at AAMI Park as the team prepares for its Week 1 matchup against the Los Angeles Rams in Melbourne, Australia.
Here's everything Shanahan had to say ahead of the final full practice of the week.
Transcript provided by the San Francisco 49ers Communications staff.
The NFL Commissioner has spoken about football becoming a global sport within the next decade. Do you see that happening with the NFL? What do you think the NFL needs to do in order to get that?
"Man, that is definitely out of my expertise. I mean, it makes sense. Football is awesome. It's so fun to watch. It's all I've done growing up. That's what our country loves, so yeah, why not? It's a cool sport. If people saw more of it, it would only be a matter of time."
Have you heard that Los Angeles Rams DL Aaron Donald is out? What are your thoughts on that?
"Very excited. I told you guys last time I talked to you guys he was definitely playing, so I've never been more excited to be wrong about something. So, we're good."
Can you give us the exact reaction you had this morning when you found out the news about Donald?
"I just smiled and said, 'That's good.' We're going to have to see him eventually. We play them twice, but I was hoping he wouldn't. I was preparing for the worst and glad that we don't have to see him this week."
Does this match have more of an end-of-season feel than a start of the season feel? There will be 100,000 people at the MCG, all these festivals, everything happening around the city. The head of international for the NFL said, 'We're trying to make it feel like a Super Bowl.' Does it feel like that at all to you or to the players given the fuss around the game?
"No, not at all. I mean, probably if I looked at my phone, maybe. But I mean, this is pretty normal for us. The flight wasn't normal. That was a lot longer than we're used to, but we've gone to the Greenbrier and spent a week on East Coast games three different times. We've gone to Florida for a week and worked at a high school one time. We stayed in Ohio for a week. We do this stuff a lot. A couple of years ago, before we went to Mexico City, we stayed at the Air Force for a week. Once you get through the plane ride and everything, it's the exact same schedule. We've gone through our total normal seven-day week and today to us is just a Friday. It's the exact same schedule. And instead of going home after this, I'll go back to a hotel, but that's really what we're used to."
Will you go over to the MCG tomorrow and check it out? Any of the players?
"I don't think so. I think our walk-through is here tomorrow. We have a walk-through, but no, we won't go out there until the game."
Now that you've been here a week, does it feel kind of like a pseudo home for you guys?
"I haven't left the hotel except to come to this practice for five days or however long we've been here. So, it feels like it does when we stay places for a week. I would love to say I'm getting out and experiencing Australia and I'm sure if I did, I would think it was awesome. But, we travel a lot and when we do, we don't really do anything. Players get a day off, coaches don't. We get this afternoon off a little bit with it being a Friday for us. So, you get a little more free time where my guys will have the opportunity to go to dinner or something, but probably just chill in the hotel."
DL Nick Bosa and TE George Kittle, do you have to manage how much they play in this game?
"Yeah, we've got to be smart with that. You know, Bosa not practicing as much. Kittle, he's had this whole week, but they both look great and stuff. But we also, we definitely have got to be smart with that."
Does no Aaron Donald affect your plans at left guard for this game?
"No."
WR Mike Evans comes in, veteran presence. How have you found his veteran leadership with some of the rookies such as WR De'Zhaun Stribling?
"Mike's been a stud. I've known him, I feel like I've known him forever, just going against him and stuff, but I really haven't as a person. And the coolest thing about Mike is the pro he's been. Anytime you have a guy who's, to me, a first ballot Hall of Famer, you never know exactly how they're going to be. But Mike, Mike is a worker, man. He makes no excuses. Anything you ask him to do, he tries to get it done. The way he is in meetings, he seems like a first-year guy in terms of being attentive and things like that. Whenever you have a Hall of Famer like that who acts that way, it's the best example possible for young guys."
QB Brock Purdy's bringing up his 50 games for the Niners. How have you seen him develop from his first other 49 games up until now?
"It's always a tough question with Brock because when Brock came in, I thought he played at as high of a level as anybody. When he came in as a rookie, he won all seven games he was in. His second year, he took us to the Super Bowl and was right up there for an MVP of the League. So, Brock has played at a high level since day one. I thought he had his best training camp for whatever that is. You know, the more football Brock sees, the more experience he has, so he understands things a little bit better, but you know, that's my whole goal with Brock is to keep him playing like he did right away."
There's been a lot of discussion around the program for the 2032 Olympics and the prospect of flag football being in there. You've coached flag football. Why do you think flag football should be in the Australian Olympics?
"Because I think it'd probably be hard to put real football in there since it takes a while to recover and you probably couldn't get that many games in in three weeks. And I think the closest option to that would be flag football. Now I'm used to watching that with all my kids growing up doing it, how big it is in high schools and even colleges now. And it's definitely different. I mean, me doing [FOX Sports analyst] Tom's [Brady] flag football deal [Fanatics Flag Football Classic] that we did for three days, you can see that it's a totally different sport. But, there are some similarities to it. The more football they can get, however they could get in the Olympics, I'm definitely for that."
Five days in and with the Rams traveling only today, do you still feel you've made the right decision in terms of the jet lag strategy? And, can you speak to the impact that it has on not only the players physically looking to play, but keeping their head in the game?
"Yeah. It's such an absolute deal. Like, did it help or did it hurt? I don't think there's an answer to that. I think some guys it'll help, some guys it'll hurt. That'll be the case for us. That'll be the case for them. I bet there's some guys on our team that it would have helped to just come in right away and get out right away, and I think there's a lot of guys that'd be miserable for. I think it's going to go both ways on that. So, that's stuff that we can discuss. I'm sure we'll be a good case study for anybody else in the future to sit there and overthink which one helped and not. But, the real thing that's going to help this game the most or hurt this game the most is who plays better football. And whoever doesn't, we can say it's because of whatever schedule you chose or we can say it's because you missed an assignment or we can say it's because you had a bad play, you got beat by the guy in front of you. There's too many variables that go into this stuff with 53 guys on each team, with three-and-a-half hours of football, with 22 players out there. To me, to overthink or over-say anything that it's one gives a big team the advantage over the other."
When you were debating your approach to this game, did Week Two come up, how coming out early to this game might affect you in Week Two?
"Yes. It was a big talk. That was my biggest thing is what gives you the best advantage for this game and then what helps you not have a less advantage when going against Miami our second week. That's why you just, you hope for as many days off between the two as you can have. We're going to get back there Friday afternoon. As far as coaches and coaches working, which is not at all like the players, we've got to be a little bit more ready for Monday. Monday and Tuesday is where we put most of our work in, where we get the game plan in, and then we teach Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. The players really don't have to totally be there. They'll come in on Monday, they'll work out, they'll do things, but they don't really have to be fully ready to go to Wednesday. So, with us getting back Friday afternoon and the players really starting their true football week that Wednesday, I think five days is plenty of time for them to get adjusted. It's taken me a while to get adjusted here. I've been waking up at one in the morning, wide awake every day until today. And I was extremely tired before this morning, which I feel is I think I finally have adjusted, which I think is five days. So, probably take the same when we get back too."
Is there a temptation to rest players like Kittle and Bosa in the wake of the news of Aaron Donald?
"No. Aaron Donald to those guys is irrelevant. It's been how their week of practice has been, and it's been great. We'll see based off of how they feel on Friday how long they can go."
Did you talk to the League about playing the Monday night game in Week Two?
"Yeah, we asked very nicely. Didn't work."
Do you think your travel strategy would have been different if you were playing someone other than the Dolphins in Week Two?
"No, that doesn't matter. This is the NFL. Those are setups. You don't ever look at an NFL game like that."
Does this game feel like a preseason game or does it feel like a traditional Week One taking on the Rams?
"It feels exactly like Week One. Like I said earlier, the flight didn't and you guys have a lot more accents than what I'm used to, but this is Week One. That's why I wish we came in the preseason. We would have had a lot more fun here in Australia. We take the preseason seriously, but I've also gone undefeated in the preseason and learned after losing Week One that means nothing. But Week One, that's just as important as Week 17. I don't care if you need the last game of the year to get into the playoffs. That's the same as whether you won or lost the first game of the year. When you only have a 17-game season, these games are way too important."
How's RB Christian McCaffrey feeling ahead of Friday's game?
"Awesome. Ready to go."
Of the other guys who have been limited in practice, are there any of those guys borderline calls or are you just trying to condition? Where are those guys?
"All I have to talk about is what happened yesterday with injuries, with all the guys that were limited. The worst one was [DL] Alfred Collins. Alfred tore his patella tendon yesterday. So, that was a big loss. We've lost two D-Linemen pretty much for the year after cuts before the first game, which has been a huge challenge. Hurting for Alfred. It happened yesterday during a period right before we started going against each other. It was real unfortunate for him."
He's out for how long?
"Yeah, he'll be out for the year."
On the point of being Week One, first time in the 10 years that you two have been in the same division that you and Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay faced off in Week One of the season. Is that a fun thing for you that you haven't been able to see what each other have done on tape and you can plan for each other in a slightly different way and maybe throw some wrinkles in there that haven't been seen yet?
"Probably. I'm sure Sean feels the same as me. We're going to overthink and watch everything and realize that it's Week One. So, who the hell knows? But, if it was Week Three, we'd overwatch and do everything and we'd have to see that we both adjusted once the game starts. So, there's a lot more thoughts that go into it, but none of it matters until you get to those three-and-a-half hours. So, you just prepare as a coach as hard as you can. You prepare as a player as hard as you can. You get your team ready. You do everything that you think's best, but all it comes down to is three-and-a-half hours and you try to do your best to be ready for that moment."
You had DL James Thompson Jr. make the 53, but he hasn't been practicing this week. Is he probably not available for the opener just to fill in for DL Alfred Collins?
"It depends on how he goes today, which I don't have to talk about that answer until tomorrow."
Is DL Sebastian Valdez a possibility as well for an elevation?
"Yeah, any D-Lineman is a possibility. Just unless you guys can name some guys we can fly here real quick."
Any AFL players you're looking at to take those spots?
"No, I know there's some, I keep wanting to say rugby and I know it's not rugby, but some footy guys around here who might be able to do it."
Will you take the chance to get out of the hotel and have a little look around? I'm sure some of your staff might get the chance.
"Tonight's our Friday night, which it's usually our night home with our families. That's where I usually go to a high school game or go out to dinner with my family. But, tonight I might go out with a couple of the coaches to have dinner or just chill in the hotel and catch up on some needed sleep."
More info on: Nick Bosa, Alfred Collins, Mike Evans, George Kittle, Christian McCaffrey, Brock Purdy, De'Zhaun Stribling, James Thompson, Sebastian Valdez
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