Chip Kelly met with the media for nearly 20 minutes on Tuesday to discuss the San Francisco 49ers' 28-0 victory over the Los Angeles Rams on Monday night. Here are some key topics that he touched on during his press conference. The full transcript will be made available soon.
Positives in Win
Kelly said that there were a lot of positives for the 49ers to built upon during their win against the Rams. He felt that the defense played really well. "The whole [Todd] Gurley averaging 4.8 or 4.9 a carry in his rookie season to 2.7," said Kelly. "That was the focus of what we were trying to get accomplished defensively."
Offensively, Kelly felt that they were inconsistent but thought that the 28 first downs was a positive that they can build upon. The offense ran for 150 yards and threw the ball 35 times without giving up a sack.
Blaine Gabbert's Growth
Kelly stated that they do not look at the history of player when judging a player's growth. "We started with him in April," said Kelly. "I've seen him grow and develop since we got him in April and that's really what we're concerned with now. Where they were in the past or what their past history was ... it's really inconsequential for all of us."
Kelly and the coaching staff were not around him during his time in Jacksonville so the years there do not matter to them. "I see him getting better," said Kelly. "He kept drives alive with his feet last night. When people are going to play two-man and kind of run with the receivers and have everybody covered, well then, no one's responsible for the quarterback so he's got to do some things to keep things alive and I thought he did that."
"We're kind of pleased where he is at and hopefully we can build upon this last performance," added Kelly.
Touchdown, First Down, Get Down
Kelly used that expression to describe what his quarterbacks should do when scrambling. "We tell them the same thing every time. It's touchdown, first down, get down," said Kelly when talking about Gabbert taking some hits while scrambling for yards. "We don't want our quarterbacks to take hits. We want them to get down. And I thought he did a good job except for that one hit he took from the linebacker."
Anthony Davis' Role
Kelly said that, as a backup, Anthony Davis will need to know multiple positions. Right now, his role is as a backup tackle, backing up Trent Brown and Joe Staley. However, depending on game situations like injuries, he needs to be versatile and be ready to play at guard as well. For example, OG Andrew Tiller left the game briefly last night and was replaced by Marcus Martin, who primarily plays center. However, if OG Zane Beadles had gone down as well, Davis would have been expected to play guard.
Kaepernick and Football
While the media continues to focus on Colin Kaepernick's protest of the national anthem, Kelly stated that the focus is still on football. "When he comes to work here it's about football," said Kelly. "Last week, it was about preparing for the Rams. This week, it's about preparing for the Panthers. So, it's not like we're having long drawn out conversations. We're really efficient with out time. So, when we're here, we've got to work on football and that's what we're doing when we're here."
Cam Newton
"He's a very rare athlete in that there aren't many people that are that accurate throwing the football that can run as well as he can run and have that size," said Kelly while discussing Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton. "Very rarely does the first person get Cam to the ground. If he is running the ball, we have to gang tackle. We're going to have to get everybody running to the football and swarm him."
"Not only can he do it all, he does it and he may be the biggest quarterback in the league doing it," Kelly added. "It's going to take all 11 guys getting around him on every play for us to win this battle from a defensive standpoint."
Joshua Garnett
Kelly said that Joshua Garnett is as close to playing as he is to being inactive. The difference in dressing Marcus Martin over him was the fact that Martin can play center and guard where Garnett has played exclusively at guard. When you only dress seven offensive linemen on game days, those are the types of decisions that you have to make.
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