Have you gotten a sense of RB Carlos Hyde, how he's progressing with that shoulder?
"He did some things yesterday. Obviously, he's in a non-contact jersey, so he hasn't taken any hits or anything like that on his shoulder. I would just say it's still up, I have no idea. He'll go through today, which is a padded practice, but he's still going to be in noncontact. It's really how much movement, how much range of motion does he have and then the assessment of what the doctors and the trainers say after tomorrow, after Friday and Saturday's training sessions."
So, was he in a non-contact practice for him, does he still wear pads?
"He should be. I haven't seen him come out yet though, so we'll see. No I haven't talked to [49ers vice president of football operations Jeff Ferguson] Ferg this morning about what the update on him is."
You probably saw the Eagles waived Philadelphia Eagles WR Josh Huff.
"Yeah, [49ers vice president of communications] Bob [Lange] just told me as I walked out. We just got out of meetings."
Is that somebody that would interest you given his background?
"I have no idea. I have no idea what happened. I didn't follow any of the thing, I know he got arrested two days ago, but I haven't followed any of it. I don't have any information on that."
Will you sit down with 49ers general manager Trent Baalke later today and kind of address that--?
"No, because Trent's not here."
What's that?
"No, because Trent's not here. Trent's at a couple college games right now."
They have phones now.
"What's that?"
They have phones now.
"You asked me if I would sit down, so I answered your question."
Will you talk with him?
"What?
Will you discuss it with him?
"I have no idea. I literally just walked out of a meeting and it was the first thing that Bob told me as I walked up here. It was the first thing. He told me it, I walked up here and you asked the first question."
Regarding G Joshua Garnett, obviously he's a first-round pick and generally you want to see how those guys can play. My question is, was G Andrew Tiller's, Tiller seemed to be playing OK. Was his demotion performance related or was it more about Garnett?
"It was about Garnett's play from a training standpoint and moving forward that we felt Josh was the best option at right guard. It wasn't about, 'Hey, let's take a look at this guy.' This isn't little league where everybody plays. You have to earn your playing time and I think Josh earned his playing time."
Are you familiar with the term gap integrity?
"Familiar?"
"Do I hang out with it? I mean, I don't understand the question."
Have you heard of the term gap integrity?
"Have I heard it? Yeah."
How would you assess the gap integrity on your defensive lines?
"I don't really know, I've never used gap integrity. I've heard of it, so I'm familiar with it, but we talk about gap responsibility like who's responsible for the 'A' gap, the 'B' gap, the 'C' gap and so on every defense somebody is responsible for that gap. If you're talking about gap responsibly."
How would you assess that?
"Depends on what defense we're in, you know what I mean? A lot of times we're in two-gap defense. So, in two-gap defense you're actually responsible for both gaps. So, if you're the four technique, so to speak, and you're playing head up the tackle, you're responsible for the 'B' gap and the 'C' gap. And, depending on how the rest of the coverage is deployed, do we want the ball spilled into 'B' gap or spilled into the 'C' gap. Every defense is different. So, we have some defenses where our tackle is two-gapping, but we want it to be spilled into the 'C' gap, because that's the way we're fast flowing our linebackers. If we're going to slow play our linebackers then we want the ball spilled into the 'B' gap. There's different assessments in terms of what you're looking at, so in terms of our gap responsibility I think our players have a great understanding and a great knowledge of where they are. It just depends on the individual defense that's called and what their responsibility is."
You've been asked this before, but DL Arik Armstead has said he might need shoulder surgery. Have you just talked to him about--?
"I have not, no."
So, when you hear that you don't say--?
"I hear that from you. When I talk to our trainers they either tell me is he good to go or not good to go. I know he's dealing with a little bit of a shoulder problem, but it hasn't been anything that's limited him from his playing time. So, I haven't talked about anything long-term with Arik in that instance."
Nor are you planning to?
"Unless you want me to. Do you want me to?"
Well, if you want to take my counsel, sure. Satisfy your curiosity.
"I'm not curious because I have a great training staff and doctors and I rely on them to tell me what's going to go on with our players. But, I'll ask him."
We'll touch base with you Sunday after the game.
"What's that?"
We'll touch base back with you Sunday after the game?
"I may not get it in before Sunday, but let's say by next, what day's today, Thursday? By next Thursday. I'll see if I can pencil that one in."
We're not going to hold you to it but fine.
"I'm good with that."
When you guys were in Philadelphia, you had various penalty totals at the end of the year. One year, you were in the middle of the league. One year, at the bottom, etcetera. Now, you've got the fewest penalties of any team. How do you interpret that? Is that--?
"It's been an emphasis for us here. I think I understand the hidden yardage that's involved in the penalty game and it can affect you. When we talk about self-inflicted wounds, a lot of those, sometimes those penalties are that. There are some penalties that you get from being aggressive and you know, your hand gets caught up in the back of the collar. With the new nameplate rule and the new horse collar rule, that's a horse collar tackle. That's not what we're talking about. But, those administrative penalties, the pre-snap penalties, the false starts, the defensive encroachment, there's seven to 10 penalties that occur before the ball's snapped, delay of game, that can be really looked at and coached and player executed so that those things don't affect you. Doesn't take away your aggressiveness as a football player, but it's really what we talk about the no-brainer penalties that we really try to harp on because you don't want those things to hurt you and you need every inch, every yard you can get in this league and I think it's a real important factor and we talk about it. The biggest thing for us right now, I know where we are from a penalty standpoint because we look at it every week, we emphasize it every week with our players, is the ones on third down are killing us. The ones that extend the drive. So, in that category, I think we're in the high teens if I'm not mistaken. Everything else we're either in the top one or two in the league. But, the ones that are on third down that have extended drives where basically we're getting them off the field or conversely, we've got a third-and-two but then we've got a false start. Now, we have a third-and-seven. There's a big difference in this league between third-and-two and third-and-seven but that's something that our staff has emphasized and that we continue to coach our guys on."
What have you seen from CB Will Redmond in practice? Is he doing everything or is he still kind of being held back?
"I would say he's probably limited in terms of the reps he's taking, but he's involved in everything. There's not one activity that he can't do. But, I don't know if his conditioning--Carlos has pads on in case you guys, just updating you, trying to stay on the same page. But, there is still the blue jersey."
Do you have anything on Armstead since--?
"No. I've got a window until Thursday. If we did like sign language while he was coming out, that would have been great, but I haven't caught him yet."
He could text you, maybe.
"I don't have my phone."
Back to Redmond.
"Will's not limited in terms of what he's doing drill-wise or work-wise. So, he's involved in seven-on, he's involved in 11-on and all that. He's just not taking every rep just because he's not up to, I would say, extended game playing time speed, you know what I mean? So, he'll go for a portion of our practice as he's a scout player for us. But, there's been a couple of times where, 'Hey, Will needed a little bit of a blow here just because he's not ready to go 12 straight plays in a row.' So, it's more of a conditioning thing from this point in time."
On Tuesday, offensive coordinator Curtis Modkins talked about how RB DuJuan Harris really played well and he's earned more time. Can we infer that he's going to be up now on game days?
"Again, until we know exactly what's going to go on, I would anticipate he's going to be play. But, I don't know if he gets hurt in the next two days or so. So, hopefully if he's healthy, we're going to have DuJuan up. Yes."
I heard you on the radio talking about I guess meeting with New Orleans Saints QB Drew Brees, it wasn't planned, during the Super Bowl. Did you know or had you talked with Drew in person before that and what did you--?
"Yeah. We played against them."
What did you take from that conversation?
"We were just two guys talking football. Just general football. What trends do you see in the league? People use this formation a lot. People do this a lot. Have you ever looked at this? It's just two guys talking football. Not specifics about what we do or what the Saints do or nothing that I said, 'Hey, that conversation I had with Drew in the beginning of February last year, he's going to run this, this and this.' It's just kind of general football thoughts."
* Transcript provided by the San Francisco 49ers
