San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan spoke with reporters on Tuesday following the team's second practice of the week. Here is everything he had to say.
Transcript provided by the San Francisco 49ers Communications staff.
Do you have an update on why DL Nick Bosa sat out?
"I know it was his hamstring, I'm not sure. I wasn't over there. It was in (half-line) drills, so I'm not sure of the severity of it, but I know that was it."
What were your impressions of QB Jimmy Garoppolo out there?
"Two days in a row, seven-on-seven. Some good things, some bad. Just taking the reps like everyone else."
Can you just give an overall assessment of what stood out to you today?
"It was the second day of practice, so you're always scared the first day because everyone's so excited, so you're just trying to get out of there with no injuries. Today was very similar. We didn't change the practice schedule at all, put in a couple of different things in all three phases, but mainly just getting the guys' feet wet, going through the stuff and they're competing here and there. Everything's scripted right now, we're not going off script at all, so I thought it was a successful day."
What is the plan for Jimmy? Are you going to continue to keep him out of team and then sprinkle him in later?
"No, I mean, he won't be cleared for full team until training camp. He's on the same plan as [RB Jerick McKinnon] Jet. If Jet only threw the ball we'd let him do seven-on-seven too, but we can't have the risk of guys around his legs."
He seems to be, it doesn't look like he's hindered at all. Is that fair to say?
"Yeah, I believe so. I think that would be the case for most quarterbacks in this situation. You're sitting there doing a drop and stuff like that. So, I mean, if you ask Jet to do a drop and throw the ball, he wouldn't look hindered, his arm won't look as good throwing, which he would take offense to because he was a college quarterback. But no, he's doing a good job. It takes him a while to fully be able to protect himself and react and keep people away from the legs."
How is he handling the balance of being able to do those sevens but not pushing his workload to the point of stress or things like that?
"I think that would be a good question for him, but I think he's handling it as well as he can. He's getting used to it. It's just a long process when you recover from an ACL and he gets as much work as he can get in. I know he'd love to be out there for every rep, but he knows that he can't, so he's trying to make the most of his seven-on-seven and do as much work in every other aspect as he can."
I know the chances of something happening are beyond remote, but when it starts raining are you like, 'maybe Jimmy should be done for the day?'
"No."
Stupid question.
"I mean, if we don't wear cleats, that would bother me. Rain I don't think, I mean we're not playing basketball. You've got cleats in. Ice is different, if you have a bad field it's different, but no. He didn't tear his ACL in rain. I don't look at rain that way."
How are you using the running back rotation? It looks like you're going to limit Jet through these OTAs, but how are you working in RB Matt Breida, RB Tevin Coleman, other guys?
"Breida can't go, so we only have three guys going right now, so we have to take advantage of those three and use them. All our other guys are recovering. Breida tweaked his pec. It's frustrating for Breida, because he can do just about everything, we've just got to avoid contact for him, so he can't be out there running with other people on the field, so that means he can't do anything until training camp. Then we have [RB] Raheem [Mostert], his injury from the season, we have Jet. We've got three guys going right now with [FB Kyle Juszczyk] Juice helping out, which is enough for rotations, but if we ever lost a guy, we'd have to change our reps up."
Mostert is still dealing with the arm issue?
"Yeah, he had a little setback with the surgery. I'm not exactly sure what that was, just in how the bone grows back together, and they noticed it early, so they just started it early which I think cost him about four weeks."
Did he have to have another, have it reset?
"Yep."
So, more hardware went in?
"I don't know. I assume so. I mean, they had to redo the exact same thing. I'm definitely going out of my area of expertise, but it's how the callous grows back together. When you notice it's not growing back together the right way, it's better to start it over, especially when we had the time. It's not too big of a deal, it just added another month. I mean, he's out there running around, taking handoffs and stuff, but you've got to wait until that callous fully heals to, it's not worth it until training camp."
Was Breida's injury conditioning?
"It was from lifting, yeah."
Is it a torn pec?
"It was slightly torn, which anytime you hear a torn pec, you think back to like [LB] Malcolm [Smith] and stuff, which was a year. It's not like that. He is going to miss OTAs. You can see him running around out there. He does everything with us and looks fine, but we've got to be smart with that."
No surgery?
"No surgery, no."
Should be ready for training camp?
"Yes, yeah."
Just overall, broadly, I know they're all individual cases, but are you worried at this time of year so many guys are missing time?
"I mean, you go off experience and this is the most time I've had of people missing OTAs, but we've been really healthy the last two OTAs and it's been the opposite at camp. Maybe it'll be the opposite this year, we're not healthy in OTAs, which is maybe a good sign for training camp. I know which one I'd rather have. We knew this going into this year. I mean, we knew we had, I think it's 12 guys before this started that we knew wouldn't be participating in OTAs. Then you've got your six new guys, too. Some things have come up, which is pretty normal, but when you stack that up, it is different with reps and things like that. Hopefully that'll lead to a better training camp."
What was WR Jalen Hurd's issue?
"Just the same stuff from coming out of college. He's just not fully there yet. He's been here with us for a week. We want to make sure he gets a couple more weeks in of conditioning. You know, he didn't start getting cleared to run until a few weeks before the Draft and to only have him for a week, we want to make sure we get a little bit more to get him in football shape."
How do you like what you've seen out of WR Jordan Matthews and WR Deebo Samuel?
"In two days, I've been here longer with Jordan. He's been here since the start of the offseason. He's been working his tail off and learning a new offense. You can tell he's been around, you can tell he's a vet and he's got some leadership qualities. Deebo's been here a week, just like the other guys. It's good to get him in two practices now and tomorrow we'll be able to review the film and do all of that and hopefully he'll have a good one to finish this week on Thursday."
DL Solomon Thomas has obviously been through a lot over the last year. Just being around him now, what's his mindset and kind of approach from what you've gathered being here?
"I think he spoke a little bit about it, but stuff I've heard him say, I've totally seen with my own eyes. Just being around him a number of times in the offseason at a couple of charity things and things like that. Just talking to him, you can tell he's, and we all know what he went through and stuff, but you can see he's got a little more, he's got his aura back to him. You can see it in his eyes, you can feel his energy a little bit better and it definitely seems like he's in a better place. We all know grieving can be as hard as it gets and takes people a long time, but you can see he's doing better. Just to see him out there in practice, I don't see his face now he's got a helmet on out there and to see his body and how he's moving, I've been very impressed with him in this month we've had with him."
Is he slimmer? Has he lost some weight?
"I'm not sure, I haven't checked his weight. I wouldn't think so. I know he's stronger, but I'm not sure on the weight. Might be that the other guys around there are getting bigger, too. So, I'm not sure."
Did the schedule and the plan and the goals for this month differ in year three than it was in year one?
"Not totally. You always want more competition and you want to set that up with your roster, which we've done, and you want to continue to get better. But, you've also got to be smart. Our starting quarterback's not out there, our running back. We have a lot of guys not out there, so it's not about just, you've got to be smart with what you have. You've got to install things. You don't just start, 'hey, we've been here three years, so let's start on day six of the offense or defense.' We've got a lot of new guys out there at every position on both sides of the ball, so there's so much turnover in the league, you can't just always pick up where you left off. There's got to be a little bit of a foundation you put in. This week's probably the easiest one we have in days one, two and three. It'll be the exact same thing in training camp days one, two and three. For me as a coach, it's sometimes frustrating. I always want to get to the next thing and try something that I know we need to improve at, but you can never lose that foundation. We'll get there, but you can't skip the steps."
It looks like the guys that have been here all three years share that feeling of here we go again?
"Definitely. I mean, I'm sure [CB] Richard Sherman's heard a cover three install quite a bit. I'm sure [T Joe] Staley knows what two-jet protection is. They've all done it, but players always want to be intrigued with something or inspired to do something new. They all know also that if you get away from the fundamentals and just football 101, it's hard. Not everyone's ready just to start at the fifth step. You've got to start at step one and build your team there. That's what we're doing."
What's the health status of LB Fred Warner and LB Malcolm Smith and also what have you seen from LB Dre Greenlaw?
"Well, Greenlaw's got a lot of reps because Fred's not going. Fred won't go until training camp. Fred had some residual stuff on his knee that was bothering him when he got back, so we waited a week to see if it would go away and it was still lingering so we just cleaned it up, which you know that stuff lingered with him a little bit last year. Those things happen. We're hoping it could go away so he could get OTAs, but the fact that it was still there, we we're not gonna risk it. So, we'll clean it up now. It stinks not to have him at OTAs for us and for himself, but it's better to know that he won't have to deal with it in training camp. And then Malcolm is going individual and stuff. He's still working to get back and we hope we can have him later in OTAs."
Is Greenlaw playing MIKE early on?
"No, he played SAM yesterday. I believe he played outside linebacker today also."
When Smith gets worked back in, is he a SAM or WILL or do you have all those guys sort of rotated?
"With us doing, our guys are, you know in the past here when we didn't play many nine techniques at all our SAM linebacker was always on the ball. That's why I always kind of talked about him in more of a three-four standpoint. It's just how offensive guys view it. When you mix in a lot more nines and stuff you have three linebackers off the ball, which makes those guys a lot more interchangeable. So, now it's just true two outside backers and you've got a MIKE who plays in the middle. We can still put guys on the ball, whether it's the SAM or the WILL, depends if they're to the three technique or the bubble. But, it's a lot, they're all the same bodies now. That SAM linebacker had been, it's more what we went to in the year, when we started playing more [LB Mark] Nzeocha, Malcolm, when we traded [Buffalo Bills LB] Eli [Harold]. And now that we are playing more nines we can put them a lot more off the ball so they're a lot more interchangeable."
Just to clarify when you said clean out for Fred, he had surgery?
"I don't know if it was a scope or what the word is, but yes it wasn't an antibiotic or anything. There was some tool used."
TE Garret Celek isn't practicing either?
"No, Celek is still in the concussion protocol and he has a back issue and he can't get cleared from that until training camp. So, we're gonna have to be patient with him too."
You guys have made some moves at tight end. How do you feel about that depth that you've added with TE Kaden Smith and TE Levine Toilolo?
"I feel a lot better. We were hoping to add another person in the Draft and we got Smith and to have Levine still out there right now and to get him in the situation we did, felt very excited about that. I was able to coach Levine for two years, a great guy and I think he can help our team."
