San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan spoke with reporters after today's practice in Santa Clara. Here is everything he had to say.
Transcript provided by the San Francisco 49ers Communications staff.
What happened with T Trent Williams there at the end?
"I didn't see it. They said he just clipped his hip or knee or something and we got him out. He didn't seem overly concerned, but we've got to look at him when we get inside."
You said hip or knee?
"Yeah."
Do you know what the structure is going to be for Thursday and Friday as far as going against the other team?
"No, and especially when practicing against another team, I'll decide that based off how practice goes. I'm a lot more into the practices when you scrimmage than the actual game. So you see what you cover with other team over two days, and then you kind of plan you reps accordingly to that."
DL Nick Bosa won't practice this week but will he start doing team drills next week?
"That's what we're hoping for. I think if we stay on track, I think we'll see him next week."
WR Jauan Jennings is a guy who didn't really light up the combine or anything but when's on tape he just keeps making plays. How did you account for those two things and keep a balance to draft him at wide receiver? And how have you liked him on the practice field thus far?
"Similar to what you saw in his college tape. He was a really good college football player. You could tell how much he enjoys playing the game. How good his hands were, how physical he plays. Didn't light up the combine or anything, which we mess with him over but that's his game. I mean, it's old school and he goes out there and he competes. And he got a late start last year, not having any off season with the pandemic and stuff, but he came on really strong in like Weeks 4 through 8 where we thought he was going to end up helping us a little bit last year and then he had that bad injury. So it's been nice for him to get back, get healthy and it was good to see him in his first game. That's how he looked in college."
You guys have drafted a couple of combine stars and kind of molded them into players, but how much of just kind of showing on tape being a good football do you take into evaluation? What's the balance like?
"I mean, it's always going to come down to how good of a football player you are, but that's the challenge each year. You've got to have a certain amount of ability to get in the club as I like to say with the NFL. So you've got to have a certain skill set that allows you to at least get in there to compete. But if you do, where you go with that is how good of a football player you are, how hard you compete, how much don't hesitate. And Jauan, he plays like his hair is on fire. And I think a lot of our receivers can learn from watching him."
Speaking of those wide receivers, I'll make a statement that you can kind of go off. It looks like four guys have really kind of separated themselves, with your starters WR Mohamed Sanu Sr. and WR Trent Sherfield. If that's true, you can confirm or whatever, but after that with five and six, how do you see that competition going for those spots?
"I mean, I think all our spots are open. I know we've got the guys who are most likely to make the team at the upper spot, but on the guys that we're dependent on how they're going to go. I mean, we don't have 1, 2, 3 or 4 settled. You guys know who's probably going to make it, at least with those groups, like you are saying, but those guys have got to go out there and play. I mean, we had a lot of young guys play last year by default with the injuries that happen and some of the situtaions we were in, so I want those guys going out there competeing and showing they can play good football. And I've been really impressed with Trent so far with how he's done that. I've been extremely impressed with Jauan, how he's gone out there and done that. And it's only one game in, but I need everyone else to get to that level also."
Did DT Javon Kinlaw have a setback?
"Yes, Javon hurt his shoulder last week. He'll be week to week. I doubt he'll be out there this week. It wasn't a setback. It was a new thing. Yeah, his shoulder."
What about T Shon Coleman?
"Yeah Shon Coleman hurt his knee in the game. He's day to day."
How valuable is it to be able to have these practices against a different team?
"I think they're huge. I mean, you get sick of going schematically verse the same stuff over and over. The same fronts, the same coverages. I also think you get sick of going against the same guys too. And especially the players with that. So to be able to go out there and you have similar practices, but you get all new fronts, all new coverages, which takes people time to adjust to. And being able to do that without having a card up a period and stuff like that, which you start doing in Week 1. I think it's a huge advantage. And you can't generate everything in games either. I mean, the stuff you hope happens doesn't always happen and you can make sure you do that in practice. And when you're doing it against another team, I think that's why I've put more into that than the game."
OL Dan Brunskill's backing up at a couple of different spots and then obviously starting at right guard. Do you have any concerns right now about the depth at offensive line after the first and second unit?
"No, I feel as we're as deep as we've been. You have Dan Brunskill who has played every position on the field for us. And he's earned his way as a backup, got to start a lot of games last year at right guard, I believe, then center. But Dan has shown that he can start in this league, he's shown that he can play all the positions. And we're trying to figure out who our best five are. When you have a guy like Dan, he doesn't have to be pigeonholed into one spot. So it allows us truly to pick our best five. And we're trying to figure that out where we're going to put our backup tackles, where we've got our backup inside players and who's going to be those starting inside three also."
How do you think OL Colton McKivitz played on Saturday?
"I think it was good to get him out there to play some, there's guys that we haven't had doing that. Watching him play in a game, I thought he's improved from where he was at last year when he ended football. But I still wanted him to keep taking steps forward and keep getting better."
Did WR Jalen Hurd have a setback?
"No, he didn't have a setback. I think you guys know the deal with him, he goes out, does individual, we tried to look into his knee and I know that he didn't finish the day which means his knee was bothering them. Hopefully he'll have a bigger day tomorrow and hopefully he'll get more in the practice with the [Los Angeles] Chargers."
Did QB Nate Sudfeld and QB Josh Rosen get any 11-on-11 action out there?
"I don't think they did. Today was a hard day because half your team, the ones, the ones who played only had nine reps almost, just for a guess for all of them. And then a lot of ones didn't play. Some of the ones have had three days off, so it's real important to go out there and get a practice for those guys. But some of the twos and some of the threes are less than 48 hours away from playing. So you're trying to balance that out. Ones had to do it, some of the twos needed it. But we didn't have any reps for threes today."
What is the plan with Sudfled and why didn't he play in the first game?
"Just because you can't play all four guys. So we'd take turns doing it. I wanted to make sure Josh got some playing time. I didn't want him to go in one series and then put the other one in. So he got the majority of that. So the next time that we get to our third guy, that'll be Nate."
How is OL Alfredo Gutierrez doing?
"He's balling. He is representing Mexico well. He's doing a good job. We've enjoyed him here. It's been nice. He's a big guy. I think he's getting used to what we do. Asking him to do some of the run blocking stuff has been new for him. But he looks like he belongs and hopefully he'll get some playing time in there eventually, but I've enjoyed having him."
WR Austin Watkins Jr., is he going on IR?
"Yes."
So that's 85 right there?
"I believe so. Yeah. I think we need one more by tomorrow. Your guys' math is probably better. You had a head start at it, but I think we've got to get one more by tomorrow, possibly two."
Does that include CB Ken Webster?
"Yes. Yeah. Webster was let go this morning."
