San Francisco 49ers offensive line/run game coordinator Chris Foerster and special teams coordinator Brian Schneider spoke with reporters after Wednesday's practice, the sixth of organized team activities (OTAs). Here is everything they had to say.
Transcript provided by the San Francisco 49ers Communications staff.
Offensive Line Coach/Run Game Coordinator Chris Foerster
Obviously, you had a big change at right tackle with Denver Broncos T Mike McGlinchey leaving this off season, what is your confidence level in OL Colton McKivitz and where does that kind of stem from?
"Colton, he's done a great job for us through the years he's been here. He's always had to fill in short spells and has done a good job for us. I think that knowing the job is his coming into it and it's his job to lose kind of, although there will be guys that are there to compete if it doesn't work out. I think it is also going to help build his confidence. He is good for the position. Mike McGlinchey is one of the best run blocking tackles in the NFL. Whether I say it, PFF says it, whoever says it. Colton probably won't be quite that, but he is a very good run blocker and his protection is really solid and consistent. He's got a consistent personality. He's a really tough, hardworking guy. He's a great character guy. Kind of like last year when we talked about the interior three players, he's made of the right stuff. He's actually played more snaps than those interior three guys last year had played and so it's just about a matter of getting out and starting week in and week out and not feeling like you're a short-term guy that has to get it done for one week. This now is your job to kind of work with and play through, so I'm excited for his opportunity. Once you get out there and things start going, you hope he hangs in there. I already told him, I think we're going to camp against the Raiders. They drafted a really high rusher [Las Vegas Raiders DL Tyree Wilson] and they have a rusher that is pretty darn good too, 98 [Las Vegas Raiders DL Maxx Crosby]. It is going to be a challenge right out of the gate, just in training camp and the first preseason game, so he'll have a lot to go through this season, but we have a lot of confidence in the guy."
We didn't get to see a whole lot of him last year, but he didn't let up, over his small sample, a lot in pass protection. Did he take big strides?
"He did. Last year he was playing as well as he'd ever played and he was in the Rams game, the home Rams game, and his knee. Here's a shocker, he was blocking his guy and then [Los Angeles Rams DL] Aaron Donald kind of got loose on the left side and got shoved into him and his knee, it was just kind of a weird thing and so he had a minor knee thing that that took him out for a few weeks. And when he came back, it wasn't like he wasn't the same guy, but he just never quite got back to that level and he never really had to play the rest of the year short of a mop up thing at the end of a game."
How do you think he grew from that trial by fire in Week 18 in 2021?
"Oh yeah, no doubt about it. Colton's been through a lot here and the thing about him was we released him I think it was his second season after his second training camp. And that was a wake up. If you talk to him about it, that would probably be his wake-up call in the NFL. Nobody claimed him and we brought him back on our practice squad. And to him, that was one of those things where he kind of thought, well, I was drafted. I'm going to be here. I'm going to get my opportunities and you come to realize that nothing's guaranteed and so we brought him back in a practice squad role and he was a different guy from that moment on. His jaw was set and we activated him later in the year and that kid, he's been all business, all work, all about being the best he can be. Last season during camp, and you nailed it, he was playing as well as he's ever played. Coming out of that Week 18 game a couple years ago against the Rams and then obviously into this season when he had to fill in."
What do you look for out of OL Spencer Burford in year two? What does he need to do?
"Well, I'll tell you what, it's going to be exciting for him. Both those guys were in my office yesterday, because I wanted to give them both kind of the same message of you're not looking over your shoulder right now. This is your job now. There're guys here, we brought in [OL] Jon Feliciano, we brought in [OL] Matt Pryor, we've got [OL] Jaylon Moore, we've got [OL] Leroy Watson IV. We've got these guys that are there to compete for this position, but the same thing with Spencer. I said Spence, last year you spent split time with [Tennessee Titans OL] Dan [Brunskill] and it was good for you. And I would've hoped during the year he would've taken over the position, but he never really did. It was always kind of a nip and tuck between the two of them. And Dan had to fill in some games at other positions, so Spence ended up playing more plays. This year, boy, he has come back, looks like a different guy, carrying himself differently. The confidence level, the jump between years one and two for a player if they play is the biggest jump they ever make because you just can't stop what goes on during a season. It's just one game after another game after another game. And about October, your season is usually over in college and now we're playing to February almost, last week of January, so it was so long, it's so much and it doesn't let up. This year I think he's more prepared for the whole process. He knows what it is. I think he's ready to make that step and I say everything to this point as much as you can tell from this, he looks prepared and ready to go."
Feliciano came here with kind of a reputation of being a good glue guy, locker room guy. Are you seeing some of that in terms of his interaction with the line?
"He's a great guy and that's the one thing about it. We were just talking about on the way over that the character of the guys on this team that [head coach] Kyle [Shanahan] and [general manager] John [Lynch] have brought in is just outstanding. We've got a great group of guys, it's a great room and everybody works together, so when we go out looking in free agency, you don't want to bring in a guy that's going to not be that, but Jon has been as advertised that way. He competes, you won't miss a beat if he ends up starting at guard or center for us for whatever reason. I think John is a good player and adds a lot to the room leadership-wise. Toughness, tenacity, work ethic. Yes sir, no sir guy and really good guy. I've really enjoyed getting to know him."
We saw OL Nick Zakelj getting some snaps at center today.
"Yeah, well some. They were on the ground some too."
I wasn't going to mention that.
"I will, thank you. Yeah, we're trying to work him in there. Nick is an interior player. I think there's been some talk about Nick at tackle because that's what he played in college. He's an interior player and he's made great strides. If there's was a McGlinchey Award, Mike McGlinchey should have had a cot somewhere, he was here all the time, 24/7. McGlinchey was Mr.49er. Zakelj is running a close second to that right now because he was here the first day that he could be here in the offseason training, working on his quickness, working on everything we asked him to work on. He's made a huge jump, but he has to get snaps up and he's had some trouble in these OTAs. Gun snaps are fine. He's just has to get more snaps with our quarterbacks and right now, because it's a different quarterback, it's not like he's taking, in the scout team last year say you took all your snaps with 17 [Baltimore Ravens QB Josh Johnson] and then now this year it becomes a point where it's a bunch of different quarterbacks. He's not used to that yet, so he's not a natural center, but we've got to get him ready to go with that position."
Have you talked about OL Joey Fisher yet? What are your thoughts on Fisher?
"Big Joey. Joey's a guard. He's definitely a guard. Joey's going to be a right or left guard. I don't see him playing center ever, right now. It doesn't mean in time he might not be able to grow into the position. He's not a tackle though. He is a strong, hardworking, tough guy. I really like what I see in him. It's a big learning curve right now as is for all rookies. He's a smaller school guy. The techniques that they used were different, so it's a big learning curve, but you never know. You come in and you start doing it, next thing you know, it clicks for some guys sooner than others. Or he may be a year from now. I don't know, but I really like him as an undrafted guy because he's physically got the makeup to be a good offensive guard."
You mentioned earlier the value in kind of knowing that it's your job going into the year. OL Jake Brendel had that last year and had a pretty good year. Having had that year under your belt, how much better can Brendel get? Is there still upside there?
"Yeah, I think for the same reasons, we were talking about it today. Jake missed some calls early in the season. He got better as the season went on. He was really quick to want to make a call and as you guys know, we motion a lot, so sometimes he'd make a call, but the picture would change and we'd be off because of that. And as late as the Seattle game in the playoffs it happened, and it happens to everybody, it happened to [former 49ers C] Alex [Mack] in the NFC Championship Game two years ago. I think when that what happens is that the game slows down another step because you played a whole season now, you've seen all the different defenses, you've been on the road, you've heard the crowd noise, the silent count, you've managed all that stuff one time. Now you can build on those same things and there should be growth. Is he physically going to be a lot better player? I think you learn, you start learning angles, you start learning the defenses, the defensive guys in front of you, you start learning our offense a little bit better. You're not just now, oh my gosh, I'm running this line, I've got this whole offense to learn, I have to get everybody pointed in the right direction, oh, and by the way, I have to do my job. Now, you feel a lot more confident to run the line. You feel a lot more confidence in what we're doing and in the same sense now you can focus on now how do I play better? I think there should be a jump this year for him. There should be a jump for Burford. There should be a jump for [OL Aaron] Banks. That conversation I've had with Spence and Colton I had last year with Banks and it was never truer with Banks. I had it with Jake too, but I said, you may come into this thing and we may go to Minnesota for camp and you may play like a Hall of Famer or you may play like you shouldn't be our starting guard. And through much of the preseason, there was a lot of question as to how he would do. And he struggled, but we had the conversation before and I said, it doesn't matter, you're the guy until the wheels absolutely come off. And so, we want you to know that and so I don't know whether that helped him or not, I just know I wanted him to understand and it doesn't mean that shoot, he goes into camp, some guy just outplays him. Yeah, we're going to start the other guy, but that discussion is because you guys have heard me enough to know that it's a long haul for these guys. We talked about it last season and yeah, they played good for three or four weeks, but it's a long season and there's a lot that can happen. There's a lot of development and it's what do they do when they fail? And that's what you don't know until they really fail. It's one thing to fail out here, it's another thing to fail when you're posted on Twitter failing when they do the spotlight on the NFL Network and all the people point you out as being the reason why in the fourth quarter you gave up the sack fumble, blah, blah, blah. Then you have to come in the next day and pretend like it didn't happen and go to work. That's when you really find out about the character of a guy. That's why what John and Kyle have done, going back to discussing the Jon Feliciano's and the people that you bring in these high character guys and they dig in and they usually can find their way through that. I don't remember who we were talking about now, but it could have been anybody."
You mentioned your players, especially the younger guys taking snaps from a number of different quarterbacks. How does the current quarterback situation affect what you're doing this time of year?
"I don't think it really does because the offense is the offense and we're not tailoring anything for a quarterback run game right now, so everything is set up as if it could be [QB] Brock [Purdy], it could be any of these four guys, the three that are there now and then Brock could be in there, so it really isn't for us anything different. And it's good for guys to take snaps from different people. There's just a limited number of snaps, so there's not a lot of ops, we have to get that ironed out, but it doesn't really change much I don't think for anybody other than the fact that a couple of guys are new and learning the system. Other than that, for us, it's all good."
Last year, midseason there was kind of discussion that with the whole new coaching staff or a lot of new coaches on the offensive side, that the system to get information to Kyle changed and you kind of you got in your flow midseason, you have more consistency this year. Do you already feel that helping your momentum going forward?
"Yeah, I think that [offensive passing game specialist] Klint Kubiak has come in and taken [Houston Texans offensive coordinator] Bobby Slowik's role, so he's had the most learning to do, but last year you're right. Even me, I'd been the o-line coach here before, but I had to move into that run game coordinator, whatever that is, but I had more to do. I had a little bit more to do than I had to do the year before and then everybody else was brand new in their position, so you're right, it did take a while for Kyle to adjust because he's had [Miami Dolphins head coach] Mike McDaniel forever and all these guys had been on his staff and then all of a sudden, boom, they're all gone. And it did take some time, and that's not an excuse for how we played in the first part of the season. We could have won all those games, but it would've gone the same way. There was still an adjustment as far as the workflow who does what for Kyle who prepares these tapes because for years they'd been done by certain people and all of a sudden it changed and who was going to fill that role. We had [quarterbacks coach Brian] Griese for the first time as a quarterback coach, so this year, I think we kind of know where we're going. And I think with Klint filling in for Bobby, kind of just doing the same thing, I think we've got a real good flow right now. When we get to the season, we shouldn't be too far off of where we would from say, like you said, the midpoint of season or whenever we kind of started to hit our stride as far as how everybody's role was going to fill out. Shoot, [tight ends coach] Brian Fleury and I, Brian was a part of the run game early, but then we came to realize just the marriage that he and I could work together, because he sits in more with Kyle for the pass game formations, things like that, so he and I, we created together much more and he was much more integral part of formation and motioning and adjusting those types of things. I'm still a line coach at heart in a lot of ways. Yes, schematically how we're going to do things, but I'm looking at what's best for the line, the runner, the angles and things like that and then they're going to dress it up. And Brian, as the year went on, took on more of that role. I think everybody did. Shoot, [assistant quarterbacks] Klay Kubiak created this tape for Kyle on Fridays that was outstanding and it was probably as good as it's ever been. Understanding what we needed to get done, so it's been really cool to watch the guys and how everybody's worked together and grown in their roles."
At some point last year, I think you were half-joking that you said Griese might sometimes near the end of the day be like, what are we still doing here?
"I was joking."
Obviously, he's back, but there was some talk that he had to consider if he wanted to continue to be a coach? Anyway, what did he bring last year?
"Like I said, and again, it's 2023. It's a whole new thing, but I can speak to last year. Everybody's role, Brian's role as a former player adds a perspective. He's got a great knowledge of the offense. He's a good football coach. He understands the quarterback position, but he has that great perspective of having played the position and you have Klay Kubiak was in the room with him. Bobby Slowik was in the room with the quarterbacks. Kyle obviously is the loudest voice probably in the room with the quarterbacks to help direct the way things are going and the other guys take care of him there, but it was a cool puzzle. It kind of all fit, Brian had his role, Bobby now Klint, and then Klay was in there as well and I think everybody just kind of fills those roles and is able to really help each other out to complement each other. Brian, obviously this year has a lot more confidence. He knows the offense one year more. He's got a lot more confidence in what Kyle wants and so, it's always a work in progress as far as how this thing plays out. It's always a management job and that's where everybody has to work together because Kyle being the head coach, he can't necessarily be up and down the hallway making sure everything's all fitting together. We have to all work together on this thing this year and it is a little different, but it is nice to kind of have everybody kind of set in their roles. I think Brian's ready to take that next step as well and be, and not like he wasn't confident, he feels like his feet are on the ground this year and it's not all new for him."
Special Teams Coordinator Brian Schneider
What have your early impressions been of K Jake Moody?
"Everything we thought he was. Just really consistent, really even-keeled and exactly what we hoped he'd be."
What did you hope he'd be exactly?
"Just that. Consistent, really-even keeled. He's just really consistent in everything he does from his approach, to his ball flight, to his finish, to the way he is around here all day, so it's been fun having him."
You're going through the process of evaluating the kickers. How much is it, you're looking at the physical, which they all need to be able to do, but also trying to analyze when the guy shanks a couple, is he going to bounce back or is he going to go down the tubes?
"That's absolutely the toughest question. I think we evaluated 27 kickers coming out of college, so that's where you always start with us. You go through the tape and then our guys do a great job. [General manager] John [Lynch] and all the scouts, they give you the rundown and so we're starting kind of from square one. You look off the silent tape and you start to build your list and then you whittle that down and then ultimately you have to go work them out I think to see everything live and that's the question you're trying to get answered. And it starts with the consistency of what people say about them, so before I even meet them, everyone in our building that's looked at them, I hear what they think, say and then when you go there to the schools, you listen to all the coaches, the weight coaches, any assistants, other players, you just try to find out and then ultimately you have to sit with them and just have get a feel for that."
How are you sorting through the kickoff rule? Do you expect to see a ton of fair catches and the ball is at the 25? How do you think it's going to work out?
"Yeah, we're doing a lot right now, looking in college. Looking at college to see the different kicks, see how people have done it. We still don't know all the rules yet, so we're trying to go off the rules and what exactly that looks like, so it's more or less just trying to figure out what we're going to anticipate seeing and then I think through preseason and once you start getting some tape on guys, you'll see their philosophy. Are they going to fair catch it? For me, it's more being prepared for our kickoff return team and trying to anticipate, prepare them for whatever teams are going to try and do. There's been so many changes in the last 15 years on kickoff and kickoff return. When I started it was four-man wedge, three-man wedge, two-man wedge, one, illegal double teams. There's been like 20 rules, so we'll all adjust to it and we'll figure it out."
How familiar are you with the XFL rule and do you think that could some time come into the NFL? That form of kickoff?
"To me, I wait and see how it shakes out and what rules we have to do it under and that's all we're doing now and now that we know it, we have to get all the fine points of that, like a penalty. What happens on a penalty? What happens if you muff it when you fair catch? There's a lot of things to work through that we don't quite have the answers to yet, so we'll just kind of go play it as we see it."
There's a report that special teams coordinators were unanimously against it. Was it just because of the change of the unknowns? I don't want to speak for you, but were you against it and why?
"Yeah, well when you say safety of the player, we're all in favor of that and so that's where it starts and we all agree on that. I don't know if this necessarily addresses any of that. I think there could be more returns, there could be shorter kicks, there could be more collisions, there could be dirty balls like a Squib or a bloop, so there's going to be more coverages because of it too, so I don't know if we have enough of a sample set to really say and like I said, I don't even know the rules yet. They say it's going to be like college, but is it? There's a lot of things to cover through that, so that's the only thing. We'll all figure it out. Everyone's playing the same rules and we just have to see where it goes from there."
Speaking of kickoffs, how has Moody been on that?
"Really good. He is extremely powerful, he has great hang time, he has great distance, so all those factor in. You start with hang time, distance and placement. Those are really the three things. And he's exceptional in all of them."
Was that becoming a problem last year as the season wore on? I'm sure it takes its toll on the kicker or whoever is handling the kickoffs. Was that starting to be an issue for this team?
"No, I thought we improved. The end of the season, I thought we were really good on kickoff, so different things, but at the end I thought we played our best."
When you are getting all the information and stories and everything on Moody, was there a particular story that kind of stood out that might put your mind at ease?
"Yeah, when I worked him out, there was no question what I thought about it. I wish I could have that type of workout every time you go because it just kind of naturally happened. In his pro workout, he kicked off sticks, in other words where there's a stick there and he just kicks a ball and all kickers would like to do it that way. And I think he was 12 for 13 and he missed like a 58-yarder, so that's exactly what kind of talent he is. I always try to get him a holder and a snapper and some guys can't find a snapper, it just doesn't work out, but I'll take any snapper, I don't care. I want to see the operation of it all and I want to see him under, I think someone asked that question earlier, what is he like under stress? How does he respond? You can take all the information from all the coaches and you can try to see like the game that he missed three in '20, how he responded to that. He had great competition there that he was fighting with, so I still can't figure out, like they'd go every three points, so he was going in and out. So again, you try to look on how he responded to adversity there, but the workout was perfect for me. It was unbelievable, he had two snappers that were backup long snappers on Michigan's team that were not very good. And he had his holder, so right off the bat, these balls are coming everywhere and he was doing great. The times were good, everything's good. As it got going and the snappers were rotating, the balls were just atrocious coming back. And I loved it because I was looking at him, how he responded to everything and you could tell he was getting frustrated because then I'd move the snappers and I had him kick off sticks and his timing was off, so it was a really frustrating workout from his point of view. I absolutely loved it because at the very end we backed up to a 55-yarder, bad snap and so he missed it and he thought that was the last kick and again, I'm just looking at him and he's still stone-faced really cool disposition, so I go, okay, we have a last second field goal. I'm going to count, you have 12 seconds, I'm going to count it down and this is against Ohio State to win it. They're on the sidelines, they all run out, the worst snap of the day. It bounced twice way inside. I mean the holder barely got it down and Moody just like I've seen on tape, so consistent with his approach and finish and trust, smoked it, so I was like, that is a great way to finish it. And then his last two kickoffs, so we did that, he did six kickoffs after that. And again, he was frustrated like anyone would be in a job interview where some things are out of his control, so the last two kicks I said, okay, we're going to kick left. I want it outside the numbers as close as you can to the goal line with the best hang time. The first one, he put a yard outside the numbers right on the goal line 4.38 hang time, which is phenomenal. And then his second one was two yards outside the hash, right on the goal line with 4.38 hang time. Right there, all those questions you have of how does the guy respond to adversity? It just naturally happened at the workout and I was the only one there, so I was fired up. If a lot of people would've saw that, I think they would've saw what I saw and I trusted what I saw. That's really what for me, out of everything, that was a final step where I was like, this guy's the guy."
Day two, third round of the draft, you guys have 99 and 101. Were you concerned at all that if you guys waited until 101 that he'd be gone?
"Yeah, they asked me my opinion and I tell John and [head coach] Kyle [Shanahan] that and then I let them handle it. Like to me, that's my job is evaluating where I like guys and then that's what they do."
Do you put a round grade on him?
"After that I told him, I don't care where you take him, this is the guy. I felt that strongly about him. And so again, that's not my job to figure out where we should draft him. I just know I really like the talent, I really love the kid. I love everything about him, so to me, it was like I think this is the best and they have to figure that out."
FB Jack Colletto on special teams, what do you think of him and his potential there?
"I think there's so much potential there. I think it's so cool because you can see him do all these things and he played all the special teams too, so I watched him on offense, on defense, on all the special teams and to me it's just the more you can do the value that you have. I'm really excited and like everybody, we're doing everything and we're evaluating and we're just seeing where they start and where they improve and where they finish."
What do you think of CB D'Shawn Jamison as a returner and WR Ronnie Bell as a returner?
"Both of them are really good. They're both catching them and we'll go through the process in training camp and the preseason. But both are really good. I tell you Bell is a really natural fielder, really special when you see that because you just see the first couple of returns and his feet are right under it and he really is a natural fielder, which by far is number one for a punt returner, so I'm excited to see both those guys go."
What did you see from WR Ray-Ray McCloud III as he progressed through the season last year?
"Confidence more than anything and I've always loved watching Ray-Ray. Like to me his toughness, his ability, if you watch whenever people are around him, that's when he is at his best. That's when he is fielding clean and he's making a quick move, he loves that action. His toughness and just getting the consistent 10 yards, I love watching him do that."
Why don't more NFL teams have a kicking coach?
"That's a good question. I think we all know enough just to get in trouble. The basics, but to me it's all individual on the kicker. Like if you look at all the kickers, everyone looks different. There're base fundamentals that you have to have, but everyone's different. It's about learning the kicker or the punter. It's about learning them and working together to see where we need to go. I don't know, that's a good question, but I know enough to get in trouble, so that's why I trust them."
