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Transcript provided by the San Francisco 49ers Communications staff.
Opening comments:
"For the game, [DL] Arik Armstead, out, [TE] Ross Dwelley, out, [DL Javon] Hargrave, out, [LB Oren] Burks, out, [RB] Elijah Mitchell, out. [CB] Charvarius Ward, questionable, [LB Dre] Greenlaw, questionable, [OL Spencer] Burford, questionable, [OL] Aaron Banks, questionable."
What happened to Banks? Did he do that at practice?
That was today?
"Yesterday, yeah."
Who do you like at the defensive tackle spot without Armstead and Hargrave there?
"Who do I like? I mean, I'd like them being there, but I like the other guys on our team too. Are you asking who?"
"I'm not sure, but somebody from our building. We'll be down two, so we've got to have two more go. We'll make that decision on Sunday."
After games, coaches almost always talk to each other and embrace. What do you typically say to the opposing coach after a win or after a loss? I always wondered.
"I don't really know. Sometimes good luck. Best of luck the rest of the year. Good game. You kicked our butts, if that happens. If you did it the other way, it's harder because you don't want to say good game or congrats or anything like that so you just usually wait for them to talk. Sometimes there's stuff to talk about if something happened in the game. But no, it's usually just an awkward handshake and you try to get out of there as fast as possible. See them at Indy."
How is DT Javon Kinlaw? How has he been able to just maybe build a little bit of momentum from just being healthy?
Do you think he's set himself up for the future? Probably coming into this year, a lot of questions around the League about his sustainability and how he could fit in long term. You think he's done a lot to raise his stock?
"Yeah, no doubt about it. Everyone around the League knows the talent he was coming out of college. He was starting to show that his rookie year, but then ever since that Dallas game, he just hasn't been right with his knee. So, it becomes a question of not how good can he get, but whether he can even play or not. What he did this whole offseason was as big of a commitment as anyone as I've ever been around. You're still so nervous for the guy because they can't control their injuries. But, for him to be able to do this and play, now the tape looks what people anticipated and the whole League has respect and he's only going to get better."
Do practice restrictions make it harder than ever to develop young players?
"Oh yeah, how do you develop them? People have got to get hurt and they've got to get in and then usually they're not ready so they look bad and then they lose their opportunity and sometimes they're out of the league too fast. So that's one of the biggest challenges. I think that's what's so hard for draft pick picks sometimes to make teams and stuff because it's just there's not always time."
"Well, not because Steve is down there. I've loved him down there. I think he likes it down there too. But I think, I've said this before, but I think we've been playing as a group better on all three levels. I think even in our five wins in a row to our three losses, I just think it was a little sporadic. The D-Line had their times, the linebackers had their times, the secondary did. I feel all three of those units have been just on all three levels have been matching each other better. That's led to more turnovers. It's led to more sacks. It's led to a lot more PBUs and it's been awesome having him down there too."
The center of your offense, could you give perspective what kind of football IQ someone needs? Then as it relates to C Jake Brendel when you realized how he had that ability?
"I mean, it takes a ton. It's really hard to identify everybody out there, get everyone on the same page. Especially when your quarterback in our system, we don't have our quarterback point it out all the time. We usually have the center do most of that. Quarterback's got to change some things, but most of it's on the center. It's a huge challenge in our system. That's why a lot of places don't motion quite as much because that makes it a lot harder on the center. It makes it harder on everybody. So, you've got to really work at that. You've got to have a guy who can understand the moving parts, not only just on a chalkboard or before the game, but in the heat of battle. It's really as hard as anything and he's been so good at it. You've got to have a certain personality where you're constantly thinking and gosh I have lack of words. I'm about to say a wrong one, which I shouldn't. But, you've got to be kind of neurotic about it. Just thinking about it all the time and stuff because it's constant thought because there's so much going on and so many moving parts. He fits that personality perfect and didn't get a lot of opportunities early in his career. [Run game coordinator/offensive line coach] Chris [Foerster] told us about him, first time we brought him here was during COVID. First time I met him was when he came into my office three minutes before they had to opt out or not and something came up so he had to make a decision in like six minutes. So, it was crazy just to lose a guy. Chris told me he had a chance, but we didn't even know. I wasn't sure quite what he looked like at the time, but when he opted out, we got him back a year later. It was really that year we saw that he was made of the right stuff to learn our offense, his skillset. He would eventually be able to get it and do it. Just being here and putting the time in, it's really paid off and he's done a hell of a job for us these two years."
I have a 2016 Falcons question. Regarding former NFL WR Taylor Gabriel and former NFL WR Mohamed Sanu, like they had specific roles what you wanted from them. How would you describe just briefly when you got those guys, like this is what you're going to do?