San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan spoke with reporters during a conference call on Tuesday, the day after the team's 32-19 win over the New York Jets. Here's everything he had to say.
Transcript provided by the San Francisco 49ers Communications staff.
Opening comments:
"Alright guys, really nothing new to add from yesterday. [OL] Aaron Banks, calf contusion, he'll be day-to-day this week. [WR] Jauan Jennings, ankle, he'll also be day-to-day. Go ahead."
I realize that you've seen a lot from T Trent Williams through the years and looked like he had a pretty clean pass block sheet yesterday. Are you even surprised by how he's able to step in and play as well as he did without any training camp?
"Yes. It's really tough to do that. It helped watching him for four practices. You never know how someone is going come back when you haven't seen him in that long. But just watching him at that Monday practice and how he was by the Wednesday practice, just gave us a good sign that he was going to be alright in the game. We didn't know how his wind was going to be. We knew he was in shape, but football shape is a totally different deal. And I know we went on some long drives, so that became a challenge for him as we got closer to the end. But, I also think being able to run the ball that much also helps too."
You said last week that RB Christian McCaffrey's calf injury was similar to the one he suffered in in Week 17 last year. Obviously, he didn't play in Week 18. But, he was on the injury report for the Packers playoff game and played and played well. Do you still think that they are similar and is the reason he didn't play yesterday simply because it's an early-season game versus a playoff game back in January?
"Well, yes, I believe they are similar. I know it was a calf then and it's a calf now. You guys could ask Christian more on that. Definitely, I believe if it was a playoff game, he would've played. But it's not just the calf, it's the Achilles and the Achilles is tendonitis and that stuff comes and goes. When it is acting up, it's something you've got to be very careful about. Christian's very diligent about that stuff. And if it was a playoff game, he made it very clear to me, he believed he could go. But when you hear that type of stuff and it's not a playoff game and it's Week One, and especially when you're dealing with the lower extremities like that it, it was a tough decision. But hearing all the words and stuff, in the long run it made it easy."
After looking at the film, how did you feel like your defensive line performed last night, especially DL Maliek Collins in the middle versus the run?
"I was really happy with the D-Line, overall. Maliek, I thought, showed up a ton. I was really pumped with him. He just, he flashed a ton, got off blocks, played with a ton of energy, made a number of plays. That was a hell of a first game for him as a Niner."
And then the pressure that DL Nick Bosa and DL Leonard Floyd brought around the edge?
"Yeah, they did a great job. We kept them into some good third downs and I thought both of them fed off each other very well. Their conditioning was very good. They were able to go on the last play the same way they did on the first play. I love how those two pair up and expect them to get better and better as the year goes."
With K Jake Moody and the position that he's in that's obviously a high-pressure position, how is there a difference going into year two, not being a rookie who is a high draft pick and now just being the kicker in year two? How does that change his confidence?
"I think just being able to get through his rookie year, being a draft pick and everything, having to replace a guy like [former NFL K] Robbie [Gould], all eyes are on him to start. Going from him first misses in the preseason to through the miss versus Cleveland. Those are such a big deal when you haven't done it before. But every time that he got more eyes on him and people were waiting for him to fail, he always rebounded and got through that. And when you do that, you build true confidence and you get stronger through adversity. I feel like he went through a ton in his first year. Coming into his second year, I forget that he is only a second-year player. He handles himself very well and carries himself like a true veteran now."
What jumped out at you with QB Brock Purdy and how he diagnosed the Jets defense drive after drive?
"Just was, didn't make any mistakes and made a number of plays with the ball. When they did have some pressure and stuff, he was able to get rid of it. When guys weren't real open, he still made some really good, tight throws. Really only had one ball that he was aggressive on, that got close to the defense, where I thought they had a chance to pick it. Ultimately, probably wasn't a great decision, but I could totally see why he did it. And I love that he didn't hesitate and kind of let it rip. That's kind of how he played the whole game and only one got close to them. He played aggressive enough, he played aggressive and played very controlled with the chance for us to win and not make mistakes. The way that game went, you get into the second half and truly felt the only way they could get back into it is if we had a bad turnover. And Brock was very trusting with the football while still making plays."
What was your impression of OL Dominick Puni last night?
"I thought it was a real good first game for him. By no means was it perfect, but it's how he's been every day since he's been here so far. I've talked about him a bunch here. He's been this way in practice. He's been this way in preseason and it looked the same in Week One. It seems pretty consistent, pretty real about the guy. That was his first game, he has to recover here in six days. We'll be playing on the road next week where it'll be much louder and stuff. So it'll be some new challenges, but hopefully he just continues to play the way he is. You keep doing that and he'll also get better with more experience."
This is a sense among a lot of people, run game coordinator/offensive line Chris Foerster and players, that Puni is even better than expected, at least at this early stage of his career. Is there anything that you didn't know? There's a reason you drafted him, obviously, but is there something you didn't know that he's shown in your couple months here with him that's been revelatory?
"Nothing that's going to be real exciting for your question, but it's always tough when you evaluate college because they always run a different scheme. Just the way people run block and stuff is usually way different than how we're going to ask them to do. You evaluate them at tackle, and we plan on, we know he could play all the positions, but we were drafting him to come in and be a guard. So all those things, you're just making assumptions on, educated guesses on. So you never truly know, especially with O-Linemen, until you get them here. And so, you try to get as much information about the guy as a person. How they are in the games, whether it's too big for them, how much they love football. We evaluated as much as we can, but there's really not a ton of clips that translate all the time. So there's always a lot of unknown with O-Linemen. So right when he got here and he got thrown in right away, just to see him kind of do what we hadn't seen, I guess, was the best thing right away. We always work with people and people get better, but it was cool to see how natural he was at a lot of things that you didn't see on college tape."
Going back a couple of years, how much do you know about RB Jordan Mason before he got into the building? What did you see initially in him either just makeup-wise or skill-wise that helps push him toward the top of the line ahead of a couple of third-round Draft picks?
"Once backs get here, we really don't care. We watch them run in practice and where they were drafted or the name on their jersey, really doesn't matter to us. We've been committed to running the ball for a while. There's lots of styles that can be successful running the ball, but you better be able to do it a certain way and not mess around with us. And as soon as he got here, he hit the hole every single time. A lot of times, when he first got here, he was so used to getting so downhill every play that he missed a number of runs to get outside. And to be able to coach him and him actually get better and not worse was really cool too because sometimes when you've got a coach running backs too much, with a remote in your hand, it kind of takes away their natural instincts. JP, to be such a downhill runner, but when the defense gives him the look to go outside, he doesn't really hesitate with it. He takes it. So that's been really cool with him. I didn't see much of him in college. He wasn't a guy that we had real high as a draftable guy. All our coaches and scouts looked through some of the guys who were going to be possible free agents, and he was at the top of our list. I remember when I heard about him hearing that he was the backup at his college, I remember asking, I was like, 'guys, I know we like this guy, but how is he a backup there at a smaller school?' And then I come to find out that the guy that was ahead of him was the guy who went in the top 15 picks to Detroit, two years later after he transferred to Alabama. So, I thought that was a pretty good reason to be a backup. But then I know before that, JP, I believe was a three-year starter before his senior year. He did have a hell of a college career. His style has always been like this. And you guys know when he has gotten to preseason, he's been our number two back a bunch because [RB] Elijah's [Mitchell] struggled with injuries. And every time JP has been like that, he's done a hell of a job. I remember that big run he had versus Seattle. I remember a huge one he came in and went to the house versus Dallas last year too. This was the first time he got a number of carries. It's tough to get those in our offense when you've got guys like Christian and guys like [WR] Deebo [Samuel Sr.] and stuff. But this was his opportunity and everyone saw how he did. That's why it was much easier to just keep feeding him the rock."
A couple of injury updates. Where are DL Yetur Gross-Matos and S Talanoa Hufanga this week?
"Huf got to practice a lot last week. We'll continue to work him into that. He has a chance for this week, but we won't make that decision until later in the week. So hopefully he has another good week. Christian's day-to-day with his calf/Achilles. Yetur and [LB] Dee Winters, they've got a big day today just seeing how they go. There's a chance they can back into practice this week, but really not sure until they do the rehab this afternoon."
