San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan spoke with reporters after Friday's practice as the team prepares for its Week 2 matchup against the Minnesota Vikings. Here's everything he shared.
Transcript provided by the San Francisco 49ers Communications staff.
Opening comments:
"Game injuries: [S Talanoa Hufanga] Huf will be doubtful, [LB] Dee Winters is questionable and [RB Christian] McCaffrey is out."
Does Christian need a procedure or anything of that nature?
"No procedure."
You said earlier in the week IR is still not an issue?
"It's something we're considering now, yeah. Yesterday was his worst day. It's on and off, but with yesterday, having the most pain, it's something we're going to be discussing here in the next 24 hours."
What's your comfort level be right now with the backs behind RB Jordan Mason, with RB Isaac Guerendo and RB Patrick Taylor Jr.?
"Good. Taylor had real good OTAs and training camp with us. Had a little setback when he did have an injury, but came back and finished strong there that last week, that last preseason game. Guerendo, he missed so much time. But then when he got those two games, he was rolling. He looked good in those games, looked the same way in practice. It's different to be down to your third guy already. But we never really looked at [RB] Elijah [Mitchell] or JP as two or threes. I think those guys are capable of being ones, as Elijah's shown in the past. And so has JP. For those, the two new guys, when their opportunity comes, I believe they're ready."
Would you like to start working them in a little bit? If Christian does miss more time, would you not want to have WR Deebo Samuel Sr. get eight carries every week?
"Each week is different, depends. A lot of things tie into that. But yeah, each week is different."
Former NFL QB J.T. O'Sullivan, in his quarterback school this week, said he went through QB Brock Purdy's film of Week One and said that in his opinion from watching the whole league, no one gets through their reads and progressions quite as fast as Brock. Would you agree with that? You've worked with a lot of quarterbacks over the years.
"Yeah, he does a real good, that's one of his biggest strengths. I definitely, I didn't study all the quarterbacks this week, was mainly doing the Minnesota defense, but there's a lot of good ones. But Brock's up there with the top guys in terms of going through progressions, how fast he does it. He doesn't miss many of the open reads and doesn't skip many people. And throughout a lot of games, he gets to number three, four, and sometimes five in a progression."
You obviously played many difficult environments. How distinctive is the challenge in Minnesota with crowd noise and all that?
"It's right up there at the top. It's one of the hardest places to hear. Their old one, old stadium was. Their new stadium is. I don't know which one is worse. But yeah, last year on Monday night, it was tough. Hopefully an earlier game isn't quite as bad, but it's always a challenge there."
Brock, obviously, seems very poised. How much does that poise matter in a situation like this?
"It's huge. With all the cadences, all the motions that we do, a lot of these motions, you never would've thought to do those on the road a number of years ago. But it becomes such a big part of your offense. It's stuff we have to really work at. And Brock's done a hell of a job with that. Right when he got in two years ago, it was a big challenge at him. He's worked at it hard and he's been very efficient in it."
I know a week or so ago you said that with WR Ricky Pearsall, that he's instructed not to work up a sweat for the first week. What is he able to do now?
"I was just talking to him yesterday. He just started working out again. I think it was a weight room workout yesterday. But yeah, he's back to conditioning, getting back in football shape and getting back to healthy."
How do you guys just approach it from here with him?
"Just day-by-day. I think it surprisingly heals a lot faster than you would think. You rip, when you tear your chest and stuff, you're out for the year. But that's a bullet hole that goes through your chest and out the back, for some reason, heals a lot faster. You learn a lot about that stuff. But yeah, we're expecting him, it's week-to-week, so I don't really know when, but he is traveling with us today and it's been a good step this week getting him back in the workout, weight room."
He had obviously a struggle with his assailant. Did the shoulder, was that affected at all in that?
"No, he never mentioned that."
This defense had a great first game against the Giants. They shut down Minnesota Vikings RB Aaron Jones pretty much. What did they look like on film? Do did they present any unique challenges?
"Yeah, they're one of the most unique defenses in the league. They blitz by far more than anyone. I know it's in the 80 percent's. No one runs zero as much as they do. It's really a scheme that you used to see at times more back in the day, but you don't see it as much anymore. A lot of credit to [Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores] Flo how he does it. It takes a while to kind of dissect and kind of understand what they're doing. And usually people who blitz that much, you'd like to think it's feast or famine and they're going to keep both teams in the game by doing things. It is crazy to say to blitz 80-percent of the time for me to still kind of describe them as a bend but don't break defense. They don't give up explosives. I think they were number one in the league last year at the least amount of explosives. They kind of make you work for everything and they put you under duress for every single play for the whole game."
What does it mean to get DL Yetur Gross-Matos back? Do you expect him to kind of just fit in initially into the role that you expected him?
"Yeah. We expect him to get there into the rotation with our four defensive ends. Excited to get him out there. He had a hell of a camp. He had a good preseason. He's had these last two weeks rehabbing really hard and had a real good practice yesterday. I'm excited to see him play here on Sunday."
Isaac Guerendo missed a few weeks of training camp. Where is he in his development? Would you be comfortable giving him a big role as a running back if it came to that?
"Yeah, definitely. That's why we were nervous about him at first because he missed so much time. That's why he played so much in the preseason. He missed so much practice time and his first time with pads on was that preseason game because we didn't have pads on the week that I forget why but I remember him going. I remember asking him in the team meeting after the game when was the last time he had pads on and he told me it was the Senior Bowl. So he was way behind in that stuff, but got a lot in the games and didn't looked overwhelmed. It seemed like the game wasn't too big for him even in that moment. And he's been exactly like that ever since."
K Jake Moody was obviously very productive the first game here outside on grass. How much more of a weapon does he become inside on turf?
"More of a weapon? I don't know if you can do better than six for six. If we do seven for seven, I'm glad we're making them all, but I hope we score more touchdowns if that's the case."
Distance-wise too?
"Oh yeah. When you're in the dome, you always get a little bit more. They always tell me before the game exactly what yard-line that he's hitting in warmups so I know the biggest distance I can go for. When we're in our stadium, usually one way is going to be a different yard-line than the other. I've been in some domes where special teams coaches have seriously came up to me and said, 'Hey, it's the 40 going this way and the 38 going that way.' And I'm like, 'Is it windy in here?' And I've literally had guys tell me the air conditioning's different. So, I wait to see what they say and that usually goes off warmups."
