San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan spoke with reporters after Friday's practice as the team prepares for its season finale, a Week 18 matchup against the Arizona Cardinals. Here's everything he said.
Transcript provided by the San Francisco 49ers Communications staff.
Opening comments:
"Injuries for the game: [OL] Spencer Burford will be out, [WR] Debo Samuel [Sr.], out, [DB Deommodore] Dmo Lenoir, out, [QB] Brock Purdy, out, [DL] Robert Beal [Jr.], out, [LB Demetrius] Flannigan-Fowles, doubtful, [S] Ji'Ayir Brown, questionable, [OL] Colton McKivitz, questionable, [CB] Isaac Yiadom, questionable, [TE George] Kittle, questionable. Go ahead."
Is Kittle a new edition?
"No, he's been on there."
Are you guys going to have to make some roster moves as far as IR?
"Yeah, most likely. Yep. Get the right group up."
When did Dmo get hurt?
"He was sore from the game and thought it'd be alright and just never came back."
Could some of these guys be going under different circumstances?
"I think so. Guys would be pushing real hard to play and we'd probably let them. In this case, they're pushing hard to play and we're not going to let them."
Guys have pushed and you've told them no?
"Yeah."
Is Deebo in that camp and just, how has his health kind of wavered throughout the season and his production?
"It's been up and down throughout the year. Even when he is good, he is still battling stuff through the season. Especially the way he plays and running with the ball and the physicality and everything, doing the kick returns. He's hurting right now, but he'll be alright a few weeks after the season."
Would Brock's injury have bled into a following game if there were one?
"I don't think so. I think we'd be working him out really hard today to see if he had a chance for tomorrow."
He finished with one more interception this year than he had last year in one fewer game. How do you sort of reconcile that? He had a lot of obstacles as well. Do you look at that as a bad statistic or how do you come down on that?
"I really just look at it as a statistic until I can watch it all together. That's, I have strong opinions right after games. Sometimes those strong opinions change the next morning, sometimes it takes until next Friday for it to change. That's why I kind of don't go too hard with anything until I can sit down and watch the whole season. We break it up, watch the cutups, takes a couple weeks to do. We'll get started on that a lot earlier this year than we have in the past four years, so that'll be good. But questions like that, you just guess until you kind of put it all together."
On the radio, president of football operations and general manager John Lynch said that he senses excitement from you with the opportunity to have a full offseason to kind of troubleshoot and kind of set forth the direction of the franchise. Is that accurate? Are you excited about what this offseason holds for you guys?
"Yeah, I am. I'd be much more excited to not have one and to go all the way to February again, but that is tough. When you go that that long, everyone needs to get away and by the time you come back there's usually right when free agency's starting and you're not totally quite there yet. So, it's going to be our first time since I think COVID being off in January. And it gives you more time to figure things out. It gives you time to go through the things like the cutups and stuff. You can finish most of that stuff all before the Super Bowl. And then you're ready to go to other stuff like the Draft and free agency and all that as soon as the Super Bowl ends. So just being a lot more ahead of that is real exciting and I'm ready to get to it. We've known we're out of the playoffs here for a little bit and everything's about finishing this year up the right way and not cutting anything short, finishing your job. But I also have been able to look to when I can start improving next year and making sure we're not in this position again. And I know that starts Monday."
Have you looked ahead too much because John said that you're well through the process, you're going through the process now, but you want to make sure you finish the season? Have you started that process too, like kind of looking ahead?
"Not as much as John would and stuff. I've got an idea of stuff. I map out my January and have to answer my wife's questions and kids and stuff who might think I'm off, but I'm not. So things like that. But as far as fully putting my mind into it and everything that won't start until really the plane ride back."
Have any players told you that this might be their final game either for you guys or maybe if they might retire, anything like that?
"No, I haven't heard that."
You've been here for a number of years. Has your contribution in the offseason as far as personnel been the same every year? Does it change? Would you like to be more involved or less involved or the same going forward?
"No, it's always been the same. It's always been the same and I still want it to be the same."
Is the plan health-wise for QB Joshua Dobbs to go wire-to-wire?
"Yep, it's the plan."
