Transcript provided by the San Francisco 49ers Communications staff.
OL Jaylon Moore has gotten a lot of opportunities between May and now. Have you seen growth from him over that span?
"Yeah, Jaylon's always been a consistent performer for us. He really has been. He's filled in. I think it's been more so this year because now we're however many practices in and there's been no [T] Trent [Williams] so Jaylon's gotten all the work. Jaylon has a place in the NFL because he is a good pass blocker. He's competed well in pass blocking this year with all the guys they have over there rushing. The run game's always something he's challenged with. Not that he doesn't like to run block or can't, it's just as how he's made up, his body type. He's not as explosive, quick or gets under people as well. But he's always done a good job, always been proud of him. And yet he's gotten even better. He's a low burn guy and sometimes you think, 'Is he really getting it?' But then all of a sudden you realize he is and you see steady improvement in certain areas and I've seen that continue."
Is that a challenge for both of your starting tackles right now? OL Colton McKivitz and Moore with the run blocking aspect?
"No, Colton's a good run blocker. Colton's a better run blocker. Colton, I won't put him quite in [Denver Broncos OL Mike] McGlinchey's category. He's a run blocker. Mike was an elite run blocker. Colton's not quite at that level, although he's getting there. He's really worked hard. Colton takes so much pride in everything he does. He gets better at everything."
Who's the swing tackle if Jaylon's the starting left tackle? If you had a game tonight.
"It's still up in the air. [OL Chris] Hubbard and [OL Brandon] Parker are the two guys competing for it. So, they're both working hard. We'll find out when we find out."
When OL Jon Feliciano is healthy, what does he add to the offensive line?
"It's funny when Jon started playing more, in the huddle the guys would come over and say, the guys didn't know Jon, it was his first year with us. They're like, 'man this guy's a dog out there. This guy competes. This guy is tough. This guy's good in the huddle. He's encouraging. He gets fired up.' He's out there to win the game and plays really hard. So he adds that level. He adds a level of toughness. From the line perspective, it's flexibility. That's the thing that when we lost him on the field goal unit one week last year, I don't remember the game. All of a sudden, we lost a guy that plays three spots on the inside. So he has flexibility, leadership, toughness, all the things that Jon Feliciano is. I remember when he came out of college, we had a local pro day and I was there working him out and everybody said, 'this guy's not going to make it.' And ten years later, he is still going. And that's kind of a testament to the kind of guy he is."
With RB Christian McCaffrey as the Offensive Player of the Year last season and the top of his position, what do you work on with him to make him even better in the coming year?
"He came to me. He said, 'give me so many days and I'll stop missing some cuts.' He misses cuts and he sometimes isn't as sharp. We've said, I think I mentioned it with all these players, you have to keep practicing and football's a hard game to keep practicing because there's the hitting, the hitting, the hitting. So you have a fine line between getting ready and not beating yourself up. There's always stuff to work on. We add something to the offense. The defense presents something different. That's what I see from Christian is that he wants to be perfect. So, he's never satisfied and he's always hard on himself. And so he will just continue to work hard at everything he does and he'll make mistakes and he'll beat himself up and then do the best he can to fix it."
Is there a battle there with trying to not let him get too down when he does make mistakes?
"His is not that because I've come around to not like coaching perfectionists because it's an imperfect game and you go in the tank because you're not perfect. Get in line. None of us are – coaches, players, none of us. Christian is more, he's hard on himself but he's really, really good, so when those hard plays come, there's not many of them. He probably over does it, but it doesn't put him in a downward spiral. It actually motivates him. Other guys, I'm not going to name names, but when they're reading a college report and they say, this guy's a perfectionist, I almost want to cross him off my list in the offensive line world."
With Feliciano, do you envision a scenario like a couple years ago where you're platooning him and one of the younger guys in at right guard throughout the season?
"It's not ideal. I've done it. I've done a lot. I've done it more with the idea, like the old guy's in there and then the young guy, you put him in for a series. And as the old guy goes through the season, he may start to descend because he is an aging, veteran player. And as he descends, you're hoping that experience that you're giving that young guy in spurts helps him get better. We did that with [OL] Spencer [Burford] and [Tennessee Titans OL Daniel Brunskill] Dan. We reversed it. I think Spencer started and Dan Brunskill we gave him a rep. But you would hope that the young player would get better through the course of the year. Now if they don't, the old guy takes over. You try not to do it. You try to make a decision and say, 'hey, whoever that starting right guard is, or whatever it is, whatever the situation, that guy's going to be our starter.' And you try to get that way. But if you can't get it, or if two guys are equal talent, it doesn't hurt to platoon them. I know the guys don't like it because I think they feel like they get out of rhythm."
Do you think that Spencer Burford is still in the mix for Week One, given his injury? Will he have enough time?
"We'll see when he get there. I'm not going to go there and try to figure out what it looks like at that point. We don't know who will be up. You're saying if everybody stays healthy and Spencer comes back, odds are the guys that have been there. But I'm not going to rule Spencer out. You just don't know how it plays out. And there is something to Monday Night Football and bright lights and [New York Jets QB] Aaron [Rodgers]. The whole thing. And if you're a young player, you might you never know it's a tough thing."
Have you kept in touch with T Trent Williams at all?
"I haven't heard from Trent recently, no. I heard from him in the offseason a little bit. The offseason was fairly normal until this thing started doing whatever it's doing and I haven't heard from him."
With his game film, obviously he's on such a different level than a lot of tackles. Is there still teachable stuff that he does because he is such a different caliber tackle that guys can pick up on and try to replicate?
"Trent, oh there's stuff out there. There's stuff both ways. Pros and cons. I go through the cut ups now and Trent's not there, but 'hey if our left tackle would've done this here, we would've been better. This is a really good job by Trent.' It's like every other player. Trent just has some more elite plays than other guys. And as the years have gone on, maybe those have been a little less, but still a very consistent performer and a great player. Obviously one best in this generation. But there's definitely stuff to point out, pro and con."
On this team, the center is in charge of setting the protections off the line of scrimmage. On other teams, it seems like the quarterback has that responsibility. Why do you like to give that responsibility to the center?
"Well, the two things that we've eliminated, and this has always been a discussion in different systems, do you put the quarterback to point out the Mike or let the center point the Mike? That's always been age old. The teams that wanted the quarterback to do it, I don't know what they do because I was with [former NFL QB] Peyton [Manning], so he did everything. But the idea is to let the quarterback just worry about playing quarterback and he'll understand the protection, he'll understand it's hot. They'll do things like that. But to re-Mike and do things like that, those teams are very good at it but it does take time away from other things. It doesn't mean they won't be great quarterbacks. [Former NFL QB] Tom Brady did it, all those guys. Our system, I think one of the reasons that I one hundred percent believe it has to be the center is the moving pieces. The way we set our protections up, and [head coach] Kyle [Shanahan] did a great job of this, and we were doing it back in Washington and it kind of came that way from Houston. We move all the time. And it started on third downs, a little bit on first and second, and it's just exploded over the last 15 years. And all that movement, think of doing all that double movement, triple movements and making a Mike point. At quarterback, you can't do all that. You can make one and then the picture changes. I made the comment the other day, [OL] Jake Brendel had an x number – I'm not going to go into how many – but an x number of mental errors, which is a lot higher than I'm used to. And then I went back and looked at [former NFL OL] Alex Mack then I called a couple other guys that coach in the system and you realize they're going to have more. The quarterback can't do it. There's too much going on – the wristband and everything else. Imagine you're…I'm going to do it. The center gets down and he's like two and a half, three feet off the ground and we've got three guys in motion. He's craning his neck out like a turtle, trying to see where the heck are these guys all lined up? Not an excuse. But they end up having a lot more mental errors because of that. It's easy. I'll tell you a story, Peyton, they were playing, I wasn't there for this one, but they played the Jets in the Playoffs. It was [former NFL coach] Rex Ryan. I think it was a Championship game. I don't remember which one it was. But anyway, Rex blitzed everywhere. He goes, 'look, stop I want to line up in one formation the whole game,' whatever he said it was, for the rest of the second half, he goes, 'I'll be able to see what they're doing and I'll be able to get us in the right play.' But that's why. So then every step you go beyond the one formation puts it more and more on the quarterback. In this system and what we do it's just really not feasible to make a quarterback point."
After losing your experienced tight ends in Atlanta Falcons TE Ross Dwelley and Atlanta Falcons TE Charlie Woerner, how have you seen these young tight ends kind of get accustomed to the blocking scheme?
"They've been good. I was talking the other day. Everybody's talking about how nine [TE Brayden Willis] is doing so well and then and the 82 [TE Eric Saubert], all these guys are doing a good job. They stand out all the time. I'm looking up, guy did a good job on that play. They're doing a really well, a really good job. The fact that [TE] George Kittle embraces the run game and blocking – you do it here or you're not here. And that's been the one thing that I really love. Kyle demands it. The tight end coaches have. That's the position. And we have a guy that's lead and does it. So I think Charlie was a great player here and we'll miss Charlie. These guys have a lot of work to do to catch up to Charlie, but I think there's signs that we'll get there."
You have about seven different guys that could play center in this camp. Why is Brendel at the top of that depth chart? Is he the best run blocker, pass blocker, caller?
"I made a comment the other day to the guys, I was coaching Jake and he did a great job on a play. And I said, 'guys, take note of this.' I've known Jake Brendel since 2000 something. I've known him for a while. And I said, 'he does everything I ask him to do and that's why he's been here for three years. He does everything we ask him to do and he does it well.' He has really good measurables. If you held up his card, which have all the times and everything on it, you're like, 'how is this guy not one of the top guys being drafted?' And then he was an undrafted free agent. One of the major indicators for a center is arm length. He's had to overcome his arm length a little bit because he was below the line. And that was a huge one for offensive centers. If you blow that line, most of those guys don't make it. So whatever those little limitations are, he's learned how to overcome them. He struggled on the second level when I first got back with him here. And he's fixed that. He's done an excellent job on the second level. We taught, addressed how because think about it, you're going to block a guy and all of a sudden [LB] Fred [Warner] sticks out his long arm and you're like a little brother trying to get to the big brother. He holds you off and you can't get to him. That's what short arms do for you. Well then Jake's figured out how to overcome that. He's very good in the run game. But his pass game's been really good. Teams now are putting you in a lot of 5-0 situations, meaning that they try to cover up all five guys. It used to be pressures and now they're pressuring one side, dropping other, they're doing different things, but they get you five guys blocking five guys. Now Jake and [assistant offensive line coach] Joe Graves, one of my guys who works with me, he said, Jake's probably one of the better 5-0 centers. He holds up pretty good.' He's an athletic guy like that. He can hold up in 5-0. He's not the biggest guy. So when they put their head here and try to drive him back, it is a challenge for him. So, he's learned to do it. And that's what I really love about him. We troubleshoot it and then he goes out and he's able to do it. So that's why I'd say the level of success. Everybody has limitations. How do you overcome those limitations? Jake's done a great job of it."
How do you think OL Dominic Puni has been handling his first training camp?
"Awesome. As good as one of the better rookies. I'm not ready to crown him yet as far as one of the better rookies, but he is one of the better rookies. Right after we drafted him, the video guy said that he called right away when he got his iPad, they'd sent them out as we get the kid signed. He said, 'where do I get all of coaches teaching meetings?' We record everything. He wanted every single meeting. By the time he showed up for rookie minicamp, which I think was two weeks after the Draft, he'd watched all of my install meetings from Phase One, Phase Two, and everything we'd done to that point. He'd watched them all. And he answers every question right. He is a very intelligent kid. Doesn't say a word. Very, very smart. Very tough. Strong. And he doesn't sway. He is just steady Eddie. But he works extremely hard and he's very diligent. I don't think I've had an offensive lineman – I know I couldn't sit through all those meetings – He grabbed them and ate them up. So good for him."
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