49ers Players Address the Media at Training Camp

49ers Players Address the Media at Training Camp

Um, it’s just as important as learning the plays, you know, learning your guys, you know, learning their strengths, their weaknesses, um, how they communicate, you know, what words resonate with them. Um, so been, uh, building my relationships with the guys on and off the field. Um, it’s been great working with the new guys that’s came in and, um, teaching them, you know, the standard of how we play here at the Niners. And um everybody’s pretty much getting behind that and flowing in that direction. What about Seagull, the the rookie? What What have you seen from him so far? See, man. Boy, explosive, man. He fast. Uh can jump. I don’t know if y’all seen his back flip the other day. Jumped about 10 feet in the air, you know. So, uh he’s been good, man. very um you know he pays attention to a lot of the little things you know and um always come up to me and ask me questions about whether it’s scheme wise whether it’s you know my daily routine whether it’s what I’m doing after practice you know he always want to be included and be around that so he’s been doing great you know bonding with the guys and coming along a lot with Jason Pino how’s that chemistry been going good man um I’m glad JP’s here um doing a great job together man working together and communicating in um seen a lot of great things from him. Uh another great player we added to the safety room and uh it’s going to be exciting to work with him too. He’s some game experience. Have you have you learned some things from him? Uh yeah, he has um you know, he’s a converted corner, so he has some some great coverage, you know. U so I’ve been paying attention to how he covers tight ends and how he covers receivers and um he has some things you can definitely pick up on. You had an ankle issue in the spring. Was that was that something that bothered you throughout the season? When did that kind of uh come come on you? Um yeah, it was something that um that bothered me throughout the season. Um yeah, uh you know, handled that in the offseason. Uh now I’m feeling better from that. After you know your rookie season, the way you finished interception in the Super Bowl, how do you look back on year two? Um did you are you happy with how things went or you see areas where you can uh kind of focus in on and improve here in year three? Yeah. Um coming out of year one with the Super Bowl and going into year two was definitely uh challenging as far as my uh preparation and offseason. um dealt with, you know, had a uh injury in the Super Bowl, dealt with. So, came back year two, you know, trying to um get things going and kind of picked up on it a little slower. Uh didn’t like my year two as well as I wanted it to go. Um but it was a lot of learning, a lot of growth going on in that year um that I got to see. Uh it was different out there playing with a different set of guys and uh I learned a lot from my year two and then look forward to year three. The year two was more physical or uh not being healthy enough or was your mindset mindset just not where it should have been? No, I think um my mindset was where it should have been. Um, I think it was other, you know, factors that played in and, um, wasn’t allowing me to play to my full potential that I know I can play at. Uh, and my standards pretty high, so I I felt I fell short of that. How do you feel about just where you’re setting things up now for year three? I’m loving it. I love where I’m at mentally, physically. Um, I love where I’m at from a communication standpoint with the defense. um my demeanor, my my posture, everything is is different. About how Robert Salah’s what kind of influences he had on you going into this camp? Um I heard I heard a lot of great things about Salah, you know, when I I didn’t get a chance to work with him his first go around here. Um but coming in, I heard a lot of great things about him and he’s continuing to prove all those great things I heard about him. Um definitely a a smart mind, definitely somebody I can learn from and um looking forward to working with him this year. Part of the challenge, I mean, I know you were close with Steve Wils, that change from defensive coordinator. Was that part of the challenge last year? Yeah. Yeah. Um yeah. Uh Steve Wils was one of my guys. Um was different, you know, my second year going into with a new DC. Uh different style, you know, different messages. Um, but yeah, it’s different. Like, how how different has your approach been to this year? I mean, you you get the surgery, you get that behind you, you recover, now you’re out there with Robert Salah, I should say. Is there a different feel to training camp this year for you or is it kind of the same as each year? No. Um, each year you want to get better, you know, um, look for different things you can learn because there’s always room for growth. Um, so this year I focus more on offenses, learning what I’m getting out of different sets. You know, I spent time in the quarterback room. I spent time in the wide receivers’s room. So, um, getting to see how they how they are trying to attack us and, uh, learn their scheme as well. And, um, it’s allowed me to, you know, grasp the overall game of what’s going on while I’m out there in real time. What has Gus Bradley added to your to your guys to your guys room? Gus, my guy, man. guess uh one of the better philosophers I’ve been around coming up in the sport. Um the way he sees it, the way he visualized the game, um the players that he’s encountered through his career, uh he has a lot to teach me and I’ve been, you know, staying close to Gus being that he is one of the um OGs in the game. Yeah. What was your Super Bowl injury and how long did it off season? Um, I had uh I had some nerve nerve pain in my shoulder from when I hit Kelsey. Um, that kind of lingered, you know, for some months and um trying to get back and get my strength back from that. Slow things down. Uh, but yeah. Was that late in the game on Kelsey? That was probably like fourth quarter. You mentioned going into the quarterback room. What are what are you looking for? What are you asking? Like while you’re watching tape with like Brock and you’re asking questions about what they’re seeing. What is that like? Yeah. Um I don’t ask too many questions. You know, I uh do a lot of listening. um listening to Cal speak, listening to Brock rebuttal and uh macking them guys, hearing them talk and uh how they’re trying to manipulate cover three, cover four, and just paying attention to what they see from the uh defense and uh knowing exactly where they’re going to go depending on defensive leverage and defensive scheme or play call in training camp. That was that was OTAAS. Yep. Thank you. Absolutely. What’s going on, y’all? Obviously, they’re doing this in your best interest, but how difficult is it not to get out there for every rep? Um, it’s definitely difficult, you know, just being a competitor going out there, you know, and not getting as many reps as I’m usually used to getting. Um, it’s tough, but, you know, it’s part of the plan right now, so I’m just sticking to it. When did you injure the the hamstring originally? Um, I don’t remember the exact date when I did it. I just know it was right before OTA’s and you know it was on me. It was doing some extra stuff after practice. So, were you working with uh with Brock at that point? No, I was just doing stuff on my own. Yeah. Do you feel like the work that you did with Brock in the offseason, whether it was Florida or or Arizona, was was beneficial that um you’re further along than you would have been without it? No, for sure. I I definitely think so. you know, going over there and just trying to get on the same page, communicate, you know, different landarks I need to be at during, you know, different timings of, you know, his drop back and just continuing to rep that and getting better and better with it. And then obviously just building, you know, the actual relationship as a whole. You go from your rookie season where you had to go through a few things, but you were, it was Debo here, it was Jawan here, it was Brandon Aayuk here. Fast forward to this year, they’re looking at you as one of the guys to actually produce, to actually be one of the main targets for Brock Party. How are you kind of approaching that? How exciting is that? Is it pressure behind that? Like where where’s your head with that? To be honest, I’m approaching it the same exact way. You know, whether those guys are in the room or not, that’s just how I look at myself. You know, I just got to be able to step in that role. You know, that’s just how I look at it. You know, I look at myself is, you know, being able to be a guy that goes out there and makes plays. And um whether they’re there or not, you know, that’s how I look at myself. But it’s always good to have those guys out there with me. So, you know, we’re even a bigger threat over there on offense. Do you think these hamstring issues have been a function of overtraining, doing a little too much? Yeah, I mean, I wouldn’t honestly necessarily call it hamstring issues in the first place. Maybe something, you know, is a little uninigned in my body right now. And, you know, it was just working on that with the trainers and I think that we got a really good plan moving forward right here. I’ve been feeling really fresh, really good running around out there. So, we’re continuing to build on that. Ricky, you look stronger and probably a little bit more sudden this year. what did you learn last year um about what it takes to get open in this league? No, for sure. You know, it’s the best of the best, you know, and um there’s a lot of one-on-one opportunities out there and you got to win your matchups and you know, that’s my biggest takeaway is you know, going into the offseason um having a good few last games and just building off of that and continue to take that confidence, continue to expand my knowledge in the inside the playbook and Shanahan’s offense and you know, just you know, like you said, getting quicker and working on my routes, working on you know, going to Florida with Brock and doing things like that. How big a deal were those last couple games just for your I’m sure you had the belief, you know, that you belonged and could do this, but you know, to have hard evidence, you know, that you could do it. No, for sure. It is important to me. You know, being a receiver, the ball is not always coming your way, and that’s just that’s just what the position takes. You know, sometimes it just doesn’t come your way. And that that was kind of happened to me in the middle of the season. And, you know, towards the end of the season when I was getting a bigger role, you know, I started seeing the um targets come my direction. And it just it’s continue building up that confidence. You know, it’s kind of like in in video games when you get your little takeover badge, you know? That’s that’s what it feels like in the middle of a game. Me and Russ were just talking about that, so that’s why I brought that up. You got to play video games, man. When the season ended, you you were talking about that you were going to use like the few months in the offseason to process what happened in San Francisco. Did you get through that? Did you like revisit it mentally? Do anything in terms of pace? What did you do? Unfortunately, I revisit that every single night. and I go to bed and um you know I kind of just carry that with me and you know now I think it’s not as much of like avoiding it or revisiting it and not revisiting it’s more of like you know how I deal with it you know and the light that I put on it and for me it’s more of you know a positive light and the things that I can get out of that you know and more of a positive direction and you know try to inspire other people and stuff like that but as far as you know my own personal stuff you know um I I’ve been doing a better job of dealing it with myself so is is Miracle Academy related related to that at all. I’m sorry. What? Your uh your hat? Oh, no. This is a this is a different brand. Yeah, I like the hat, so I got it. But has nothing to do with it. Nah, I guess I could bake out of something. I don’t know. If I knew this is the hat I had on, I probably would have just answered a different way. But is that a video game? Nah. No, this ain’t a video game. No, we’ll go over that after. You got to really learn your takeoff badge, though. Takeover badge. Veteran guys Marks Robinson, Russell Gage brought to your wide receiver. Yeah. Yeah, know they they brought a lot of experience obviously, you know, they got a lot of knowledge in the game. So, you know, going into year two and just trying to get as much knowledge. Um, I like as a receiver, you get to steal a bunch of different things from a lot of different uh good receivers and, you know, being able to pull their film up and, you know, seeing the success that they had and, you know, on different teams or, you know, Russ in the past and Demarcus in the past and, you know, stealing a few things from those guys and, you know, just picking their minds and going out there and having fun with them. Kubak was Kubak was saying the other day he felt like toward the end of the year you really took a big leap in terms of dealing with man coverage. I assume as you saw more of that you got more used to it. But what are the things that you did that helped you do that and then this offseason what did you attack to make you even better in that? No for sure. Um I feel like you know in the beginning of the season it was definitely difficult for me you know just dealing with multiple injuries you know going through you know the incident that happened and just being I just felt like I was behind the eightball. You know, I basically I like to tell this like I like to say that I rolled out of bed and started running routes cuz like I damn near did. You can’t really, you know, rehab a gunshot wound, you know what I mean? So, I basically rolled out of bed and started running routes week what was that week seven or week eight. So, um you know, just continuing to get those reps. I think it it was for me, you know, that from th from that week seven on it was like that was my training camp. You know, those practices in between before the games, that was like my training camp for me. So, you know, expanding on that, you know, getting with Brock and trying to get the the the man covers looks that, you know, I would have got in training camp and trying to deal with that and figure it out. You know, a lot of, you know, a lot of success from because comes from a lot of failure. So, you know, you got to you got to be able to fail and learn from that in order to, you know, actually have success. So, I think that’s, you know, something I did. That’s why I like to say, um, I’m a practice player and I love practicing because, you know, going out there, you get to try and you get to, you know, learn from that. I just cuss. I realize that. That’s just how I talk. But yeah, but yeah, moving forward, you know, in man coverage, you know, just continue to work on it and continue to, you know, um, work on my game, man. Moving forward. Just curious, the fact that you’ve had to deal with a few things that kept you off the field a little bit, which of course bothers any player. And then Brandon and I are you kind of going through the same thing y you guys’ injury stly different, but has you guys relationship involved at all? Have there been any any conversations with each other to try to keep each other focused going through these injuries or Yeah. No, for sure. You know, I think that’s something that’s really special. You know, when you have a good relationship off the field is you’re able to, you know, rely on each other when it comes to that. You’re able to talk, you’re able to hang out in the locker room and discuss those kinds of things cuz, you know, especially like in our society being a man in general, you know, it’s hard to talk about your feelings to another man. So, I think that’s like really important when you’re comfortable enough to be around each other and, you know, talk about those things and check up on each other and, you know, see how, you know, you’re doing off the field, not even just like, you know, your injury wise, how your mental is doing. So things like that are super important to us. Um and you know I knew BA before you know I got here and um we spent a year together over at ASU. So I I I knew you know that we had a relationship already going but being able to expand on it now and having you know a little bit of similar situations as far as going through you know injuries and you know tragic things like that. But you know he’s he’s doing a really good job and you know I’m I’m excited to get on that field with him when he’s ready to go. What do you think of the young guys? Uh Watkins Nayer specifically. What do you think of those guys? Yeah, I’ve been really impressed by those guys, you know. Um they’re going through the same stuff I was going through last year, you know. Um it’s actually really funny to see that cuz I was making the, you know, the similar mistakes or, you know, getting similar coaching points from Hank and um they’re doing a really good job dealing with it, going out there and fixing, um the stuff that they need to fix on and, you know, um getting the playbook down. I’ve been really impressed by those guys, you know, trying to get those details down and, you know, like yourself said Jordan, you know, he’s he’s really impressed me so far. you u generally been very upbeat, but I mean was there a low moment on the field for you last year like a low moment for you on the field where you’re like, you know, damn, this isn’t working out. This sucks, whatever. Yeah. I mean, I’ve had that in life, you know, that I mean, everybody’s had that, you know, but um my problem is so so small compared to, you know, what the bigger problem out there and what other people get to deal with, you know? So, like I never really get too low, I would say. Um, I really just have the similar mindset as like I’m I’m on this grass right now, you know, I’m I get to wear this logo, you know, I I get to breathe, you know, like I’m excited for all those things, you know, versus maybe not the ball coming my way. Cool. You know, well, that comes with being a white out. There’s so many, you know, different aspects that go into that. But if I continue to work my butt off, continue to run, you know, full speed routes and, you know, continue to get with Brock and and and expanding on the playbook, you know, the ball’s going to start coming my way naturally. So, it’s it’s about what I do with it, the opportunities that come. What was it like catching the pass from Mac? From Mac. It’s awesome. I mean, for me it’s all reactive, you know, when the ball’s in there, I’m gonna snatch out there. So, but so I don’t really like see too many differences, you know, as far as I sometime I get back to the huddle, I’m like, who threw that pass? You know what I mean? And I just get to talking about the route. But yeah, it’s it’s really good. Max great dude. He’s he’s hilarious. Yeah. I wish you guys could see him in the locker room. He’s hilarious. You uh you mentioned earlier this year that you would want to extend an olive branch to the person who shot you. curious if you’ve had an opportunity to do that to to reach out anything like that. I haven’t. I know um I know Aaron Banks’s uncle or something like that, one of his family members is in the juvenile system somewhere, but he told me that there was opportunity to do that and that’s something I’ll probably do, you know, moving forward. Not maybe not right now, you know, just because there’s a lot of other things that I want to focus on that are my priorities. But when it gets to that point where, you know, I can sit down and you talk to the kid. Maybe I want to first see if he’s open to it, you know, cuz, you know, that’s also important to me. If he’s not open to it, then, you know, it’s not even going to be a thing. So, but, um, yeah. No, it’s definitely an opportunity that I’ll probably do moving forward at some point. And this might have been answered last year, but just to follow up on that, did he know you were a knight or no? Uh, I have no idea. I don’t know what he knew or whatever the situation was. I just knew, you know, the outcome of it and that’s that’s just what I had to deal with. Yep. Appreciate ya get on mic. I can’t believe you had you never had like or like even two like you

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49ers players address the media following Training Camp.

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