49ers Players

QB Brock Purdy on Watkins’ first NFL touchdown:

“Yeah, I think J-Wat’s done a good job with the opportunity that he’s been given with, if he’s got a one-on-one matchup I’m not going to shy it down. I’m going to give him a chance… Obviously in the Atlanta game, I saw he had some chances to go up and make plays and he did. And so yeah, in this one, it was just really the coverage I thought sort of dictated where I was going to throw the ball and once I saw that middle safety out of position, I was like ‘alright, this is a great opportunity for J-Wat to go make a play.’ And he did, he came down with it.”

Purdy on Watkins’ development:

“I’m really excited for him. Obviously more opportunities, more targets… But regardless, I think he’s always been ready since he’s been here. I think something that’s cool too is the way he run blocks. He goes in there and he just shows that he’s down for the team. He’s down for the offense, whatever he needs to do when his number’s called. I think he does a great job with creating separation, getting in and out of cuts, coming down with contested catches. So yeah, my trust has definitely grown in him more and more.”

Purdy on throwing his 100th career touchdown pass:

“Yeah, I think it’s really cool. Sort of in the moment though, with just how the game was going, it’s like we’re competing and we’ve got to have the next play mentality… We’ve got to be ready for this next drive. If they go down and score, we’ve got to answer.”

DL Nick Bosa on his return to the field:

“The body felt really good. I’m really happy with it, came out great. Like always, things to improve upon, but as a D-Line I think we made some big plays in some big moments.”

Bosa on DL DeForest Buckner‘s return and the defense’s championship potential:

“Yeah, we have the guys to do it. We’re going to keep getting better. It’s funny, Buck came in, his head was spinning a little bit this week trying to get everything down, and it’s just funny because when I came in the roles were reversed, but it’s great to have him back and we have the guys to do it.”

Buckner on his first game back with the 49ers:

“It felt great, being able to go out there with the guys and fly around on defense, you could just feel the energy. You got to fly around to the ball to go make plays, and that’s the fun part about it. Not only competing with the Raiders, but with your fellow teammates, because everybody’s hungry to make plays.”

“I definitely had some butterflies today, obviously my first game being back… but I just had to tell myself ‘Just go out there and play football. Go out there, do your job, and have fun,’ and that’s what we did.”

Buckner on the crowd reaction he received running out of the tunnel at Levi’s® Stadium: 
“I definitely felt the love, and in that moment, I was like ‘Man, I’m home.’ It was a cool moment, cool experience.”

TE George Kittle on Watkins’ first NFL touchdown:

“Just happy for him. I mean, I’ve loved Jordan since he’s been here. He works really hard. Last year… He had a little calf thing so he missed some time. Then it’s hard to get a rhythm when you’re the rookie who’s just trying to find the field. I think he’s done a really good job of taking advantage of his opportunity… Really happy for him and he’s only going to get better and better for us.”

RB Christian McCaffrey on Dugger’s pick-six:

“Oh, it’s huge, man. That’s huge. When you lose the toss and you don’t get the ball back at half, those are huge possessions. To get a pick-six like that in the middle eight was massive. Happy for him.”

LB Fred Warner on the defense’s five second-half takeaways:

“That was honestly the emphasis going into this week. I think we just had a spur where there was a drought in takeaways, and we know how important that is to winning football games and for our team moving forward. Of course, you wish we would have started faster in the first half, but to come out in the second half and have five of those was unbelievable.”