San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan spoke to reporters following Saturday’s practice, providing final updates ahead of the team’s Week 16 matchup against the Indianapolis Colts. Here’s everything he said.
Transcript provided by the San Francisco 49ers Communications staff.
Opening comments:
“Injuries for the game: [QB] Kurtis Rourke will be out, [CB] Renardo Green will be out, [DL] Yetur [Gross-Matos], questionable, [WR] Ricky Pearsall will be out. That’s it. Go ahead.”
Did Renardo have setback of some sort?
“Yeah, his neck’s been bothering him since the game and just didn’t get any better, so we had to shut him down for the week.”
Will Ricky travel or will he stay back and rehab?
“Ricky will stay back.”
Was he close at all?
“Yeah, he was close. But, not close enough.”
Is LB Eric Kendricks available if you want to move him up on Monday?
“Yes, he is available.”
Does LB Tatum Bethune step right back in at middle linebacker?
“Yeah, that’s the plan. He had a good week. He’s healthy, so I’ve got no tag on him, so he is good to go.”
You mentioned Kurtis Rourke. What have you seen from him on the practice field? It’s obviously your first time seeing him out there. How has he looked these last couple weeks?
“It’s been good to have him out there. You know, he has been working his butt off on the side since he has been activated for practice. So, we get to see a little bit of that film and stuff like that but getting him out there in front of the defense and things like that it’s been cool. He probably had some nerves the first day, but he’s been working, rotating with those guys with the card looks and he’s had a good two weeks.”
How much of it is, obviously him trying to service the defense, but also you guys want to see how he performs?
“Yeah, you try to service the defense by running the plays, but we don’t tell him he has to throw here and stuff. So you still get to see the guy play the position, attack coverages and see where he goes with the ball and he’s done a real good job.”
Has Yetur shown enough in this practice window to be ready to play?
“Yeah, he had a good two days that we got him out there, rested him today. We’ll decide on that when we have to, which I think is Monday, so we’ll feel it out over these next two days.”
DL Sam Okuayinonu looks good to go?
“Yeah, he had a good week.”
You guys have a few guys on the team, like TE Jake Tonges who took over a prominent role then had to step back when TE George Kittle got back up, OL Connor Colby got playing time, S Marques Sigle started early and then stopped playing. How valuable is the time they put in the bank in case the last three games you could need them or even the postseason? I mean, the fact that they’ve got that time in there, how valuable is that to have?
“It’s huge. You never know until guys get that time. I think our guys are very confident and they believe in themselves, but I don’t think it’s ever really true confidence until you get to go through those experiences. I mean, just bringing up Tonges for example, when George went down in the first quarter versus Seattle, we had a big game plan to George and when Jake stepped in, we’d really never know he’d react, and he did a hell of a job and it just picked up each week. We know if George has an injury, if [TE] Luke [Farrell] has an injury, he’ll be ready to go and help us win. And same thing with those other guys. Whenever you know that, the staff and the players, it really helps us through these situations.”
Atlanta Falcons QB Krik Cousins went viral this week doing a dissertation about how difficult it is for quarterbacks to decipher coverages pre-snap and how progressions have had to change as a result. When he first got in the league, it was half the field, now it’s pure progressions, one, two, three, four, five. Have you seen that evolution? Have you had to change your offense in the same way?
“Oh, yeah. We’ve been doing progression reads for a while. I’d say like when I first started just, [general manager and president of football operations John] Lynch actually sent me what Kirk did last night. Kirk’s a smart guy, he should be on TV. He explained it well. So, everyone should watch that instead of what I’m about to say. But, when we first got in the league, it was so simple with two-shell, one-shell, so you just picked a side and you had two guys down to your back. The teams that disguised, it was always harder and sometimes quarterback gets caught on the wrong side and you don’t have as good of a play and you’ve got to find your outlet to a back. The more years that have gone by, I can sit in my office with a remote slowing it down and everything and it takes me a while to figure out whether it’s two-shell or one-shell and things like that. So you start to, you have plays in that are across the board reads where it used to be maybe 90 to 10. And the more defenses get used to what you’re doing 90-percent of the time, they get better at it. So, the plays you do 10-percent of the time are the ones you have more success on. So, the next year you go into training camp and you work more of those plays and then it just slowly evolves. I thought what Kirk was saying is a good example of everything. Whatever someone consistently does, and you get good at, the defenses will eventually stop it. And everything has always got to evolve like that.”
You guys already made a coaching point that based on the two-point conversion that Seattle got the other night, that if it may be a lateral and that ball is free that’s two points sitting there. Should everybody know that? Have you talked about it?
“Yeah, we actually did today. I remember when I first got in the league, and I think we scrimmaged New Orleans and there were just obvious incompletions on the ground and defensive guys were running and jumping on it. I remember how much I used to make fun of them for it because I’m like, ‘don’t they know that’s incomplete?’ But, then it was actually Denver versus the Chargers. [Former Denver Broncos QB] Jay Cutler fumbled a ball on a pass. They blew a whistle and the Chargers recovered it and the game should have been over, there was like a minute left. Denver was down seven. But, because they blew the whistle, they weren’t allowed to give it to the Chargers. And since that day they realized that even if you blow the whistle, you get allowed if someone recovered it. So, since that day everyone’s been coaching, ‘hey, if that ball’s on the ground, grab it.’ The two-point conversion was one that seemed a little bit over the top because it didn’t look obvious to anybody that that was the case. But, someone had a habit of grabbing it and it ended up probably helping them win the game. Not probably, it did.”
With a quarterback, progressions and the change in that, would you say, obviously it’s gradual as it evolves, but roughly when would you say that began to change?
“I’d say more, I think it’s been that way for me since I’ve come here. I’d say more, I think everybody’s different. I think for myself, probably around like 2015, around there. I mean, just it was always in there, but what you started to really start to major in was more of that. That’s just across the board reads and how the defense folds. And that’s why I always try to articulate how sometimes when guys don’t get targets and things like that, it’s not always just because they’re struggling, it’s just how progressions go, how defenses play.”
When we’re asking you questions, and obviously we’re at a level of understanding, do you ever just get really frustrated and just have to bite your tongue and not say ‘you have no idea what’s going on?’
“Never once in my life (laughter). I’ve got so much respect for everyone’s football knowledge. Just like you guys probably have respect for how I would spell words and articulate things and write. But no, that was cool what Kirk did. Sometimes we talk about stuff, we live in our world and we’re always looking at stuff and progressions and coverages and things and sometimes those words don’t always make sense to everyone else. I’m just watching it from a TV standpoint. But I mean, that’s what we do. So, I like to say that’s the only thing I kind of know about. Maybe my playlist I play in my office is about it. Kirk knows a lot of stuff though. He’s a pretty smart dude.”
How is Kendrick’s conditioning coming along?
“Good. I mean, we wanted to see it this week having last week with his injury. But, challenging him this week, I thought it looked good and no concerns.”