Has Garoppolo improved when facing pressure? Shanahan: “I wouldn’t say that for sure.”

Here is the transcript of Kyle Shanahan’s Week 7 Friday press conference, courtesy of the 49ers P.R. department.

 

Opening comments:

“Out for the game will be [DL] D.J. Jones, [WR] Deebo [Samuel], [FB Kyle Juszczyk] Juice, [T Mike] McGlinchey, [T Joe] Staley and [CB Ahkello] Witherspoon and [RB Raheem] Mostert’s questionable.”

 

Does that make DL Jullian Taylor and WR Jordan Matthews likely to be active?

“Yes, yep.”

 

When you have so many injuries like that where it’s straining the roster and you have three quarterbacks, that’s a luxury that’s come in handy. With all these quarterbacks going down around the league, are there calls that you guys are fielding checking on the availability of the quarterbacks and would do you anticipate that happening over the next week and a half?

“Yeah, we always field calls you get about a lot of players. I think calls go around the league every day with all 32 teams, but you don’t see a ton of trades. You wait until something gets real. There’s a lot of talk. The more injuries there are, the more dialogue there is, but you wait until someone pulls the trigger and if they do and we thought it would improve our team, there’s no doubt we wouldn’t hesitate. But, we also know how good all three of our guys are. It’s got to be something that we think will help us.”

 

Some people have been clamoring for you guys to trade for a receiver like Denver Broncos WR Emmanuel Sanders and Cincinnati Bengals WR A.J. Green. Obviously, you can’t comment on players specifically, but can you talk about how comfortable you feel with the group that you currently have, especially with guys potentially coming back later in the year?

“Yeah, everyone in the league goes through injuries. Not all of our guys are for sure out for the year, so we plan on getting some guys back. But, you look through everything to try and upgrade your team. It’s very similar to the question I just answered and that’s stuff that there’s dialogue that goes on every day, not always with me, but very rarely with me, but with [general manager] John [Lynch] and his whole group upstairs. They look into all that stuff, there’s lots of talk and if we ever feel that there’s something that will help us and not take away from us, then that’s something we would never hesitate to do.”

Do you ever approach that with QB Nick Mullens or QB C.J. Beathard in terms of how they need to approach these weeks outside of doing their normal work that if somebody comes towards you–?

“I think they’re pretty smart. Just something you mention at the beginning of the year to them that they understand. I think everyone knows when you do keep three quarterbacks on a roster, that’s always a possibility. But, they also know they are three guys that it would be hard for us to let them go. We do want all of them here, but only two guys usually dress on game day. C.J. will dress this week if [RB] Raheem [Mostert] can’t go because he’d be the last guy up and if we’ve got another guy sick or something in the next two days, we’ll probably go with 45 because we don’t see someone we want to cut. We look into all of that and you talk to them about it, but after that it’s out of their control. They’ve just got to work as much as they can and if that time comes it is what it is.”

You mention that Jordan Matthews would be active this week. What kind of versatility does he bring to this receiving corps that struggle at times with his size and veteran knowhow?

“With Jordan, the best thing is how much he’s played. He’s played a lot of football, he’s a very reliable guy, we don’t mind putting him in there at any position. The game’s not too big for him. He plays very physical, he’s a big guy, he can run also, he’s got good hands. We usually play him at the Z position, but if anyone goes down, even Jordan only being here two weeks, he’s mastered the offense in the offseason. He knows all the positions and gives us a lot of versatility.”

I’ve noticed digging through some of the numbers, that QB Jimmy Garoppolo’s been better against pressure, higher yards per attempt against pressure than even in 2017 when he was really good. Has he, looking at the film, been demonstrably better when facing pressure this year?

“I wouldn’t say that for sure. I don’t think it’s been drastic. I didn’t realize the numbers say that, but it makes sense. When people pressure it’s a lot easier to get bigger plays, people are more open. It’s more one-on-one you can get or if it’s zone dogs and stuff you can really get people open if they get out of there. When they have three people covering underneath instead of four, there’s a hole somewhere. If we pick it up and we’ve got the right play on, pressure can actually be easier for a quarterback. If you don’t have the right play on or you struggle to pick it up then it’s a miserable day. Pressure usually it’s going to end for one of the sides well, the offense or the defense, it really is never just a boring play.”

When do you find out who the officials are going to be for your game?

“We find out early in the week.”

 

Do you do any kind of background research knowing what kind of calls they might make and relay that to guys and say watch out for where you’re putting your hands?

“We get a report on it. I’ve been on some teams that make a bigger deal of it than others. I don’t make too big a deal about it. I don’t talk about it in team meetings and stuff like I have at other places. Usually if there’s history or you’re aware of something you bring it up to guys. It goes more off of I get to talk to them personally before the game and if they give us a warning on anything they’ve been seeing that’s usually when I go tell the player. You don’t want to read a report off of something and see a high number and then go put something in a player’s head that might just be a coincidence where they change something. You want to make sure it’s definitely going to happen and if you think that and you can help the player, then you do it.”

Has there been any tips so far this season they’ve given you that you relayed?

“No, there hasn’t been any this year. Not yet. But, they’ll say stuff like, we double motion a lot and things like that so they’ll remind us that we are getting close to two guys moving at once. Make sure that guy’s set. Things like that.”

I heard on the radio this morning that you thought you led the league in headlines after the comments the other day. Is that something that, I guess, you want to avoid and keep the focus on your team and the 5-0?

“Oh, yeah I think it’s more entertaining for people to ask me that type of stuff, but that’s not something I’m trying to talk about. I tried to answer a few questions the other day as honestly as I could without getting into too much detail, but that’s something that really has nothing to do with the game. So, that’s why I didn’t want to keep talking about it.”

We talked to you about WR Dante Pettis earlier this week. The first two games of the season he had very limited snap counts. I know you mentioned on the radio, as well, about a pectoral issue that he had earlier. How has he kind of gotten over that issue and how has he kind of developed and kind of progressed since that injury?

“Yeah, I think he’s gotten in much better football shape. Now, running, doing it more consistently, being able, you know, once his pectoral is healed up more we are trying to get a little more size back. I think it took him a couple weeks to get out of it. He’s still trying to go forward, still trying to improve like everyone else is. But, coming into camp and having that pectoral injury right away to where he didn’t have to miss a lot of time but really wasn’t able to work through some stuff and when you’re just running and doing that, you lose a lot of weight, get a little bit smaller. He’s hit he weight room hard, he’s practiced hard and he’s got some of his juice back, which has helped him here these last few weeks.”

Do you know how that injury happened? Was it on the field?

“No, it was in practice. I think it was on a blocking play. He just got jerk pulled on something and just stretched his peck up the wrong way.”