San Francisco 49ers Head Coach Kyle Shanahan
November 8, 2018
Conference Call
Q: We got to know Weston Richburg here really well. What has he added to your team at the center position and in the locker room this season?
A: He’s added a ton. He’s been as good as center I’ve had, he’s been one of the main reasons I believe we’ve been able to run the ball as well as we have had this year despite our injuries. He’s battled through the last few weeks, battling some injuries, and he’s missed one game but he’s been out there playing through some stuff. Guys love him here and he’s really helped us.
Q: Any concern now in start two for (Nick) Mullens, there’s some tape on him now, that it’s going to be a little more difficult to find the openings he had in that first game?
A: Yes, always. It gets harder and harder, it doesn’t get easier. It will be a big challenge this week vs. the Giants, they do a hell of a job defensively with their scheme and with their players. It will be nice for him to get a full week of practice. This will be his first full speed practice that he’s had with us as a starter, so I know that there’s some benefit for him also. But yes, the more you play in the league, it gets tougher.
Q: How has he handled his success?
A: He’s handled it fine, Nick is the same guy every single day. He was practice squad with us all last year and rarely got reps even there, he was actually our practice squad safety just because we didn’t have enough guys, and he acted the same as a practice squad safety as he has as the backup number two, and as he did last week and this week as the number one.
Q: What made you think that what everyone else saw last week was possible, and that this was maybe some of the stuff he could do?
A: Just from the way he’s gone about his business since he’s been here. The guy prepares as hard as anyone I’ve been around, even when he had no chance of playing as a practice squad guy last year, he was as prepared for the game as our starters were. He works at it every single day, he can get guys in and out of the huddle very well, he knows where the ball’s supposed to go and he can execute on offense very well. The game isn’t too big for him, he’s tough, hangs in there, and the way he prepares makes it to where it’s just not too big.
Q: How did it come to be where he had to play safety for practice squad?
A: Just because the lack of people that we’re allowed to have. You have guys go down and you can’t put people on IR, so you can’t bring people back in. You’ve only got 10 practice squad players, you don’t have enough guys to go both ways, and then when you’ve got a number of guys as the year goes not practicing, usually your first string quarterback gets all the first team reps especially when he’s a younger guy trying to learn systems too, and then your second team quarterback runs the scout team. It’s very hard to get a third guy a lot of real reps, and we tried to let him split a little bit with the two, but once guys go down you need those extra guys to plug in wherever they can.
Q: Doesn’t seem to be a lot of negativity coming out of your locker room despite a lot of injuries and a lot of early losing. I saw Richard Sherman saying a lot about the culture you guys have there, despite the results not going your way. Why do you think that is? Why do you think there’s so much positivity around you guys despite the record?
A: I think we’ve got a good group of guys. We’re extremely disappointed with our record, it has been frustrating, it has been a grind. There’s still a lot more football to play that’s left, and this isn’t where we want to be but I think everyone knows where we’re going. It’s not going to be easy to get there, but I think we’ve got a bunch of guys in here that do feel the same way that we are doing something, and this is part of the process. Whether we’ve won or lost so far, we believe that it’s going to make us better, and every situation that we’ve had we plan on getting better. Our guys come to practice with that (mindset), when you lose on Sunday it’s always tough -- Monday’s hard, Tuesday’s hard, and by the time we get guys back in here on Wednesday we get a new game plan in. I just think we have the right type of guys who don’t sit around and bitch, don’t point the finger. They get over the loss and they get ready to move on, do what they can and what they can control, and that’s just trying to be as good as you can every day.
Q: How challenging has it been for you personally when Jimmy (Garoppolo) goes down? It’s obviously a big blow, him being the centerpiece acquisition of your team. How tough is it to not lose faith as a coach?
A: It’s a challenge, it definitely is. It’s the first time I’ve had to deal with that, and going into the year especially having higher expectations than we did in our first year here, especially with the way we finished with Jimmy coming out and playing, bringing in a new running back to have with him - we kind of got our first dose with him six days before the first game, and then we got Jimmy in and that happened to him a couple weeks later. Really just how early it happened was what the huge challenge was. The whole season was ahead of us, and we lost our two guys that we really wanted to add to make a difference this year, so it put a lot of challenge on everybody. It’s opened up opportunities for other people, but it’s been tough. Our guys have gotten through it, it’s not the situation that you want but it’s the hand you’ve been dealt and like I was trying to say earlier, you don’t have to label things as a positive or negative, they’re experiences and what you get out of it. Even though it’s not fun and not something we want to go through, it’s my job as a coach to make sure we get better from this. Our record hasn’t, but I believe that this can harden us and can make us better, and we’ve got to learn how to fight through these things and win. I believe that will be a critical part of getting us to where we want to go.
Q: You’ve faced the Giants quite a bit in your career at various stops, you’ve faced Eli Manning a lot. Do you have to prepare for maybe the possibility of another quarterback playing in this game? Maybe not starting, Pat Shurmur’s already said Eli’s going to start, but do you have to prepare for other guys who are on the roster too? How different is that with facing the Giants?
A: We’re preparing for Eli Manning. I understand the stuff he’s going through this year, but Eli can still play at a very high level. He can still make every throw, he’s had a Hall of Fame career, and I know he can still get it done and he’s put it on tape this year. I know they haven’t totally found their rhythm offensively, but there’s times where they can heat up and if you don’t make Eli uncomfortable and get their rhythm off, he still has the capability of being Eli, making every single throw and putting up a lot of points and a lot of yards. We’re one hundred percent preparing for him. You’ve always got to be ready for someone else to come in every week whether it’s injury or what, but we’re definitely preparing for Eli.
Q: What has Richard Sherman brought for you guys on the back end?
A: Really just his veteran leadership, his consistency and the fact that he’s been out there, he’s played a lot of football and he’s played it at a very high level. He’s played in a scheme extremely similar to ours his entire career. We’ve got a bunch of younger guys back there in the secondary who have played a little bit but not very much, so it’s nice to have a guy out there who has that experience who they can bounce things off of and not only just experience him playing, but experiencing the scheme. There’s not many plays that he hasn’t seen that have been problem plays for us that he’s had some time in his past, and it’s always good to have a player you can bounce that stuff off to, not just a coach.
Q: So we won’t see Mullens play safety on Monday?
A: You never know, I’m not going to rule anything out but hopefully we don’t have to get to that.
