SANTA CLARA — The red, gold, and white confetti has been cleaned off the Levi’s Stadium grass and the 49ers are forging ahead with a clean slate toward Super Bowl LVII.
Thursday marked the 49ers’ first practice since winning a spot in Super Bowl LVIII, four days after a dramatic comeback in the NFC Championship four days earlier. Here is what coach Kyle Shanahan and select players said at the media podium before practice:
COACH KYLE SHANAHAN
On current injuries:
Tight end George Kittle (toe) will not practice. Cornerback Ambry Thomas (ankle) will be limited. Linebacker Oren Burks (shoulder) will be limited.
On George Kittle’s toe injury and if it’s a serious turf-toe injury:
It’s just a toe.
On 2019 rexperience and shaping them:
All those guys for the most part were young guys and it was the first one. When you go a second time, all the stuff you experienced, you know it’s all about one thing: those three hours (of the game). … Having experience always helps.
On Charvarius Ward’s growth from KC
We ask him to do a little more in terms of coverage, different things. We mix it up a little. We saw him do things here than before and his game has grown.
On matchup with Chiefs
It’s not a coincidence why they have (won). QB is as hard to beat as anyone from a talent standpoint, then you combine that with the scheme Andy runs. No matter what game it is, high scoring or low scoring, they always have a chance. When you have that, great coach, great defense, it’s a very good formula to win games.
On picking guys to break down the team:
“I randomly did it with Nick some Saturday, did good job and we won. … Since then it’s become our tradition. Nick’s become really good at it. It’s funny how guys are so confident in everything they do get nervous speaking in front of people. Earlier this year, he said thanks for doing that, he’s not as nervous. Nick doesn’t waste words, because he doesn’t use many of them.
The only time you get to know someone is when you hang with them. I sat with him at dinner. What was so cool, there was no tricking. Nick was himself. He’s very true to himself and doesn’t make stuff up. He was very easy to connect to. He’s always been that guy we met on the first day. I can’t say enough good things about him.”
On defensive line’s poor pursuit of Gibbs’ TD:
No not at all. I know it looked bad on the clip. No it’s not our culture. Don’t want one play like that. We had two to three that game. It wasn’t just the D-line. Other people expected others to make the tackle. You can’t do that.
On rest
Understand when social m
There were a few bad clips that game and can find in a lot of games. I don’t question our lack of effort. Were we under 100 percent….I’m not sitting here acting that was the reason..that game was more how we played run defense – not all 11 guys running to the ball.
On Jed York entering 2019
He was awesome, exactly ghow he was when we sat for the interview. You never want those (bad) records but we were realistic. We wanted to have a legit shot our fourth year. Third year it happened and it was great. … He was always positive. The hardest year was the COVID year (2020) because we built our team and had a tough Super Bowl loss. That wasn’t like we expected.
On no hot seat: We never had the discussion. But as a coach you’re always on the hot seat. There was no difference in our relationship going into Year 3 compared to the year I was hired.
On 49ers run game:
It’s hard to win consistently if you can’t run the ball, no matter how good of a pass game or a defense you have. Best way to win is be balanced and put pressure on everybody.
On learning from last Super Bowl in terms of practice:
I was real happy with our preparation last time. I’d been to the Super Bowl as a coach four years before that. Been to six as a family member. Growing up and watching it my whole life. I’m glad the Super Bowl we’re in has a week before you go (to the host city). We try to get as much in this first week. Monday is different with the media deal, then we do a press conference every day so you’re an hour behind. All that stuff adds up.
On offense change with McCaffrey from his 49ers debut to now:
He knows the guys’ names, knows the runs we’re calling instead of guys pointing him in the right direction. That was amazing. The way he was talking to me, I said we better send him a playbook because he was adamant he was playing. It was a sign what we had.