Head Coach Kyle Shanahan Press Conference

Head Coach Kyle Shanahan

Press Conference – August 19, 2025

San Francisco 49ers

 

 

Opening comments:

“New ones that you didn’t have from last time we talked: [QB] Mac Jones sprained his knee in the game, he’ll miss this week, [OL] Dominick Puni just to update it, it’s a knee sprain, he’s going to be out for a few weeks, and [RB] Patrick Taylor [Jr.], who I think you guys saw go on IR, he needs surgery for his shoulder because he ended up having a fracture in there. I think those are the new ones.”

 

Is there a concern at this point that Puni won’t be available for the start of the regular season?

“There’s a concern, but I know he’s got a chance to also.”

 

What will you do there if he’s not ready to go?

“We’ll play another O-Lineman. Yeah. Pretty sure. There’s a number of guys for it. You know, they’re all competing with [OL] Connor [Colby] and [OL Nick] Zakelj. You guys know [OL Spencer] Spence [Burford] can play guard too, so we’ll see how that pans out.”

 

Is DL Mykel Williams close? I thought this week might be a target.

“Yeah, we were hoping this week. It was close, but just reported still some feelings yesterday, so we’re still being safe with him. We’re still looking him day-to-day, but definitely hoping for him by next week.”

 

With the shoulder for Taylor, would that keep him out for the whole season or is that something where he could potentially be back?

“No, he’ll be out for the whole season.”

 

What’s the plan with the quarterbacks in this final game?

“I haven’t decided yet. I initially planned on playing some guys. To be honest, I’m getting less on that right now. Especially with Mac being out, that’s why we brought in [QB] Nate [Sudfeld] too because I know we’re going to want at least two other guys to play besides [QB] Brock [Purdy], If he does go. But I’ll decide on that after these next two practices.”

 

A ton of guys seem like they might be ready for Week 1, might not. How does that affect how you plot down the 53? Is it as much as confusion as you’ve had, whatever the word you want to pick there, trying to decide who makes it and who you buy time with and who you don’t buy time with?

“Yeah, definitely. I mean, there are a lot of different thoughts you’re trying to take on. You want to think of who your team is for Week 1, who your 53 is, who your 46 is, who’s going to be back for Week 2 and who might be up in Week 1. Who can be on your practice squad, who you can activate for those days and who are the vets that are on your practice squad? Who are the rookies? So all that stuff pans out. It’s a really complicated thing that we really can’t talk about enough because It’s always changing each day, and it will be all the way up to when we make that decision. Even after we make that decision, we’ll have to do that all the way until the Friday or Saturday of that game also.”

 

Do you have a sense on how long RB Corey Kiner will be out?

“It was a high ankle sprain, and it was a pretty bad one. When it’s not a bad one, I still consider that a month. So, I would expect maybe a little longer.”

 

Are those guys, like DL Kevin Givens, who could be on IR to start the season?

“Yeah, all those guys. Yep. We’re going to have to think about it.”

 

I know you’re in the middle of it, but this is the second year with so many injuries in training camp. Did you take time to look at last year to try to avoid that and are there any things that you could put your finger on why this is happening again?

“I mean, it’s stuff that we look into every year. We’ll try to even look into it more after this year. But you know, we haven’t even been able to have the training camp that we normally want to have because of the injuries. It’s not like they just all happened one week. They happened pretty early with the number of guys and just the way our schedule’s gone with our scrimmages, having these games, the off days and traveling, I don’t feel like we’ve had enough of the training camp practice to say that we’re going too hard. But obviously we have too many guys down. So we’ve got to look into all that stuff and figure out whatever we can do better.”

 

With Mac, is it a minor issue because you think he’ll be back next week and he was able to play through it?

“Yeah, we think he’ll be back. We think he should be fine for Week 1. We just know he can’t go this week.”

 

At the end of last year you were pretty honest about saying that you felt things were off right from the training camp all the way through. I’m just wondering now that training camp is winding down, what’s your assessment? How are you feeling? How’s your feeling about the vibe and the attitude of the team?

“I love the way we’re going. I love the way we’re working. I mean, obviously when you have the number of injuries we’ve had, like not always enjoying that, but you know, it is such a different deal this year than last year. Not just because of how our mood is in camp. We knew that when the season ended, but you could really see that in free agency. You could see in how the Draft went, we were really turning over a lot of this team. So the vibe that we brought into this offseason and OTAs with adding a lot more youth, a big change in a lot of the people and not having as many people that had been here through this whole run, it changed so much then and that’s continued into camp. A lot of young guys have stepped up. I always feel when you have the veterans, like we have veterans who all work hard, so it’s not like I ever have to get on veterans to do more in practice. Our guys go as hard as they can. But vets are vets. It’s a little more fake and false enthusiasm than anything else. They’re not really excited about camp. So, when you have young guys out there who are making plays, to me those are the loud ones. Those are the ones who inspire the vets, and that’s what I’ve been a lot more excited about this year. We have a bunch of guys doing it. I think we’ve had a little more on defense than offense. Some of our young guys on offense have been hurt, so we haven’t been able to get that much out of them yet. But, I know it will come as this year goes.”

 

Is it a different energy?

“It’s definitely different energy. I mean last year it was, you know, when you lose a Super Bowl like that in overtime and everything, and you’re bringing back a lot of your team, that’s all anyone can think about. I mean, you’re obsessive about it. That was a different vibe in camp because we were missing a number of guys, and we’re all just like let’s just get to Week 1, we know our team. But that should never be your vibe. You’re never just expecting that. You have to put in the work and expect that how hard it’s going to be to win one game and then you move to the next game. I think we established that mindset a lot earlier this year and I think it’s given us a much better vibe and it should make us work to get better throughout this year.”

 

RB Isaac Guerendo and CB Renardo Green were back today. They both looked like they were pretty much full-go. How nice was it to get guys back for a change?

“Yeah, both of those guys it was real good to get back and they stayed back. I’m always nervous with those guys the first time, but that’s why we put them through a big protocol before they can get back. And Guerendo was about letting his shoulder heal, but he was able to keep his conditioning great because it was just a shoulder injury. And Renardo’s being a hamstring took a lot longer, but that’s where like a normal protocol he might’ve been back last week, but we were a lot safer with him making sure they could be full-go by this week.”

 

OL Ben Bartch was working with a big brace on his left arm. Could he play with that? Is there a concern he might not be out there for Week 1?

“No, you can play with that. [OL Matt] Hennessy has something similar. [T] Trent [Williams] played with it a couple years ago, Week 17 at Arizona. So, it’s hard for other positions, if we need him to throw that would be a problem.”

 

Right before team, you brought the team together. What was the message?

“I just didn’t have a team meeting this morning. And so, I just wanted to just send the message that I know we’ve got a game Saturday. I know how important that is to a lot of people on this team. I know how important it is to our team, but I just wanted to establish to them how important these three days were. Anytime you come off three days off of playing football, human nature is it takes you a while to get back into it. I don’t want to keep us out there long to get us back into it. I want us to start right away, get our minds right, right away and make sure we take advantage of today. Today’s the most important day that we have and just reassuring that getting everyone’s mind straight because we’ve done a little too long. I know how when you have three days off, how that is, sometimes it takes halfway through practice and you’ve got to call guys up and say, ‘Hey guys, get your crap together.’ I wanted to make sure I got that out of the way before it started.”

 

How has TE Jake Tonges progressed and particularly as a blocking fullback? It seemed like he had a few good blocks against the Raiders?

“I think Jake’s getting better in everything he does. You guys saw the big catches he made, especially on that fourth down. But just as a tight end, as a fullback coming out of the I formation, I think he’s made strides and he’s given himself a chance.”

 

Coming into today, you mentioned obviously the injury news, but given that, did you see a jump between the first preseason game and the second preseason game and production on both sides of the ball? It’s kind of hard when you have guys making a play and then having to come out because they’re taking a ding, but did you see any jumps?

“Yeah, I thought I saw a jump in all three phases. By no means was it perfect and I’ll never say it was perfect. There’s a lot of things that we need to get a lot better at and clean up, but I thought all three phases took a step forward and that’s my goal. That we take a step forward every time we play football, whether it’s a preseason game, whether it’s practice on whatever today is, I think Tuesday, and hopefully the same thing throughout the year.”

 

In what areas do you think you should be a lot better at or you’re hoping to get a lot better at soon?

“Every area.”

 

How close is CB Upton Stout to returning?

“I hope close. He had a good workout yesterday, today was a recovery day. Anytime you’re dealing with a calf, like calves can linger and add to other things. I mean, just watch some basketball players who deal with that stuff. So, I’d like to say sooner than later. I haven’t been concerned about Week 1 or anything like that, but hopefully it’ll be sooner than later.”

 

With WR Jauan Jennings?

“Same thing.”

 

Are you sure that Jauan is good? When the calf is ready, is he good to go for Week 1? Is there a conversation you need to have?

“Yeah, any player, not just Jauan or anyone, but people need to practice. They need to get ready to play an NFL season or you end up getting hurt. So, hopefully he can get his health back so he can get that out there and start practicing. Just running routes, doing things like that. Same thing for Upton. Not many people can get through that stuff without practicing. We had it a little with [DL Nick] Bosa one year, a little bit with Trent. Some different positions, but it’s always a huge challenge.”

 

It was a different situation, but with WR Brandon Aiyuk it really seemed like the cut down date was the deadline for you guys, for you and President of Football Operations/General Manager John Lynch. Is it similar with Jauan or does the injury change the dynamic a little there?

“Well, Aiyuk was healthy, so he started. He was good when he came back and he was in decent shape, just had to knockoff rust for a while. But each person’s different, but it’s all the same issue. The less you practice football, the harder it is to play football throughout the year.”

 

Are you thinking about DL Yetur Gross-Matos starting the season on PUP with him still not back at this point?

“Oh, possibly, yeah. That hasn’t been coming as fast as we want. We’ve still got two more weeks here that we’re hoping for, but that’ll be one of our big decisions with everything that I talked about earlier from the 53, to the 46, to how long we have to wait when he is going to come back. So we’re going to take as much time as we can, but that time’s coming up to where we have to make a decision.”

 

With cut down looming on Tuesday, do you yourself or your staff get involved with canvassing the League and do you have meetings to compare guys that you project getting cut in other camps that you think might be better than your own guys?

“No, as coaches you don’t really have time to scan the League. You have ideas of people you’ve coached in the past, people you see on tape that you’re going against or people you scrimmage against where you notice and you can ask questions. But that’s what all the personnel guys are working on nonstop. We have a lot of meetings with the personnel guys to talk about where we see our final 53, where they see it, where we see our practice squad, where we believe, ‘hey, this is our final 53 by default, can we upgrade at any other spot?’ And those are the things that they bring to us and they’re way ahead on that stuff than us. As you get closer you see if there’s any people you can upgrade with.”

 

I have a smelling salts question. Obviously, TE George Kittle likes smelling salts quite a bit. But do you have a sense of like how prevalent they are, just within your team and do you have any concern about the use of smelling salt?

“I mean, I don’t, if someone gives me one I’ll take a smell of the salt. I don’t know. I’m not too worried about it. I like to take one to wake myself up and just lock myself in. If they don’t allow that, I’ll probably shake my head a few times and smack myself and get ready to lock in. I don’t overthink it too much, but I’m also not too worried about them not providing it either. But I feel like George will find a way.”

 

I don’t know how much film you’re watching of the Chargers preseason games and you’re probably watching defense if you are, but have you seen Los Angeles Chargers QB Trey Lance? Does he look different to you a little bit in these games he’s played so far?

“I haven’t got a chance to watch him. I’m sure Trey, I’m sure he does, the more he practices, the more he works. I mean, he is only going to get better. So I expect to see him like that when I watch him but haven’t got a chance to yet.”

 

Where are you guys now big picture-wise as far as practices in terms of reps? I mean, are you starting to kind of wind down the reps as we get closer to the season and what’s sort of the big picture design on conditioning and things like that?

“We do a little bit more of that next week, but it also somewhat takes care of itself. I mean, we haven’t had guys go in three days. A lot of guys didn’t play in that game too. No one did anything the day before. So, we hadn’t had a hard day since last Thursday. So that’s five days. I’m excited for this week because it’s our first time to get three practices in a row, but just as we always do, coming off this rest, today was a very light day. So, we’ll turn it up a little bit tomorrow, turn it down the next day and then we’ll see how many guys get to go in that game. But probably won’t play a lot of the starters in that game, so that means they’ve got another four days off. So, I’m a lot more worried about resting them the next week. You know, I think the next week, we’ve got three available practices, one day, one off, then two days. And one of those you’ve got to do, I think, without practice squad guys, which makes it tough too. So, we’re kind of in that spot where, and a lot of guys that you would normally rest at this time are just coming back, so we’ve still got to get them ready to play in Week 1, so everyone’s at different stages so it’s not a simple answer for me.”

 

With Trey, it wouldn’t be the craziest thing if he still had a very solid career as a starter. Many guys have done that. But, right now, where he is, what happened, did you take anything away other than it’s really hard to evaluate quarterbacks from that experience drafting him and it just not working out?

“I mean, I take everything away from every situation. I don’t want to sit here and evaluate Trey too much, I think I’ve done that before. But when I revisit that, we knew where our team was at, and we knew where it was going to be the next couple years and we were committed to getting a rookie quarterback. We weren’t sure that it would be forever. But we thought that was important to, contractually with where our team was at, in order to keep a good team together. So, we knew we were going for a rookie, especially after a veteran left earlier that year, that was an option. So that was more of a plan in that way. Now we can go back to what we thought and everything, which I have no problem doing anytime, but I don’t want to sit here and evaluate Trey again. I’m pulling for Trey. I love Trey. One of the best people I’ve been around and I really hope it works out for him.”

 

I’m interested to know what you thought about, in the preseason game, Brock and WR Ricky Pearsall, especially on like the third down pass that he was able to complete. Was it encouraging? Have you seen a big jump between their chemistry? What do you think about the two of them?

“Thought the O-Line had a good pocket and what was it? Third-and-18 and Ricky got to the right spot, and I would expect them to be 100-percent in that situation. So, like I love the seven-yard stop route they threw on the first time versus bump bail. I thought it was good because they tried to bluff on Ricky and Brock, and I thought they were just confident in it and decisive. But nothing, I mean, it looked like practice, which is what I expect and I just want more of it and we’ll see as the year goes how good they can get together.”