Kyle Shanahan provides injury updates on Jackson, Pearsall & more

The San Francisco 49ers are dealing with several injuries as training camp continues in Santa Clara.

Head coach Kyle Shanahan met with the media following Sunday’s session to relay updates on several injured or previously absent players, including defensive end Tarron Jackson, who was taken to a local hospital for evaluation after a collision during practice.

Opening comments:

“There with [DL] Tarron Jackson there at the end, always scary when someone gets taken off on a stretcher. But just letting you guys know, he is conscious, inside communicating with us, can feel all his extremities, and they’re taking him down to Stanford now just for further testing. So hopefully, we cleared the real scary stuff, and hopefully we’ll get some good news on his neck.” 

Could you tell what happened?

“I couldn’t tell. I didn’t see it at all. I’ll see it in film here in a second, but not sure.”

What’s your message to the team?

“I mean, it’s always hard like that and especially when guys watch that. We were close to him, so we could hear him talking, we could see everything moving, so I just told the guys that, which I think eases them up a little bit for the biggest fears and asked them if they’re okay to continue to go. They all yelled ‘yes,’ and then we finished our last period and a half.”

When he was down, you said he was speaking, he was conscious even before he was moved? 

“Yes. Yeah, which was good. I mean, that made it easier for the players, just to hear that part.”

You said he was headed to Stanford University? 

“Yes.”

You talked about this earlier in the week of not liking not being in pads.

“In conjunction to that?”

Yeah.

“Yeah, I don’t think that totally mattered and I’ve got to see it on tape to know for sure. I don’t know exactly what happened, so I don’t know if it had to do with that or not. Probably not.”

Are you used to the layout yet?

“No, I feel lost out there. We’re going to mess it up a little bit here on the next day off. Change it, try to stagger the fields a little bit better, get them a little more parallel to each other so I’m not hurting my neck, going at angles and making everyone walk so far. It’s a work in progress.” 

How was it having WR Ricky Pearsall out there?

“It was nice. Yeah, his rep count was really low. I think he got like eight reps today, but we’ll see how he did with recovery and stuff. But I didn’t hear any complaints and good first day back.”

Is there a diagnosis for CB Renardo Green and WR Jacob Cowing?

“Yeah, they both have hamstrings. Hopefully around Raiders week we’ll get them back.”

I know we’re not in pads, but what’s your impression of RB Jordan James so far?

“He’s doing a good job. I mean, he is hitting the holes hard. I like how he’s been running. Definitely want to get the pads on, especially with the running backs. It’s always tough to evaluate guys without pads. Same with the linebackers, really everybody almost except for the quarterback, but he’s had a good four days and can’t wait to get the pads on tomorrow.” 

RB Corey Kiner looked like he made a nice downfield catch today. Is that still he possesses to get down the field and catch?

“Yeah, I think he’s capable of it. Something he did a little bit of in college, but they ran a blitz so you have to run it versus a D-Lineman peeling and it’s a good look for him, but he was able to run by him and made a big play.”

You guys seem to find these undrafted backs every year. Is it running backs coach Robert Turner Jr., scouts or yourself? Who looks at college backs for you guys?

“Everybody. I mean, we’ve got a really good scouting system that does it year-round. You know, they bring us these backs when the offseason gets there, and Bobby T shuts his door for about three months and doesn’t talk to anyone except running backs from college that he calls over and over again. And then we all do it too. I mean, from [assistant head coach/offensive line coach Chris] Foerster to [offensive coordinator] Klay [Kubiak] to myself, all the scouts upstairs, so we’re always evaluating backs.”

I think I saw your father here today. How is it to have him around? Because obviously he lets you do your job, but I figure that he also provides something for you. 

“It’s good. I mean, he enjoys football so it’s entertaining for him. I think my mom likes a little break, so she tries to get him to come out here, I think more than he does. I mean, I grew up going to training camp, loving football, and not realizing until you grow up that it gave you a chance to hang around your dad a lot. And it’s cool that he can come here do this and still get to hang around me and my son a little bit. He enjoys it, so it’s nice to have him here. 

Did defensive quality control coach Jake Lynch take your job of throwing to the defense? 

“He didn’t take it, alright. I’m injured right now.”

What happened? 

“Elbow injury. Started acting up last December and I thought I could tough through it and then I did, but I think it ruined me throughout the offseason. I keep waiting for it to heal. It won’t heal, so I’ll wait until probably come February I’ll have to fix it. It really sucks not being able to throw, not just to them, but the tennis ball to my dog, anything, so I’ve got to fix this, but it’s probably going to wait till after the season.”

Did you try your other arm?

“I’ve tried that and it’s not an option.”

Kind of like a week in review this first week, of course, even TE George Kittle saying that football doesn’t really start until the pads are on, but what stood out to you this week in training camp? Not really anything going on outside of football to be distracted from. So just how was this week?

“I mean, it’s about getting back into camp. You talk about camp, going back to growing up and going up to Rocklin when I was a ball boy here, or going to Greeley when I lived in Denver, the camps. We’d go away when we were at Washington, Atlanta we stayed in dorms. You get more and more and it doesn’t always feel like camp. But the more you can get off of vacation, get in here and just block everything out, and have two practices a day, one a walk-thru and just get in that groove, it becomes all ball. We got three days of it, then you get the day off. Today was our fourth practice, so it’s not totally like it used to be, but I think we’re starting to get into it. It becomes routine. Just having yesterday off kind of gets you out of your rhythm a little bit, but the more we can cram these days in, the more we can get more work. It’s all about getting ready for a long season.”

How excited was special teams coordinator Brant Boyer when LS Jon Weeks became available?

“Extremely excited. Yes.”

Did he convey that to you all? 

“Oh, yeah. No, he sold the farm on him, told us how good he is. I’ve heard about him for a while. I mean, he got to Houston actually I think the year that I left. So, I know a lot of people who have been with him for a while. He’s had a hell of a career, and I think he was a captain for their team last year and felt very fortunate for getting a chance to be able to get him.”

QB Brock Purdy was back today. Was that what you expected all along?

“Yeah, Brock had some family stuff yesterday, all good news. I’m sure he’ll tell you guys when he talks to you guys next. But yeah, Brock was back and didn’t miss a beat and it was a good day off for him.” 

What do you think of WR Isaiah Neyor so far? 

“I think he’s done a good job. I mean, all those guys are getting a lot of reps, and we’ve got a lot of young guys getting opportunities. He got a lot of opportunities in OTAs. We’ve been moving him around. He made a big play a couple days ago and he’s just competing like the rest of the group out there right now.”

How do you see these young wide receivers getting their heads around the playbook and making adjustments?

“They’re spinning right now. Once you think you’ve got it, it gets a lot worse the next day. So today was our first call-it period, which means it wasn’t scripted, so they have no idea what’s coming. I think that showed a little bit of rust. I think they’re in their playbooks, but they definitely can’t be content with it. They’ve got to get into more, they’ve got to get more of these reps, and we’ve got to keep challenging them.”

What’s the most important part about this first week or so of camp? Is it attention to detail, energy? To you, what’s the most important part?

“Everything’s so important. If you quit one thing and something bad’s going to happen, you get a setback. But there’s so much that goes in to be prepared for an NFL season and there’s not a lot of time. So, you have to be so prepared for this camp so you have a chance to go through it. And if you are prepared for the camp, then it’s about stacking up days. Everybody comes in the first day, they want to be in their playbook, they want to review the scripts before they go to bed.

“They come in early, they’re done with practice, they have a great routine and as you get like five, six days into it then guys are tired, they start skipping things, they might want to go take a nap, do stuff like that. Then you end up pulling something and you miss two weeks. So, it’s about just that routine of doing it every day. The consistency of it and not wavering from it. Guys who have routines, more of the pros, guys who’ve done it before, more of the vets, they’ve got a good idea of it and that’s what the rookies are trying to learn how to do.”

 WR Jordan Watkins said after the Draft that he was prepared for an uphill battle with the challenge of learning the system. How have you seen him progress to this point?

“I thought in these four practices he’s done a good job, but like I was saying earlier, we’ve got to get pads on, see how they really hit it, but wide receiver position like all others, that it’s not just as tough as a rookie, they’re all tough as a rookie, but you’ve got to try to make this team first and foremost. And I think that’s tough at each position. And then you want to try to get on the field, you’ve got to find a way to fit in our scheme and what we like. And if we brought you here, it means we like you. And now it’s using that skillset with how it fits in our offense and there’s a very fine line with that and takes time to do.”

 On that note, how important is also to have WR Ricky throughout the whole preseason time because of what happened last year missing a lot of time but he was able to have some spark by the end of the season, but now you get to have it all throughout camp?

“Yeah, anybody who can make it through camp and doesn’t have setbacks, it’s going to always put them in a much better position. That’s what I love. Working and practicing things get you better and when you’re hurt you can’t and it’s frustrating for guys, but he overcame that last year. If things happen this year, he will overcome that too, but that’s why he is prepared so hard for this to try to get his body in a position to be able to make it through camp. And I know he had a setback in OTAs with his hamstring, but he’s worked as hard as anyone this offseason and hopefully have some better luck.”

What happened with WR Jauan Jennings earlier?

“Yeah, he had a calf.”

 With DL Nick Bosa, RB Christian McCaffrey and T Trent Williams, is that part of the schedule you talked about that you mapped out?

“Yeah, that was just part of the schedule for today.”

What have you seen from the kicking competition so far?

“It’s a good competition. They’re both battling. I think they’ve done a good job. It’s close, neck and neck, so we’ll see who makes more.”

 With McCaffrey, I assume this would be the lightest workload in his career, is he fighting this or is there an understanding of this makes sense as far as getting into the season?

“No, it’s a real similar workload we did two years ago. His lightest workload was last year when he didn’t do training camp. But no, this has been part of the plan. Christian gets frustrated with it. He wants to be out there, he wants to do everything, but Christian also is very smart and knows what the deal is and knows that we do need to protect him from himself. So, he’s on board with it all, but I know he is feeling good and when he feels good he doesn’t like days off. But he understands why he’s got to.”

You said Jauan Jennings’ got a calf. Do you know the extent of it?

“I don’t know. I’ll hear about it later today with anybody who goes out of practice, but that’s why I know he went out. That’s what he had in OTAs, so I’m sure it’s similar.”

 What’s it like having WR Brandon Aiyuk out there like a coach?

“It looks like he’s out there doing a lot, hanging around the guys. I know he is in all the meetings and stuff and he does his rehab in the morning, does a little bit more in the afternoon walk-thru. I love him being around and all the meetings and doing all that stuff. I know having an injury is frustrating but he’s going about it the right way, rehabbing and stuff, but it’s great having him out there.”