Editor’s note: Head coach Kyle Shanahan spoke to the media Tuesday as the 49ers began organized team activities, phase three of the offseason program. The following transcript was provided by the team’s communications department. Questions are paraphrased and in bold.
What was your overall assessment of how everything went today?
“It was alright. It was day two of OTAs. We put in a few more things as you do each day. So, a few more busts than I would have like, but it’s part of the process. Each day you put in a little bit more, it all starts to blend together. It will be harder two days from now, but I was excited with how hard the guys went.”
Is the defense ahead of the offense right now?
“I don’t think so. I think it’s two teams learning a bunch. I would say without watching the film that they had a better day today. I thought it was pretty close yesterday. I wouldn’t say either one is ahead.”
You had a couple of guys rotating through the offensive line. The first team, two right tackles, two right guards, centers. Is that the goal this offseason, to have two guys sort of vying for each of the starting spots?
“Yeah, you would like that at every position. Competition brings out the best in everyone. All we have to go off of is watching tape from what they’ve had in the past. We want to balance everyone out, give everyone opportunities at each position. We need to see for ourselves, doing what we’re asking them to do, the techniques and the schemes and find out what the best place is for guys. There’s a number of guys we’re moving around.”
Coming into a week like this, what are your number one and two markers in terms of success or not?
“Not getting anyone hurt would be the first success, and then just teaching everyone. Just from a coaching staff, you look forward to this because you’re able to go on the field with them in the first minicamp, which is a voluntary one, but only new coaches are allowed that, so you go on the field with guys and you haven’t worked enough to really judge them too much. We put in a bunch of work here through phase one and phase two. We’ve had three weeks on the field now before yesterday, before we could go against each other. We were kind of getting sick of doing that, so we were excited for yesterday just to go against each other, compete and it’s really the first time we can evaluate from a fair perspective.”
What do you have LB Rueben Foster doing and how are the mental reps coming along?
“I think they’ve been great. Rueben, everything out there he’s got to watch. We’ve allowed him to participate in anything that there’s no possibility of contact. So, if he’s doing any of the individual drills and not going against people, then he’s able to do everything because he can run and do it all. He just, we’ve got to be able to avoid collisions right now. He’s trying to stay locked in. I know it’s hard for him. He wants to run around out there, but he can’t do it. We’ve got to be smart with it. We can’t set him back.”
