San Francisco 49ers coordinators Raheem Morris and Klay Kubiak spoke to the media ahead of their Week 5 showdown with the Seattle Seahawks. We’ve already highlighted why the Niners are unlikely to shadow Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
Here are some of the other newsworthy items from their pressers.
Raheem Morris is ready to see Mykel Williams
“Just the energy. His ability to show that he wants to get out there and play. It’s been almost a year, as he said to multiple people. He’s just excited, and I don’t blame him. I’m excited to see him as well. This
will be my first time seeing him this week and getting a chance to watch him go out there and play. He’s big, he gives us a lot of energy, gives a lot of juice, and we’ll see where he is by the end of this week and see what happens, but I’m excited about it.”
Mykel said Nick Bosa helped him with his rehab. Judging by the videos from practice on Thursday and this photo from last season, desserts have been off the menu for Williams:
What kind of impact or how much will he play? That’s to be determined. Here’s Morris on that topic:
“Really hard question for me. I wasn’t around when he was able to play last year. Obviously, I knew him through the draft process and know what type of player he is, so I’m really excited to see him come out there and, first and foremost, do the really important things we ask our ends to do: set edges. I’m really fired up to see him go out there and have a chance to be able to affect the passer. So those two things that he was brought here to do are the things that I’m most fired up to see, and nobody’s more fired up than him, obviously.”
Does he start? Maybe a better question is, why wouldn’t he start? But you also have to acknowledge that Williams didn’t have OTAs or the preseason. He’s had less than a handful of practices under his belt. Expecting Williams to be anywhere close to the shape he needs to play 40 snaps feels like a stretch.
Why the 49ers are putting such an emphasis on limiting the big play defensively
The 49ers have allowed an explosive play rate of 2.3%. That’s a smidge behind the Rams and slightly ahead of the Seahawks. The best division in football is making opposing offenses earn it.
Morris explained why there’s such an emphasis on it:
“A lot of it is really if you’re able to limit those plays, those explosive plays, that keeps the score down. If you can keep the score down, that gives your offense a chance to win every single game. That gives your team the opportunity to go out there and play how you planned all week.
We’ve been able to limit the explosions to be able to play the way we want to play, to be able to dictate the terms. Fortunately or unfortunately, now we’ve got to go out there and continue to do those things however that works. We’ve got the guys to be able to do it. They’ve got the mental stamina to be able to survive throughout the practice, to be able to make the mistakes in practice, to be able to correct those things, take it to the grass and make those things come to life. Those are things that are all helping us.”
Eventually, your opponent will make a mistake. Last week was a good example. Denver had multiple third-down penalties, putting them behind the sticks. If you make an offense earn it over 10, 11, or 12+ plays, a run stop, incompletion, or some kind of mistake tends to end the drive. That’s what the 49ers are banking on, and why they go out of their way to keep everything in front of them.
Protecting Dre Greenlaw from injury?
Some have speculated that the 49ers are limiting Greenlaw’s snap counts to keep him healthy for the season. Morris was asked whether that’s been the case this season:
“It’s hard to say manage when you’re talking about Dre. It’s just really doing whatever it is to win football games. He comes out at times. We’ve had packages where he’s out. We have packages that he’s in. He’s in most of them. He’s not the green dot, so we can be able to switch those guys in and out of rotation. You do it a lot with linemen. People kind of get wigged out when you do it with the defensive back or you do it with a linebacker.
But, realistically, that’s going to become the norm because people want to play fast. How fast can you play for 50 snaps as opposed to 80? If you go play 89 snaps, you’re not going to get the same Dre we got the next week. If that was the case, we wouldn’t have got what we got last week. To get what we got last week, we keep hunting. Whatever the best formula is for that to happen, I think it’s what we’re going to do.”
Based on when Greenlaw comes off the field, Morris seems to have more faith in Garret Wallow in specific sub-packages and obvious passing situations. Greenlaw came off the field on second-and-long last week. We’ve seen him leave the field in two-minute situations or when Morris knows the offense will throw the ball.
Brock Purdy finding the balance between aggression and patience
Brock Purdy has been afforded the seventh-most time to be pressured in the NFL, with having the eighth-most time to throw. He can get a little antsy in the pocket, occasionally leaving clean ones when he doesn’t have to. Purdy’s aggressiveness hasn’t wavered.
Kubiak explained how to coach a quarterback to be aggressive while maintaining his patience, and whether those traits work against each other in some ways:
“You’d like to say the quarterback should always have that mentality. I think we’ve never really had a problem with [QB] Brock [Purdy] in terms of being aggressive. We’re going to call plays where we’re hoping to get big plays and get explosives. And if Brock sees it right and he’s feeling confident, he’s going to let it rip. But you have to understand what you’re going against.
You have to understand that there’s a nature to the defense you’re playing where there is a bend-but-don’t-break mentality for them where you got to be disciplined. Good quarterbacks got to find a way to balance those things out. When you look at teams who’ve had success against Seattle these past couple years, it’s guys like [Los Angeles Rams QB Matthew] Stafford. And when Brock’s played good against them, it’s that. You get your shots when they’re there. You make the throw, but you’re patient when it’s not there, and you keep playing. So, Brock knows that. And it’s just a big part of this game. It’s part of every week, but especially going against these guys.”
As buttoned up as Seattle is defensively, you can’t shy away from pushing the ball downfield. You have to make them cover and keep every player honest. The 49ers couldn’t last season because they didn’t have the players. Mike Evans and George Kittle change a lot of how the Niners can attack the Seahawks.
Improved team speed should keep the 49ers honest
Kubiak was asked whether he felt the offense was better equipped to attack Seattle this year, and if now they could get Seattle’s safeties to creep up:
“It’s a good question. I think the nature of their scheme, they never want their safeties playing that aggressive at the line of scrimmage. Just the way they play their corners, it’s the way they play their front. It’s really hard to kind of to get those guys out of that, but there is a time and a place where if you can run the ball and you can stay on the field, eventually, hopefully you get more people to commit to the box.
And that’s our goal every week, really, honestly. I think when you look around the league, teams want to play shell until you force them not to. And, these guys, that’s why they’re a good defense – they can defend the run with their corners, with their two-shell defense. And so our goal is to, like every week, run the ball consistently, stay on the field, stay out of obvious passing situations so that we can try to get the defense to tee off a little bit and we can hopefully take advantage of that. But, that’s the goal every week. These guys are especially a big challenge because they defend the run so well from their two-shell.”
The Seahawks safeties could line up 10 yards off because they didn’t fear Jauan Jennings or Kenrick Bourne running by them. They were OK with Jake Tonges running vertical. We haven’t seen them targeted downfield; Jacob Cowing, Jordan Watkins, and Brandin Cooks have the speed to keep a defense honest.
