The San Francisco 49ers have several players doing media tours this week. Fred Warner sat down with SB Nation’s Jeanna Kelly to share his thoughts on everything from Raheem Morris to his thoughts about some of his teammates.
What are your thoughts about Raheem Morris?
I’ve heard nothing but great things about him. I think everybody has said great things. How much they love him, how well-respected he is around the league as a man and as a coach. I’m eager to get him in the building, meet him, talk scheme, and about his plans for our defense.
And ultimately, try to win a Super Bowl.
What did you learn about this team during the time that you were out?
Honestly, you learn a lot when you’re behind the scenes and not watching from the sideline. I think we have one of the best cultures and standards of any team in the entire NFL, and you really learn that when you go through hard times as we have. When you have a bunch of guys who are kind of your key players, guys who you are paying a lot of money to win you a game on Sundays, and they’re on the sidelines. You’re asking guys to come up and play meaningful minutes. We found ways to win. We have the best head coach in the game, Kyle Shanahan.
It was stuff that I already knew, but you learn and reinforce that even more in a season like this.
Which defensive player impressed you the most in your absence?
I gotta give it to my guy, Upton Stout, who is our rookie nickel cornerback—probably 5’9”, 5’10”, a buck 70, a buck 80. Not the biggest guy, but has the biggest dog in him, in his heart. He plays the game the right way. He’s one of my favorite NFL players right now. That’s how well he plays the game. He does it the right way. He’s awesome. Love having him on my team.
Why should 49ers fans feel confident in Mykel Williams?
Yeah, I think he’s just made of the right stuff. I think, obviously, he came from a really prestigious program in Georgia, where he learned a lot of crazy things and techniques and how to play the game at a high level. That carried over really well at the beginning of the season, being able to play him and plug him on the outside and on the inside of our defensive line.
He’s really strong at the point of attack. It bodes well for him in the run game. He’s only going to grow in the pass game, and his pass-rush tools are going to build up. He’s going to be a really good player for us.
Do you have a take on the substation?
Unfortuatelny I don’t. I don’t have a huge take on it because it’s something that’s kind of a hot topic right now, because of how injured we were at peak positions. People want something juicy to talk about and point the finger at.
At the end of the day, I don’t think there’s enough there or research behind it to validate it. Is it something? I don’t know. Is it nothing? I don’t know. I guess we’ll see as time goes on. I guess they’ll do more research and we’ll find out.
How are you doing with your rehab?
So great. So good. I’m feeling back to myself again. It was a crazy injury, and something that I really couldn’t avoid. It was just being caught at the wrong point in time. But, luckily, they put everything back together in that surgery room, and I’m right back to myself.
