SANTA CLARA — The 49ers are reeling.
They’re 3-4 and half of their offense is injured. If they’re going to make a run this season, they’re going to need lots of rookies to spearhead it.
On Wednesday, head coach Kyle Shanahan was asked about his rookies’ ability to pick up the slack. Here’s what he said courtesy of the 49ers’ p.r. department.
Q: I know you’ve had a number of rookies that have already played kind of prominent roles and maybe more coming here with some of the injuries and stuff. What is your sense of just kind of the confidence level of that group as a whole and maybe the way they push each other to kind of produce?
SHANAHAN: “I’ve really liked our rookie class. They’ve been strong since the beginning, the way they came to OTAs. I was real impressed with them through training camp. I am now. None of them really, with the thought of drafting, didn’t have starting roles. But we were excited with how they practiced and everything and knew they’d give us some depth and now some are getting some opportunities because of injury and I’m glad we have a good group there. I think they’ll be ready for the challenge and they seem like a tight group.”
Q: When those other guys see a guy like Dominick Puni, who does step into a role pretty quickly, do you get the sense that those guys are like, “Hey, there is opportunity out here for me, even on a team that has a roster like this?”
SHANAHAN: “Yeah, I do. I think, I mean with Puni, I don’t think he thought it the first week or so, or at least OTAs, and then you have two guys go down in the first four days of practice and it happens fast. So that’s a perfect example for everybody. You try to tell stories like that all the time to these guys. Don’t ever think it’s a redshirt year. There’s no such thing in this league. And it’s not just rookies, it’s the same for practice squad guys. You’re only, usually it’s one injury away, but sometimes it’s two, but it’s a matter of time. Some guys can get lucky and people stay healthy the whole time and they can really develop the right way. But usually in this league you rarely get that.”