© Isaiah J. Downing | 2019 Aug 19
As the San Francisco 49ers gear up to take on the Kansas City Chiefs in their third preseason game, the team still has plenty to refine and sort out before the season starts. Garoppolo needs to shake off some rust, positional battles on defense have to be won, and perhaps most importantly, players have to get healthy.
49ers Head Coach Kyle Shanahan stopped by the Murph & Mac show on Friday morning to discuss the upcoming game against the Kansas City Chiefs, Jimmy Garoppolo, and some other important things from training camp.
After watching Jimmy Garoppolo and his offense struggle against the Denver Broncos last week Kyle Shanahan plans on having them get a lot more reps tomorrow in Kansas City.
“We’d like to play all our starters a half, definitely want to keep the offense in that long,” Shanahan said. “If they don’t get a lot of plays and stuff then we’d consider letting them come out in the third quarter.”
The offense isn’t the only thing that Coach Shanahan is looking forward to seeing in the upcoming game, he has his sights set on a battle to land the starting free safety spot between Tavarius Moore and Jimmie Ward.
“It’s going, that’s what I’m excited to see in this game,” Shanahan connoted. “You know Jimmie, he had that spot. Jimmie is a very good player and we know we can win with Jimmie at that spot, but Tarvarius has come in and done a very good job. Tarvarius got that opportunity when Jimmie got hurt in OTAs and Tarvarius got better throughout OTAs and he’s been getting better and better throughout training camp. I do think that’s gonna be one that’s fun to watch.”
Ward, 28, has not played in more than 10 games for the 49ers since his 2016, while Moore, 22, played in all 16 games for the team during his rookie season last year.
Shanahan also provided an update on running back Jerick McKinnon and his shared his plan to get him ready for the season.
“Jet’s still not ready to go, we’re gonna ramp it up here, he’s gonna stay back and we’re gonna work him out hard while we’re gone. We’re gonna leave that with a number of guys and then hopefully when we get back and we have the Chargers week, and it is a short will, it’ll be our third game in 10 days, so not a lot of guys on our team will be able to practice. I’m excited to try and put something together for the guys who have been injured, guys like Richburg, guys like Jet. Trying to get them out there so we can get that ramped up a little bit so we can, as coaches and for them, just get a better idea of where they’re at going into the Tampa week.”
McKinnon, who signed a four-year $36.9 million contract with the team last year, has yet to play in a game for the 49ers due to a torn ACL he sustained during practice prior to the start of last season.
Listen to the full interview with Shanahan below.