© Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports
INDIANAPOLIS — Kyle Shanahan had plenty to talk about since the last time we saw him.
The 49ers head coach spoke with the media Wednesday afternoon at the 2019 NFL Combine. Shanahan provided updates on the team’s stars recovering from knee injuries, ongoing franchise-tag situation, new coaching hires, and more.
Here are the five things we learned.
Jimmy Garoppolo is ahead of schedule
Jimmy Garoppolo’s season-ending knee injury in Week 3 sucked the life out of the 2018 season and delayed everything until 2019. The positive news: the timing of his injury didn’t jeopardize his availability for the upcoming season.
Garoppolo has experienced no known setbacks during his recovery. He is on schedule to return, in limited fashion, for OTAs in June. He is expected to participate in training camp, starting in late July, without limitation.
Shanahan believes Garoppolo is ahead of schedule — and he isn’t just saying it.
“Everyone says they’re ahead of schedule, but he is,” Shanahan said. “He’s feeling great. He hasn’t had knee trouble before, and it was a clean ACL (tear).”
Jerick McKinnon, who tore his ACL one week before the season, will likely will not rejoin the 49ers until training camp. By all accounts, his recovery has gone smoothly, but Shanahan wants to play it safe.
“We don’t want guys falling into their legs, and that’s easier to control at quarterback than running back,” Shanahan said.
49ers hope to extend Robbie Gould to a multi-year contract after using the franchise tag
Applying the franchise tag to kicker Robbie Gould was the first step. Gould will be a 49er in 2019. Shanahan now hopes both sides can agree on an extension after the March 5 franchise-tag window and before the 2019 season.
“I know how bad we want him,” Shanahan said. “Hopefully, we’ll meet somewhere in the middle and it will work out.”
In two years with the 49ers, Gould connected on 72 of 75 field goal attempts, the most accurate two-year stretch for a kicker with at least 50 attempts in NFL history. He made game-winners in three of San Francisco’s 10 wins over that span.
Gould’s apparent hesitation with signing a long-term deal may have something to do with wanting to return to Chicago, where his family lives. Gould has been on numerous podcasts and Chicago radio stations in recent weeks talking about his love for Chicago, where his permanent home resides. He is the franchise’s all-time leading scorer.
But any thoughts of a Chicago reunion will have to wait at least a year. It’s not all bad for Gould — he will make more than $5 million in 2019 after making $2 million in each of the past two seasons.
The defensive line will look a bit different
You can’t say the 49ers haven’t addressed their lack of pass rush.
Throughout the past year, the 49ers have overhauled the defensive line staff to emphasize pass-rushing. Last February, they hired Chris Kiffin to be their pass rush specialist, a newly created position. Earlier this month, the team fired defensive line coach Jeff Zgonina and replaced him with former Dolphins defensive line coach Kris Kocurek.
That move, according to Shanahan, was by no means a reflection of Zgonina’s performance. Shanahan credited him for introducing the run-stopping principles that led the 49ers to success this past season. San Francisco allowed 4.1 yards per carry (seventh-best in the NFL) and 113.4 yards per game (14th-best in the NFL).
Kocurek was brought in to revitalize a pass rush that went dormant for long stretches in 2018. San Francisco’s 37 sacks tied for 22nd in the NFL last year.
In doing so, Shanahan said the 49ers will deploy “wider nines,” essentially stretching the defensive line to create more pass-rush opportunities.
“We wanted to bring in something else in terms of pass rush, coming off the ball, and that’s kind of what Kris has excelled in,” Shanahan said. “I think it will match up good with the rest of our seven.”
Shanahan said very little about Antonio Brown
Even a no-story on this topic is a story. For the past two months, Antonio Brown has befriended several current 49ers players and former stars, creating speculation that the 49ers would trade for the seven-time Pro Bowler.
Shanahan wouldn’t feed into that prospect Wednesday. He was continually asked about Brown, and he responded with generalities.
“Draft, free agency, and trade is an option for every single position on the team,” Shanahan said.
“We are in the market for any player that makes our team better at any position,” Shanahan said.
Shanahan’s longest response touched on the peril of bringing in someone temperamental. Brown, who sat out of Pittsburgh’s season finale and has publicly demanded a trade, fits that description.
“You take that into account on everything,” Shanahan said. “That’s why you’d like to deal with people you know and have an idea on. We try to hold everyone accountable on our team. We are pretty consistent with that. There’s not much to talk about. If someone isn’t like that, we do have a problem with that.
“I don’t think anyone is good enough to deal with that. I know what you’re getting at, but there’s situations for everything, and you have to talk to people and find out. I don’t make any decisions based off what we all hear out there. You don’t know what’s true and what’s not. You wait to see what’s a reality and see what happens.”
If Shanahan is interested in Brown, he isn’t letting it be known.
Shanahan praises new hires
The 49ers made 12 changes to their coaching and health and performance staffs Wednesday. Two of those names are former Pro Bowl receivers: Wes Welker and Miles Austin.
Similar to their approach with the defensive line room, the 49ers have added coaches to their receiving corps in hopes to accelerate the learning curve. Aside from Marquise Goodwin, every 49ers receiver enters either his second or third professional season. Last year, Kendrick Bourne led the group with 487 receiving yards, which ranked No. 97 in the NFL.
When recruiting position coaches, Shanahan said he tries to “get someone in who played the position, which is sometimes tough to do. But if you can find someone who did it and feel they’re prepared from a coaching standpoint, that’s the best of both worlds.”
Welker qualifies. A five-time Pro Bowl receiver, Welker served the past two seasons as an offensive/special teams assistant with the Houston Texans.
Shanahan said he has admired Welker ever since the two played against each other in college (Shanahan with Texas and Welker with Texas Tech).
“That’s a guy who not only was really talented but made it because of what was upstairs also and how he developed,” Shanahan said.
Shanahan coached Austin during their lone season in Cleveland in 2014. From there, Shanahan saw a potential coach in the making.
“A guy like that, you’re, ‘Hey, man, if you’re ever interested in being a coach, you’d be a hell of one,’” Shanahan said. “But I also think a lot of those guys are too smart to be coaches. ‘You made some money, your life is happy, seems like your wife likes you, you don’t have to do move much. Why do you want to come coach?’
“Usually a lot say, ‘II just miss it.’ Those are the guys who come and do it for a year and say, ‘This isn’t what I thought.’ Miles got into scouting in Dallas and had done it a bit. He’s been hitting us up for a while.”
Also of importance: the 49ers exercised Arik Armstead’s fifth-year option, making him San Francisco’s second-highest paid defensive player in 2019. Read more about that here.