OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR PRESS TAYLOR
MEDIA AVAILABILITY
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2023
(On challenge of facing San Francisco on Sunday) “They have great players, that’s the first thing that
jumps off the tape. Great players that have been in the system for a while, too. You watch it and it’s a
system that was installed since basically the day Kyle [49ers Head Coach Kyle Shanahan] got there and
it’s kind of lived through different coordinators now at this point in time. But, you see the same schemes
and same structures as they go, combined with great players. A bunch of first round draft picks on the
defensive line and then the one guy that’s not is Hargrave [49ers DL Javon Hargrave] who is a high priced
free agent they went and got. [49ers LB] Fred Warner is as good as any linebacker in the league right
now, then it’s one of those things where you see a group that’s played in a system for a long time and
they way they communicate is really good, the way they feed off each other, they way they know people
like to attack them and the way they respond to that. It’s as good of a unit as we’ve seen so far.”
(On what he noticed in the bye week of the offensive performance so far this season) “The most glaring
thing is the giveaways. To have the record we have and to have given the football away like we have is
not common, and that’s something we know is not a formula for success. The one thing that is good
about it, good or bad, we’ve turned the ball over in scoring positions. So, we’re not putting our defense
in a hole with where we’ve given away the ball in most situations or some. But at the same time, I think
we have eight turnovers when we’re inside our field goal range. If worst case scenario the drive stalls out
and we end up kicking field goals with a really good kicker, those points are critical for us. Instead, we’ve
given the football away and given away opportunities to score. That’s our biggest concern, and then we
need to be better in short yardage. We need to be better in four-minute situations which we’ve had a lot
more of. We need to be better, there’s a lot of areas we need to continue to improve in.”
(On OL Walker Little helping in short yardage situations) “As you look through all of it, I think everybody
has a hand in it. You would like to think as you get a little continuity with the group that you execute
things a little better. We’ve gone back and made sure we are practicing the looks we’re getting in games,
we’re executing it the way we want to execute it, the plays are schemed up the way we want them, the
right people are affecting the play and whatever way we want it to be. As you go back, you kind of want
to just check the whole process of how you get to where you get to, to where it shows up on gameday
and it’s being called.”
(On OL Walker Little returning helps the offense moving forward) “Like you said, you hope that the
continuity creates a stabilizing factor for all of those guys. They all know this is the guy I’m playing next
to, this is how he communicates, this is what he’s capable of, they all trust the guy next to them. I think
they do have trust in the people next to them to be able to execute their job the way they have. The
more you play next to somebody and take snaps next to somebody, the greater that continues to grow.”
(On impressions of OL Ezra Cleveland and his relationship with Offensive Line Coach Phil Rauscher)
“Yeah, that’s definitely a big part of it. We know what we’re adding to our locker room and that’s very
important here with the way we’ve built this team and this roster. Having somebody that can personally
vouch for him and his character and how he is as a teammate, that was a big deal for us. Obviously, we
like the skillset, we like what he’s capable of doing, we like his experience in the league, his experience
playing for one of our position coaches. Obviously, our language is different so he’s having to learn that,
that’s the biggest adjustment. He’s been very diligent about it, he’s been in the building since the day
he’s got here, he’s been here pretty much the whole time. Just meeting with Phil, meeting with
[Assistant Offensive Line Coach] Todd Washington, spending time around [OL] Brandon Scherff and all of
those guys just to make sure we’re all on the same page and we don’t miss a beat when he gets a chance
to roll.”
(On uniqueness of adding depth to the second string of the offensive line) “Yeah, I agree. You’re always
looking for depth across the board, offensive line, you see it in our building and you see it across the
league. You always need depth, it could be this week or next week, whatever it is, it’s going to happen at
some point in time where somebody has to step in and play. To be able to throw an experienced high
caliber player in there, that’s something that definitely excites us.”
(On if the offense can take their performance to another level in the rest of the season) “Absolutely. We
come in every Monday and congratulate the guys on this win streak they’re going, but I think everybody
understands one of the things we’ve been saying is we’re getting better, but we have to get better. That’s
something of the approach we’ve all had, as a coaching staff, as players, as an individual unit, or as
individual positions within our unit, that’s a big thing for us. We got to continue to get better, but we
make no bones about it, we want to win games. If we can contribute to winning, we’re proud of that fact
but we need to play better as this thing continues to grow and in Week 10, we need to be better than we
were in Week 8.”
(On if he’s excited for a chess match of play calling against another offensive coordinator) “I don’t think I
personally do, but I think anytime you go into a game, you approach it with how many points a game are
they scoring, what’s the game going to look like, do we need to be a little more aggressive in certain
situations, you certainly factor that in and we’ve had games like that where you play that way. We’ll do
whatever it takes to win so if we need to go score 40, we want to be able to do that. If we need to score
20, if we need to hold onto the football, whatever that is, that’s the way we want to play the game.”
(On addition of 49ers DL Chase Young changing the offensive game planning) “Yeah, you’re adding
another first round pass rusher to this group that’s already a dynamic pass rushing unit. We’ve played
against him, we’ve played against him last year in Week 1 and being in Philly I saw him a couple of times.
He’s certainly a dynamic player and he’s somebody you have to be aware of, opposite of somebody that
you have to be aware of. I don’t think there’s a scheme that’s going to come out with something
completely crazy that we’ve never seen, especially he’s only been there a week or whatever it is trying to
learn a playbook. They kind of line up and go and now you’ve got edges on both sides that add in two
guys that are already great pass rushers.”
(On difficulty of OL Anton Harrison facing strong pass rushers every week) “Yeah, that’s what it feels like.
It’s not fun, it’s not fun lining up and alright, who are we dealing with this week? They have Chase [49ers
DL Chase Young], they have Bosa [49ers DL Nick Bosa], we were preparing for Bosa. They have Hargrave
[49ers DL Javon Hargrave] who is obviously a great pass rusher inside. All of the sudden, they have
Armstead [49ers DL Arik Armstead], all of the sudden they add Chase Young. This is what we deal with
and we’ve got to continue to build plans to put everybody in the best possible positions to succeed. Our
guys have to go out and make plays and execute.”
(On desire to get other running backs involved other than RB Travis Etienne Jr.) “Yeah, I think we need to
continue to involve as many people as we can. Now, Travis has played well and has produced for us in
critical moments. He’s rattled off a bunch of explosive plays, so there’s even times it’s, ‘Hey, we’re going
to be in empty, we could put somebody else in here.’ Then, all of the sudden, Travis has a 56-yard
touchdown in Pittsburgh in the rain. He’s a guy that’s capable of breaking the game open at any point in
time, but yes, we’d love to take a little bit of physical wear and tear off of him and get somebody else
going in those situations. That’s just on us to put them in situations, put those guys in there and let them
get rolling a little bit with the speed of the game.”
(On comfortability of play calling throughout the season) “I think it’s no different than players. I feel like
each week I’m getting a little more comfortable, I’m just trying to grow and get better every single thing.
Learn from every single call we make, the one thing I’ve learned just talking with Doug [Head Coach
Doug Pederson], talking to people that call plays around the league, you really can’t have any regrets.
You can learn, you can look back and learn from it. I kind of have been a guy that I always want to go
back to my process. How did I get to calling this play in this situation of a game based on this? Okay, what
led to that, what was good about it, what was bad about it? If there was something on a Tuesday night
when I’m doing my study that I could’ve caught that or fixed it or adjusted the gameplan, then that’s
what I want to do. I don’t really have a lot of regrets in a lot of the calls that have come and I just want to
continue to learn. I want to be better for this team in Week 10 than I was in Week 8 just like our players
and what we ask of them.”
DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR MIKE CALDWELL
MEDIA AVAILABILITY
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2023
(On giving pass rushers more freedom with OLB Josh Allen) “I’m glad he looks at it that way because it’s
been the same but there’s more input from the players. They’re able to walk by and they get with me
before I get my final gameplan thoughts together and ask me what I see, I tell them what I see and
they’re like, okay. Then, at times, they’ll see something different and I might make an adjustment, I
might not. But there’s more input from them because I think they understand how we do things around
here. They’re getting used to it so it’s evolving that way.”
(On how the defense has evolved with him understanding players better) “I think it’s me just knowing
the guys and understanding what they do well and what they like to do. Just trying to coordinate it all
together so everybody is trying to be used to their strengths and putting them in position to makes plays
which is the ultimate goal. Whatever we do around here, we want to make sure our guys have
opportunities to go out there and make a play.”
(On what he observed from the defense during the bye week throughout the season so far) “We went
back and looked at it, there’s some tendencies that we understand we have. We try to correct them or
try to do something a little different in certain situations. At the end of the day, we’re going to be who
we are and we’re a team that goes out there and stops the run, gets after the quarterback and that
won’t change.”
(On challenge of San Francisco’s talent) “The players, they have talented players. At the same time, you
can line guys up at multiple different spots and it looks different. You might have to prepare for it
different, they’re doing the same thing, but to a defense, it looks like it’s completely different. You might
have a running back lined up at a receiver, and a receiver lined up at running back and that should freak
you out. At the end of the day, just one guy is one guy and you go out there and play the look.”
(On talent of CB Darious Williams and his elevated ability) “I think he’s always had a talent. The thing
that he doesn’t get credit for is he’s a really, really smart player. He’s a guy that understands receiver
splits, he understands what offenses like to do, and I think Deshea [Passing Game
Coordinator/Cornerbacks Coach Deshea Townsend] does a really good job of breaking it down for the
DB’s every week. They can go out there and play their best. If I’m a DB, I don’t need to worry about a
million routes. I just need to worry about the routes he’s running this week and where he’s running from.
I think the coaching staff does a good job of getting him that information.”
(On if CB Darious Williams is part of his starting basketball group) “I’ve never played with him, but I have
an ear and I hear down in the locker room that he can go. I trust that and when you get another
professional athlete saying another professional athlete can really do another sport really well, they can
do it really well. He would be on my team.”
(On athleticism of CB Darious Williams to make big plays) “For me, I was a three-sport athlete and I really
think it’s important for DB’s especially to play baseball. You can track the ball, but Darious has a
basketball background. The plays you talked about, you can see the coordination of jumping up, catching
the ball, another one, timing the jump, jumping up, and deflecting the ball. The jumping ability, he has
hops, so he used them as a football player.”
(On if there’s another level the defense can take their talent to this season) “Oh, always. There’s a bunch
of plays we leave out there and there’s a lot of things that we would like to do better and we just come in
here every week, I told the guys, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, let’s go have fun on Sunday.
That’s the mindset you have to have and you have to get better every day. What we’ve done in the past,
that doesn’t matter. What happens today matters, what happens Friday matters, Saturday matters, and
Sunday really matters. We need to do it again, that’s how you look at it.”
(On OLB Josh Allen doing something different to create sacks) “He’s finishing. That was one of the goals
coming into this year that we needed to finish more when we rush. Josh has done a great job of getting
away, going home and working on his skill, coming back and he’s studying, he understands what he
wants to do. I just sat down in the defensive line meeting with Coach Buckner [Defensive Line Coach
Brentson Buckner] and Coach Segrest [Assistant Defensive Line Coach Rory Segrest] and Coach Shuey
[Outside Linebackers Coach Bill Shuey], they do a good job of presenting the rush plan. Josh is buying
into the rush plan and it’s paying off for him.”
(On planning to use DT DaVon Hamilton more week by week on defense) “Definitely. That rotation, he’s
one of our guys. He’s a guy that really plays well for us. We’ll continue to get him up to game speed, he’ll
continue to go out there and play more. His reps will continue to increase, and he’ll continue to make
plays for us.”
(On talent of 49ers RB Christian McCaffrey) “He’s a guy that is versatile. He can do whatever you need
him to do, if it’s third and one and you need to get one yard, he can lower his shoulder and get the one
yard. If he needs to bounce the ball outside, he can do that. If you need to catch it, he can do that. I just
got finished looking at it, if you need to throw it, he can do that. At the end of the day, that’s what he
does. He’s a guy that they use in a variety of ways and he can really do all of them really well.”
