Nick Sorensen and 49ers Players Preview Preseason Week 3 Matchup vs. Raiders

e e e e and we like to challenge our guys and see what they can handle and when you see that they can handle it it's it's awesome it gives you that flexibility and he's just a competitive kid that's smart that wants to do it right do you see that it's cleared his mind allowed them to play a little bit faster on the outs yeah anytime you can we we told him in that block it was like we just want you to focus on Corner this block so yeah that's gonna for anybody it's just like when you're learn you have a linebacker who's just playing one spot it doesn't seem like a lot but it's like moving an old Lin to a different position anytime you do any of that it's just harder than you think it may sound not that hard on paper when you just talk about it but it is it's a big difference so yeah it definitely cleared them up to play faster and it was good to see put the ramp up how how much time does go Huff need after missing you know excuse me how much time in terms of a ramp up he need when he gets back to they we've got guys that they've got all that they've been doing this for a long time and they're really good at it so they have all the metrics and the measurements and all the checkpoints which he's been going through that process there's so much years and years of data and they've been with them they'll let us know so I think it's justb amount of time a guy needs just to be back comfortable in the I think it just depends on the player he's got a lot of experience so with someone like Huff you would trust him you know as long as you know once he comes back and he's communicating like he did he's moving like he did and you can trust you know what you're seeing but also what they're telling you in their comfort level it' be different than someone who's new or someone who's played eight years you know so I think with him it's once he feels good and ready to go you know we we'll we'll go with that start having the conversations to cut down to to 53 and so you're deciding between a guy who's been been around a veteran a little while and a younger guy who maybe you have some upside there what kind of goes into that and how much does now that you can keep veterans in the practice squad maybe change the equation of what what it used to be oh it makes a huge difference I mean it wasn't too long ago you only had five practice squad players and there were so many limitations on that the standard elevations now that you can do with players and how many times you can do it I think it's I think it's smart cuz back in the day and or even in those days not too long ago you you you would play through injuries you know you would you wouldn't report them or you would just play through them where now it's you can be smarter because you can standard Elevate guys and you've got guys that are in your program that you're developing you know the 16 and six of them are veterans which I think also extends the careers of these guys that all feel like you could play longer if you just had a chance that you could hang around so it also makes the whole onboarding of players a lot better too where they're not just showing up on a Monday workout and then you're you sign them in meeting with them on Tuesday and shoot they could play that week that still happens but you usually want to keep guys that are in your program and I think that permeates throughout the league and the Not only is it good for injuries it's good for the product of football in the NFL you see guys that already know what they're doing because they've been on your team on practice squad your side of the ball has been pretty clean in terms of uh injuries knock on wood but um are you do you feel good about where you're at and you said before you're never going to be totally satisfied but yeah is this about where you hope you'd be at this point it is because of the mindset of the guys I think everyone likes who they're playing with and they likes they like how everything is progressing um like I said we try to make stuff harder for guys and the communication's good the energy is good and in that respect I'm I am pleased not you're never totally happy but as far as our progress how our guys are you know our coaches are coaching how the players are getting coached and how they're working together and getting closer together they work hard every single day and that's really to me it's a day by day I know I've said it before if work hard get better it's just and and being shortsighted like that's a good thing I think as a play caller how much flexibility does Fred give you and what he can do as a what what did you say play caller how much flexibility does Fred Warner give you in terms of kind of put him in any position maybe experiment how much flexibility does that give you and what makes him so unique what makes Fred unique he's just he's a machine he's I think he's the best linebacker in the NFL I mean he does it every single day he's a he's so consistent he's a leader he plays fast he plays physical he plays he attacks the ball he's a good tackler he's good in coverage I mean he's just to me he's complete but what he does is he plays he practices like that every single day that's why I you know referenced that he's kind of like a machine it's just an every single day thing with him and he's trained and it's very serious I don't think any player I ever played with or have coached it's never an accident it's never a coincidence they a lot of times they are extremely dedicated they have a clear plan and they probably work the hardest you you've had a month now to look at your new front floor with Bosa and Hargrave and Collins and Floyd what are you seeing out of those guys and and I know you like to rotate a lot on the front but it seems like with those four they might be able to handle a bigger workload than normal um yeah they're fun because they do have such good movement and Power power I think they really work well together I think they enjoy you know working together on the stunts but also you know taking pride in the Run game that you got to earn your pass rushes by being good in the Run game and um just excited excited to see those guys play together grah looks pretty special and what do what does he need to do as far as development to to get to that next level so he's running with the ones yeah you talk about Jaylen Graham yeah it's the linebacker room is really a competitive group right now as you've seen those like d Dian jayen from last year to this year progressed a lot after that rookie season but it's just all of them together have kind of made it competitive and progress together it's really going to be a tough decision for us obviously plays like 100 miles an hour and that's great I'm sure um but it seemed like on Sunday there were maybe some M tackles overrunning guys does he need to I don't know dial obviously you don't want to take away his aggression or what he so excellent but no I think there were two of them you probably think of one was like both of them were kind of on the sideline one of them he kind of got tripped a little bit if you watch it and then another one he just he just got to trust it and keep going I don't think he overran it I think he just needs to trust and that's our tackling style of understanding that he can just keep triggering and go he's already shown that he can do that so now it's when someone shows that they can do something all right we're more concerned with what you can do let's try and do that as much as possible all right thank you guys thanks [Music] guys e e how much better are you as NFL player now than a year ago uh I would say just like a lot a lot a lot better uh being able to be in a room for a whole year around great guys like coach Holland and then you get to watch Fred Dre and last year OB watch them guys fly around every Sunday so it can't do nothing but get better and learn from them J you have two personalities I seem like an easygo guy easy to talk to in the locker room but on the field you just seem like all business yeah I mean I feel like most of us got to have like on the football field you can't kind of be the same as you are off the field especially me I play linebacker on defense so can't really be as cool and calm on know like I am off the field what's your persona on the field how would you describe that feel uh just uh fast physical and violent seemed like last year at this time you were playing a lot of middle linebackers this year might be a little bit more on the outside roles is is that right and did playing line middle last year you know make it easier to play the outside roles this year uh yeah so I am playing a little bit more I just been uh rotating in wherever they need me at but uh like you said just playing stting at that mic uh for me it just helped knowing kind of what everybody does so switching to uh Sam and Will it's made it an easier adjustment you said a lot lot where like specifically have you impr I would like to say like actually being in the Box I was in college more so like outside in kind of and now just just playing in the Box being comfortable in the Box uh how the lineman get to you from being in the box from the way being outside so just kind of everything that goes with it just just getting better at it and seeing it and it's slowing down for me so that's good can you notice the difference uh with just a couple this practice and maybe one more to go before the cut from 90 to 53 did things start to feel different at practice uh not really I think for us is every every day we going out there giving 110% uh and doing whatever Kyle has us doing as far as periods and everybody's going to give it they all about special teams do you feel more comfortable teams you were ago uh yeah I think it's uh just like just like linebacker it's another year uh in the room doing the drills outside uh kind of just being more acclimated to the way we do different things on special teams so yeah definitely Jaylen how cool has it been for you to have green law and Warner two of the best to do it right now as an example that was extremely great uh like I said earlier just being able to watch them for a whole year and now another year going into the offseason uh and coming out until the year it's just been great to watch them and see how they operate uh their Pros Pros everything they do they try to to be the best at it and they're they're as good as they are they're always trying to be better so that that's always a good thing so you a year ago you probably just you know keeping your head above water and trying to keep up but now you've done it for a year do you look around at this unit and what you have and the pieces you have in place and think this is this could be a really good defense oh yeah definitely I think uh last year we had a really good defense and I think uh every day they brought uh guys in and guys back for us to have another good defense this year um I think everybody's out there just working each day and uh trying to be the best we can be do you have a connection with Keen Turner uh a little bit yeah yep I had uh met him well actually the first time I seen him was like my freshman year he was um getting um kind of award type thing for a homecoming game um so that was the first time I seen him and then when I had came on my 30 visit we actually got to talk a little bit more and everything so that was great is it fun for you to watch a guy like Mustafa I think Kyle said man the guy's a real Thumper oh yeah yeah definitely uh he he just go out there play 110 miles per hour and he play defense the way it should be played so anything else all right thanks sh apprciate it e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e for