George Kittle, Christian McCaffrey Talk Season Opener and Team Continuity | 49ers

TE George Kittle uh it's just fun to be back in here with like a purpose like when you're in here for OTAs and like to start a training camp you know you're just trying to get a little bit better trying to practice and then once the first season hits first game of the season first week you have the game plan in um definitely the vibe is excellent and then also when you get a solve out uh some contract stuff and all your players are here it's definitely very fun was there a a noticeable difference just specifically with this week in terms of Trent and Brandon being back where it was it felt like go time um yes and no I mean I think we did a really good job all of training camp of like working really hard and getting better with the players that we had on the football field and like it's hard to replace someone like Trent Williams who's a walking first out Hall of Famer um and Brandon iuk who's just a phenomenal wide receiver I will say um a lot of the guys who had weren't here last year when they saw Trent Williams are like holy cow that's Trent Williams and like just his presence on a football field is probably the most noticeable of anyone else I've ever seen on a football field before it's the most continuity I think this off ever had stuff like returning starters yeah everyone's back right that's pretty cool so uh on top of that from the cohesion perspective and all the outside Zone stuff you do uh route running how do you think that could positive affect early um I mean it's just like when you're not starting from scratch you're not having to teach a bunch of like new guys new plays or like we're not having to teach new free agents like hey this is your Landmark you need to get these steps and coach 's office is very like particular the amount of rules that are in everything like every single play tells every single person what to do whether it's like like I said your Landmark your steps whatever it is and when you've been in the system for a couple years it makes it a lot easier and so just I think we're going to be able to start like doing all the plays that we were doing later in the season last year and just start with those off the rip and not just have to work with those and then now KY will get a little bit more creative with those as well too does that continuity help with the the fact that Kyle makes such a big deal about practicing reps and Christian talks about it incessantly you know reps reps reps he hasn't had a lot of reps and iuk hasn't had a lot of reps and Trent hasn't had a lot of reps but that continuity can compensate for that that's a great question I think that the guys who have been missing reps are talented enough that um they're going to be okay now you might see a little bit of rust I don't know I don't really expect to see rust I think you know we had two really good days of practice and I know that you know the guys here missed a couple practic here and there you know they're going to be just fine and uh you know it's Monday night football only game on television like they're going to be up and ready for it I'm not worried about them and you know like I said you know most of our roster was here practicing so I think a lot of guys are ready and they're going to go out there and play at a high level but yeah I mean they know the offense it's not like they're learning a brand new offense right yeah sure maybe um Trent now used to work on his sets and stuff like that but the nice thing at the end of the day is that Trent Williams is Trent Williams and he's going to be okay what about Christian George what do what do you expect to see out of Christian I mean he's the defending NFL rushing champ offensive player of the year how has he gotten better over the I thought you were going to give him one more compliment and he got married yeah good job Ken that was a good one um was a compliment my expectations for Christian um whatever his expectations are for him himself which I know are very high he has an incredibly high standard for himself um he takes this incredibly seriously um you know every time Kyle talks about him uh you know gives him his flowers about how hard he works how meticulous he is how hard he is on himself 24/7 um and so I I I believe that Christian going to and have another a great year um there was an anonymous poll and I think Christian should be you know he'll probably compete for the MVP but I wasn't allowed to pick someone on my own team which I think is yes but it is what it is uh but no Christian's going to have another fantastic football season what are the Hallmarks of a Robert solid um legendary is what I would say Juan Alexander energy that's what I would go with like just everyone flying around on the same page um Everybody rushing everyone swarming um you know just guys defensive lineman making tackles 10 yards down the field getting uh like the strip fumbles from behind um penetrating edges penetrating uh nose tackles I would say just um yeah I'd say flying around and just whatever energy qu Alexander is that's Robert Sol this is the type thing there where you RB Christian McCaffrey sat out maybe practice longer than you would would have during season or something at a precaution or every day presents new challenges you know it's just you got to do what you got to do like oh my God what are your expectations coming this year you know I was telling Geor defending NFL rushing champ offensive player the other things on and on what do you have in mind for yourself that's going to reflect the team I think it's just taking it one play at a time you know I don't I don't like to look at you know what's ahead each play has a life of its own and um just do what you have to do on on each play take care of the things that you control and then go from there see what happens the team that you're playing plays a very similar style of Defense to this one um does that present an advantage or a disadvantage to you guys um I mean we we we'll see they they play really well together they play great team defense obviously they're well coached and um play with good team speed they discipline they run fast um definitely present a lot of challenges Christian what you think of Mason and the way he ran this summer he was impressive he did great man he did great I think he did he did such a good job filling it I think our our whole room has really um you know pushed the standard and and that's been something that's been cool to see what's it been like in practice this week having Trent Brandon back basically everybody back now really cool uh yeah it's it's been uh definitely a um a little bit of fresh energy in the building knowing that all that stuff's behind us so we can just play football now have you seen uh studi or seen or St you studi but with Bree home mat so what are your thoughts yeah definitely I have a lot of respect for Bree I think he's a heck of a back he's big fast strong can make any cut uh he sees it well um you know he can make big plays when they're not there and uh yeah I have I have tremendous respect for him Frank G was on the radio today talking about one of the first times he met you was at joint practices do you remember this yeah he was in Buffalo yeah yeah do you remember him saying anything to you uh man I remember I remember meeting them sometimes when you meet people that you watched as a kid uh you're just worried about not saying anything stupid so I don't remember exactly what he said to me but I remember meeting him and it was a big honor when I did and now being able just to chat with him a little bit has been really cool I think he said basically he remembered just telling you he was impressed by what he heard about you so he went and watched film of you I do remember he said he watched it was the second day when I met him and he he came in the second day and said he had a you know some cool compliments like the way you worked yeah hearing it from someone like that met a lot what does it mean to you to be named 49ers team cup for the first time oh that's a huge honor man I mean some great company um definitely a big honor take seriously and don't take lightly you watch kind of studied the your rookie class and if so um what what jumped out to you among the the nine players they I've been really impressed with our rookie class I think you know sometimes when rookies come in you don't know what you're going to get but every single one of these guys works extremely hard they have the right attitude the right intent um they all fit really well within you know the way that we do things around here and I've just been really impressed with all of them