Pass game coordinator/ wide receiver coach Chad O’Shea (10.13.23)
San Francisco’s defense, considering the kind of the connection between their D line coach and Jim (Schwartz), is there a lot of do you see a lot of similarities between what they do defensively and what you guys do?
“Yeah, I think that first of all, San Fran is so impressive on defense. On all levels of their defense. Our focus in the receiver room has been really on the back end, and we’ve been so impressed with watching them this week and how well they’ve played. We have a great challenge, and they are also, on the level one, very impressive, which forces you to play on time in the pass game. So, we can’t spend a lot of time at the line of scrimmage. We can’t spend a lot of time at the top of the routes. We need to do a great job of playing with route technique and playing on time because they are so good at all levels of the defense.”
You have to prepare for P.J. Walker, your third quarterback, potentially in five weeks. How’s it going with your receivers out there? How are they adjusting to P.J.? What does he bring to the table that might be a little bit different?
“Yeah, P.J. has been great to work with. He’s worked extremely hard with our receiving group. They’ve also done a great job of working well with him. It’s been impressive to see them put the time in both the meeting room, the walk-throughs, and on the field. So, our focus really isn’t for the group that I coach. It isn’t who is the quarterback. It’s more of doing our job, doing it at a high level and executing the things that we think are most important to win. But I’ve been certainly impressed with P.J. and the way he’s approached practice, walkthroughs, the meeting room. And it’s been very nice to see the receiving group and him work well together.”
After the game, like, Amari (Cooper) was a little bit hard on himself after the (Baltimore) Ravens game, saying he didn’t feel like he did enough to help DTR (Dorian Thompson-Robinson). Like, I guess, number one, what does that say about Amari? But what do you think needs to kind of happen on the receiver end when you do have a younger or more inexperienced quarterback?
“Yeah, Amari’s been so exceptional at being a team guy, and that’s the one thing is – people talk about his exceptional route running and some of the things that he brings to the table as a player physically. But what a lot of people don’t see, that I see every day, is how impressive he is as far as the traits of the person. He puts the team first in everything he does. He thinks of others before he thinks of himself. So, I think when Amari’s referencing, I can do more and I need to do better, it’s truly, that’s what it is. He always comes to work feeling like he can be better, that he needs to do more, and that if he does that, he’s going to help his teammates be better. And we’re closely related to the quarterback position being receivers, so a lot of times that is true. If we do our job better, we’re going to help that position. And we’re so grateful to have Amari, and not only because of what he brings physically on the field but more importantly for me, as a coach, of what he brings to the table as a person.”
Elijah (Moore) is probably not off to the start he wanted to get off to, but how confident are you that you guys can kind of get him on track here?
“I think that – the first thing is, I stress to the players, let’s manage expectations. And every week is very different. So, our sample size so far this year has been four games, and all four of those games have been very different. And each player has a different role within those games. So, this week’s different than obviously it was the previous week. So I think that Elijah has done an exceptional job, just like Amari, of being very coachable, of trying to take the information that we provide him in the meeting room, taking it to the field, and then execute it at a high level. He’s also a player that’s very competitive, that has high expectations for himself, he has high expectations for our offensive group. And I’m glad we have those guys both between Elijah, himself or Donovan (Peoples-Jones) and those other guys in the room, they’re competitive, they want to win, but they’ll put the team first. And I think it’s great to have those guys. And we don’t ever get caught up in talking to the players about, ‘hey, we need ten catches, we need this type of production. What can you do to help us win within the game plan that we put forth?'”
Amari has talked a lot about his communication style and it being two-way and how he talks with the quarterbacks and that’s kind of a really big focus for him. I guess, how have you seen him grow in that? Especially within this kind of situation this week, but also not only with the quarterbacks, with the other receivers, like, just his communication among them?
“Yeah, we really lean on Amari as a veteran presence. He’s accomplished a lot as a player, and he’s willing to provide that information to our other players. There’s ongoing communication that he does a great job of with our coaching staff, with our quarterbacks, of just let’s all see it the same way. Let’s all be on the same page. I think that’s a great challenge to any time that you play receiver is, let’s be on the same page with the quarterback. And Amari really works hard and has great communication during the week of trying to ensure that happens. And that includes not only with our own players in the room but specifically the quarterback position because we do work closer with that position than we do others.”
How much do you think that Marquise (Goodwin) not being out there for all preseason and training camp kind of affected his production and even a number of snaps in those first four weeks?
“Yeah, I think as the season goes, things change and players have different roles within the year. It’s such a long season. A guy like…take some of our rookie receivers who transition to try to learn the offense and it takes them some time. Certainly, things that help that is being on the field, and you know with Marquise not being out there, did it hurt him? I mean, there are so many other ways that you can learn the offense that you can understand how to play within the offense from walkthroughs to the meeting room, that I don’t think it’s a great disadvantage of him missing the time during the preseason. And it’s great now to see him up and going, moving forward, and he’s healthy and he’s out there every day. So that’s what’s most important – right now, presently he’s out there and we’re moving forward and he’s making improvements every day.”
Do you see his role expand as you guys try to find some of those explosive pass plays?
“Yeah, I think all the players’ roles, I really feel like they’re evolving and they change as we go throughout the season. And I’ve talked to the players a lot about their roles, what they make it, and it’s important that they take what we provide them every week, game plan-wise, and they just try to do that the best they can. Do I expect players’ roles to increase, decrease – there’s so much uncertainty because it’s such a week-to-week, game plan-oriented league that it’s hard to say. I mean this week could be different than next week and so forth. The thing that’s been very impressive about Marquise is how he’s worked, how he’s tried to be a great teammate and do everything we’ve asked him to do. And I think good things to happen if he continues to do that.”
On the film over the bye week, did it seem like using Elijah Moore in the sort of wide back, having him run the ball is still a smart thing to do? Or might he need to get his confidence going in the passing game?
“Yeah, I think as I’ve talked about Elijah before, he’s very versatile and we’ll continue to use his versatility. Some weeks it might be more in one area, some weeks it might be less. That’s all just going to be dependent on the plan. It’s a very week-to-week basis on how we utilize him. But the good thing is he has a large menu to use, that he is versatile, so we can pick from all those things. And I think a lot of his usage truly depends on that week and who the opponent is and what his role is just for that specific game plan.”
Is it sometimes, just for a receiver to just take a catch, take a big drive to kind of spark that confidence and kind of get them up on the upswing?
“I think confidence is a huge part of not only the receivers but just players in general. And sometimes it does just take a catch, a drive. Over my experience, there have been examples of that where a player has a couple of good plays, and it really sparks the confidence, and they get some momentum going, and it leads to greater things. So, I think definitely one play, one drive, one game can really help a player’s confidence.”
Heading into this game and with that kind of bouncing around the uncertainty at the quarterback position for your room, specifically, how does that versatility impact the offense with that uncertainty at quarterback this week?
“Yeah, the first thing that we evaluate when we acquire players is just their ability to be versatile, both physically and mentally. And the players that can be versatile and play in multiple roles and do different things for us, help the other players on offense to include the quarterback. So, the more we can do, the more we can learn, the more we can provide value for the team in different and multiple roles, that has great value to our team. And at the end of the day, with all that being said, regardless of the role you’re in, what we say is get open, catch the ball, and let’s compete in the run game. So, there’s really three things we got to get done at the receiver position, but we’ll do that in multiple roles.”
Cedric (Tillman), with the hip, being added to the injury report yesterday, do you think you can count on him this weekend and what’s going on with him?
“Yeah, I mean, we’ll see where we are with that. I’ll let Kevin (Stefanski) talk about the injuries and see where we are after today. But I know that all of our guys that we just met with our receiving group, and they were great in the meeting, they’re all getting ready to play. They’re all doing a great job in preparation. I just love the way this group works, and it’s really impressive to see what they can take to the meeting room, to the field. But I’ll let Kevin talk about the injury situation.”
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