Steve Marshall – October 6, 2020
Download PDF version
Tuesday, October 6, 2020
Offensive Line Coach Steve Marshall
(I know you’re not a doctor, but do you have any early feel for how T Austin Jackson is doing whether you’re going to have him this week and how has he played this year do you think?) – “I don’t know. We’ll see. It’s a day-by-day thing and we start practice back tomorrow and whoever shows up. Obviously the whole thing is we want him a full 100 percent and ready to roll. So it’s day-by-day and we’ll make our plans with him or without him. We’ve just got to get ready to go. Austin has had a great start to this season. I think he’s learning every time he’s gone out there. I’m very, very excited for his future and I think he can be a heck of a pro offensive left tackle.”
(We had Offensive Coordinator Chan Gailey on earlier talking about G Ereck Flowers and calling his start to the season very good – praising both his leadership and on-field performance; but he said that Ereck is competitive but quiet throughout the week. In your experience – all of your years of offensive line experience – how are quiet guys able to lead and how does that apply to Ereck Flowers?) – “Ereck Flowers is a quiet man from talking; but when he does talk, he’s an experienced player. He’s been through some ups and downs in his career, and he’s – Ted (Karras) and Jesse (Davis) and Ereck – you guys have asked a lot about the young guys, but the real credit goes to those guys as far as helping young guys, and Ereck is certainly leadership-wise, and he does it with his play. He has played very well his first four games, and I think he’s done well and he’s exceeded expectations, and we’re going to count on him moving forward as we are the rest of the guys.”
(I wanted to ask you how do you think T Julién Davenport performed and what has he shown you so far early in the season since you joined the franchise?) – “Julién is another guy – a quiet guy. He’s been around the block. He’s in I think his third year, fourth year in the NFL, and came in and played in a tough situation. We were down, we had to throw it and he did a nice job. He’s a smart guy – very intellectual guy and has really worked hard to improve on some of the things we talked about in the offseason, and going forward we’re going to count a lot on Julién.”
(What have you noticed about T Robert Hunt when he’s in the game as that extra offensive tackle or tight end? I noticed he’s been in there a few times in each and also how close to ready is he in terms of understanding the playbook and scheme?) – “Rob has been – he’s in there because he’s a big, strong man, and he has done a great job. He gives us a matchup where he can handle defensive ends and things like that because of his athleticism and run blocking. Rob’s right there. Rob – we’ve got Jesse (Davis) and Austin (Jackson), and Rob’s right there. It’s not anything Rob isn’t ready to handle, but he’s a young player and he’s worked extremely hard here in practice. We’ll see moving forward, but I think the sky’s the limit for the guy. I think he’s a tough guy and he’s learning the pro game, which how do you learn it? You get out and play at this position, like we’ve talked in the past. It’s a repetition position, and he’s performed well in the limited time he had, and moving forward, I see him – we’re counting on him heavily quite a bit moving forward.”
(I always find it funny when T Robert Hunt comes on the field and everybody announces there’s an eligible receiver on the field, and kind of let everybody know that’ hey we’re going to run the ball here,’ but also you guys have done a good job doing some play-action passes, kind of getting TE Durham Smythe and TE Adam Shaheen to kind of leak out with Hunt on the field as well. I just wanted to ask how do you guys kind of deal with that when it’s announced to everybody?) – “That’s the rules. You’ve got to. If he comes in as an eligible receiver, you have to announce it every day and then again, yeah sure, if they want to think we’re going to run the ball all the time; yeah, we are going to run it and then play-action off it. That’s advantage offense in my book. Yeah, that’s one of the things we do to kind of get guys and trying to match up at every position, where we think we can gain an advantage or a win. Putting Rob as an eligible tight end in our ‘heavy’ package or whatever you want to call it, gives us some advantage on certain things we like to do. I think moving forward, again, we’ll see each and every week – each and every week poses different problems as the 49ers are this week. They’ve got a big ol’ athletic front and we’ll see kind of where we think we need to put guys moving forward. That’s what I just left doing before interviewing with you fine gentlemen.”
(Head Coach Brian Flores has always talked about the philosophy of playing his best five offensive linemen. I wanted to know how you feel about that considering if you have to play without T Austin Jackson, it might require some restructuring of your offensive line if you’re playing the best five?) – “That remains to be seen. I think that the philosophy always is, especially in this league and especially – you’re working every day to get your best five guys on the field and there’s no question about that. that’s why going through all the OTAs and the offseason – of course, we didn’t do OTAs this year, but the early camp and things like that, is to put guys in different positions to handle any kind of situation that comes up. It’s a collision sport and some guys get nicked up and you’ve got to try to do your best to get your best five guys on the field to give you the best chance to win. That’s why we practice and we meet long hours is to make sure that we’re in a position to do that when we have to obviously, which is probably 100 percent of the time that we’re trying to get the best five guys on the field at all times.”
