MICHAEL CLAY: How y'all doing? Another beautiful day.
THE MODERATOR: We'll get started here with questions.
Q. I know how much you care about gunners. Andre C made a really nice play the other day. Went out of bounds, kind of told his teammate he couldn't catch the ball. How do you prepare guys for that scenario? Is there a certain thing they're supposed to say or signal to let another player know I can't touch this ball?
MICHAEL CLAY: Yeah, Andre did a textbook job. It all starts really with Tyler Brown. He works with the gunners almost one-on-one, especially with A.C. coming in off a short week. Tyler did a heck of a job getting him ready for that.
As you saw on the film, he was pointing at the ball. That's an indication I went out-of-bounds, I can't touch it. Zach did a heck of a job racing over, making sure he picked it up, giving the ball to the referee, A.C. went out, now I have to pick up this ball.
A.C. did a heck of a job understanding the rules. That's really good football IQ right there. Zach did a wonderful job picking it up, securing it, helping our defense, giving them a long field. It really helps the team flipping the field right there.
Q. Aaron didn't have any game experience in the NFL before Sunday. How do you think he did? How do you know he was ready for that without ever seeing it?
MICHAEL CLAY: I thought Aaron did a phenomenal job, just like everybody else that we had out there. I thought everyone played hard. They did what they were supposed to do. Assignment savvy. Aaron did a heck of a job.
I kind of felt this from the first day I met Aaron working with him, first time working with him in rookie mini camp. Aaron is a different type of person in terms of he's not a rookie in terms of the age. He's not 21, he's not 22. He's 28. He's dealt with real-life situations.
There were never any nerve things I was worried about with him. Always comes ready, prepared Wednesday, Thursday, when we have our punt days. Paid off.
I'm happy for him. I know he's been working really hard to get to this spot. His first real NFL game. He really performed to the level that we all know he can.
There is still some things he can get better at. He knows that. That's the best part about it. He's going to be able to build off this game and hopefully keep getting better and better.
He can really be a very, very good punter in this league if he just keeps what he's been doing the last month and a half here in training camp in the first week.
Q. With Jalen Reagor, what is the balance between go get the yards that are there versus waiting and hoping to create a big play?
MICHAEL CLAY: Yeah, Jalen, in my eyes, the stats say a different story. For him to go out there, he caught the ball great. There was one ball, the first punt actually, it was short, dying on him. He saved us some yards on that one kind of with the fair catch, catching it at the 20 yard line. If the ball bounces, you don't know what the bounce is going to look like.
We're going to create and build to get better really, just understanding, get what the cover teams give you. They're going to come, reiterating to himself they're going to come, they're going to come. It's a small gash, small gash, then the big one is going to come.
He was great on the field understanding what we were trying to do. He's all juiced up about it. He's going to come out here tomorrow in practice, catch some punts from Aaron, keep getting better and better.
Jalen, he's going to get better and better. More comfortable he is, he finally saw real live coverage teams, he's going to see those lanes, help himself with gaining as much yards as possible.
Q. Could you recap what you saw and what you liked from Atlanta's game in terms of coverage and give a little preview of what you're seeing from San Francisco.
MICHAEL CLAY: Yeah, Atlanta, the coverage was outstanding. We had a tall task. Cordarrelle Patterson being a kick returner that has eight career touchdowns, we knew what was against us right there. The guys were running fast, playing hard. Stop them inside the 20 was a huge thing for us.
With Avery Williams, he is a rookie from Boise State, kind of a later-round draft pick, we all know what he was. He had a prestigious career at Boise State returning. We all know what we had to do.
The guys did a heck of a job. With A.C. going out there, trying to make a tackle, Alex getting down there, J.J. did a heck of a job coming from his wing spot with T.J. to get on a combined tackle. We always want to be one of the better coverage units to help flip the field for our defense. Proud of the way they came out and played.
For this week the message is the same. We got to help our defense give a long field with our coverage. We're going to keep on doing that. We have all the respect. Coming from San Francisco, they still got some very good returners, Brandon Aiyuk, Mohamed Sanu, Ambry Thomas. They have some guys that have some speed that we need to get ready for. We're doing the best at coaches to get them ready as coverage units to have a good game plan for them.
Q. When we talked to you last week you said you weren't ready to tell us who your kick and punt returners were going to be. We saw on Sunday. What led to the decision to use Quez and Jalen Reagor. Does there ever come a point during the game where one of those guys or Nick might come to you and say, Those guys have been out on the field lately, go with somebody else?
MICHAEL CLAY: It's a collective effort on who we want to put out there from myself, Coach Sirianni and all that. We'll talk about it if we want to, change it up. That's why it's our job to get other guys ready. We do have other guys capable of being returners, which is great.
We felt like the first week going in, Quez and Jalen were our best options. It may be like that for the rest of the year, it may not. That's where we have to come and get these guys ready for the game plan, play multiple positions to have these guys play at the highest possible mark they can.
It's on us as coaches to do that. When we have those conversations, we'll have 'em. For the most part I thought both Quez and Jalen did a really good job, really commanding the field, fielding the balls, trying to get as much as they possibly can. It's not just them, it's the other 10 guys and us as coaches getting them in the right spot.
Q. About Jalen Reagor, what is it that you like about him? What put him at the top of the list to be the top punt returner?
MICHAEL CLAY: Obviously from his TCU days, he was very explosive. You can see on that fourth quarter bubble screen, you see the explosiveness. To have an athlete like that in open space, it puts added stress on the coverage unit. It puts added stress on the opposing punter.
Once again, it goes back to what we like as a game plan, what's going to help us. One, if (indiscernible) can get it ready, he starts gashing guys, gets into the game plan for the opposing team.
But also one punt that really stood out to me was they were at their 19, and J.J. came on a rush to really affect it. Jalen did a heck of a job communicating. That was a big, big step for him to communicate, get everybody out so that the ball doesn't hit us out right there.
Once again with Jalen, he's been getting better and better with his communication skills, commanding the punt return team. The players know if they get these guys blocked up, we can make a big play.
Q. With your background with Richard Hightower, Mitch and Robby, how much can that help you formulate a plan for the punt and kick return games?
MICHAEL CLAY: Nothing but great respect for Hightower. I've worked with him for four years, he taught me much from the ins-and-outs of the game, situational type things. Even with Robby and Mitch. Robby has been kicking forever. He's been a heck of a kicker. Mitch being around him so much, it allows me to know what may happen. But you never know what's going to happen any given week.
I have a little bit of familiarity with their personnel, which helps out our game plan for them. Regardless, we're going to go out there and prepare like any other week. A very intriguing matchup knowing that me and Hightower are very familiar with each other. We're going to go out and play with good discipline, techniques and fundamentals to make sure our guys are in the best spot with our game plan.
Q. You brought up that Raheem is a guy you circled in as gunner. He's not going to play in this game. How big of a loss?
MICHAEL CLAY: Kudos to Raheem. He's worked his way from undrafted free agent to special teams ace to now starting running back. From a special teams standpoint, that's all we want, to have a special teams guy be a starter. They have Trent Sherfield, he was a good gunner in Arizona. We're really excited about that matchup.
In the NFL you're going to get good gunners week in, week out. We're going to have our hands full with Trent and Ambry Thomas on the backside who has great speed. We're not going to take this game any more lightly than last year, years past, we're going to respect every opponent the same way, be ready for them.
This is the NFL, everybody gets paid to make plays. These guys are going to make plays if they get slept on.
Q. What has your back and forth been with your buddies in San Francisco? Have you talked with them? Light smack talk yet?
MICHAEL CLAY: No, I wouldn't say smack talk. I give more smack talk from my friends back home than anything else. There's always been a great respect. I owe the whole 49ers organization a lot starting with Dr. York, Jed, allowing me to start my career there, continue my career there in '16, keep me on with Kyle, Kyle holding me on, working with special teams and strength.
With Hightower, all the way down. That whole organization has treated me well. There's always going to be a respect factor with it.
Most of the smack talk is coming from my friends than anything else. There's light texting here and there just making sure everyone is doing all right with the injuries. They got hit with a tough one with Jason Verrett who I have the utmost respect for. Same with Raheem. Those guys come in every day and have a great mindset to help the younger guys.
It's unfortunate for them to get hurt. There's no light smack talk or anything like that. Hey, how you doing? Good pleasantries, see you on Sunday. We'll see how it unfolds.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach.
MICHAEL CLAY: Thank you all.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports