Q. Have you guys discussed at all who is going to be available, Odell Beckham, and bringing him in?
COACH SIRIANNI: We're always looking to make the team better, and we'll obviously keep all those conversations inside. But I can't speak on any rumors, whatever that's out there. But always looking for opportunities to make our team better.
With that being said, though, I really feel good about our wide-receiver room. I think they're growing. I think we've got three young guys that really can make plays and they're continuing to make plays. And we'll just keep growing in confidence in them.
And I feel good about their backups as well with Greg Ward and J.J. and some of the guys, Deon Cain that we have on the practice squad, and Hightower who we have on the practice squad, and KeeSean Johnson, who we have on the practice squad. I feel good about that room. It's a lot of different skill sets in that room that we really like.
Q. You've seen Anthony Harris take part in practice the last couple times. Is it safe to say --
COACH SIRIANNI: He'll be out.
Q. Is Jalen Reagor --
COACH SIRIANNI: Jalen will be out. And Jack Driscoll will be out. J.J. will be the only one down. He'll be down.
Q. In our time with you, Keenan Allen is a player you've spoken about quite a bit. What about (indiscernible) development and the relationship (indiscernible)?
COACH SIRIANNI: It's going to be -- I've got a good relationship with Keenan. We still communicate to this day. Happy I was able to coach him and learn from him. And hopefully he learned from me as well.
And so it will be fun to give him a hug before the game and talk to him after the game about his family, about everybody in his life.
Ask me that question again.
Q. What has he learned about you, or the way you work with players?
COACH SIRIANNI: Really good players like Keenan Allen make you look like a really good coach. So, I'm grateful to Keenan for that.
But I'm obsessed with fundamentals. I really am obsessed with fundamentals. And that's something, even before I coached Keenan. So it was good to be able to -- with Keenan, he's really dynamic off the line of scrimmage. And he's really dynamic in and out of the break. And he continues to be that.
I'm thinking back to 2013 where he was dynamic in that and now he continues to do that. So obviously we spent a lot of time and he knows how to attack a defender.
We spent a lot of time together just really sorting through all those things. Really the main one there is how to attack a defender. And obviously the releases in and out of the break.
So he's still on my teach tapes of when we're trying to teach guys, hey, look how Keenan does this on this one.
And when you have a good player like that that you're able to teach other guys from, that's a good thing because they're kind of -- you're bringing them to stage one of it, like, this is how we kind of talk through this.
So he's going to forever be on my teach tapes. And so hopefully what you see, to answer your question, is hopefully what you see is the fundamentals. Again, Keenan's a great player and a great student of the game. He's getting there because of how talented he is.
But hopefully what you see from Keenan, the fundamentals that you see from Keenan are a reflection of how I'm obsessed with fundamentals. And that's what I hope you take from that with his game.
Now, I hope his game is quiet on Sunday.
Q. How often have you had a player that's forever going to be on your teach tape? Like you talked about Philip Rivers a lot. How often do you come across players like that? And do you see somebody here, that you say this guy's going to be on?
COACH SIRIANNI: Definitely I see, we're already transition -- you always transition your teach tapes as you go throughout your career. And you take the good things that guys do and you're, like, man, we can really teach from this.
Of course, there's already been some, like, that was better than anything they've ever done from our guys here.
Whether it's Jalen, whether it's Dallas, whether it's DeVonta, Jalen Reagor, Quez, Kenny -- I could keep going on. All those guys have already had teach-worthy type plays, you know what I mean?
That's exciting to show your guys when you're teaching a play, like, and they're in the room and you show Kenny doing it. Okay, now everybody can learn from that.
So definitely think we've got guys in this building that have that ability. And I just want them to continue to contribute to the teach tape so that we can weed everybody else out.
But Keenan definitely is going to have plays on there because he made a lot of plays. And it's always good to be able to teach from good players that you had.
Q. Joe Judge says he's had issues this year with his headset. There was a report that a lot of head coaches have dealt with. Have you experienced that at all?
COACH SIRIANNI: I have not. I think whether that's our stadium ops -- I don't even know who is really in charge. I should give them a high-5. I'll find out because my headset's worked well. And I'll make sure that I thank them.
I know the guy that helps me put it on before, so I'm going to thank him on Sunday.
Q. Who do you guide DeVonta towards when it comes to the teach tape?
COACH SIRIANNI: You can always take different things from different people. And, so, like, you want to try to find the guy that's kind of similar. But DeVonta is a unique player.
I've said it before, I think DeVonta has some Keenan Allen-type qualities off the line of scrimmage. And so with the release stuff, we look at that quite a bit of that with Keenan Allen.
But it is, it's never -- I just don't like to zero in on just one person. Like, I don't care who it is. If it's a college game and I see somebody work a good release, I might pull that into my teach tape.
So, like this morning we watched a fade route and we looked at Larry Fitzgerald and how he did it. And that could be a fade, it could be a slant or anything like that. And so that's what we looked at today.
So it could be anybody. Larry's not playing anymore. So you can use it from any avenue you want to use it from.
Q. Is Tyree Jackson ready to play yet?
COACH SIRIANNI: We have another day to figure that out. We're still sorting through some things. We'll know a little bit more about that tomorrow.
Q. I assume that's the case with John Hightower, too, but you did protect him on the practice squad. What is it about him that kind of separates him from the other two guys, Deion Kane and KeeSean Johnson?
COACH SIRIANNI: You're like KeeSean Johnson, like, wait, no, I get it. And so, no, John, he just got really good skill, great speed, good ability off the line of scrimmage. Again, he's fast. I think there's a movie out there I think it's Friday Night Lights, they're asking the guy from Odessa, Texas, about who are they playing, Dallas Carter. He says like three things, but he starts, They're fast -- he says three other things. And he says they're fast again.
That's my analogy. John's fast. That's why I kind of said it like that. But he's got some unique talents. And we're sure glad we have him. Again I feel good about the wide receiver room.
Q. What's it been like working with Jemal Singleton so far this season, want to know does his Air Force background ever come up? And what is his role as assistant head coach, how does that come through?
COACH SIRIANNI: He has a lot of things that he's able to provide insight to me with. And so I really value that. First and foremost, he's a great running back coach. And that's his first job, to be our running back coach and to get the guys ready.
He's done a great job. I can't say enough good things about Jemal, how good of a football coach he is. Great person. So I'm able to bounce schedule thoughts off of him, hey, maybe a team message.
So he's just another ear that I have to be able to bounce some things off of. Obviously being with Kevin Patullo for a long time. I kind of used him in that same mode. And my assistant, Tyler Scudder has been around a lot, a lot of different people, a lot of good head coaches. I'm able to use those three guys. And Jemal is just a great asset to have in a lot of different ways.
Again, I can't say how good a job he's doing as a running back coach. Really doing a nice job there.
Q. Now that you're halfway through here, how has that evolution gone? You talked about some of the scheduling with Jemal and different guys and Kevin. Have you changed? Have you learned? Does that continue to adapt as you go on?
COACH SIRIANNI: And I talk about doubling down on things. It's like there's some things that are, like, hey, those five core values that we talk about all the time.
Like in times of tribulations and in times of triumph, you double down on those things. But one thing that isn't like, hey, it's set in stone are schedules and like schemes. Those are evolving at all times. You're doing what's best for the teams at certain times.
You may have a Monday night schedule that you like or a normal week schedule you like or Thursday night game or Thanksgiving week, whatever it is.
But again, you're just always trying to adapt to do what's best for the players. And whether that's scheme or whether that's schedules, that's always fluid and that's always changing.
I'm always interested to see how different people do it, talk it through with our building, different people in our building, from the strength coaches to the trainers, to everybody, to do what's best for our guys and their bodies and everything.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports