was browbeaten by everybody until we got here
When you saw LB Aldon Smith get back on the practice field, did it look like the same guy that you saw five, six weeks ago?
"Not quite. He was a little rusty, obviously, from the six week layoff. But, I expect him to get it back very quickly. He's not like a guy coming off of an injury that he's got to overcome. He's just got to overcome inactivity. But, six weeks is a fairly long time, but I don't think not that long to where he can't get back into the swing of things pretty quickly."
"I'm sure he'll play some. You know, we're monitoring the situation. If nothing happens between now and then, I'm anticipating that. But, nothing's been etched in stone yet."
Why wouldn't he play just every snap?
"You know, after a six week layoff, he may not be ready conditioning wise. Every game takes on its own personality. How many plays you're playing. How many plays you're playing in a row. How many plays you're playing in different packages. So, it'll be a fluid situation."
You guys have such a healthy roster with guys that have been brought up to the 53 man. Is it going to be tough to figure out who is inactive for this game that's coming up?
How has CB Carlos Rogers been playing this season?
"He's been doing fine. Carlos has played well. And, like I said before, we're lucky to have him and we're glad we have him."
Are quarterbacks targeting him less?
"I don't know that I would necessarily say that. We end up playing a lot of nickel, so he's inside. So, you're not seeing him as a quote unquote corner, where you don't see the targets as much, they're not as visibly obvious. You know what I'm saying?"
When you said earlier about you have to see what happens the rest of the week as far as Aldon goes, what are you referring to there?
"Just see how he progresses, see how he feels today. Because, yesterday he put through a good effort, got the pass rush in the drills, went through a full practice. He's obviously not getting all of the snaps because you've got to get everybody ready. But, let's see how he feels http://www.footballbroncosprostore.com/broncos-louis-vasquez-jersey-c-46.html today and how he looks out there today. But, I don't anticipate any problems."
What did you see in DL Glenn Dorsey during his time in Kansas City that made you know he would be a good nose tackle in this system?
"Well, I didn't see a whole lot because, to be honest with you, I didn't do much of the work on him. Our guys, [49ers general manager] Trent [Baalke] and [49ers defensive line coach] Jim Tomsula, had a good feel for him when he was coming out of college. They didn't know exactly why he hadn't succeeded in Kansas City. They saw it as an opportunity to get a guy that they thought was a better player than he had so far in his career and we wanted to sign him and see what we could do with him."
What have your impressions been?
"He's playing very well for us. Since [NT] Ian [Williams] went down, which was very early in game two, he's played basically all of our nose snaps, for the most part, other than the game he had to come out on. And, he's done a nice job for us. We haven't missed a beat in there at all."
He said that that position more plays to his strengths. What do you see his strengths being at that position?
"Well, I mean, a traditional nose guard. He's a thick guy. A strong guy. He can eat up blocks. It's hard to get him knocked back. I think he's more comfortable playing that style than say any other style."
Can you talk about S Eric Reid's development over the first half of the season and what it's meant for your defense for him to step in and do well at that spot?
"He's played extremely for us and it's meant a lot. Obviously, we lost a very good player when [S] Dashon [Goldson] left via free agency and was a big hole we had to fill. He's done a good job of filling that hole, playing well, and he's getting better each and every week. And, I think the guy's played well for us and he has a bright future and still has a lot of room to grow. But, like Carlos, we're very glad to have him."
Is Carolina Panthers QB Cam Newton more similar to QB Colin Kaepernick or are there vast differences? When you go practice can you kind of see the similarities?
"There are some similarities in the fact that both are good runners. Obviously, both are big quarterbacks. Both run kind of similar offenses. They run some of the same plays that we run in the gun read type stuff. They'll run him more, a little bit more on quarterback called runs than we do with Colin where he's actually like a tailback out of the gun. They both have strong arms. Both are good passers. Both are allusive. So, there are some similarities."
Does his ball come out quite as quick?
"His ball comes out. And, there's no issues with his release or arm strength."
If you could speak to the, as the team that's constituted as a whole, but just when you look at the Panthers and just on offense, do you see similarities to the 49ers offense?
"In some ways. They play different personnel groups than we do. They'll play three wide receivers a whole lot more than we will on the early downs. So, in that way they're much different. But, some of the running game's got some similarities to it and they're committed to the running game. They're very balanced. If you add up their stats on them, they've thrown the ball and run it the same exact amount of times this year. And, when you think about it, that includes two minute drives, that includes third downs, which is heavy pass. So, they've got a commitment to the run just like we do."
Do you guys do any ones versus ones stuff this week?
How does the game plan change, or does it, when you have a quarterback that is good at so much escapability and free lancing, able to make plays outside of the pocket when the play breaks down?