Leonard Hankerson impressed by young 49ers wide receivers' work ethic in camp
49ers wide receivers coach Leonard Hankerson speaks with reporters Sunday at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara.
Leonard Hankerson impressed by young 49ers wide receivers' work ethic in camp originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Video Transcript
Confident hands, you know, there's usually no issue, stepping back to the ball or making contested catches or, you know, and whatever the case may be.
You know, you, you, you have that mentality, attack the ball, you know, and, and that's one of his strong suits.
Do, do you see him using the hands to create separation at, at the top of the route and to kind of- You know what, I, I know that's a loaded question I think a lot of the, a lot of the guys tend to do so.
You know, I don't, I never teach that.
You know, I always teach the guys, win with your feet, you know, instead of your hands, but obviously it's a contact sport.
You know, sometimes that's gonna happen, you know, and if we can get away with it, you get away with it.
You know, not every, DPI's gonna be called, not every OPI's gonna be called.
You know, and sometimes we gotta use that to our advantage, you know, and, if there's a little bit of con- contact one way or another, it's, we still expect you to make the play.
Hunter, the, Grimes, the, the rookie out of NC State, you know, I watch him play.
It's hard to understand why he didn't get drafted.
He's got 4.3 speed.
He's got great size.
Mm-hmm.
He seems pretty tough.
He's got good hands.
What are you seeing so far?
He looks pretty good on the practice field.
You, you, you were saying he got 4.3 speed?
Yeah.
Or is that, is that documented?
I don't know.
I give him, I give him- He's got 4.3 speed.
Yeah, I give him, I give him crap about that all the time because of, uh- Where is that 4.3 speed?
He told us.
You know, when we met, when we met with him on Zoom, you know, he told us, "We're gonna run, I'm gonna run a 4.3, you know, 4.38."
You know, I think it was documented that he ran like a 4.5.
4.5, yeah.
Was it 4.35?
4.35.
It, it said 4.5 something, so okay, I gotta, I gotta, I gotta tell him that came up.
You know, but he's been doing a great job.
You know, back in OTAs again with Grimes, you know, like every rookie, you swimming, you know?
So you're not playing to that 4.35 ability.
You know, you come in, you thinking, you're trying to get the offense.
You know, you're trying to figure out who I'm blocking, who I'm going to, or what route to help.
You know, so it's hard to you focus on really the technique, you know, what it takes to, you know, get open.
You know, and from that point up until now, he's, he's doing a phenomenal job, you know, just being out there, knowing how to line up.
He's another guy that's been moving around from position to position, you know, and he has been able to, to display his speed on tape, you know, and even just coming down, with the catches.
He's another guy that has strong, that has great hands.
You know, he dropped two passes, one in one-on-ones the other day, and then I think the other one was, was routes on air.
You know, and it was surprising because he was wide open, you know, and usually you can tell when guys got great hands.
They, they step back to it.
They make the plays.
They, it's natural, you know, and he's been, he's been doing awesome.
What's it like having Mike Evans in the room?
Mike's been great.
You know, I've said this before, you know, he's the ultimate professional, you know, and, and, and, and it's been good to have him in the room because he's got a ton of knowledge, played a lot of ball.
You know, we can communicate, between each play, you know, as far as what he's seen, you know, what I thought, you know, and we go out there and we try to, you know, be the best that we can be, you know, in the moment, you know, and then here when he gets back.
That'll be- Talk, talking about Stribling's, you know, rookie swimming in the knowledge.
Mm-hmm.
How is Stribling doing?
I know his, his football IQ has been something that people have remarked.
Correct.
He's been great.
You know, obviously every rookie is gonna, you know, have, some, some sort of learning curve, you know?
But with him, he's, he's been moving around a lot.
I've been predominantly playing him at the F and the X, and sometimes he'll, if I need him to go to the Z, he's able to do it.
You know, but, again, you know, those guys been working together, you know, consistently every single day.
We, we, we, they come early.
You know, we keep 'em late, later than anybody, so they've been putting in the work, you know, and I'm excited to see, you know, what the entire group does for us throughout training camp and here coming up in the preseason game.
Do you really see the difference from, like he and Jordan Watkins went to Nashville to work with Brock and Matt.
Can you see the difference in their route running and connection?
Of course, always.
There's a difference between the first-year guys, second-year guys.
You know, like Jordan.
Jordan, coming in last year, everybody has high expectations for him, no matter what round he drafted in, no matter the free agent.
You know, our job is to come in and, and play football at an elite level, you know, and be the best that we can be to try to help the team out, you know?
And Jordan, he's, he's taking the step, you know, and that helps.
You know, anytime you can go to build that continuity, you know, with the team, you know, with Brock, you know, and, and all the guys who was there, you know, that helps out.
You know, and then Scrub being able to go out there and, and, and get on the same page with Brock.
And again, guys, the, when you first come in, whether you're first-year, second guy, it takes you some time to get, get the program down as far as, okay, what it takes throughout the off-season.
What I need to do to stay on top of my, my, my skill sets in the off-season, the run, route running and stuff like that.
So, they've been, they've been, they've been doing far.
The dig route over the middle, so integral to your offense.
One more time.
I'm sorry.
The dig route over the middle- Yeah so integral to your offense, what's the key to running that route, and what makes Stribling a good option on that kind of- I think the key to running any route is his speed, you know, off the ball.
You know, depending on have you got verse press or off coverage, you know, and, when you say dig route, are we talking about the in cut or we talking about the ch- The in cut The in cut.
Okay.
So, so, the main thing is speed.
You know, if we can get those defense to believe we're doing something different, you know, that helps out a lot.
You know, I always preach speed first, you know, and then after that, you have the mentality.
All right.
When you ha- when you're tough and you're not afraid to go across the middle, then no matter what a quarterback put it, you got a chance to catch it.
What kind of role do you see for Watkins, X receiver, Z receiver?
I know, again, you guys cross-train, but, like, ideally where, where would he be lining up more often?
I think this time of the year is important for everybody, you know, and not only Watkins himself, every receiver in the room.
We all gotta establish that role, you know, themselves, you know, as far as, what they're capable of, you know, going out there, making the plays, you know, whether you're showing you can beat man-to-man coverage at the line of scrimmage or you showing you gonna make the plays down the field.
You know, players themselves dictate, you know, determine the role that- Yeah you know, they're put in.
You know, so, the guys, they've been, they've been doing awesome competing every single day, you know, whether with the DBs doing one-on-ones or doing team periods.
You know, Watkins has been doing an awesome job.
You know, like I said, he's taken a step, you know, and, and I feel he's a guy that can help us out.
You know, now he just gotta make sure he's continuing to, to work, you know, and not get content with, you know, having a little success- Yeah you know, and, and keep climbing the ladder.
How excited were- What about contested catches with him?
You mentioned Stribling, hauling in those.
It seems like Watkins doesn't always haul in those.
What, what does he need to do to kind of improve that facet of his game?
You know what?
Watkins himself got great hands.
You know, another one, I'm not just saying that about the guys, Stribling, Wes, and Watkins.
If you go back and turn on the tape, Cal mentioned when we drafted Watkins about the guns he throw.
He got great hands himself.
You know, and not only him, I think us all, you know, in the room, receiving room.
We haven't done a great enough job, you know, in those contested catching situations.
You know, there's a lot more, like we like to say, everybody says 50/50.
We like to say 90, 95 to 5, you know, 90/10, you know?
So as a group, you know, we gotta come down with a lot more of those, you know, and, we gotta keep working.
I gotta continue to put those guys in situations that, in indie periods, you know, pre-practice, post-practice.
That way we can continue to have the confidence, you know, in coming down with those catches because, again, it's expected.
You know, that, that, that allows us, right, to continue the momentum, you know, on offense, sustain drives, and eventually get more opportunities for every player on the, on the field.
How excited are you when, you found out that Deebo Samuel's coming back, and what can we expect from him this year?
Deebo's a great player.
You know, he has been.
You know, a ton of touchdowns he's provided for us, in the past, you know, close to 5,000 yards, you know, receiving, and he's an explosive player, you know, and he, I still see exactly that.
You know, and, and we're all excited that we can bring back that element, you know, another player in the room with explosiveness.
You know, he always has that toughness in the mindset, you know, and, he's always been a fun coach, you know, so great to have him back.
