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00:00um river islands guest line because here comes part two of our late show soiree we got the
00:05giants in there let's get to the niners because there's plenty of questions there too and david
00:10lombardi sf standard kind enough to jump on with us here and uh and talk things out as another
00:16niner week is starting to come together injuries are out there as well david thanks so much for
00:21coming on man how are you good yeah i'm ready ready to get out into vegas it's gonna be a
00:29so we'll be fine and only one of the practices on thursday they don't do back-to-backs anymore
00:35because i guess there's too many fights on the second day according to kyle shanahan so
00:40you practice once with another team and then you find another team to do another practice with
00:44um love it yeah vegas is where the next joint practices are coming as the niners get ready
00:50for the raiders we've got a lot of questions about their plan for this week but i want to start with
00:54where we sit right now david what is your read on the juwan jennings situation in total what what's
01:01going on here i think two things are true at once i think that he wants a new contract we've known that
01:10for a few weeks now and i think that his calf is also bothering him that's something that has popped
01:17up multiple times for juwan going actually back to last training camp where he missed a lot of camp
01:22and then came in at the end and then obviously delivered his career best season with those 975
01:28receiving yards so the nfl is complicated especially since there are so many injuries across the league
01:36and it just so happens that you've got a contract standoff and an injury that's pushing a player out
01:43of practice happening at the same time now it's worth noting that early in camp when juwan felt good
01:49enough he was out in practice so it's not like he's been out of practice the whole time even when
01:55the injury wasn't an issue right and i think you know just in the bigger picture the 49ers spent
02:02all this money on bebo samuel and then on brandon iuk and iuk obviously is the most recent investment
02:10for them that came after a long standoff last off season then you had jennings essentially outperform
02:17iuk after that contract was signed and it just puts everybody in a really difficult position i can
02:24totally understand jennings point of view he had about a thousand receiving yards and he's only
02:29scheduled to make 7.5 million and beyond that he's been just the ultimate soldier for the 49ers
02:36as far as blocking goes to setting an example physically uh he's he's been great he's been
02:42exactly he's epitomized what what they want at the receiver position so you have his case on one side
02:48but then you have the niners who have been now squeezed financially by all the big contracts they've
02:55had to give out their number three in cash spending this year even despite the fact that this was the
03:00belt tightening years they cut a bunch of guys but they also doubled down on their a-list players
03:06and their philosophy is to pay the a-list players but to be cost efficient in other positions
03:12and juwan jennings is in this really weird rock and a hard place because he is not an a-list player
03:20but he's a very important one and it what do the 49ers do with a player like that financially and i
03:26think that's that's what the question is right now and maybe deadline pressure will push them closer
03:32to a resolution your colleague tim kawakami was intimating in his article that the niners just
03:37don't have the money and the two sides are fairly far apart how much does the injury factor elsewhere
03:44in that room allow juwan jennings to have a little bit more leverage as this gets closer to the start of
03:49the year yeah so i think that this is probably the most leverage that juwan will ever have he's looking
03:57at the situation right now and there are a lot of guys hurt ricky pierce all the only starting
04:02receiver who's available as this does get closer to the season if the problems still look like they're
04:10going to persist into week one and beyond there's a lot in question right now especially with somebody
04:15like like jordan watkins who's going to be out for about a month and the season opener is about a
04:19month away but if it's really starting to look like this is bad with week one approaching then the
04:2549ers will probably start sweating even a little bit more but there's two sides to this too right
04:32juwan he's scheduled for free agency after this season free agency is the big cash cow here right
04:39that's what you want to get to and he's got to play this year ahead of that free agency here to make
04:44sure that he maintains his option of cashing out and like this game of chicken right who's gonna
04:52gonna pull over to the side of the road first and generally both sides take evasive action
04:59at some point close to the collision so the two cars are heading toward each other and and the
05:05roster cut down might be one of those inflection points on august 26th david lombardi sf standard with
05:11us uh david let's talk to marcus robinson i know kyle shanahan let everybody know yesterday that they're
05:16going through the appeals process on a forthcoming potential suspension do you expect that appeals
05:22process to be done before the year starts what what how do you think in that ball plays out
05:27i would think so if they're already in the appeals process right now jordan addison pled no contest to
05:36dui charge i don't know if there was an appeals process with nfl suspension for him but the suspension
05:43did come down about a week ago it was three games the start 2025 i think that we can expect something
05:51similar for the marcus robinson i i don't know what would take the league so long that the 49ers
05:58couldn't find out before the roster cut down i mean at that point it would be ridiculous if
06:03everything's already been filed and kyle shanahan made it sound like the appeals process is ongoing then
06:08you think that the league here could uh adjudicate things in a timely fashion so that the 49ers can
06:15get up get on with things but they expect there to to be a suspension i would expect it to be three
06:21games maybe maybe two games if somehow this appeal comes through and and uh lessens it but but i think
06:28the standard punishment under the substance abuse policy uh for for this uh no contest plea to a dui
06:36is three games so i would expect it to be about that long at the start of the season
06:41david a lot of fans are concerned about the running back depth and you know you all hope that christian
06:47mccaffrey stays healthy but if he happens to miss some time right now looking at the running back room
06:53who do they have who can really step up and maybe take on a share of the load
06:58isaac garendo is currently not available but he should be in a couple weeks he has a shoulder issue but
07:05he's running full speed off on the side and he's doing cuts he just can't take on contact with
07:11the shoulder so he's the number two they're hoping that he can also recreate some of what christian
07:16could do in the past game christian today scored a touchdown with george kittle blocking and then
07:22uh he gave george the ball and george threw it up in the air and his kind of signature celebration
07:28good christian looked really good at practice today i just thought of that one play uh out of the
07:32backfield because i realized that isaac garendo is the 49ers plan for another running back who can
07:38catch the ball who can pressure defenses in that way and then patrick taylor jr has shown that he's
07:44got a higher floor in years past i think that he put in a lot of good work over the course of this
07:49offseason there were some real issues i thought with him and the games where he started down the
07:54stretch last year in the receiving game there was the time when he ran the wrong route against miami and
08:00it almost turned into an interception and as a check down you just got to be reliable and i think
08:04that he's been much more reliable over the course of this camp the touchdown run the other day was
08:09nice oh no ufanga now denver plugged up the hole where that that run was supposed to go and and
08:15patrick taylor showed some nice vision and bounced out and scored to the outside so i think that's kind
08:20of your safe backup if uh you know a lot of stuff goes wrong for the 49ers but you might have more
08:26of a ceiling with grendo and then these two rookies right that they brought in jordan james who's uh
08:33he actually went to my wife's high school that's kind of cool out in the nashville area for two years
08:37but um he's he's a really really compact runner and he's built a lot like uh cory kiner who is the
08:47other rookie they brought in they're both like i might come for both of them is devante freeman
08:51physically they didn't blow anybody away with their physical measurements but they they run really
08:59hard and they've got more burst when you watch them in person than their 40 time might suggest
09:05that's exactly who devante freeman was and he was a great all-around back and i think that the 49ers
09:11think they may have some some real feeling with jordan james and cory kiner david can we go back to
09:16receiver for a second because i think this is one thing fans are thinking right now like long run
09:21is this all going to work out yeah probably but let's go to week one and and and so robinson for
09:29sure no uh watkins is now out with the the high ankle and he was a rookie anyway yeah fingers
09:36crossed that pierce all stays healthy if juwan jennings situation and or health is not set by week
09:43one who is playing wide receiver in seattle yeah so ricky pierce all is obviously the center of
09:51attention and you've got to hope that that he stays healthy in case that that's the code red
09:56scenario right that would be tough for the 49ers but pierce all has been practicing very well and
10:02and he would be the centerpiece in the code red situation then jacob cowling was back today i think
10:09the 49ers hope for cowling was that he would be competing with jordan watkins for a number three or
10:14number four role this year kind of the burner role on the offense well cowling would be fully thrust
10:19into that assuming that watkins wouldn't be available and jake had a really good off season they were
10:24happy with the strides he made he unfortunately strained his hamstring in warm-ups of practice
10:30number one so we didn't get to see him in team drills until today and they're still easing him in so
10:36it'd be pierce all cowling and russell gage would be the number three with robbie chosen probably
10:44having the inside track to be number four if the 49ers didn't sign anyone else and they they worked
10:49out a couple guys today but russell gage this is somebody that that people should pay attention to
10:56because he was a good number three in atlanta for a couple years he had 750 plus yards in two straight
11:02seasons and then he tore his patellar tendon and that almost caused him to retire he's been out of
11:09game action for two years the 49ers were lucky enough to get him onto their practice squad last
11:15year because he said i'm going to give it one more shot and he spent that end of the 2024 season getting
11:21back in shape learning the 49ers playbook and for about a week or 10 days to start this training camp
11:27russell gage was leading the 49ers in receptions at camp he was and kyle said that it looks like he
11:35is back to being a good nfl player again like he's got some of that speed back and you know one of the
11:40things is we saw a guy like isaiah nair they cut him he's with the packers now who can run like the
11:45wind 4-4 6-4 220 and everybody thought okay this is going to be the next receiver for the 49ers
11:51and i think that whole experiment really underscored the fact that it's not about
11:56uh your athleticism if you can't run routes if you don't know the nuances of of the game and
12:02somebody like russell gage even though he might be 29 years old now coming off that knee injury two
12:07years ago he has shown that he can succeed at this level at that number three receiver spot with the
12:13craftiness that he has and he knows the inside and out of the position i think that that he really
12:18might be somebody who elevates the floor of the receiver room to help the 49ers through this real
12:25rough patch with all these injuries so i definitely would look to him uh if they do hit that code red
12:31situation week one in seattle david who'd they work out today anyone we've heard of
12:35uh one of the guys they worked out was uh malik turner who's been with the team frank darby
12:43has also been with the 49ers before then two guys who haven't been with them kwame lassiter and
12:49jalen camp and spencer petras who went to marine catholic the alma mater of jared goth he's from
12:56san rafael that's the quarterback they brought in to throw to them and spencer has he played qb for
13:02iowa but he's a marine kid and he's now been to the facility twice in the last month to throw to
13:08different receivers that they're working out that's it's got so many entry troubles that receive
13:14that they keep on calling up the same local quarterback hey we got to work out some more
13:19receivers come on down and uh spencer's gotten a couple looks now thrown to these guys and it's
13:25not bad and at some point maybe he could be a practice squad guy and it kind of leads me to my
13:29question david which is who do they go with on saturday what's the plan for facing the raiders in
13:35preseason game number two well you know now that i think of it because you mentioned it they did not
13:41get good qb3 and foreplay to say the least yeah the preseason opener and my perspective is that
13:51let me start with this the quarterback situation for the 49ers is much better than it was last year
13:58because they're better at one purdy is just lighting it up purdy was awesome again today was 14 or 17
14:04at practice he couldn't have run up to george kittle and handed him the ball in a better spot than
14:11he did on this streak pattern i mean it was a beautiful pass but um purdy is is playing great
14:16and mac jones is an upgrade over josh dobbs and brandon allen who were uh battling for number two last
14:23year number three and number four that those have obviously been problems mordecai has since been cut
14:29and carter bradley is the number three now but my opinion is that if you get to quarterback number
14:36three and number three at the play for an extended period of time unless that quarterback three is a
14:42rookie brock purdy your season is going down the toilet it's just that the 49ers saw the exception to
14:51the rule in 2022 when they had purdy as their number three but generally there's not going to
14:58be good quarterback play at that spot and do you have to have one on your roster of course but you
15:04can't expect great things from that qb3 now uh the play was so rough the other day that i wouldn't be
15:10shocked that if it was rough again uh this week against the raiders if maybe the 49ers do bring in
15:16spencer petrus maybe they have seen him uh throwing us put to where they're impressed about
15:22these workouts and it's like hey why don't we give it a shot but bottom line is that they're happy that
15:26they've got purdy and jones at the top of the room and then in this league anything beyond that is is
15:32gravy uh david lombardi sf standard david when we talk about injuries and this has been a touchy thing
15:38with kyle through the years but outside of the super bowl season from two years ago somehow some way
15:45every year he's been here they're in the top 10 in terms of injuries in the nfl what's your take on
15:52that how do you explain it yeah that and that super bowl season they were almost pristinely healthy
15:59it was crazy i still remember doing a video update the night before the super bowl and the update was
16:06there is no injury list for the 49ers it was a while but like they had nobody on the injury report and
16:13then they they lost the super bowl the next day and in large part because dre greenlaw tore his
16:18achilles walking out onto the field so even in the season where it seemed that they were free of the
16:24injury hex it came back and it bit them right in that super bowl and it bit them in the most
16:30unfathomably painful way possible with their their the heart and soul of their defense the guy who was
16:38playing this insanely good game to start getting hurt tearing his achilles literally walking out
16:45onto the field not even performing a true football move so you know i at certain positions i can explain
16:53it i think like running back for example the reason the 49ers go through so many running backs is because
16:59they demand a really unsustainable combination from their running backs and that they want guys who are
17:05fast and they want guys who are physical you know they want both of those in the same player so
17:11they want somebody running the 4 3 40 but he's also barreling over defenders and that i think makes their
17:18running game as lethal as it has been over the years with that and the blocking obviously but
17:23i think that's a key component of it but the problem is the running backs do drop relatively quickly
17:29when when that's the case now if that's their mentality running the ball perhaps they've got a similar
17:35kind of vibe around the whole team where they're they have guys who are playing very fast very
17:40physically and that's conducive to to injuries uh the bottom line though is that it is happening
17:48around the whole league the 49ers may be a little bit higher than average in some of these seasons but
17:53the only two seasons where it's been appallingly bad like worse than the league is 2020 and 2024
18:01then both of those seasons were coming off of super bowl runs i think it's too early right now to say
18:09how healthy or not healthy they're going to be in 2025 because right now they're going to the camp
18:14dog days let's sit back and reevaluate this in september and october when they're actually in the
18:20season because whatever you're doing right now as far as resting guys and guys deciding to pull
18:25themselves out it's so you're as healthy as possible for the season right and there's gonna be a lot
18:31of overreacting to what's happening in camp but i'm i'm looking forward to seeing exactly where they
18:35are in when it actually counts in the regular season david great stuff we appreciate you in viva
18:41las vegas yep thank you have a good one all right david lombardi 110 degrees today oh drops to 109
18:50tomorrow so it's cool enough uh they will be indoors though right i think they'd practice outside
18:55tomorrow he was saying outside yeah they practice outside oh good but like eight o'clock i think
19:01they're practicing so it's only going to be probably 90 uh at uh 90 is not 110 now no and it is a dry
19:09heat when granny and i were there uh the first day for summer league 117
19:15heat when granny and i was there um so it's only going to be a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little