- 2 days ago
Willard and Dibs react to former NFL offensive lineman Geoff Schwartz saying that the 49ers have drafted so poorly recently that they have no young talent they can rely on entering this season. Do you agree?
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00:00Hey, when I say the 49ers and the draft, how's that combo go for you?
00:07I'm not liking it early.
00:09You're not?
00:09But...
00:10Wait, what do you mean?
00:11This year?
00:11Or just in general?
00:13No, in general, like the day one and the day two picks, they don't always work out.
00:17But watch out on day three because they've done very, very well.
00:21And I have the sheet somewhere in my pile.
00:23We went through the thing and we graded the Niners by round.
00:27And I think the first and second round, they were getting D, D minuses.
00:31But by the late rounds, they were doing quite well.
00:34Yeah, well, sure.
00:35I mean, if you want to go back, you know, historically and start talking about the current drafted 49ers,
00:43who we love and where'd you get them?
00:46Sure, your mind goes there.
00:48Purdy, seventh.
00:49Kittle, fifth.
00:50Fred Warner's a third.
00:52Nick Bosa's a one.
00:54Deebo Samuel's a two.
00:56And so we can start going through all of them.
00:59But I don't even know that the conversation right now might not be about the great 49ers
01:06and the drafts of six, seven years ago.
01:10It's more a recency thing.
01:13And the feeling is, is that around Trey Lance and beyond, there has been this gap where there was a
01:21good solid three-year period where the Niners really, really screwed up.
01:26And I don't know if I necessarily buy that on the full.
01:29I'm not going to sit here and say they did great.
01:32But I don't know if it's always as bad as people like to pitch it.
01:37I don't know if all of you have noticed, but if you go on social media or sometimes even if
01:43you tune into the radio, things can skew a little negative sometimes.
01:48Is that me or did y'all notice that?
01:52Is it me?
01:53Well, it's not only the radio, it's social media.
01:56And much like our earlier caller talking about the injury narrative, as you start to go through some of these
02:02ideas, like the Niners, they suck at drafting.
02:05And Mike Dunleavy is a terrible general manager.
02:08And, you know, all the other narratives that are out there, if you want to like dig in and check
02:14on facts and compare the Niners draft to other teams draft, they're probably not the worst.
02:20They aren't the best.
02:21They're probably somewhere in between.
02:22I mean, there's nothing I can do for you with the 2023 draft.
02:27There's nothing like even I, right?
02:29There's nothing I could do.
02:30That's when they had no first, no second, and they squandered all their thirst.
02:34So there you go.
02:35I mean, well, is Jair Brown squandered?
02:38No.
02:39I mean, it might be.
02:40It's probably starting safety.
02:41That's fine.
02:42As a third-round pick, I mean, he.
02:44Jake Moody was squandered.
02:46Right.
02:46That was a squandered third-round pick.
02:47Yep.
02:49The rest of the draft goes Latu, Luter, Beal, Winters, Willis, Bell, and Graham.
02:58That's the rest of the draft.
02:59It's not great.
03:00No, it's not.
03:01But I do think you have to at least take into account.
03:04Put it this way.
03:05I'm not going to ding you for the Trey Lance pick twice.
03:08Like, they didn't have a first or second-round pick.
03:11That was because of a mistake made two years prior.
03:14I mean, you probably could ding them three times.
03:18Yes, you could.
03:19Because they blew the pick, and then they gave up a pick, and they gave up another pick.
03:23Right.
03:23So, I actually would ding them three times.
03:26Well, I would just ding them once for the whole experience and really, really, really ding them.
03:32That would be a really big ding.
03:33That would be a big ding.
03:34Capital D on that ding.
03:36All right, check it out.
03:37So, this is, agree or disagree.
03:39Jeff Schwartz, who is a Bay Area sports fan, a former offensive lineman, mainly with the Chiefs,
03:45works for Fox Sports.
03:47He was on First Things First today.
03:49Let her rip Jeff.
03:50The problem besides the injuries is that they have drafted very poorly for four years now.
03:56They have not drafted well.
03:57When you look at their roster and their depth, you can look at the first-round picks.
04:00Obviously, we couldn't put all the last four years on here.
04:03But Trey Lance, obviously, they traded all those picks.
04:05They missed out on first-round picks for years.
04:07Pearsall, obviously, unfortunately, had some off-the-field right, got hurt again.
04:11Williams got hurt last season.
04:12But the rest of the roster, none of these guys are any impact players.
04:16You go down 2023, 2024, 2025, they don't have any impact players that are young.
04:20They're all super top-heavy.
04:22So, these guys start getting hurt, which they're getting hurt as they get older.
04:25There's no one to backfill.
04:26There's just no one there.
04:28And we don't talk enough about the Niners draft picks, man.
04:30Like, who are the dudes?
04:31Who are the dudes right now?
04:33You got Trent, obviously.
04:34You got McCaffrey.
04:35You got Warner.
04:36Yeah, you got Purdy.
04:38Who else?
04:38Kittle, Bosa, Evans.
04:40Sure, but they're all old.
04:41Okay.
04:42He's not completely off-base.
04:45I think that there's a more intricate conversation to be had.
04:49How does that grab you?
04:50That for the past, what, three years, they've blown the draft?
04:54There's no impact players who are young is the statement that keeps bouncing in my head.
05:00Quote, there are no impact players who are young.
05:05I mean, I guess you have to define impact.
05:08And also define young.
05:10And, yeah, Trent Williams and McCaffrey, they were not drafted.
05:13And Fred Warner is no longer young.
05:16Neither is George Kittle.
05:17And DeJount Stribling, we don't really know yet.
05:20The jury's out.
05:21But, honestly, if you want to look at, I don't know, you look at Dominic Poonie, who's played every snap
05:27at guard.
05:28It's not sexy, but is he not an impact player?
05:31He is actually going to be Exhibit A for me.
05:34I mean, yes, that is an impact player.
05:37No questions asked, in my opinion.
05:39Yeah, and if you go beyond that, you've got Colton McKivitt, who is a drafted player, and he's your right
05:44tackle for me.
05:45He's also an impact player.
05:47And you go to Diaminar Lenore and Upton Stout, younger drafted players.
05:53I think they're impact players.
05:55Now, I think that Jeff Schwartz makes a good point.
05:58And if you want to look at the skill guys, well, yeah, then you don't really have any of those
06:03young, drafted, skill position players.
06:05That's true.
06:06You want to know a different way I look at it?
06:09Because he's talking about, I already said, there's nothing I can do for you on the 2023 draft.
06:13The 2022 draft is also, in theory, a bad one, but I would fight back.
06:18They got a starting quarterback out of it.
06:20So, bleep the rest of the picks, okay?
06:23If you can get a starting quarterback, then that's a good draft.
06:26The rest of the picks, not so great.
06:28But he's talking, and I think the years that he threw out there, 23, 24, 25.
06:36Hold on a second.
06:37Yo, way too soon to be dismissing 2025 draft picks.
06:48They've been in the league for a year.
06:50Hold on a second.
06:52Like, give them a minute, would you?
06:54What if I looked at it a different way?
06:55Let me start with 2024 and read you an entire series of names.
07:022024 through current, okay?
07:05Yeah.
07:06This is everyone drafted by the Niners over the last three drafts.
07:10Tatum Bethune, Jarrett Kingston, Jacob Cowing, Gorendo, Mustafa, Puni, Renardo Green, Ricky Pearsall.
07:18Junior Bergen, Connor Colby, Curtis Rourke, Marquise Siegel, Jordan James, Jordan Watkins,
07:24CJ West, Upton Stout, Nick Martin, Alfred Collins, Mikel Williams.
07:28And then Enrique Cruz, Jaden Duggar, Priceock, Carver Willis, Grayson Holton, Kalon Black, Romello Height, Dajon Stribling.
07:40Three drafts.
07:41Do you know how many of the people I just named the organization has already completely moved on from?
07:49Not that many.
07:50What would you guess?
07:51Well, I mean, I'd have to think about the entire list, but you're talking about just the last three drafts.
07:5724, 25, and then this year in 2026.
08:00And he didn't really mention 26, but because obviously, like, I don't think they've caught anybody from 2026 yet.
08:07It's still 2026.
08:08Right.
08:08But the three drafts that he pointed out, 23, 24, 25, I'm going to submit on 23, but let's do
08:1720, 24, and 25.
08:18And my initial take, without going into too much depth, is that's too soon to be pointing at that draft
08:25and saying that that was poorly done.
08:28Players can absolutely pop and have in year two and year three, sometimes for the first time.
08:36Well, and some of those guys you mentioned, like, have the 49ers moved on from them?
08:40No, but Bernardo Green, Jair Brown, these are players who, this is the year.
08:47Like, if you don't show that improvement with a new defensive coordinator, I think you might be in danger of
08:52being moved off of.
08:54By my count, and I'm trying to remember, where is, I know they let Bergen go.
09:00Did they bring him back, or is he still off?
09:03Junior Bergen.
09:04I know they let him go because they needed somebody else for the preseason game last week,
09:09and I can't remember if they have currently brought him back or not.
09:13No, recently Junior Bergen signed with the Jets.
09:16Okay, all right.
09:17So, the answer, at least, and check me on this, I'm not a hundo on this, I'm about 95%
09:23sure.
09:24I think the answer to the question is two.
09:27And Junior Bergen is one of them, and it just happened last week.
09:30But correct me if I'm wrong, Jarrett Kingston is also no longer with the 49ers.
09:36That is a sixth round pick.
09:38Right.
09:38And Junior Bergen is a seventh round pick.
09:42Other than that, we are three drafts in.
09:45They've kept all of them.
09:47They're at least intrigued on some level.
09:51Well, the ones from this year, I mean, they haven't even played a game yet.
09:55Right, right.
09:55And again, and I'll give you that.
09:57But 24 and 25 are two years that Jeff points out and says there are no impact players.
10:04And again, my issue there, I'm not, I can't, the same way he's saying they're bad drafts,
10:10like, I'm not going to sit here and tell you I know that they're good,
10:13but what I am going to say is you're not allowed to call them bad yet.
10:16Like, that's too soon, in my opinion, knowing that almost all of these players are still on the team.
10:25You mentioned Pune.
10:27Am I going to say that Malik Mustafa is non-impact?
10:30I don't know that.
10:31He hasn't, like, solidified himself, but, boy, he's popped at times and been pretty damn interesting.
10:39Bethune ended up being a key member of the linebacking corps for a while last year.
10:44That's a seventh round pick.
10:45You mentioned Green.
10:47And if, like, look, people who watch Ricky Pearsall play, this is a good player.
10:52Certainly he has been dinged with very bad luck.
10:55I don't ding teams for that when people get hurt.
11:00Then you move on to last year.
11:03Marquis Siegel, Jordan James, Jordan Watkins, Upton Stout.
11:08He's not an impact player?
11:09He's been good.
11:10I mean, you mentioned James and Jenkins, and neither one of them could even really make it on the field
11:15last year.
11:15Jordan James played in week 18, and that was it.
11:18So, for Jeff's point, I think that you look at those two in particular, and it's like one game in,
11:24or one year in, rather, and you made no impact.
11:26No impact, but injured, like largely injured.
11:30I mean, Nick Martin.
11:31Nick Martin was a big thing last year.
11:33It was like, why isn't he on the field?
11:35Well, he was a rookie, and now he's at a really good camp, and people are intrigued by him.
11:41I don't necessarily know that's the way it's going to go, but I'm not going to sit here and call
11:45that.
11:46It's not a miss yet.
11:48It's year two.
11:49Right.
11:50Alfred Collins is an interesting one, because there's a lot of whispers around that he might not actually make the
11:56team.
11:56Well, there's whispers because they thought he was more kind of a Robert Sala fit, and maybe he doesn't fit.
12:02And he's a second-round pick, right?
12:03Second-round pick.
12:04So, that would be another just, you know, high day two kind of a miss.
12:08Some of these are going to be a miss.
12:09I'll give you that.
12:11I just think it's too early.
12:12I would argue that Mikel Williams was having an impact when he was playing, and then he got hurt.
12:19Now, if you want to run out in the street and rip the Niners because people suffered injuries back-to
12:26-back years,
12:26their first-round pick both of those years have struggled with major injury now with Ricky Pearsall and Mikel Williams.
12:33Am I going to take those two facts and say the Niners suck at drafting?
12:38That feels unfair to me.
12:40It can be unfair, but the reality is if you take a guy in the first round, you're hoping to
12:46get first-round output from the player,
12:48and if he gets hurt, that's unfortunate.
12:50Now, Ricky Pearsall's third season will not happen because he got hurt again.
12:56He got hurt last year, and the knee didn't get better, and so now he's gone for the year.
13:00And so, you can look at that and say it's tough luck.
13:03It's unfortunate.
13:04But the bottom line reality of this is he's a first-round pick, and he doesn't play.
13:09I don't disagree with that, but I do disagree with the language that's used about that.
13:14Now, if Jeff Schwartz wants to go on First Things First and say,
13:17the Niners have had some really crappy luck the last two years with their first picks.
13:21Great.
13:22The Niners suck at drafting.
13:24The Niners have no impact players out of the last four drafts.
13:28That's over-speaking, in my opinion.
13:31That's over-speaking, I believe.
13:32It depends on how you look at it, and from afar, I can see where he looks at that and
13:37says,
13:37yeah, you're not getting a lot of impact from the guys you take early in the draft.
13:41And I'm looking at the grades we did, you and me and Grandy, 77 picks in nine years,
13:46and I have their first round as a D from all the years that Shanahan and Lynch have drafted.
13:52And, you know, round seven is an A-plus.
13:55Round five is an absolute A.
13:57But early on, round one, round two, they have not done well.
14:00I can't argue with the output from round one.
14:05I mean, I'm looking, and this is going back further, and this was not Jeff Schwartz's point.
14:09But if you want to go back to, let's say, and I guess, was it 2017?
14:13Was that their first draft?
14:15Yeah.
14:162017.
14:17You know, their first rounders that year, Solomon Thomas, Reuben Foster, miss, miss.
14:22Mike McGlinchey the year after that.
14:24Look, McGlinchey ended up signing a big deal with a different team, but that, to me, is not a miss.
14:29He wasn't great, but he was good.
14:31Nick Bosa is the year after that.
14:33Might be struggling with injury now, but come on.
14:36This guy won defensive player of the year.
14:38Kinlaw after that, that's bad.
14:40Trey Lance after that, unmitigated disaster, and therefore didn't even have one in 22 and 23.
14:46But then you get to the situation that I'm talking about now.
14:49They traded out of the first round this year.
14:51Their only two other first round picks since then are Pearsall and Mike L. Williams.
14:56Yeah, Ayuk in there, too, is a first round pick.
14:58Duke, thank you.
14:58And I had him listed as a hit in my column, even though it ended badly.
15:02He was, yeah.
15:03While he was here, he was good.
15:04And the Williams and Pearsall thing, I would say the same thing, which is you're not wrong to say that
15:10right now the output is not good,
15:12but you're also not wrong to argue two other things.
15:15One, very poor luck with injury.
15:19And I would argue, too, jury's still very out.
15:23I'm not done with Ricky Pearsall and Mike L. Williams as NFL players and 49er contributors.
15:30Mike L.'s played one year, right?
15:32Right.
15:32He played five or six games.
15:34And Ricky Pearsall, he won't get credit for this year, so he comes back next year.
15:39And ostensibly, it's a redshirt year, so he'll be in his third year, which means he still has his fourth
15:45year.
15:45And then the Niners can decide whether or not they want to pick up his fifth-year option from there.
15:49So, yeah, it's not done.
15:51I'm looking at my notes here, and under the first-round TBD is Mike L. Williams and Ricky Pearsall.
15:57But I have a plus next to Pearsall.
15:59We did this back in, like, June, I think, and I was giving him a plus, meaning he's trending toward
16:05being a hit
16:06based on what he shows when he's healthy, and now he's going to miss the whole year.
16:10Well, you know, it's an interesting complete side subject, if you will.
16:14So, the guy that I always bring up when the conversation goes this way is Jason Verrett,
16:19who played for the 49ers for a little while, but he was actually a Charger draft pick back in the
16:24day.
16:25Would you consider Jason Verrett to draft him?
16:28Is he a hit, or is he a miss?
16:32Jason Verrett, when he played, was unbelievable.
16:36And I mean with the Chargers early on in his career.
16:39He was tremendous.
16:41Wow, his body could not hold up.
16:44He went through, I don't know, I think it was three ACLs in a period of, like, six years.
16:51And he's out of the game.
16:53And I don't know, I don't know how to process that as a, you know, if you want to call
16:58us, in this particular case, analyst.
17:00I don't know how to analyze and then ding a team for picking a player, and Pearsall may end up
17:06being that guy.
17:08You'll never convince me, no matter how this plays out, that Ricky Pearsall wasn't a good player.
17:12I don't know where this is going next, but you will never, ever, ever convince me.
17:17It doesn't matter.
17:18No, it doesn't.
17:19But it does in terms of how we choose to analyze things.
17:23You can analyze it however you want.
17:25And Jason Verrett, I'm glad you mentioned it, out of Fairfield, first-round pick by the Chargers.
17:31He was taken number 25 overall.
17:33He played 41 games over the course of eight seasons, including two other seasons, where he had an Achilles, and
17:42then he had an Achilles.
17:43He was here for 10 years, eight of which he played 41 games.
17:4841 games.
17:49And it sucks that injury completely robbed him of a career, but that's a miss.
17:53He was the first-round pick on a guy, an undersized corner, and he just couldn't get out there and
17:59couldn't stay on the field.
18:00Like, I have no issue with you calling it a miss.
18:04I guess my point is I'm also not going to go down the road of, if I were a Charger
18:10fan at that time, being like, the hell was the GM thinking, man?
18:15Dude, he was a baller.
18:17He was fantastic.
18:18And he actually came back after two injuries, joined the 49ers, and had an A-level year here in San
18:27Francisco as well.
18:28He was really, really good.
18:31That's just the way I look at it.
18:32You're allowed to look at it differently, obviously, but I don't ding a team for you took a guy and
18:39injuries kind of mess with his career a little bit.
18:41You can see when somebody's good when they're on the field.
18:45Michael Williams was a really good run-stopper last year.
18:48Ricky Pearsall's a very good receiver.
18:50Are they ever going to play out?
18:51I don't know.
18:52I have no idea.
18:53But I'd be hard-pressed to ever get to a point where I'm like, John Lynch is a dummy for
18:59those.
19:00I just, that's not fair to me.
19:02You can look at each individual case, and you can judge the GM based on what you want to judge
19:07him on.
19:08When you move back, and you pick up an additional first-round pick, and you use that on Solomon Thomas,
19:14Stanford guy,
19:15and he turned out, I think he's still actually playing pro football somewhere.
19:19He was last year.
19:20I think you're right.
19:21But that was a miss, and you pick up another pick, and you use it on Reuben Foster, a guy
19:26with character issues,
19:27and he barely lasted two seasons.
19:29That was also a miss.
19:31And so you can judge any pick on any criteria you want.
19:35I look at those first two first-round picks and think they blew it.
19:39Of course.
19:40With which I agree.
19:41By the way, I'll give you one guess where Solomon Thomas is.
19:44He's playing.
19:44I thought he might have been a Buffalo Bill or a Dolphin.
19:49He's somewhere out there.
19:50And I guess the Titans?
19:51That is absolutely correct.
19:53He just follows Robert Sala.
19:54Exactly.
19:54Which means Sala likes him.
19:56I mean, I'm always intrigued by that when you see a player keep bouncing around following a coach who's coached
20:04him before.
20:04Part of that is they know they know the system.
20:07At the same time, though, you know, sometimes the world is like, that guy sucks.
20:11And the coach is like, I like that guy.
20:13I want that guy.
20:13No, no, no, no, no, no.
20:15On my team.
20:16A testimony to Solomon Thomas that he's still playing.
20:18Still playing.
20:19Age 30.
20:20Yep.
20:20Still playing.
20:21Jason Verrett with the Niners.
20:23He played one game, then 13, then one, then zero, then one.
20:29Exactly.
20:30Man.
20:30The one where he played 13, he was really good.
20:32That was a good year.
20:33Really good year.
20:34That was a good year.
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