00:00What are your concerns about the 49ers?
00:03I'd like to talk about this less and maybe listen a little bit more
00:06because I've spent the last couple of days talking about how
00:10I really wish everybody would just stop worrying so much.
00:16I got up today, I took my kid to school, I love both of the Joes,
00:21I turned it on and I went, guys, come on,
00:25again, Mike Evans is not, air quotes, hurt.
00:31And they're doing a whole thing about, here we go again,
00:34about how Kittle shouldn't play and Mike Evans and this,
00:38and it's like, I don't know what to say about it anymore.
00:41Sure, everybody could get hurt.
00:44But I'd love to know the specific concerns about this roster
00:50that I think is really good, that you think could be a struggle
00:54for them this year without sort of just doing the Eeyore,
00:59well, they're all going to get hurt because they're wearing
01:01Niner jerseys, so they're definitely getting hurt.
01:03Right.
01:03And I wonder if you think that.
01:05My thing earlier today in our thread was, okay,
01:08if you assume that people will get hurt,
01:10where are you more bolstered to actually withstand injuries?
01:14And I think about the running back position where Kalon Black
01:18has looked good and you've got a running back back from last year
01:21and you look at the linebacker core where now you've got additional depth,
01:26I think, than, you know, guys who actually flashed last year
01:28and your D-line where you've got Osa Odigizua
01:32and you've got other D-linemen in the interior
01:34who might be able to withstand a possible injury
01:37and even quarterback where last year you lost Brock Purdy for eight games
01:41and you went five and three in those games.
01:43So if you assume that they will get hurt, and I don't assume that,
01:47where are you most likely to be able to, like, hold the line
01:51and not completely fall apart?
01:53I'll tell you what I feel like I don't know.
01:57There's two pieces of the San Francisco 49ers.
01:59You want to get into the X's and O's about it.
02:01There's two things that I really cannot tell you
02:04if they're going to be good, bad, or somewhere in between.
02:07And it's the offensive line and the defensive backfield.
02:10I don't know.
02:11We're going to have to find out.
02:13They could struggle.
02:14They could be amazing.
02:15Why would the offensive line be amazing?
02:18Well, they actually had the number two offense in DVOA last year
02:24without the benefit of the run game doing very well.
02:27And that's the way my brain always works.
02:29We'll sit here for an entire offseason and be like,
02:31the offensive line sucks, and they had the number two offense in the league.
02:34So they must have done something right.
02:36Right.
02:37They must have, right?
02:38They had to do something right.
02:40And that's a defense-adjusted value over average is DVOA.
02:43Yeah, but we can get into scoring and all of that.
02:45Like, the 49ers were good, and they did so without the benefit of,
02:50for the most part, actual wide receivers that they meant to put out on the field.
02:54And I think if you want to look at that from last year,
02:56you could look at a couple of things that are, you know, realities.
02:59One was they were number one on third down,
03:01and the other one is you've got Kyle Shanahan calling the plays.
03:04And I'm not going to be the Shanahan that you are,
03:07and you live on his couch and the rest of it.
03:10But if you look at what he does and how he's able to scheme up offense,
03:15he does things that help you offset the fact that you had a backup quarterback for eight games.
03:20You didn't have your tight end for a few games.
03:23You lost your wide receiver.
03:25Again, your number one wide receiver for a long time.
03:28And you made it work with Jawan Jennings, Jake Tonjes,
03:32and, you know, guys who probably you wouldn't want to rely on.
03:35Got a really good quarterback, a really good play caller,
03:38and they did, you know, they got some good players back there.
03:40Christian McCaffrey's good at football.
03:43I think the receiving core this year, sure, they lost Ricky,
03:45and I don't know what the health of the whole group is going to be.
03:48But my gosh, they got a lot more interesting players this year than they did last year.
03:53Even if a couple of them get hurt, to be honest with you.
03:56That's how I'll talk about the wide receiver and running back room.
04:00You want to know what no one talks about instead of just going,
04:03oh, my God, they might get hurt.
04:05Do you know what?
04:06They actually have people behind the people this year.
04:09If Kalon Black and Jordan James need to play football for a few weeks,
04:13I'm good with it.
04:14I really am.
04:16I don't know exactly how they're going to perform,
04:18but it's a wave in my opinion and just based on my eyes,
04:23and I know neither one of them have played a lot in the NFL,
04:25Kalon Black, not at all.
04:26But I think that this, to me, could very much look like Jordan Mason did
04:32if needed to be pressed into duty.
04:35I think those guys can put yards up for you.
04:38And we've already seen one wide receiver go down,
04:41and you might still be able to throw out Mike Evans and Debo Samuel
04:45and Dajon Stribling and Demarcus Robinson.
04:48Their depth this year makes me way more comfortable in case one or two of those injuries come along again.
04:56And they probably will.
04:58I'm not saying McCaffrey will get hurt, but if you look at his career,
05:01the other two times he's led the league in touches,
05:04that next year he has gotten hurt.
05:06And so it's not predictive, but when you get older,
05:09it can be something that you look at and think,
05:11okay, it's a possibility.
05:14It's not a likelihood, but it's something that you would want to definitely look at and defend against.
05:18And I think that's why they drafted Kalon Black where they did.
05:21And you've got James back from last year,
05:23and he's somebody who flashed in about, what, a quarter or half a quarter
05:27when he actually played in the end of the year.
05:30So I do think you've got a little bit more of a backing for that.
05:34And if you look at the wide receiver spot, you lose Pearsall,
05:36but you've got Stribling and people love him.
05:39And maybe Kyle Shanahan loves him less than we do.
05:42I think he's being like what you always say, which is undersell and over deliver.
05:46But you've got Evans and Kirk and you've got Debo and so many others.
05:50Oh, yeah.
05:51Did that bother you yesterday?
05:52People want to know about Kyle Shanahan basically poo-pooing his kid, Dajon Stribling.
05:58You know what would bother me would be if he came out and said,
06:01oh, my God, are you seeing this in the preseason?
06:05This guy is, like, amazing.
06:07I've got the sky's the limit for this guy.
06:09Kyle Shanahan asked if Stribling has done more than he expected.
06:13Keep that in mind.
06:15Important for everybody to know the question that was asked.
06:18Has he done more than expected?
06:22I'm sure he is encouraging to see what Dajon Stribling has been able to do
06:26through the first two preseason games.
06:27And is it more than you guys expected at this point in the preseason?
06:32No, I mean, the preseason games don't mean that much to me.
06:35The coverages went that way.
06:36He happened to get targeted, so he made those plays.
06:39But he's been doing that in practice, too.
06:40So he's where we expected him to be.
06:42And we hope to not have to use him quite as much early on with Ricky and stuff out there.
06:46But we believed he was talented enough and made it the right stuff that he could be if needed.
06:50And just losing Ricky just ups that a little bit.
06:53You have to use him a little sooner than you prepared.
06:55That's stuff that happens all the time.
06:57I mean, first of all, what he's downplaying is not Stribling.
07:02He was downplaying preseason stats.
07:04And this is a point I thought you and I were talking about a little bit yesterday.
07:09Those two preseason games are two of the, count them up, I don't know, maybe 23 days
07:15that Kyle Shanahan has had with Dajon Stribling.
07:18And he goes, yeah, like, no, that's not more than I expected.
07:22And I don't really care about preseason stats.
07:25But what you're seeing, we see every day in practice.
07:28But I do think as a head coach, the way most of them are wired, you got to run that
07:33through the prism of he's never played an NFL game before.
07:37What does the coach have to gain to go out there and gas this thing up?
07:42Well, everybody wants all of these compliments.
07:45But to me, that's very much from the cookies at halftime thing that so many of you don't like.
07:51Like, what is the gain for Kyle Shanahan to just be like, you would not believe this.
07:59We thought he was good.
08:01But I mean, he's great.
08:03Like, sure, we made him our very first pick this year.
08:06So we already were incredibly thrilled with him.
08:09But now he's shown up.
08:11And we're even more amazed by what he's been able to do prior to you going to Australia to play
08:18the Rams.
08:19What's the gain?
08:20And does that sound like something Kyle has ever done before?
08:24I've never heard him gas someone up before they ever played a game.
08:28Well, think about Brock Purdy.
08:30And we found out after the fact that he was gassing him up behind the scenes.
08:34And so, I mean, Brock Purdy is the quarterback.
08:36He's QB three.
08:37And he's going to the people in the front office and saying, yeah, you know who the guy is?
08:41It's Mr. Irrelevant.
08:42And so he gassed him up behind the scenes.
08:44He never came out and said, you know what, Jimmy, Trey, I mean, they're good.
08:48But just wait for it.
08:50This guy, I'm going to gas him up.
08:52And so he will never gas up anybody, any rookie in that way.
08:56Like, scribbling looks good in the preseason.
08:59It's phenomenal.
08:59We'll ask Greg Cosell at 315 about what he sees and what he sees and what Kyle sees.
09:04It doesn't matter until week one anyway.
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