00:00And I've already expressed enough times how annoyed I am
00:03by the fact that everybody's just like,
00:04oh, the injuries, the injuries.
00:06It's like, okay, fine, sure.
00:09They all might get hurt.
00:11And so we can have that conversation.
00:13I kind of wanted to come at this from a different angle.
00:17And it's this.
00:18Let's focus on Nick Bosa for a second.
00:20And I guess in a larger sense,
00:23anyone who plays in the trenches for the San Francisco 49ers.
00:27I saw Richard Sherman earlier today saying that he does not believe
00:32that the 49ers have done what was needed in order to prepare themselves
00:38for the trench warfare with the Rams and Seahawks.
00:41And I get the point.
00:43I really do.
00:45But for me, there's a little bit too much anxiety about whether or not
00:51Nick Bosa is going to play in all the games this year.
00:54And here's why.
00:56I know why we feel like, oh, we can't win without Bosa.
00:59He got hurt last year, and they just stopped rushing the quarterback.
01:02Period.
01:03For the rest of the year.
01:0420 sacks, absolute last in football.
01:07To me, the job of Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch after that
01:11is not to promise everybody that Nick Bosa is going to play all the games next year.
01:15The job is to make sure that their team is better when Nick doesn't play.
01:22Because he might not.
01:24He might miss some games this year.
01:25Well, even when he does play, when you look at the percentage of snaps that he actually
01:30plays, it's usually not above 70.
01:32So on those other 30%, and I know that for the majority of the likely passing downs,
01:39you're going to trot him back out there.
01:40But they do a rotation traditionally where not everybody plays a lot,
01:45and nobody usually plays more than 70%.
01:47So in those other 30% of the snaps, to your point, you're going to have to have somebody
01:52be able to get after the quarterback.
01:53I do think that Osa Adigizuwa in the interior is going to give him something that they didn't have last
01:59year.
01:59But on the outside, on the other side, how are you going to allow Nick Bosa to not get double
02:05teamed every snap?
02:06Yep.
02:06I mean, look, these are questions for players like, I mean, they really like.
02:11Was it the fifth round where they got Grayson Holton?
02:13Was that the fifth round, I think?
02:15They're loving him, though, in camp.
02:17They loved what they saw from him.
02:19James Thompson Jr. is an undrafted free agent, the only one who made the team.
02:24They love what he's doing.
02:26We'll see where Romello Height factors into all of this.
02:31Keon White, who they acquired at the deadline last year, and they liked a little bit.
02:35We'll see what he can do.
02:37But the larger point is a good one, and I think that the 49ers, as a coaching staff,
02:45have made themselves vulnerable based on two specific players right now.
02:50And my fear is that they're still believing in these two players because they drafted them.
02:56Because they drafted them with high capital.
02:59Both of them had very poor camps.
03:02Maybe it was because they were still getting over offseason injuries,
03:05or maybe they just don't fit with Raheem Morris the way they might have with Robert Sala when they were
03:12drafted.
03:12But that's where my concern lies.
03:14I'm talking about Alfred Collins and C.J. West.
03:17These are early second and third round picks from just a year ago.
03:21They did not have good camps.
03:23There's a lot of video in the preseason out there of them getting overwhelmed by mediocre offensive linemen.
03:29And so this, to me, is one of the first vulnerable moments for this coaching staff.
03:36I'm not talking about hot seats and being fired and whatnot.
03:39But going into an offseason where you knew, you knew the Rams had Miles Garrett.
03:44I don't know if you knew Aaron Donald was coming back, but you knew what the Seahawks had to offer
03:49in these trenches.
03:49And you knew that you were going to need to figure out your offensive and your defensive line.
03:56And your offensive line is largely the same group, but add in a left guard who you can't even name
04:03yet.
04:03And then on the other side of the ball, what we just laid out.
04:07Did you do enough so that you are still a viable defensive line if and when Nick Bosa sits out?
04:16And if the answer to those questions is no, then Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch are going to have to
04:25answer for that.
04:26And I don't think it'll go very well.
04:27Depends on how it looks and especially on the defensive line, how Raheem Morris and his new scheme lines up
04:34with what you did last year in the draft where you got Collins and you got C.J. West.
04:39And they were drafted while Robert Sala was the defensive coordinator.
04:42And however they played, and I think that they both had some bright spots and the defense didn't get a
04:47lot of sacks, but they were middle of the pack and they were bend but don't break.
04:51And so now you have a more aggressive, seemingly, defensive coordinator and Raheem Morris.
04:57And so those drafted players from last year, are they going to fit with the scheme that Raheem Morris is
05:03going to bring out?
05:03Or are you going to wind up looking back at those picks and saying, well, those were wasted picks because
05:08they only had one year with Sala and now the new coordinator, they don't line up with him.
05:13Well, and we get distracted easily, which and by the way, I think the distractions are very good ones this
05:19year.
05:19Here's what I mean by that.
05:21The 49ers needed to do something about their receiver room after the way things played out last year.
05:27They did it.
05:28They did it.
05:28They drafted someone who they really like.
05:30They brought Debo back.
05:31They brought in Mike Evans.
05:32I know he's dealing with nagging stuff.
05:35They still think he's going to play week one.
05:38Okay, we'll see how that goes.
05:41I think that they got the message with regard to, hey, that's probably too many touches for Christian McCaffrey.
05:46They brought in Kalen Black.
05:48They like him.
05:49Jordan James is now healthy.
05:51They like him.
05:52They're not going to rely on Isaac Garendo there.
05:54So I think they did some things in the sexy spots where we look, but where we don't look are
06:00the lines.
06:01And to me, that is going to end up being the entire straw that stirs the drink for the 49ers
06:08this year.
06:09If those lines perform better than they did last year, this team will be elite, not good, elite, if those
06:19lines perform well.
06:20But if they don't, then that's where, yeah, I could see them getting overwhelmed.
06:24We know how the Seahawks and Rams lines are going to perform because they got a track record.
06:28You would figure.
06:29I mean, and that obviously is assuming health, which you can say about every player on every team across the
06:34entire National Football League.
06:35And the Rams have those big names.
06:38And I was listening to McVay earlier today talk about, well, we don't even know if we're going to bring
06:43Aaron Donald to Australia, you know, because he just came on the team.
06:46So we're not totally positive he's going to be ready.
06:47But, yeah, you're going to take him to Australia.
06:50But if Garrett is healthy and Aaron Donald is, you know, 75% of what he was, well, you got
06:57a lot of challenges there, interior, niner, offensive line.
07:00And I think about the vulnerability of, well, anytime you lose one of your best players, it's going to hurt.
07:05But your left tackle will be playing next to a brand new left guard.
07:09Your center has been maligned in many corners.
07:12And so if that left side of the line doesn't hold up, that's Brock Purdy's blind side, you could be
07:17in a world of hurt.
07:18I mean, that's the question going through, I think, a lot of our minds on offense, right?
07:22Like, they still ended up being a very, very highly ranked offense.
07:26They still scored a lot of points.
07:28I love the fact that I don't hear 49er fans worrying about the quarterback, which finally, finally, finally, finally.
07:37We're like, yeah, got the quarterback.
07:38You got the running back.
07:40You have a new receiving core.
07:42But that offensive line, when I look at the yards per carry on the ground for a Shanahan team last
07:51year,
07:52this is my number one question for the offense.
07:55Was it poor because the offensive line did not run block well?
08:01Or was it poor because the defense knew they could stack the box and focus on Christian McCaffrey?
08:09And the hope is, is now they won't.
08:11Now they won't be able to do that because there are actual separation weapons out on the field for Brock
08:18to throw to.
08:19I think we'll start getting some data on that pretty early.
08:23First few weeks into the season, we're going to, we'll have some data on that.
08:27That's the question for me.
08:29And if having some weapons opens up the run game, then I think the Niners are in good shape.
08:35But if it's offensive line again, and it just wasn't really addressed, then it's probably going to be time for
08:43Kyle Shanahan to adjust the way he fills that, that group.
08:48Well, it's hard to adjust when you're picking 26th in the draft or wherever they were initially.
08:53And so, as we've talked about, your top three or four tackles that people love in every draft, not just
08:59the consensus mocks, but the football experts as well.
09:02They usually go in the top 12 to 15 picks.
09:04And so, if you're not up there, it's costly to trade up there, as we learned in the Trey Lance
09:09debacle, where you had to trade three firsts to get a first, and then you blew the pick.
09:14So, getting a tackle in the draft is hard unless you're a bad team.
09:17Or you could go out and do it the Trent Williams way, which was you pulled a guy off the
09:22couch who was not happy with the situation, and you were able to bring in a Hall of Famer that
09:27way.
09:27So, I'm with you on the surface, but I look at last year, and I realize they were number one
09:33in third down conversions.
09:34So, even though yards per carry, I think they were 32nd in net yards per carry.
09:40They were down toward the bottom.
09:41But even at that, they did great in the red zone, they scored a lot of points, and they were
09:46the best on third down.
09:48So, even though their offensive line was probably mid, and if you go to, like, your pro football focuses, or
09:53you go to all of the different areas you want to look at, they were not a bad offensive line.
09:58They weren't a great one.
09:59Correct.
09:59And yet, you won a road playoff game, and you were first and third down conversions.
10:03Right, but the Seahawks and the Rams.
10:06I mean, the 49ers can be really good, and they can have a really good year.
10:10And have it also be incredibly not good enough because of those two teams that are in the division.
