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Willard and Dibs debate if the 49ers should, given the injuries to the wide receiver room and the ineffectiveness of the interior defensive line, consider trading backup quarterback Mac Jones.
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00:00There's been a lot of talk about this today and I get why there's two reasons essentially there have already
00:05in the NFC alone there have been count them up seven quarterback injuries now here's what I mean by that
00:13Sam Darnold is one I'm going to say um count Tua and Penix I guess is another Penix is coming
00:21off of an injury Tua got hurt um in the lead up in practice to week one so the Falcons
00:27had to immediately go with uh
00:29with Cooper Rush um the Bears have now lost two quarterbacks and that Caleb Williams went down and Tyson Badgen
00:37has ended up in the concussion protocol as of today and it sounds like Case Keenum did you know he
00:43was still in the league has a decent shot to be the Bears quarterback on Monday night and then obviously
00:49there's Kyler Murray with what happened uh week one in Minnesota he'll be back this week he has cleared the
00:56protocol and then two significant injuries in the NFC
00:59NFC East with Jackson Dart last night and Jaden Daniels on Sunday all of that in the NFC alone yeah
01:07and it looks like the Dart one is possibly going to be season ending it seems like he's heading for
01:13surgery and the Jaden Daniels one if he is going to get surgery on his non-throwing elbow I'd imagine
01:19that that's going to be a long time that might be season ending as well it's it's weeks if not
01:24months um I'm with you on that
01:26and so will there be teams this early in the season who are a desperate for a quarterback um will
01:33they look to a higher level backup which is what the 49ers have and then meanwhile the 49ers have needs
01:40uh there are two positions right now that have been hit by the injury bug more than the others wide
01:45receiver being one of them and if you're just joining us
01:48Brandon Cooks uh veteran wide receiver is the selection for the 49ers on the free agent market he goes to
01:54the practice squad will probably be elevated this weekend we'll see but that fortifies the wide receiver room a little
02:00bit with Pearsall gone for the year Stripling gone for a while and now Demarcus Robinson gone for at least
02:08a month so there's that and then there's the interior defensive line which has been the weakest part of the
02:14team so far
02:15has been hit by a lot of injuries itself and on the down low lost another one over the weekend
02:21as well people don't talk about it as a lot but undrafted free agent rookie James Thompson Jr. was a
02:28piece of the puzzle there and he also suffered a high ankle sprain last weekend so he goes off and
02:34they need depth there we're far away from the trade deadline but the answer I would give to this is
02:42I hope
02:43that the 49ers can keep Matt Jones but yes you would be open to listening I am nowhere near as
02:50firm as say Mark Slareth was when he was like hell no you don't trade that guy I know Baldy
02:55this morning too was like you're not trading that guy and that would be my hope and usually trades at
03:01the trade deadline are not player for player in the NFL it's usually pick for player so I get that
03:06but if there's a team that because they've really arrived at a position of need and they're desperate
03:13and they're willing to overpay and you could for instance get a pick in a player or whatever in return
03:19I'd sure be open to it and the reason is is simply this he's a free agent so he's going
03:27to be gone after this year one way or another I would think he's going to want to go somewhere
03:31where he's got a better opportunity to play so you're going to lose him essentially the idea of holding on
03:36to him at the deadline is simply holding on to him for the last third
03:42or last half of the season and I would only do that if I was firmly in the camp of
03:48Matt can win the 49ers a Super Bowl and I'm not I don't think that he can I think the
03:54drop off is enough that the Niners go from contender to not if they lose Brock Purdy and go to
04:00Mac Jones so why would I need Mac Jones for those last handful of games unless I really thought he
04:08could win the Super Bowl again I'd like him I think they will keep him
04:12but if the right call comes along boy I'd stay open-minded because to me that's you're coming from a
04:19place of fear if you won't do that you're readying yourself for injury rather than readying yourself for a Super
04:26Bowl run I think it's not fear as much as it is the reality of how it goes in the
04:31NFL and we were talking about this before how many quarterbacks actually played in all the games last year and
04:37started them I think the number was 11 or 12 and your guy Brock Purdy was
04:42one of those ones who got hurt so if Brock Purdy misses the same amount of games as he did
04:47last year well you're a good enough team to be able to stay in the mix if you have a
04:52good enough backup and if you trade Mac Jones you no longer have a good enough backup unless you love
04:57Curtis Rourke and you know Shanahan can think that he is the next great thing and if that's the case
05:03well then hopefully you don't have to see it because I'm looking at the list of QB2 and QB3s
05:09around the league and there's some other guys that you probably didn't remember are actually still playing including Tanner McKee
05:19is one you know JJ McCarthy is a QB3 Zach Wilson is still in the National Football League no I
05:26knew that he's on the Saints and so I'm just thinking about other teams like would would the Rams be
05:32open to trading Stetson Bennett because they drafted the rookie Tyson so maybe that would be a guy but if
05:39you're the Giants
05:39and you're looking around the list of backups you'd be hard pressed to find anybody better or more accomplished than
05:46Mac Jones so to that end you might be able to get a better package if you traded Mac Jones
05:52but I think you're in a spot where your team is really good through two games and if your only
06:00injury was going to be your quarterback and you had all the rest of those fancy objects still around I
06:05think you can win with Mac Jones
06:06okay no I think you can win I don't think you win a Super Bowl that's just my take I
06:09think you can and a lot of it comes down to not only how does Mac play but and if
06:14we do the hypothetical of okay you lose the QB but everyone else is mostly healthy meaning they play 15
06:20games or whatever I think you get to the playoffs and Mac Jones is a good enough quarterback to game
06:26manage you across the line yeah I see that differently I get where you're coming from he did an awesome
06:31job last year
06:32um I know people will bring up the schedule and it was weak and if you do look at quarterback
06:37rating and points scored and all of those things um for me life comes from a place of perspective and
06:43one of the reasons and this is going to sound rude Mac was really good but one of the reasons
06:47he looked so good is because you expected him not to I like when a backup quarterback wins football games
06:53we get surprised
06:54and therefore we remember this as a really positive experience um Mac Jones did not go out and dominate he
07:01didn't just go go look at the numbers go look at what he did he was good he was good
07:05ish and and it was fine and it was all of those things and it was impressive because he's a
07:10backup um and somewhere in this whole conversation is yet another massive compliment to Kyle Shanahan and I know that
07:18it it sort of works uh in counter to some of the Brock Purdy takes that we're now
07:24hearing but even I am as the president of Brockistan I am big enough to admit that any quarterback with
07:31Kyle Shanahan is probably better than who that quarterback would be with someone else and I believe the league knows
07:39that so the league one of the reasons nobody really gave a great offer in the offseason to Mac Jones
07:45to the 49ers for Mac Jones is because they know that if they get Mac Jones they're not getting Kyle
07:51Shanahan's Mac Jones they're getting their Mac
07:54Mac Jones and we've seen Mac Jones and we've seen Mac Jones and we've seen that on tape too we've
07:57watched him with two other teams and it's been very different it's been fine it's not awful but um a
08:06team is gonna have to be desperate because they feel like they've really got something cooking and they lose their
08:13guy and Mac Jones can come in and keep their playoff push alive do you know like right now I
08:21wonder how it's like no one's bringing this team up everyone's bringing up
08:24the Giants I don't think the Giants I don't think the Giants think they're the best team in their division
08:27I think the Bears think that they're the best team in their division and they've got a great quarterback whisperer
08:33type coach
08:33right and how long is Caleb Williams out for I don't know and to me this is a question about
08:38is he out for two weeks or is he out for six or is he out for one like I
08:43don't know what that answer is and they do and we're a little early for trade talk but if you're
08:49gonna end up all the way down at QB three and you've got a big Monday night game I think
08:55they're playing the Eagles
08:56yeah on Monday night home you know what I mean they're in a competitive division if they feel like the
09:01Vikings are gonna get away from them um they've got to win some games here early and they've got a
09:07series of very winnable games after this game against Philly they play the Jets the Packers and the Falcons and
09:14they got to win those games now because the schedule is not always a break two of the three anyway
09:17well and if Caleb is not there I like I could see the Bears get into a spot where they're
09:23like we need a quarterback for the month right somebody who is
09:26better than Tyson Badgett if he's able to clear the protocol by Monday I think he has a chance because
09:31of the extra day I don't know how severe the concussion was but you mentioned that there weren't a lot
09:37of offers for Mac Jones in the offseason and I'm just looking at all the quarterbacks who are the listed
09:43starters throughout the league and there aren't that many teams that were in need of a quarterback some of them
09:48went out and looked to draft a guy like the Raiders Minnesota they chose to go with Kyler Murray as
09:55opposed to Mac
09:56Mac Jones and you've got very few other situations where teams were actually on the hunt you know you had
10:03Geno Smith go to the Jets you had Malik Willis go to the Dolphins and beyond that most of the
10:09teams either have an established guy or a recently drafted highly drafted guy so I don't think that there was
10:15much of a market for Mac to be somebody's compete to be the starter guy and so ultimately I think
10:22it made the most sense for him to stay here right
10:24and and you'd have to offer something really good for the 49ers to be interested because if they do just
10:29wait and let them walk they're gonna get a comp pick out of this third fourth round whatever it is
10:33and and that's that's a value as well and and part of the conversation you're gonna have to significantly beat
10:40that again I don't think he'll get traded I think we're too early for this conversation and if I'm the
10:44Niners I don't want to trade him but I'd be open I would listen
10:49especially especially if what we're talking about becomes an issue at the deadline because again to me once you get
10:57to the deadline the conversation isn't about you know do we what if Brock gets hurt if in theory you're
11:04in position to go on a run and you're you're you're like okay it's playoff push time and you're thin
11:10at wide receiver on the defensive line
11:13and someone wants to fortify you in exchange for Mac it's like what are you really giving up we're giving
11:20up a free agent to be with seven games to go or something like that you have nine at that
11:27point okay nine games to go and the thought process has to be a what is Brock's health and the
11:36risk that we're taking there and be if he does go down how do we really feel about max chances
11:42to take
11:43us to a Super Bowl because at that point in his contract it's not about like I just keep a
11:48float and all that to me it's just like I want that guy on the team only if I truly
11:54believe I'm giving up Super Bowl hopes if I let him go and that's just not how I see Mac
12:01he's good he's a very high quality backup but I do see him as a backup he's a backup in
12:07this league in my opinion at this juncture yeah I mean you know Sam Darnold was a certain kind of
12:12quarterback and then
12:12he got to Minnesota with a good offensive minded coach and then he won the Super Bowl so Mac Jones
12:17can continue to ascend in his career and I just see it differently than you and especially if you know
12:24if you get to the trade deadline and you decide to keep Mac and then if your quarterback misses four
12:29or five games not a season ender but something like the turf toe was can he come in and help
12:35you stay afloat absolutely and I also think that he could with this collection of talent around him
12:41and the Shanahan factor is very sure it's big for me in this conversation because last year you had to
12:48have Mac Jones come in and play and he wasn't always sparkly but Shanahan was certainly in his bag and
12:54doing all the things he could to make Mac be the best player he could be and he went out
12:58and went five and three
12:59by the way I mentioned the quarterback rating stat and 415 texted in thank you for listening Willard Mac had
13:07a QB rating of 94 how is that not impressive well define impressive am I impressed because he's a backup
13:13quarterback and he came in and kept the thing afloat yes I'm impressed I'm impressed by that are you asking
13:19me if a rating of 94 is impressive quarterbacking not really it's not terrible
13:26do you know who has a rating of 95.8 do you know who has a rating of 95.8
13:29so far this year Gino Smith yeah I like it's actually 97.4 okay was yeah like any below 100
13:37and in the mid 90s is like solid ish it's not like it's not overwhelming it's not Super Bowl quarterbacking
13:48in my opinion now you can make the surroundings argument I don't know what Darnold's rating was for example last
13:53year it might have been a little bit below 100 but
13:56he had the elite of elite defense that that really kind of carried the way I had said this off
14:04the top I don't want this conversation to sound like I'm not a fan of what Mac Jones did last
14:09year I just think all things come from our pre perspective and we thought Mac was awesome because he did
14:17things we didn't expect him to be able to do it's no different than how we vote for coach of
14:22the year you and coach of the year if you coach your team really well and we thought you were
14:26going to suck so then we're going to suck so then we're like you're coach of the year we don't
14:30give coach of the year to the coach that actually comes out swags onto the field and wins the whole
14:35league we don't usually do that right if we saw you coming then all you did was meet our expectations
14:41Mac overdid his expectations but his expectations were low so anyway that's just how I see Mac is really like
14:51really really good story he's really good for this this spot
14:54I love him as a backup and I hope the Niners keep him but I wouldn't close my ears
15:00not if the phone rings it depends on how you feel about Curtis Rourke honestly because you need a backup
15:06quarterback in this league you need a good one and the 49ers have that so if you're gonna give that
15:12up if you're gonna trade away your really good proven to work in this system backup quarterback and you can
15:19say he's not as good as Brock and you're right but when he was the starter last year he played
15:25well enough to win five of eight and so if you're gonna part with him
15:28you better get something back that is really impactful not just a rotational piece somewhere and you better love Curtis
15:36Rourke because you may need him to step onto the field in big spots because that's what happens no and
15:42that's a fair point and I don't know we don't know yet what they actually think of Curtis Rourke we
15:46know that they they're they're certainly intrigued by him you know they grabbed him they're keeping him so I think
15:53they like him to some degree I don't know how much but as you know they know in practice
15:58who they actually like they were the ones who sort of spotlighted Purdy as the best quarterback in camp when
16:04he was QB3 let's go to Gene in Oakland hi Gene thanks for calling what's up
16:10hey guys so I think I'm more aligned with you dibs on my impression of Mac Jones now last year
16:19I felt like no do not trade this guy he's the best insurance policy we had at the time and
16:26sure enough we needed him
16:27I really think we needed him if we didn't have him I'm not sure we would get as far in
16:33the playoffs as we did okay
16:36and listen you know that performance against the Rams last year in the first first game against the Rams
16:43that's one of the most amazing performances I can ever remember by a quarterback so
16:48you know I wouldn't be too dismissive of Mac however that was last year this is this year
16:54we have dire needs in two places one as you say you know receiver and the second I think is
17:01on the line
17:02because first two games we're getting gashed on the runs by in the first half of those two games I'm
17:10concerned you know if we start playing teams with very good quarterbacks and excellent runners I think
17:16we're going to be in trouble right now unless we get some people back so I'm what I'm saying is
17:21if we
17:22can get a quality receiver at least someone on a level of say Demarcus Robinson that just went down
17:30or if we can get basically a run stopping guy for the middle of the defensive line
17:36in exchange for for Mac I would look seriously at that otherwise I'd still keep him
17:43Gene thanks I like I don't I don't disagree with that again I I'm just saying I'd keep my ears
17:49open
17:49I'm not going to blink unless it's a really a great offer and a position of need by no stretch
17:57am I saying get on the phone and trade Mac Jones not saying that at all but I I would
18:01not be closed
18:03to the idea entirely if the 49ers see another position of need that is it represents a go for it
18:11possibility because at the deadline the Niners are in good position to actually really go for a
18:16playoff run I to me that's that's how you do it that's how fans always want you to do it
18:21when you're
18:22good halfway through the season it's go for it time and and if that means rolling the dice a little
18:28bit
18:29on something like that I would be open to it for the right return it just always to me comes
18:35back to
18:36what are you left with at that spot if you make that move you can go for it and you
18:41can bring in
18:41somebody who is a good defensive lineman and get a pick for next year and all that but if you're
18:48left
18:48with a backup quarterback who's unproven and you're not totally sold on and I do think it's telling that
18:53they didn't put Curtis Rourke on the practice squad where he would have been exposed for somebody else to
18:59pick him up so they kept him on the actual roster so that tells me that they like him a
19:04pretty good
19:05amount but is he super close to being as good as Mac Jones in this system well if that's the
19:11case
19:11then yeah you go ahead and get something from Mac Jones yeah I mean I just I look at all
19:15of the teams
19:16that and it's so early but the teams we think are playoff contenders right now I don't know if there's
19:22a one that loses its quarterback and I still think they're a Super Bowl contender like I guess you could
19:29argue right the best argument for it right now would be the Seahawks you know I mean they're 2-0
19:34with Drew Locke I don't know if I look at them long term as a Super Bowl contender without Sam
19:39Donald but that'd be the best hope for it but all these teams that we talk about from the
19:45Chiefs to the Bills to the Ravens to the Rams to you know if you want the Eagles I don't
19:54see any of
19:54them as losing their quarterback and having a backup they could come in and still take them all the way
19:58I know it's happened in life as Nick Foles did it but I don't I don't that's just not how
20:04I look at it
20:05and I think the Niners are in the exact same boat when if you look at like the step down
20:09from you know
20:10Josh Allen if Josh Allen is no longer quarterbacking in Buffalo well yeah he's the best player in the
20:15league and Kyle Allen is a good backup I saw a website earlier rank him as the best backup in
20:21football but
20:22Kyle is not Josh I mean they're both Allens but Josh is Josh and Kyle's Kyle Minnesota is interesting
20:29I wouldn't say that they're a Super Bowl contender but Carson Wentz stepped in and did enough to get
20:34a win and he came on in relief and got a win and so among the Super Bowl contenders like
20:39Stafford
20:40to Stetson Bennett no and I don't know what other team you could look at and say yeah you know
20:45their
20:45backup's good enough
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