Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreigner and Hutch live in a car after Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch's just unencouraging press conference today.
[00:00:15] Speaker B: It was. I rarely come out of the. And it's something where it's like, you know, they're not going to be direct with most of it. There's. There's no incentive for them to tell you every single thing that they're thinking.
One thing they did say almost explicitly, but Kyle remembered he got in trouble for saying Clay Kubiak was going to be the offensive coordinator last year before going through a process.
But he said almost explicitly as you can, that Gus Bradley will be the defensive coordinator.
Someone asked, will you cast a wide net? He went, I wouldn't say.
[00:00:46] Speaker A: I wouldn't call it a wide net.
He has to bring in candidates that quarter.
[00:00:53] Speaker B: A diversity, diversity, diversity candidates, which sounds like that's exactly what they will do. And then they will hire Gus Bradley.
[00:01:00] Speaker A: Which even though I can think of two guys who would qualify as diversity candidates that would be easily better defensive coordinators than Gus Bradley, I think if.
[00:01:09] Speaker B: We'Ll see, like, I'm going to give them the very slightest benefit of the doubt to say, we'll see if they actually go out. And maybe they say, all right, well, if Jim Schwartz is available, maybe that'll change the paradigm or something. Sure. I'm going to give them the very bare minimum just to see who they actually interview.
But it sounds like 95% Gus Bradley is the guy which I think is, frankly, incredibly lazy, incredibly irresponsible, regardless of how highly they think of Gus.
I just think not having a real process is. Is like, objectively speaking, it's lazy. It's. There's so many brilliant young minds and someone made a point that he knows a system. Communication has been a problem for this secondary. Isn't keeping it the same a positive thing? I think that's a fair thing to have concern about. If you bring in a new defensive coordinator, by the way, you are either way, bringing in a new defensive coordinator, regardless of Gus knowing a language, I do think I would rather have somebody who is innovative with the scheme and is seeking to maximize talent as opposed to just use the scheme that they are comfortable with.
[00:02:18] Speaker A: Also, if the communication was so bad last year, what did Gus Bradley do to fix it? Wasn't he the sport sort of special assignments guy? And if you.
[00:02:26] Speaker B: Red zone guy?
[00:02:27] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, you have red zone. It was whatever. Whatever Bob needed a little extra help on. And you always need it on red zone. Right, like that. That's what Clay Kubiak's doing for Kyle and all that. Like, those are the more specifics. Those are the big money down, stuff like that. But, like, if your defense is fundamentally having issues with communication and you have a guy who's been a defensive coordinator for a very long time and a former head coach in this league for a long time, wouldn't you put him on fixing the communication issue? Wouldn't that be the thing you give the extra oomph to?
[00:02:57] Speaker B: Yeah, I would.
Again, I don't know exactly how they delineated his responsibilities.
[00:03:03] Speaker A: Right.
[00:03:03] Speaker B: The optimistic view is that, right, you have guys that are staying in the same system, that are young, that have experienced it, now maybe they'll get it a lot better.
That's the optimistic view. The pessimistic view is that they still struggle because these guys just aren't naturally good communicators. I talked to Jair Brown after the season about communication. He goes, you either have it or you don't. Like, you can either communicate well or you don't.
[00:03:26] Speaker A: And I don't mean to be rude here or anything, but, like, Malik Mustafa is not a clear communicator. He's not a clear communicator in conversation. He's not a clear communicator on the field. Fred Warner is a brilliant communicator. Dee Winters is not a community.
[00:03:36] Speaker B: And that's the other optimistic view, is that Warner comes back and coordinates the defense himself and communicates everything.
[00:03:43] Speaker A: And so then how'd that work in 24?
[00:03:45] Speaker B: Well, mixed bag.
[00:03:47] Speaker A: It feels. It feels like they're just doing Sorenson again, except this time, old swords.
[00:03:51] Speaker B: I would. I would give Gus Bradley a little bit more credit than Nick Sorenson, but.
[00:03:56] Speaker A: I wouldn't because I've talked to enough.
[00:03:57] Speaker B: People with the Colts in terms of defaulting to the guy in the building because you're. It's not even late in the process. They're not even blaming it on being late in the process. Like, that was the case with Sorenson. This is just their. Their choice.
[00:04:10] Speaker A: They're not doing a process.
[00:04:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:12] Speaker A: They just. They don't want to. And Kyle's up there lamenting. And I understand. These are people, too. Right. Like, I get it. And football is.
[00:04:19] Speaker B: Right.
[00:04:19] Speaker A: Difficult and exacting. And this season, they had to put even more of themselves into this because of all of the injuries and.
[00:04:28] Speaker B: And the.
[00:04:29] Speaker A: The stakes that were in play.
[00:04:30] Speaker B: And Kyle did a phenomenal job. They overachieved. Great job. Right.
[00:04:35] Speaker A: But the idea, Kyle being up there and saying, like, oh, you know, these defensive Coordinators, they won't let me and my family go on vacation. Not exactly encouraging if you want to have this exacting detailed process of finding the next best defensive coordinator. It just sounds like, again, you use the term.
In yesterday's stream, I echoed it. You're using it again. It sounds lazy. And. And they can't. They cannot earnestly with the candidates available out there. And we're not stretching anything. You have a Sean McDermott who is without a job. Okay, Talk to them. How can you not bring him in? How can you not bring in Raheem Morris, one of your oldest friends in football?
[00:05:16] Speaker B: This is the only opportunity you have to get a pretty unfiltered. And again, guys talk behind the scenes. Of course they talk. But, like, this is an explicit interview opportunity to talk to guys who are very serious, who are either head coach caliber or. Or on that track, and you can say, hey, what's wrong with our offense? How would you attack our offense? What's wrong with our defense? How would you, you know, vice versa? You can ask so many questions in that setting where even if you decide we're going with Gus no matter what, that's your prerogative. But if you don't have a process to say, like, these guys come from different schemes that we're unfamiliar with. We've had a lot of trouble facing Jim Schwartz over the years. Maybe let's talk to him about what he sees.
[00:05:56] Speaker A: Like, and they might not be able to, right, because of contractual stuff, but, like, sure, how do you. Why don't you have the wide net? How is that not having a wide net and acceptable thing for a San Francisco?
[00:06:07] Speaker B: Gus is going to be there. He's not going anywhere.
[00:06:09] Speaker A: I don't know why. I mean, Bob's not taking him.
[00:06:12] Speaker B: No one has requested an interview with Gus Bradley to be their defensive coordinator. He's going to be there. You actually do have time and space to say, listen, and I understand. I don't. I haven't been through what this coaching is like in this whole season. I'm sure it's exhausting, but, like, it's going to be more exhausting next year if you're looking over your shoulder and going, oh, shit, like, this isn't the guy.
[00:06:32] Speaker A: How about you do the work now that you didn't do when you hired Steve Wilkes, that you didn't do when you hired Nick Sorensen so that you don't have to take over the entire defense as Kyle had to both of those years and had to back check everything Wilkes did before, Basically, Just taking over the game planning before. He had to do that almost explicitly from the jump with Sorenson because Sorensen wasn't communicating well enough during training camp. They thought they knew the problem was there with Sorenson in training camp. And so they had to start insulating immediately upon the season hadn't even started. And they had to start insulating to the point where both of those guys get fired immediately afterwards. And how can you not learn that lesson? Listen, there is a world where Gus Bradley is a very good defensive coordinator. That that was the right hire. I don't think we're living in that world, but frankly, I think that they hope that they live in that world.
[00:07:26] Speaker B: And I think their personnel is good enough that, like, I'd be shocked if the defense is downright terrible. Like, it's. I don't. I think, I think middle of the road is the likeliest answer. But like, if they have Bosa and Warner and they just bet on their scheme and it. And it mostly works, like you can make an argument, all right, it could be a pretty good defense. But I think, I think here's a.
[00:07:49] Speaker A: Legitimate thought that that bothered me on the drive down here.
How much of this is them not wanting to have difficult conversations with somebody new from the outside who, when we talk about better candidates, they would have some serious say, not have those conversations with those people because they don't want to have a tough conversation about if Chris Kuceric should still be the defensive line coach or if they should keep the, you know, Bullock says the safety coach. Like these guys who they really like as assistant staffers but not good enough to be their defensive coordinator. Like, how much of this is saying we don't want to actually change our staff, much less the possibility of having to change personnel. And so we're just going to go with the worst possible option in a lot of regards at the top, so that the middle and the bottom, the.
[00:08:40] Speaker B: Easiest option, which, by the way, when.
[00:08:43] Speaker A: Does that ever work?
[00:08:44] Speaker B: You might lose plen of those guys when Bob builds out his staff. Anyway, I just think it's.
Again, whatever. We've beaten a dead horse a little bit over the last few days talking.
[00:08:56] Speaker A: About this, but I want to be established on this.
[00:08:59] Speaker B: To say that you jokingly not even like tongue in cheek, like actually laughing that you're not going to cast a wide net explicitly is irresponsible. Yes, I think it's malpractice from a head coaching and a management perspective to say we actually don't want to look at all the options out there, we actually think we're smarter than everyone else. We actually know Gus Bradley's the best possible candidate. And sure, that could be true, but without a real process, you actually can't definitively say that because you haven't brought in other perspectives. And maybe it's that they don't want to find out. Oh, shit. There are other options that we're uncomfortable with. But maybe they don't fit the scheme. Maybe they don't speak the same language.
[00:09:41] Speaker A: They.
[00:09:41] Speaker B: Maybe we have to learn all this new terminology and Renardo Green is going to fuck up and not know that we're bumping to cover six. And I'm going to have to yell at him on the sidelines.
[00:09:50] Speaker A: You mean like what happened last week?
[00:09:51] Speaker B: Exactly. So there's just like, there's a level of we don't want to do that. We don't want to go through that. This guy knows it. That again, it could work out. Sure. Like genuinely it could work out. And they could have a great defense next year.
[00:10:07] Speaker A: Maybe Gus has learned from the wrongs of his ways.
[00:10:09] Speaker B: And they add like a gap splitting defensive tackle and they add some. Maybe they spend on a safety or a corner and whatever. Sure. Right. And they stay healthy and the defense looks phenomenal. That's very, very, very possible. We've talked about why the defense is in good shape. But to not look.
[00:10:25] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:25] Speaker B: And to not have conversations is honestly confounding to me.
[00:10:29] Speaker A: Because you're tired.
It's because they're tired and because they had to work really hard this year, which again, they did. And I'm sorry, but like you, you gotta buckle down for another two weeks.
You have to.
[00:10:41] Speaker B: Where is Gus gonna go?
[00:10:42] Speaker A: Nowhere. Nowhere. Except maybe Tennessee, which again would have been the best case scenario in that Bob says I have to have my shaman and bring Gus with me. Like that's it.
[00:10:51] Speaker B: Right.
[00:10:52] Speaker A: But again, like when you, we talk to people about, it's like, oh, what's Gus brought? And it's like, oh, Gus got good vibes.
[00:10:57] Speaker B: Well, yeah, great stories. Credited him for helping in the red zone.
[00:11:02] Speaker A: But the red zone's easy. Like, I don't. I know, I know that this is everyone. Oh, their red zone defense was good. You know why the red zone defense was good? Because they don't have as much field to cover in the red zone. So that the, the fuck ups are marginalized.
[00:11:15] Speaker B: Unless it's our, our guy, Marquis Siegel, who just forgets to cover against jsn.
[00:11:22] Speaker A: Right. So the point is they're a bend. But don't break defense.
Okay, great. They don't. They didn't break that often. They were still a shitty defense.
[00:11:31] Speaker B: They were defense that got pressure and got home at the worst rate in the league.
There was a defense that turned the ball over very, very, very little.
[00:11:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:41] Speaker B: Luckily, the jets set the record for not having a single interception. So there's a little bit of. Well, we weren't the worst. Yeah. But it was not like. And I understand, like, they lost Nick Bosa and Mikael Williams and Fred Warner. And the idea that you're going to be anything close to a semblance of an elite defense without those pieces is impossible, of course. But, like, it wasn't. And again, we talked about, like, the young secondary not really communicating well.
[00:12:07] Speaker A: It got worse.
[00:12:08] Speaker B: Struggle with the coverage. And so you had to simplify it. But, like, they didn't really have great schematic answers or things that were innovative to try and say, all right, well, we don't have the pieces. Like, Brian Flores goes, I don't have the dudes. I'm gonna go full chaos. And trying to do that mid season is not viable. They have a system that they like and that works. But.
[00:12:27] Speaker A: But they're not thinking about that on a macro sense. They are just saying that what we've done is good enough.
That is their overall stance. They firmly believe that what they have done to this point is good enough.
And I think that you only have to look at the two of the last three games that they've played. Okay. You're better than the Eagles.
[00:12:46] Speaker B: It's not a.
[00:12:48] Speaker A: The Eagles.
[00:12:48] Speaker B: Who, by the way, who, by the way, the league is telling you exactly what they think of Jalen hurts. Some people got like, a little upset. Eagles fans tend to get upset about everything.
[00:12:55] Speaker A: I get it.
[00:12:56] Speaker B: I met Philly people. I love them. But they. They got the Birds. They got the Birds.
[00:13:00] Speaker A: They got the Birds, baby.
[00:13:01] Speaker B: And that's what they got.
[00:13:01] Speaker A: Sixers are playing okay, sure.
[00:13:03] Speaker B: But, like, the league is.
[00:13:05] Speaker A: Phillies didn't get Bobaette, though. Sorry.
[00:13:06] Speaker B: The league is. The Mets did. League is saying right now what they think of Jaylen Herz, which is that. That vibe. We don't have any interest.
[00:13:15] Speaker A: Right.
[00:13:15] Speaker B: And they're struggling to find an offensive coordinator. And they'll find somebody, right? Just inevitably they'll get some.
[00:13:20] Speaker A: But, like, probably someone good because how he's going to hire him.
[00:13:24] Speaker B: Right. But like, they. They're struggling to find an offensive corner. That is the team that the 49ers, the defense look good against because the offense was such a Joke and they demoted their offensive coordinator.
[00:13:33] Speaker A: All that tells me is that Kyle Shanahan is a better coach than Nick Sirianni and that Brock Purdy is a better quarterback than Jalen Hurts. These are not high bars. These are very low bars. Frankly, I understand that. That team won a Super Bowl. That team won a Super bowl in spite of of those two guys. And Hertz played well, don't get me wrong. But Jalen Hurts has never had a fourth quarter comeback or, you know, game tying drive.
[00:13:56] Speaker B: For him it's about getting out of the pocket, throwing on the move. And when everyone's like locked in and.
[00:14:01] Speaker A: They pay, Jalen Hurts to run and throw deep. He does neither of them anymore. So what are we doing here? Agree, we're not talking about the Eagles. It's merely the point of if they think that beating the Eagles in the playoffs is an indication that they're good enough. I have two games against the Seattle Seahawks and their most recent game against the LA Rams that tells them very firmly, you're not even close.
[00:14:21] Speaker B: I just, I don't get any sense that Gus is a person. I mean, I mean actually not. Let's be clear. He is explicitly a guy who is stagnant in his scheme. Who the main criticism of him with the Colts is that he bet on personnel and he said we're going to stick with our system. And it's not just cover three like Shanahan, like snap back at that. It hasn't been cover three for just cover three for years, since 2018 and whatever it's been quarters, cover two, there's like in cover six there's like a mix of coverages. Right. That's what Shanahan was getting at.
[00:14:53] Speaker A: You have to have it right.
[00:14:55] Speaker B: But like he, again, this guy does the bare minimum I had two years ago. Didn't run a single simulated pressure. And again, not to say you need to be crazy complex or you need to be Brian Flores, there are many ways to coach a good defense. D' Ameco Ryan's made it very clear that being as simple as humanly possible with the dudes can work.
[00:15:15] Speaker A: But you have Will Anderson and Daniel Hunter and great defensive tackles and three really good linebackers, including an all pro caliber and the two best corner, the best corner group in football. You have Jalen Petrie, who is so good that they can just move him nickel because you already have two good safeties behind him. You have dudes on dudes on dudes and by the way, that's gotten them the exact same amount as the 49ers this year that got him one playoff win because they don't have the quarterback and there's some questions at offensive coordinator and. Yeah, to say the least. So they have all these dudes on one side, they don't have it on the other. The idea that the 49ers. This is what blows my mind and why the not casting of a wide net is ridiculous. The 49ers internally talk a lot about they're on the Rams plan and I'm sure they gave it a different name at some point, but it was about building a team in the same way that the Rams built a team around Matt Stafford, which is. We can mix and match a little bit at wide receiver. We're going to this year, in their case, they're going to put some money into the offensive line to get some Maulers because they saw what was coming with Seattle and that will probably pan out on Sunday, by the way. But they were going to go young, young, young on defense and build those guys up and coach those guys up to where then that defense could be a top 10 unit. You mentioned that you think that the 49ers defense at best is probably going to be league average next year.
[00:16:33] Speaker B: I know. I think at best they can be a pretty damn good defense. Okay, I don't.
[00:16:36] Speaker A: That's. If everything works out. But Gus gives them a floor of what if everything.
[00:16:40] Speaker B: If Gus. I don't.
[00:16:42] Speaker A: The floor is the ceiling, the roof. Like, I mean, like, again, I said.
[00:16:46] Speaker B: Medium risk, medium reward is what I said a few days ago. I think it, it could swing either direction, but it's not, it's not something where you go, oh, they got Gus. This scheme is gonna dominate next year. In order for that to happen, they need to add more pieces to it.
[00:17:02] Speaker A: Entirely. Entirely. But just again, to make the point.
[00:17:06] Speaker B: Right.
[00:17:06] Speaker A: If Gus Bradley is the safe choice, the safe choice gets you a league average defense. You can't win a Super bowl with a league average defense. You can't. I don't care how good your offense is. You need to be top 10 in both units.
[00:17:17] Speaker B: Yeah, I, I think they.
[00:17:18] Speaker A: And their, and their hope is that they can do that through personnel. But I, I'm looking at a team that is consistently injured at the highest rate in the NFL, that has a bunch of guys and everyone goes, oh, well, they're young and next year will be better. The fuck it will be.
The young guys and progress being linear. Yeah, perhaps they all click, but apparently Alfred Collins might need shoulder surgery. Easy for me to Say, yeah, just slid that in there.
Your safety situation is a big, hot mess.
[00:17:46] Speaker B: It could be good.
[00:17:47] Speaker A: It's a hot mess.
[00:17:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:49] Speaker A: You have Malik Mustafa, who maybe year after the year, is back to what he was and isn't taking these kind of loopy routes towards guys anymore, but he's still not your main communicator.
[00:17:59] Speaker B: Coverage is a problem.
Jair is your best communicator, clearly is best in the nickel, but you don't want to play him.
[00:18:05] Speaker A: Also free agent now.
[00:18:07] Speaker B: He's not. He's.
[00:18:07] Speaker A: He's got another year.
[00:18:08] Speaker B: He's got another boy. That's what we'll. I built at it.
[00:18:11] Speaker A: I know. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I got other stuff to do. Jonathan Kaminga played last night.
[00:18:14] Speaker B: It's all good.
[00:18:15] Speaker A: But people really.
[00:18:15] Speaker B: People love when Jonathan Kaminga puts up fucking garbage. It was completely useless. Points.
[00:18:20] Speaker A: Postmodern basketball.
[00:18:22] Speaker B: Nothing gets people going more than that. They go, oh, they're down by 70. Let's go.
[00:18:27] Speaker A: That might be what the Niners are saying next year with Gus Bradley as a defensive quarter. Again, just to come back to the point of that, they want to be the Rams model.
[00:18:35] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:18:36] Speaker A: The guy who was the defensive coordinator for the Rams, who got another head coaching job off of that, is available to you for free.
[00:18:42] Speaker B: And maybe. Maybe they do interview him, and that's the one candidate that they look at and they say, oh, Raheem's available again.
[00:18:51] Speaker A: He ticked the box. Of the things that they have to do to hire Gus, it's hard to.
[00:18:55] Speaker B: Give them any difference. When Kyle explicitly laughed at the idea that they would cat. He literally chuckled.
[00:19:00] Speaker A: I wouldn't call it a wide net.
[00:19:01] Speaker B: Not gonna be a wide net. And then literally went, oh, I. Clay Kubiak. Last year, I got in trouble because I said he was the OC before we could go through the process, and then went, we'll have. We'll interview the people. We have to. That's what he said. We'll. We'll interview the people to fulfill the requirements. But, yeah, Gus is. Gus is the internal candidate. Gus is the guy we like a lot.
[00:19:20] Speaker A: Gus is the internal candidate. And the external candidate said everything he.
[00:19:24] Speaker B: Could say without saying explicitly that he is the D.C. okay, should we move on to some other things we noticed?
[00:19:29] Speaker A: What else did we notice?
[00:19:30] Speaker B: I'm gonna rip through a couple things.
You know, Mac Jones. Nothing. Nothing crazy.
[00:19:35] Speaker A: They'd be shocked if they moved him.
[00:19:37] Speaker B: They'd be shocked if they moved him.
[00:19:38] Speaker A: As if they're not the ones who have the agency to Move them.
[00:19:43] Speaker B: They'd be surprised if he didn't show up next year.
[00:19:45] Speaker A: That'd be weird, right?
[00:19:46] Speaker B: We'll see what happens when some teams get desperate and realize they can't move up and the quarterback pool is limited.
[00:19:54] Speaker A: And say, well, we'll see what happens when these teams start really looking at the quarterbacks in this draft class.
[00:19:58] Speaker B: And then they go, shit. Oh, no. We might take a second for Mac Jones because that's better than. It's a stopgap. He cost 3 million on the gap this year.
[00:20:07] Speaker A: That's true.
[00:20:08] Speaker B: Like, and then we'll. And then if he's good, we'll extend him. If not, we'll franchise will figure it out. I don't know.
[00:20:13] Speaker A: We're at the point where the Pittsburgh Steelers might be making their head coaching decision based on getting one more year of Aaron Rodgers. I feel desperation is in the air.
[00:20:20] Speaker B: Let's go.
[00:20:21] Speaker A: Will Howard quarterback position. I mean, Riley Leonard. We can talk about that.
[00:20:25] Speaker B: Well, Howard baby Brendan Ayuk. They've never seen anything like it. I appreciate.
[00:20:32] Speaker A: You know what? I'll give them some credit on that. Like, that's earnest. Because they're like, we are just straight up confused. We do not get it. And that is my. Been my stance this whole time. That's what I've been hearing from people.
[00:20:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:41] Speaker A: They're just like, we don't know what happened and we can't think about it anymore.
[00:20:47] Speaker B: So they're gonna get him. Kyle was like, March 10, Kyle said, It's something I've never seen in 22 years of coaching. It's. He said it's confusing because it's confusing.
[00:20:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
It's an honest answer.
[00:20:58] Speaker B: That's tough. That's. It's tough when it was like, also it's confusing the part he didn't say and because I don't think they. It feels weird. Now is the part that we experienced, which is you talk to Brandon Aiuk in his early years in the league, around the locker room seemed like incredibly like quiet down to earth, but pretty sincere, normal dude, give us good answers. Was like. Seemed very humble. And you go, like, I talked to this dude plenty. Seemed like a really cool dude. And then that contract year happens and you're like, what. What happened? Like, yeah. And maybe his plan the whole time was to get the bag.
Then just.
[00:21:35] Speaker A: But then he turns down the bag. Like he only got a part of the bag because of his actions. And it's like also just like from.
[00:21:42] Speaker B: A human perspective, like worrying a little bit.
[00:21:45] Speaker A: A little bit money Changes people, attention changes people. And you get the wrong people in your corner talking the wrong stuff into your ear, and that can warp you.
I'm not going to pretend as if I can get down to the brass tacks of the Brandon Aiuk situation, but let me leave it at this. I don't think the Niners, for all of their faults, did Brandon Iuk wrong in the least bit. I don't think you can pin this at all.
[00:22:09] Speaker B: Right.
[00:22:10] Speaker A: Right. And I think back to July and August of 2024, when that contract situation was really getting down to brass tacks. And he's hanging around and it's weird, but, you know, hey, that's sometimes how it goes in the NFL. And IU changed his mind. And the number that I am going to go with in perpetuity, because you hear it a bunch of different ways, is five. He changed his mind on whether he wanted to be with the team or not five times.
And lynch is like, I. What am I to do here?
[00:22:38] Speaker B: Right?
[00:22:39] Speaker A: Because then Kyle comes in and goes like, no, no, no. He changed his mind again. And it's like, dude, I know we have to pick an angle here. We're going to put him on the restricted list or we're going to trade him to the Steelers and I got Omar Khan on the phone and.
[00:22:51] Speaker B: Or the Patriots, which he turned down.
[00:22:52] Speaker A: Because that's the other thing. Right. They gave him an easy out, which is you and your agent can go and get whatever deal you want, and then we'll work it out with the teams. And the Cleveland Browns had a second round picking Amari Cooper on the table and $34 million, something like that, all over 30. And then he says, no, I don't want to go there. The Patriots don't make the deal because they go, well, we're going to pay him this much money. We're not going to give you anything. So there was that, though there might have been a Jabril Peppers in there.
In a level of debate, the Steelers come in with like a Calvin Watkins and Moore, the offensive lineman and a couple of thirds and. And the Niners are like, we have. This is as good as it's going to get, and it's not good. And so we have to do this. And so they were obviously more susceptible to when Brandon changes his mind because it's like, well, it's not a great deal. Like, I think we'd rather have Brandon. I. You can. Maybe he's, you know, come to Jesus, started coming along, but then changes his mind twice more, says, no, we're doing it. Okay, well, here's the deal, Brandon. You need to make up your mind or we're going to put you on the restricted list and cancel your season and we'll just do this again next year.
[00:23:53] Speaker B: We.
[00:23:54] Speaker A: Or we're going to trade you the Steelers. And Kyle comes in and trumps John and says he changed his mind again, they signed the deal. And immediately everyone feels terrible. And I think if we had to levy the criticism on the Niners on where this went wrong, he blows up his knee.
He's a good soldier throughout that process at the beginning. But then in April, as the Niners are trying to purge all of their money, they tell everybody in the NFL, we'll take anything for him. We'll take any. Anyone want to give us anything for Brandon Iuk, we'll take it. And at that point, I, I suppose I can understand why Brandon Auk's like, man, fuck these guys. Like, they're just trying to dump my ass when I'm at my lowest point, you know, cruel business. And I can play business too, but okay. You also have to be realistic about who controls.
[00:24:39] Speaker B: Do you think he plays in the NFL again?
[00:24:43] Speaker A: I bet he signs with the commanders for one year. And an incentive laden 12, $13 million contract looks like absolute dog.
And it bounces around the league for a long time.
[00:24:54] Speaker B: It's like pretty astonishing.
[00:24:55] Speaker A: Like, I mean, it was, it was a catastrophe. I mean, we talk about like, George Kittle's coming off an Achilles, but it was like a good Achilles. As if that's something that really.
[00:25:04] Speaker B: Let me just briefly.
[00:25:05] Speaker A: Yeah, sure.
[00:25:06] Speaker B: They're like, well, it's the best Achilles that's there's ever been. It's. And sure, I know surgeries get better every year. Like, it's no longer a career ending thing. Georgia hard worker. It's still a fucking Achilles tear, which by all accounts of every person who's ever suffered an Achilles tear. You were never right. Never the year after. And I know if ever. And I know they're not, they're not going to admit because one, they don't want to like, hurt George's feelings or say like, we don't believe in you or your recovery because I wouldn't bet against George Kittle. He's a maniac and works out harder than anyone. Probably too much.
[00:25:41] Speaker A: Yeah, probably too much.
[00:25:42] Speaker B: Probably too much. So, like, sure, if anyone's going to do it. Yeah. But like, if they're playing, and I'm not saying this is their plan, I think they probably realized tight Ends gotta be a priority.
[00:25:53] Speaker A: They did not present that when you.
[00:25:54] Speaker B: Asked, but that was that. It did not sound like they go, yeah, well, we probably need to prepare for the possibility that we could have. They. They sounded like they're like, George is gonna be available.
[00:26:05] Speaker A: George to be back and to have the same impact that he always has.
That's a bad expectation.
[00:26:10] Speaker B: I don't necessarily know that that's true. I think that's probably some.
We don't want to let people know how much we need to value tight end. And also like, we don't want George to think that we're just like planning for a future without him. Right. But if they aren't, I think that's, that's pretty optimistic to just say. And also, I can't wait to see what, what happens with Luke Farrell. I think keeping him around is malpractice.
[00:26:35] Speaker A: Also not a great locker room guy. I mean, not like a bad guy, just not. Not a personality that you want to keep around your team. And because he doesn't present any positive or negative ions.
[00:26:44] Speaker B: Right.
Tricky part is there's not a lot of great options. We'll get into some when we do.
[00:26:48] Speaker A: Oh boy, will we.
[00:26:49] Speaker B: I have one that Dieter is gonna lose his mind over when I present it. He's gonna be so thrilled. Okay, hint, draft guy from a few years ago.
[00:26:59] Speaker A: I'm excited. What else do we have?
[00:27:00] Speaker B: Jake, what else? I didn't get to ask about Trent, but I would love to know. Trent, $38 million expiring contract after next year.
What are you doing? They're not gonna say anything. It's a lame duck year, but very interesting. Trent is a guy who has, I think been paid more than any offensive lineman in history.
[00:27:19] Speaker A: That makes sense.
[00:27:20] Speaker B: And I wouldn't be shocked if they go, here's a two year extension where instead of having any, any money, that's like a 30 million a year he gets in the 20s for each of the last three years. Gets a bunch up front, but the numbers are a little bit more manageable for the next three years. I think that's how I would try and attack it. Also tough negotiator, but also age 38.
[00:27:44] Speaker A: That might, yeah, that might wane a little bit here because it's not as if he's Trent Williams that can go get anything he wants from anybody he wants anymore.
[00:27:51] Speaker B: Although, who knows? Teams are fucking desperate. Last thing I think the rookies Watkins and Jordan James. Essentially Jordan Watkins. Kyle's like he had an ankle sprain and then another ankle sprain. And he knew he wasn't ready. And then how can he possibly be ready?
Fair. Jordan James, if you want to take that one.
Yeah.
[00:28:11] Speaker A: So I might have been on this channel a few times, radio saying, this is the Jordan James week.
My source was correct. And Kyle was like, yeah, last six weeks, Jordan James has looked ready to go. We just haven't had the opportunity for him.
He was very bullish about Jordan James.
I don't think three carries against the Seahawks in garbage time necessarily validates that. But, like, they were good. They look good. So if I had to guess right now based on what happened today, what is it? January 21st.
Jordan James is going to get about 200 carries next year. That's. That's my guess because Christian McCaffrey sure is hitting get in, getting 500 touches again. And that has more to do with Christian McCaffrey than Kyle Shannon.
[00:28:55] Speaker B: If I'm, if I'm the Niners, I'm looking at McCaffrey is like a slot receiver next year.
[00:29:01] Speaker A: Oh, Jesus.
[00:29:02] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, no, not, not like you're still running the ball with him, but.
[00:29:05] Speaker A: Like the sub package guy, if you.
[00:29:07] Speaker B: If you try and get him over 300 touches, he's gonna explode.
[00:29:12] Speaker A: Yeah, like that is that. Or you just have to figure out who your second half running back is.
[00:29:16] Speaker B: They desperately need to add a quality young running back. I think drafting a running back is a very, very high need for them because top 100. Need top 150.
[00:29:28] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:29:28] Speaker B: Because running backs, I think you can sneaky find them and teams are weird, but I think let us.
[00:29:33] Speaker A: I've been finding them left and right every year.
[00:29:36] Speaker B: There's like good running back except for Caleb Johnson.
I gotta stop taking shots at a kid. But yeah.
[00:29:45] Speaker A: There was a lot of word salad today as well.
A lot of, oh, we're so proud of this team.
[00:29:50] Speaker B: Mostly, Mostly these pressers are just frustrating because you go, I want to.
[00:29:55] Speaker A: You know, you have to say something, but they don't want to say anything. And it's. It's just, you know, service journalism in a way or journal service to journalists in a way of. Here's some quotes.
[00:30:08] Speaker B: It's.
[00:30:09] Speaker A: It's it. There were some tough ones in there, by the way.
[00:30:12] Speaker B: We. Eric Branch.
[00:30:14] Speaker A: Eric Branch.
[00:30:15] Speaker B: Love him. He. I think someone probably had to do the annoying thing of saying what's up with that substation so many people have asked about. If I get one more fucking meme from people about it, it's. I'm making.
[00:30:29] Speaker A: I'm sorry. I'm really enjoying.
[00:30:31] Speaker B: I I'm probably the only person that's like, shut the fuck up about the substation.
[00:30:36] Speaker A: It's funny. It's funny. It might not be funny much.
[00:30:39] Speaker B: I think it's for the people that are taking it serious. Maybe that's the funny part. I don't know. I think.
[00:30:45] Speaker A: I do not find the people who take it funny.
[00:30:47] Speaker B: I think it's too stupid for me. But lynch is like, yeah, we're taking that seriously. Which I kind of think is the right answer.
[00:30:56] Speaker A: Yeah, there's. Yeah, you can't not give it credence.
I mean, the other thing, too is, you know, the first question out of the bat is Matt Mayoko saying, hey, you guys are super duper injured looking at anything.
[00:31:08] Speaker B: Oh, we.
[00:31:09] Speaker A: We value the health and safety of our players so much. It read like, short.
[00:31:13] Speaker B: No.
[00:31:13] Speaker A: Yeah. It read like the.
You know, when they play the video at the beginning of every flight explaining like, oh, you know, we're so happy you're flying with us today. We're gonna treat you like, for the.
[00:31:24] Speaker B: Next four hours, just get hurt. Yeah, it happens.
[00:31:26] Speaker A: We're not trying to get rid of injuries. It's like, oh, shit. That was an option. You could. You guys have the slider in men, where you can turn injuries off. And you're building.
[00:31:34] Speaker B: I'll say not. Not even as a full mea culpa, but I think I've deferred to them having a wider process in general and believing. All right. Well, they look at all the options and they decide. I don't think this is an organization that really looks at all the options in the way they should. Nope. I think they believe in their process a little too strongly, which has taken them far. And I understand there's. And you don't want to be, like, to go too far down the road of saying, what do we believe is. Is everything we believe wrong? Like questioning yourself, because then you can't make decisions and it's paralyzing. But I do think there is a little bit of an arrogance in terms of believing what we do is so effective and so based in. In thinking together and making decisions as a unit. And our process is so strong that it sets us up for success and we're going to continue to be competitive. And to their credit, they have been competitive. I do think it's a little bit of, like, my shit's my. I like this. The smell of my own. A little bit like it's.
[00:32:38] Speaker A: And.
[00:32:39] Speaker B: And listen, it could all work out and they could be fantastic, keep competing.
But I just think in terms of a wide process standpoint, in terms of looking for talent, looking for talent, looking for alternatives. There's not enough of an appetite for me in terms of looking at what else is out there.
[00:33:00] Speaker A: We've run into this problem with this team when it comes to the front office. They lost so many people in the front office, and they did not aggressively try to bring in fresh blood. And you see this issue with so many teams around the league. Like, let's just look at the Chiefs. Okay, so the Chiefs don't make the playoffs this year. That happened well before Patrick Mahomes tour as a acl. Right. So what did the Chiefs do when they need fresh ideas, fresh perspective? They went out and got Eric B. Enemy back. And this is. This is a problem. This is the reason that John Harbaugh got fired in Baltimore. Right. This is the reason that Mike Tomlin walked away. At a certain point, you're too afraid to make changes and bring people in from the outside because there's this theoretical momentum that you have and. And this institutional knowledge that, oh, well, we couldn't possibly distill that to somebody new. But you need people with some actual roles, not just lackeys that you bring in and build up, which you always have to have, but people with some actual outside perspective to shake things up a little bit. And it doesn't feel as if the 49ers are too interested in hearing what they're doing wrong.
[00:34:06] Speaker B: I think they would argue that they tried that with Steve Wilkes, and it did not go well. But they also didn't seem like they did enough work to communicate what each other's vision was for the defense and, like, what Wilkes really wanted to do in the freedom. And then it went, oh, this is not working.
[00:34:26] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:34:27] Speaker B: And then he also did some things, like actually very well and that not overall.
[00:34:32] Speaker A: Yeah, there was some good. He's a good second race coach.
[00:34:34] Speaker B: Yeah. And it was not a fit. And so they're going, let's go with people who speak our language, which I understand.
[00:34:40] Speaker A: That's fine. But then it gets very incestual very fast, and you see what those kids end up looking like.
[00:34:44] Speaker B: I just think if you're not gonna say, let's see what's out there explicitly, they're not. They're saying, we don't want to see what's out there.
[00:34:51] Speaker A: That's wild to me, because there's a lot of cool things out there, Jake.
[00:34:54] Speaker B: And there's a lot of cool things.
[00:34:56] Speaker A: We'Re gonna go out and find out ourselves.
[00:34:57] Speaker B: That's right. And we will. When are we gonna do our fix? The 49ers?
[00:35:01] Speaker A: I say that's a Good Friday opportunity for us, Jake. That would be my guess. What do you think?
[00:35:05] Speaker B: I think so. I think so. We have. We have a hijack spreadsheet and so much more.
[00:35:10] Speaker A: Talk to you then.
