Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] All right, time for the Car Seat Chronicles. Dealer curtain box. I got a booster seat. We're in the beater car.
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[00:00:30] Let's talk about what happened at 49ers today.
[00:00:35] I only saw him for an hour. Seems like everyone's doing okay. I saw Brandon Codrington sleeping at his locker. Outside of that, seemed like everybody was on a normal schedule, which you'd expect. It's been a minute since the Niners got back from Australia, but then again, they came back from Australia. Can you take anything for granted?
[00:00:55] Pretty normal week for them, right? They had a.
[00:00:58] They showed up to the facility on Monday.
[00:01:01] What? Whoever comes in on a Tuesday. Was coming in on a Tuesday. And now they're going to practice on Wednesday.
[00:01:06] Thursday, walk through Friday, game Sunday, Miami Dolphins. Which, by the way, I deserve hazard pay for having to watch that Dolphins tape against the Las Vegas Raiders.
[00:01:20] Still don't care for that, by the way.
[00:01:22] Let's go through a couple of things. First off, Dijon stribling out for at least 10 weeks. He had surgery on his deltoid.
[00:01:31] So what looked to be just. Oh, it's just an ankle sprain now. It needs to be surgically repaired.
[00:01:38] I'm not a doctor. I don't have the MRI imaging. I can't tell you how injured it is. The fact that he needed to go under the knife, not great. Not great. That's the analysis I could give you. It's not great. This was a player who Kyle Shanahan was expecting to play a big role in this offense this year. He can say that now with a full chested clarity that he's not playing anymore, and we'll see what happens when he comes back. But Christian Kirk, you just became a very important person at work. You can come back to practice next week. He can play for week five.
[00:02:13] They're going to kind of need them to at least be part of this rotation. DeMarcus Robinson, who had his number changed twice, I believe the second one was his choice, to be fair. But DeMarcus Robinson went from a guy who felt like he was going to get cut at any minute and that he was fighting for a job he is now clearly wide receiver number three at the minimum on this team. He might be wide receiver number two on this team because Deebo Samuel is still considered somewhat of a gadget player. Puts more and more on Debo Samuel, who did look good against the Rams, but isn't the Debo Samuel of old. And boy, I won't even say it, but Mike Evans is pretty important.
[00:02:50] Not, not that we didn't know that already. Not that we didn't think, hey, Mike Evans is absolutely cooking dudes out here in training camp. Didn't play in the preseason, but like he had a couple snaps and then, and then obviously against the Rams.
[00:03:03] But he is immensely important to this team. Now that there is not as much depth. It's a good thing they had some depth, but there is not that much depth because you are missing for the entire season Ricky Piersol for more than half the season. Dejon Stribling.
[00:03:22] You're not going to get Christian Kirk until week five, if you get him then at all. Though I, I would venture to guess that he will be back for week five and then everything else that goes along with playing football in the NFL. Like this ain't going to be the end of it with injuries, sorry to say, it's not a Niners thing. It's a football thing.
[00:03:41] So we got to keep an eye on this wide receiver situation and Mike Evans. Keep those hamstrings loose, my friend. Keep them very, very loose because they cannot tighten up. They cannot tighten up if this team wants to have the passing game that it can have this year. Because I think they have lost a lot, if not all of their margin for air now with the wide receiver position, Stribling was the one providing that now that he's out and he's out for a while and he'll be behind the eight ball when he comes back into the fold.
[00:04:12] Yeah. Yeah. Tough break for the Niners. Tough break for Stribling, too. This is something that Jake and I like to talk about a lot on the channel. It might not be the sexiest topic of conversation, but there is an unfairness. It's not like WNBA level, where they go straight from the college season into their pro season. But there is an unfairness to the process of the NFL draft, particularly for a guy like Dijon Stribling, who was a late riser in the draft. And if you were trying to game it out, I, I have not run the numbers on this. I'm actually very interested in the numbers on this. This is anecdotal solely, but I would say that the, the top end guys in the draft, the guys who are guaranteed first round picks, they probably don't have to work out as hard, right? They have to stay in shape. They have to be able to perform when they're put to the test by teams and by the combine, but they don't have to work out as hard. They know that their spot is secure. But the guys who have to earn a job in the NFL, and I know Stribling was, you know, first pick of the second round, but he wasn't on draft boards at the beginning of this process. He had to go and win a job that is a lot of work. After a big college season where they're in the college football playoff after a bunch of training, this guy hasn't had a break. And we saw this to a degree with Mikel last year. It's not really the same thing, but it kind of is.
[00:05:31] Ricky Piersol, I don't think it's a strictly Niners thing. I think that this is an overarching issue for rookies and I'm not sure that there is a solution to this issue. But I'm now just kind of bellyaching about it because I want to see young players come into the league and, you know, make something of themselves immediately. We want that immediate gratification in life.
[00:05:51] But the work that they have to do from the second the college season ends, and for some it's ending sooner on their own volition so that they can get into this NFL draft prep mode, well, like a week and a half later they get drafted. Well, now they're at rookie minicamp. Now you have to win the job now you have to make the roster now you have to find a spot on the depth chart and then you get into training camp, which is a couple of weeks after that, I mean, at most you got a week or two off because you can't lose it. You don't use it, you lose it. And so it is just an absolute rigmarole, which is a word we don't use often enough, an absolute rigmarole. If you were to just take the big eyed, you know, step back, view, big picture view from the start of last season at the college level for Dejon Stribling to now he has not had a break the likes of which he'll have. And in this, it's not even really a break because he has to rehab from an injury.
[00:06:53] It's just a really tough thing to ask. And it's why maybe we should be a bit more cautious with rookies in the same way we are in, you know, the NBA. Especially if you're not like a top tier guy, definitely. As we are in baseball, hockey. Like, maybe we should have a bit more caution with it. But it's the NFL. The media machine needs to be fed as well. And I, as much as anybody, want to see the immediate gratification of a young new player making an impact at the NFL level for Dejon Stribling, that's not going to come until November or maybe even December if it comes at that point. So an absolute gut punch for the 49ers. And again, it feels like their margin for air at the wide receiver position has gone down to nil. And if it isn't nil, it's just above. I mean, you might not have to fill up the tank right now, but you better have some people on speed dial because Cadarl, Hodge and practice squad guys, they're not going to cut it. They're not going to cut it. You better have some folks ready to go with the trade. You better have some folks ready to go where you. You're bringing them in for tryouts now so that if you need them later, you're ready to rumble there.
[00:07:57] The Niners need to now approach a position that they were very deep at coming into the season and should have felt very good about, and they were right to feel good about.
[00:08:07] They now need to approach that with.
[00:08:10] They just. They just need to be more open minded to bringing in more players now. And when you're doing that already a defensive tackle, when you're doing that already at tight end because Jake Tonjis, he tore his mcl. As I think anyone suspected in that moment, we didn't know which ligament it was going to be, but we knew a ligament had busted when he walked off the field in Australia.
[00:08:30] I will take a half moment here to be a terrible person and say that is pretty much the funniest way that you could tear an mcl.
[00:08:37] Now, coming back to a bit of seriousness, that's a huge loss for the Niners as well. Because if KD is not kd, and I think we can all agree, I would hope that we can all agree that George Kittle isn't the old George Kittle yet, if he ever is. That again.
[00:08:52] Luke Farrell had a nice enough game, but he's still Luke Farrell. Ton just was gonna have a role on this team and I thought it was gonna be a pretty important role. And he looked fantastic in camp. He looked like a much better version of The Jake Tonjes that we saw last year, which was pretty damn useful. Now he's out and now you are playing roster roulette with the bottom of it because they're not trying to bring up Khalil Dinkins to the active roster anytime soon.
[00:09:16] This is another position where you're like, okay, we gotta keep an eye on that one.
[00:09:22] Yeah, this is the NFL. This is the day to day grind of it all. But wide receiver position that they felt really good about coming into the season is no longer in that position.
[00:09:31] All right, Tom just has been mentioned. Let's, let's. Oh, a couple other things. I saw Mikel Williams in the locker room today.
[00:09:38] He's ready to go. He's ready to go.
[00:09:41] He'll be practicing and he'll be ready to go. At least that's what he told me. Mikel's a very optimistic, upbeat, positive young man. So maybe he's lying.
[00:09:49] Look good to me. I'm not a doctor. He was in a locker room. How am I supposed to make that discernment? I don't know. Vibes, energy, A nice little conversation. I will say we talked about this on the show earlier this week with the stunts that the Niners were running. Raheem Morris really dialed it up in this game against the Rams and I imagine he'll continue to dial it up moving forward.
[00:10:11] Mikel Williams clearing out two dudes so that someone can rush behind him.
[00:10:15] Well, that's the kind of sicko stuff that we're into here on this channel and I can't wait for week five. My presumption for Mikel Williams to be on the field and just clearing dudes out. Clearing dudes out. It won't show up in pff. You won't see it in the box score. But the real people who know ball will know how important that is and how effective I imagine, I predict that will be.
[00:10:39] Christian McCaffrey talked to the media today.
[00:10:42] Christian McCaffrey, usually pretty short with the media, right? Doesn't love the media. That's okay. Don't blame them, frankly.
[00:10:49] Not a lot of lovable people in that room, including me. But he said something interesting, right? Because we have asked Christian McCaffrey pretty much every week since he showed up here from Carolina. And let's not forget, injury concerns were a big deal for him in Carolina to the point where some idiot columnist was like, is this the best idea?
[00:11:08] Are you sure you want to pin it all to this guy who's constantly injured and might have already had his best years behind him, we all get some wrong.
[00:11:16] In that case, I got it very wrong. Now, it's not to say that Christian McCaffrey's been healthy the entire time, but yeah, I think the juice has been worth the squeeze. Regardless. Ever since he showed up, there have been constant questions and they are right questions to ask about.
[00:11:29] Hey, workload, you sure seem to be doing a lot out there. Well, in week one, he wasn't doing a lot out there. He was making the most of his opportunities. A very strange thing to say about Christian McCaffrey, but he was outrushed. He had more or fewer rushing attempts than Kaylon Black in this game. And talking to Kyle Shanahan at the podium today, pretty clear that he was just riding a hot hand. And that is the difference between every other running back that this team has had with Christian McCaffrey in the fold and Kalon Black, at least as it stands now, which is Kaylon Black was legitimately the hot hand in that game. Kyle will ride the hot hand. The hot hand has always been Christian McAffrey. It's all even if it's not working, you're like, we're going to stick with Christian McAffrey. But when you have Brian Robinson back there, Isaac G. Or even the late stage Elijah Mitchell, it doesn't matter who was back there.
[00:12:19] Jordan Mason, the hot hand was always Christian McAffrey because those guys rarely Mason might have done it once or twice, rarely did enough to say, hey, let's keep this guy in. This is better than what we're getting from Christian right now and let's keep Christian fresh. That that is the way that Kyle will call a game. And in this game against the the Rams, Kaylan Black was the right answer. Not just because you got to throw him in there for a drive or two to keep Christian fresh, but because he was doing very well. There's a lot to work on there, don't get me wrong. First NFL game, I don't know if he was seeing it all that well, but damned if he can't deliver a blow. And I thought it was interesting. Christian McCaffrey, when asked about it the same way he's asked about it every week, had kind of a different take on the matter, which is, hey, man, you look at the best running backs in the NFL and they have kind of a thunder and lightning situation going on. You look at last year, Bijan Robinson, no one's going to say that Bijan Robinson doesn't get enough touches, except for maybe Atlanta Falcons fans. But Tyler Algier would Come in there and be like, I got this, because Tyler Alger is a hell of a running back. Katamari Damache, shout out to those who know now he's with the Cardinals, and that's a good thing for the Cardinals. But Tyler Algier, Bijan Robinson, cmc Also cited, you know, Gibbs and Montgomery last year for the Lions and how a backfield share can work if you have the right combination.
[00:13:39] I'm not sure that Kalon Black, who both Jake and I have been very high on throughout this process, and obviously he's earned a lot of the expectations that are now being bestowed on him by folks who just found out about him on Thursday, Thursday night in Australia, Friday morning in Australia.
[00:13:56] But I don't know if he's, you know, David Montgomery or Tyler Algier, but he kind of fits that mold, doesn't he? Like, you can see where Christian McCaffrey is coming from there. But he felt very positive about it. It didn't feel like, hey, this guy's coming to take my snaps or this and that. Like, I feel like he's in a good place with this rotation. And I'm fascinated to see in this game against Miami what that rotation looks like back. Fascinating to see in the game against the Cardinals what the rotation looks like. Get this. I'm going to keep saying it. I don't think it's always going to look like it did against the Rams, but it sure did work against the Rams, man.
[00:14:31] And that's something that you probably try to emulate week in, week out, if Kalon Black and the offensive line allow for it. And speaking of offensive line, let's talk about Connor Colby.
[00:14:44] I was curious because I had heard through pretty good sources that before they went down to Australia that they were probably going to rotate at guard the same way that they've rotated for years and years and years at left guard, which might be a sign, right might be a sign that you don't have the left guard if you're constantly rotating there. Regardless, I asked Kyle straight up, like, was there supposed to be a rotation? And he said no, which was super fun to hear. And then two.
[00:15:14] Colby performed so well in Australia during the practices there that they wanted to go with him. So I'm gonna take the L and the win at the same time in that I think the plan was.
[00:15:26] I've heard the plan was that they were going to rotate, but Connor Colby played so well down in Australia that they said, let's ride this, let's ride this. We could always go to Carver, Willis if we need to, but let's ride this. And I think Connor Colby paid that off big time. He's a tough player to get a read on. He was a tough player to get a read on during his draft process two years ago. He was a tough player to get a read on because they just had to kind of throw him in the fire. Last year against the Saints, that went well at the beginning and then it tapered off. Rookies, what are you going to do?
[00:15:55] And it wasn't perfect by any stretch. In this game against the Rams, he was the lowest graded run blocker in this game. When we're just talking about run blade, run block, win rate, easy for me to say, but he was exceptional in pass block, in pass protection. He was fantastic. 88.2 win rate on pass blocking. Only a 67 win rate on run blocking. Had a really tough time with some of the backside cutoffs, which is kind of ironic because when you watch him in practices and stuff, that's what he looks really, really good at.
[00:16:26] But, you know, a lot different doing it in a practice than doing it in the game against the LA Rams.
[00:16:32] But regardless, yeah, the offensive line was exceptional in that contest against the Rams. And I will not back off of the take that, you know, the Rams helped out a big way in that game. That was not the Rams that I expected to see. I don't think that's the Rams we're going to see moving forward. But if this is the offensive line that the 49ers are working with, I don't. Doesn't matter who the opponent is. You got to win. You got to win. And the 49ers offensive line won in that game. 78 pass block, win rate. A lot of that's Trent on an island, just doing terrible things to folks. And then the run block win win rate at 75%, which was significantly better in the second half, as we saw when Christian McAffrey comes in and they just ran it behind Brendle and Colby again and again and again. That is really telling as I drop the microphone.
[00:17:17] Little box thing here. We're on fire today.
[00:17:21] They're going to ride Colby. They're going to ride Colby. Talk to Colby.
[00:17:26] Not a lot of insight, right? Just, you know, get better every day. Working on some stuff, working on everything, you know, general platitudes. I can appreciate it. Right. You don't want to give away the game plan. But I talking to Jake Brendel about him, he was effusive in his praise and not even Just about the play, which we all saw, but also in just his temperament and the way that he's handled this past month or so, which is, you know, kind of snip, snap, snip snap, you're the starter. Actually, no, you know, you're the third string, now you're the second string. Let's put you a starter again. And it's been tough on Brendel. Trent will just make do with anything, but it was tough on Colby. At least that's what Brendel's thought was. And he was very complimentary of how the young second year Iowa offensive lineman handled it all. And you can't argue that with the way that Colby performed in that game that it wasn't the right tactic to really foster some serious competition and to hold him to a very high standard throughout training camp and not let him get away with stuff by just saying, ah, you know, he's still our guy, he's sorry, he'll figure it out throughout camp. Right? No, when he sucked at the beginning of camp, they benched him. In effect, when the other guys sucked, they brought him back in and they said, listen, we will go with Carver. Don't make us do it, but we will go with Carver Willis. And he rose to the occasion. It went all the way down to Australia, but he rose to the occasion.
[00:18:50] I'm again, all of these things. You don't want to prognosticate too much. It was a weird kind of one off game, wasn't even on this continent, wasn't even in this hemisphere, but very auspicious for Connor Colby that he was able to get in there and put out some really good reps to the point where everyone just felt good about it. And that's kind of the thing.
[00:19:10] You can talk to offensive linemen sometimes and they'll, offensive lineman maybe more than any other position group on the team, will just tell you the damn truth. Right? They don't sugarcoat things. They don't got time for that. They got to go to war every day at practice and certainly during games. They don't have time to come up with, you know, nonsense to obfuscate the truth. So I've, I've talked to many offensive linemen after a game and from my perspective, I go, oh, I thought that went pretty well. And they'll tell me exactly how it didn't go well for themselves or somebody else. Everyone felt very, very good about Conor Colby after that game, obviously including Kyle Shanahan, who was effusive in his praise of his pass Pro.
[00:19:50] I like where they're at there because again, the other thing that you get from having that competition throughout camp is viable alternative options. And in this case, it's Carver Willis. They feel good enough about Carver Willis that if they need to play them, they can.
[00:20:06] But they wanted Connor Colby to take the job. It's not fully his yet. He knows that. Brendel knows that. They all know that.
[00:20:14] But that's a good start. And now he needs to do what he couldn't do last year, which is take a good start and compound it and build from there. Last year he took a good start and it was kind of all downhill from there.
[00:20:26] So this is. This game against Miami is going to be big because if the tape against the Raiders is any indication, he should feast. He should absolutely feast. We should not be talking about Connor Colby at all after this game unless it's to just note, hey, he played really well. Again, we shouldn't be noticing him at all unless it's, again, a really positive thing that we must note. But amid all the other stuff in football, how often are we just going to note how great the offensive line is? I. I'm. I'm fascinated, fascinated for this game because it's kind of the team, too. How do they build off of this? How do they take what was an outstanding performance, not perfect. Nothing's perfect in football, and build from this against a team that is, and I can say this with some confidence now, wholly inferior, laughably inferior.
[00:21:18] And yep, they're coming off of a weird sleep pattern and all this stuff.
[00:21:23] I don't think it can be held as any sort of an excuse at all.
[00:21:28] If they are sleepy, they should still win by a touchdown. If they're not sleepy, they should route the Miami Dolphins. Jake and I will have a full preview of it on Friday. I'm looking forward to that conversation immensely, though not necessarily looking forward to grinding more Dolphins tape.
[00:21:43] Yikes.
[00:21:45] It's like we're back in the Tomsula era. And then Larry and I are going to talk on Thursday night.
[00:21:52] That should be fascinating. Always a blast talking to Larry on Thursday night, post game on Sunday.
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