Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreigner and Hutch just getting together with old friends and having a time in the 2026 NFL season.
We were going to do a show kind of all about Quentin Nelson and who the Niners.
They went and got their guy. They got old friend DeForest Buckner today. Fourth round pick, per Tom Pellissero of the Ringer. 2027. Fourth should be noted. That's a very valuable worth.
Initial reaction, Jake, before I list off a bunch of stats.
[00:00:35] Speaker B: It's a move that makes sense. I don't have an issue with it. I think they clearly needed.
They could have definitely used someone like him last week, and I think they're reacting to that especially. They're like, yeah, things are going well. Things are going well. We're, like, piecing it together. And then last week, they couldn't get home without. They weren't running stunts and they couldn't get home playing straight up.
My other reaction is just, they love a reunion, man, do they ever.
They're like, if we don't, we haven't had him on the team previously. We need to.
We need to do some serious scouting. That's not happening at this juncture. It's. That's. It's not that it's a bad move. It's just funny. They always do that.
[00:01:16] Speaker A: It's interesting because when they do it on offense, it makes sense, right? When you do it on offense, it's like, Kyle trusts this guy. Kyle's offense is extremely intricate and technical, and so that trust is worth way more to Kyle than it is to maybe another offensive coach, because Kyle's an idealist, and Kyle's not much of a pragmatist. He doesn't make things work for the players. The players make it work for his system. Okay? That is what it is. He's still as good as it gets. And we'll get into the game tape. You would think, though, that, like, DeForest Buckner's never played for Raheem Morris, and Raheem Morris is not running the classic 49ers defense. So there is a culture thing here. Now, to be very clear, like, Defoe had to go. I don't know of any other. It's not like he's a bad guy. But when he's out here being like, nah, this has all gone to hell, you're like, yeah, if you're a defensive
[00:02:04] Speaker B: player and you're saying that, let me
[00:02:05] Speaker A: out, please, please, I will pay you. I will buy my. I will buy myself out. And I'm sure that there were a Couple teams interested. And of course he's most interested in coming back here.
Um, there's always some weird karma to like, hey, they're righting the wrong. And it's like, yeah, but the wrong was the whole gap of time here the last seven, six years where he hasn't been here.
That's the wrong. And there's a pretty clear diminishing. Not that you wouldn't expect that over 60 years, but I would say even since like 2014, there's been a pretty clear diminishing.
[00:02:37] Speaker B: I think it was a neck injury. He had a pretty gnarly thing, whereas like career sort of been on the line a little bit.
So that's. I will say they don't need him to do an every down role here. No, like they don't need him to be what he was the last time he was here. And I think I honestly like when Bosa comes back.
As much as last week was bad, I think they can still pick their spots with both of those guys getting them in the lineup and sort of let everybody stay fresh in a way that I think we'll let them figure out what's the best way to mix and match all this talent because it's probably the most talented defensive line in the league in terms of like, I mean there's, there's a couple great groups out there, but in terms of like balance and all the pieces they have between Bosa, Buckner. I know it's not the old Buckner. Osa, Mikel Williams, Keon White, Romello Height, Grayson Halton. Not even mentioning like James Thompson. Like, that's a really talented group. I haven't even talked about Valdez, who's been pretty good, like, right. It's a really good group.
[00:03:43] Speaker A: I, I don't, I don't disagree.
The question then is how does this team operate? They still only have one true one Tech. And he's not even really much of a one Tech in CJ West. He put on the weight to be a one zero.
That hasn't gone well.
I think Buckner can play that. I'm looking here. He's played about, yeah, less than 20% of the snaps from one tech. Obviously Grover Stewart, could they have gotten them both? Could they have just been like, hey, can you just send us a package of defensive tackles? We'll take all your defensive tackles. Because Grover Stewart and DeForest Buckner make a lot of sense. And again, I do know that people will look at the overall Colts run game defense and be like, well, how good can these Defensive tackles be. They're always at the, like, league bottom and rushing yards allowed. And my answer to that is linebackers. The linebackers are the issue. These guys get their jobs done now, not at the elite level that Buckner once used to do it at, but still at a very good level. A lot of the statistical, the way
[00:04:41] Speaker B: the 49ers are kind of running their front is like they're kind of asking guys to survive. And then they're like, Fred will clean it up. Like, we're pretty much. And they've made this like unbalanced thing where they're having like a one tech and then not even a three tech. They're just like almost kind of stacked on top of each other sometimes. Yeah. Where it's like a one and then like a two. I like at the same time.
It's. It's this cool unbalanced thing and it sometimes leads to explosive. And there's a couple times against Atlanta where they were just like totally unbalanced and it bit them.
But I. I don't think they're asking as much in the past as they have of their interior players to take it on.
[00:05:19] Speaker A: No.
[00:05:20] Speaker B: In that role.
[00:05:20] Speaker A: And with all the stunts and stuff that they do, which, you know, last week.
[00:05:25] Speaker B: Last week. Which is so strange.
[00:05:27] Speaker A: Well, they were scared of Bijan and they had to abandon the concept because.
Let's just. Let's just inter. We're going to interlock all of this stuff.
[00:05:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:36] Speaker A: So they didn't get any pressure on them. Three out of 34. Why is that? Because Michael Pennix and Tommy Reese were totally afraid of the 49ers defense, and the 49ers were totally afraid of Bijan Robinson. And you put those two things together with. With a cut. So it's a cover three, effectively, whether it was exactly cover three or not.
[00:05:56] Speaker B: And you.
[00:05:56] Speaker A: I have sent back a couple of videos already on, like, what would you say this is?
And we're pretty good at being definitive about that stuff. Like, we're comfortable being wrong if a player tells us we're wrong. Like, that looks like cover three. We're going to call it cover three. They were in a lot of COVID three. A lot of safety in the box, a lot of five man fronts. And in that, by the way, the
[00:06:16] Speaker B: safety in the box is almost always Jair.
[00:06:18] Speaker A: I just.
[00:06:19] Speaker B: I just charted out every single play as well as ran cover three about 25 times. And I think Jair was the deep third safety once.
[00:06:29] Speaker A: That. That totally checks out, seeing as I got to watch him pretty Much. All game on the Fox broadcast, Jair Brown was always present, which is why it was really easy to figure out. You're not doing so hot here, Bubs.
[00:06:40] Speaker B: He wasn't as bad as it felt. And yeah, he was bad. We'll get into him in a sec.
[00:06:47] Speaker A: We'll save. We'll save. We'll save the Jair of it all. Because it is jai over. But there a lot of COVID 3. So what, how do you attack Cover 3? Hit the flats. Hit the flats. Do the Bo Nicks offense. Yeah, not that Bo nicks needs Cover 3 to do the Bonix offense, but just do the Bo Nicks offense and get the ball into the flats. Tight ends briefly.
[00:07:08] Speaker B: He ripped one. After he ran, he's like, I got my confidence back and he ripped one. Anyway, continue.
[00:07:14] Speaker A: So again, the entire predication of it, of Raheem's scheme, and I am going to. I am going to give deference, something I very rarely do.
Short week, super short week. The shortest possible week.
Like, they won't even allow you to play a Saturday game after a Monday. That is the shortest possible week. Unless you were to have flown to Paris. You do the Thursday, Thursday, unless outside of Thursday. But Thursday has a very different schedule. I talked about this after you jumped off the stream. Like, Thursday is like, oh, we just don't practice. Like, right. We. We walk through a couple plays. But like, it is just a continuation of the week we just had. Whereas in this one, they're like, we will do a full week of practice, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. But like, we got to move it up and you don't get the full recovery time Monday, Tuesday. And so it is a very weird thing where I would just start treating that like that Atlanta game in the future, if you're ever in that weird circumstance again, Monday night to Sunday morning, like, if you're ever in that again, I would treat it like a Thursday game. But their plan was, we're not going to let Bijan beat him or beat us, and we're gonna let Michael Pennix beat us. And Michael Penix is like. And Tommy Reese is like, we will not let Michael Pennix beat us. So in that, you now have this very weird, very weird battle of no one, no one wanting the quarterback to actually do anything that they want to do. And there was no wiggle to the game plan because they didn't have time to put in a secondary option. So they just, everyone had to stick with it. And I don't even blame them for sticking with it because at one point, Michael Pennix is like, I'm going to rip this. And he did not show that actually he could beat you that way. So if you don't turn the ball over four times, you probably win that game with that game plan. But it was a little bit of a prevent defense in game planning is how I phrase it.
[00:09:03] Speaker B: Yeah, I feel like we should before we get even deeper into Atlanta. I feel like we have to back it up more on the Buckner trade and.
[00:09:11] Speaker A: Okay, well, and how would, how would, how does Buckner fit into a stunting front?
Fred Warner, Dre Greenlaw, Duggar at linebacker safety are big questions.
Now we're getting a little secondary questions on the outside too.
[00:09:27] Speaker B: Yeah, look to you it's interesting. I, I, I wonder if they make another addition. I wouldn't be surprised if this is the only one because a lot of what they're expecting is just to get guys healthy and get guys back. They're like, well, maybe we never have to play Jack Jones again if Stout gets a little bit healthier and we have Nate Hobbs to back him up. Right.
[00:09:48] Speaker A: I think that's fair.
[00:09:49] Speaker B: Or we just say, you know what, we're never playing Jack Jones again regardless. We're going to play Ephesians Price Ock and if we die, that's okay because at least he's our rookie and we'll see what happens. So there's that regard. But in terms of Buckner, I think that one of the first things I see just watching the Colts tape is like he required double teams. Like they sent doubles his way constantly.
[00:10:09] Speaker A: May I give you a statistic? Over the last three years, only three defensive tackles have been double teamed more than him. Can you name them?
[00:10:18] Speaker B: I would guess Chris Jones.
[00:10:20] Speaker A: Chris Jones is one of them.
[00:10:21] Speaker B: Who else who would be number two?
[00:10:26] Speaker A: Red sleeves.
Sleeves, Red sleeves. This is his distinctive look.
[00:10:34] Speaker B: Oh, this is going to be bad. I was like my head went to Vita Veh. But he's not like tracked like that.
[00:10:38] Speaker A: We saw him in the preseason.
[00:10:41] Speaker B: Just tell me.
[00:10:41] Speaker A: Just Jeffrey Simmons.
[00:10:43] Speaker B: Oh yeah, sorry.
[00:10:44] Speaker A: And then the last, Sorry, the red
[00:10:45] Speaker B: sleeves threw me off because he wears
[00:10:47] Speaker A: very long red sleeves. It's fantastic. If you ever want to break down Titans film, by the way, seek help.
[00:10:53] Speaker B: He's on, he's, he's my defensive, he's defense. He's my defensive lineman in my sleeper league.
[00:10:58] Speaker A: Jesus Christ. And then the last one was just traded for the number 10 overall pick in the 26 NFL draft.
[00:11:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
Oh, you're asking.
[00:11:07] Speaker A: Oh no, it's Dexter Lawrence. That, that's A. It's a statement that was also a question and it's a reverse rhetorical.
So Chris Jones, Dexter Lawrence, Jeffrey Simmons are the only interior defensive linemen who have gotten more double teams from 2024 on than DeForest Buckner. So your eyes do not deceive you, sir.
[00:11:26] Speaker B: Yeah. And. And so like the double teams immediately, that just opens up miles and miles of space because you can't do that to both Bosa and Buckner if and they're in the. Or you can direct depending on how many people you have in protection, and then you just hope the rest gets sorted out. So it's possible you can double team both players.
I wouldn't say it's not advisable to try that every snap.
[00:11:53] Speaker A: I would not do that. With the week four blitz looks that Raheem Morris is really like and I
[00:11:58] Speaker B: think they're going to get back to their stunt game. And he's awesome and stunts like, he's just like a nice pick, just going through the ice and just destroying people. So I think that's going to be huge for them.
I really don't know why they went away from it so much because they. They did it a lot where they were just rushed like four or five last week. And I think getting back to some of the stunts that they ran so effectively with him, especially as the head of the spear, is going to be really effective.
[00:12:24] Speaker A: I mean, I'll also give credit, like, Callahan is an unbelievable offensive line coach in Atlanta's offensive line looks good.
[00:12:30] Speaker B: Offensive line. We didn't probably give him enough credit going into it. Frank.
[00:12:34] Speaker A: Well, because it was very hard to notice them given. I mean, which is a compliment, right? Mushrooms in the closet, all that.
[00:12:39] Speaker B: Also like Joanne Taylor, such a red flag for me. But he wasn't bad.
[00:12:43] Speaker A: No, he wasn't bad. I mean, he was off. He was false starting every play.
[00:12:46] Speaker B: Right, Right. But like, Jake Matthews is great.
Like Newsville is not terrible.
The right guard Lindstrom's amazing. So it's like, it's really a good group. It's a good. Yeah.
[00:12:57] Speaker A: And we didn't give them enough flowers on that because we didn't have a lot of time to think about it. So they had one game plan, which. And then when that game plan is like, I don't know, then they even paired it back even more and it was just cover three. Let's let Pennock speed him. And now you add in.
I mean, just the concept. Let's just think about like third down here.
So now you're Going to probably go five man a lot. Right? You can really lean into five man now.
[00:13:22] Speaker B: Yeah. Because by the way, height is sneaky good in pass coverage.
[00:13:27] Speaker A: He is.
[00:13:28] Speaker B: He is. Looks good out there.
[00:13:30] Speaker A: He's thin hipped, and you can really swing him.
[00:13:32] Speaker B: But, yeah, I do. I think you're right.
Five down is very viable.
[00:13:37] Speaker A: And so you go Buckner at 1 0.
You have OSA, you have Mikel or Keon White, depending on which one you want to put on the end. And then you have Bosa, like, hey, now. And then, oh, we might just do Romello Height and Bosa on opposite ends, and we take off White or we take off OSA based on, like, you can really mix and match now. You're doing basketball lineups, man.
[00:14:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:00] Speaker A: And sometimes certain offensive linemen, like last night, the warriors played the Nuggets. They're like, we don't need a center. Draymond can handle Jokic. And then, you know, they're going to play Minnesota, and it's like, jesus Christ, we really needed to get a center,
[00:14:11] Speaker B: didn't we, like, need to see a really stupid simulated pressure from them where they drop both Bosa and Kia and Romello Height into coverage?
[00:14:20] Speaker A: They might call that play. And I. Nick Bosa is a consummate professional, but he might be like, I'm not doing that.
I'm going rover.
[00:14:28] Speaker B: He's great at reading screens. I. I mean, he kind of does some coverage stuff, like, instinctively, so.
[00:14:33] Speaker A: Right, right. But, yeah, they just.
[00:14:35] Speaker B: They have a legitimate arsenal right now, and that's. That's not even understated, and that's even acknowledging, like, Buckner is not what he was. He's still a really good player.
[00:14:44] Speaker A: So long as you think of him as. As more of a role player, a very good role player, as opposed to kind of the. The. The head of the spear, which he obviously was for the Niners in 2019.
[00:14:54] Speaker B: And he can do that, I think, in.
In. Yeah. Right. In terms of pass rushing, I think he has some of that capability. Like, if you put him one on one, like, he's gonna get home.
[00:15:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:05] Speaker B: Not every single snap, but, like, he's gonna get home. So I understand why teams are doubling. He's. He's just so crafty. I just. I would limit his role in the run game, and I would expect that they do that.
[00:15:15] Speaker A: I think so, too. And it's nice that you can do a big rotation now, not just for, like, third down and getting esoteric, but you can do a big rotation where, like.
Yeah, again, if he has to play a lot of one or zero.
There's of concerns but they've kind of gotten away with not having any of those the last couple weeks. And you know, say for the Atlanta game, where again, they were very simplistic for.
[00:15:36] Speaker B: Yeah. And the pass rush didn't get home. Also, to give them a little bit of credit, like Penix was throwing the ball like 2.5 seconds per snap when was getting out really quick. Like I was not impressed. And also it's just quick game, quick game, quick, quick, quick. Every single pass. It was the third fastest in the league. It was even faster than his season average, which is like less than three seconds, which is still rapid.
So like again, another reason to not stunt like a game we felt like was going to be right. That's true. That's. That's fair to go away from stunts because they take a sec to get home and you didn't have time to get home with them. So that's fair. But even for him, like, that was quick and that whole game does feel like an outlier. Felt like it at the time. There are legitimate concerns from it. Not to ignore.
[00:16:24] Speaker A: No, of course.
[00:16:25] Speaker B: But a lot of outlier to that game.
[00:16:27] Speaker A: Yeah. I, the more I've watched it, the more I'm like, not just weird, just weird. NFL.
[00:16:34] Speaker B: Yeah.
What was your reaction to the Quinn Nelson trademark?
[00:16:43] Speaker A: I First off, we're just assembling a crew of stumpy white boys as, as a collective in Seattle. John Benton is like, I will find men that look like me and will follow me into war.
Him and Zabel. Now I think, yeah, forgive me.
I don't have all of this right off the top of my, my mind. Even though I should be the guard
[00:17:05] Speaker B: guy, it's impossible to be like, what are all the guards in the NFL?
[00:17:09] Speaker A: Let me run through guards real quick.
[00:17:12] Speaker B: That. That's thorn to do. Like, that's his.
[00:17:15] Speaker A: That sounds, that sounds to me like the best one too.
Now to be fair, that is a bit of anchoring to my preconceived notions on both of them because Zable has not been as good this year. And I think for valid reasons that aren't totally on him, but he hasn't been as good this year. And Quentin Nelson is not the player he once was, which was simply the best. He's awesome. No, no, I'm not arguing that he's bad. I'm not saying it like, I'm saying he's gone from 99 overall Madden rating to like 92. Like, but it's, it's discernible.
[00:17:47] Speaker B: He might still be higher than that, but I hear you.
[00:17:49] Speaker A: I hear what I'm talking about. So that combo is huge. It will be interesting to see how Zable responds to go into right guard. It wouldn't shock me at all if
[00:17:58] Speaker B: it was just where he played in college. Right?
[00:17:59] Speaker A: Yeah. It should be seamless, but they're doing a lot more gap stuff in Seattle, and so there's, you know, some response.
[00:18:05] Speaker B: It'll help. Abe Lucas got him. Even if this is playing well, he just is the most in pain, man, I've ever seen in my life.
[00:18:13] Speaker A: I wish Charles Cross sometimes actually comes across as really in pain as well. And you're like, can you just both get the neck rolls so that we can have, like, beautiful bookends?
[00:18:22] Speaker B: Yeah, he has. I think. I think what's his name? Lucas has it, but it's like. It's the underneath, the pads.
[00:18:30] Speaker A: Neck roll.
Just no neck.
[00:18:33] Speaker B: Brutal. Yeah, no neck.
[00:18:35] Speaker A: So shout out to Steve Martin.
[00:18:37] Speaker B: So as far as Nelson goes, like, 1 the 40. Like, I just want to be clear here. Like, I posted a clip of just, like, you know, Connor Colby getting demolished. Right.
[00:18:47] Speaker A: We don't even. We don't even refer to him by his full name anymore. It's just 75.
[00:18:51] Speaker B: It's 75.
Like, I just want to be clear. Like, I don't. I would never expect the 49ers to. To trade for Quentin Nelson. I'm not even sure that, like, that was the right move for them. It's a lot. It's a lot to pay. And I also don't know the. Granted, I would probably make that move.
[00:19:12] Speaker A: You and I would make that move because we're watching Colby under, and I'm
[00:19:16] Speaker B: just going, like, if you solve this, like, the offensive, like, they're going to be able to dominate. Like, there's going to be very few run plays that aren't successful.
[00:19:24] Speaker A: Right.
[00:19:25] Speaker B: And you're just going to have such better pass protection. You don't have to worry about, like, a nightmare in the super bowl where somebody just, like, blows it. Right. Like, so much of that is going to be fixed. Yeah, I probably would make that trade. I wouldn't ever expect the 49ers to do it because they. They just don't value guard in that way, which.
[00:19:44] Speaker A: Can I quickly jump off on that?
[00:19:46] Speaker B: Go for it.
[00:19:46] Speaker A: Like, they don't. You're right, they don't. They have never valued guard. They let guards leave all the time that are good, but with all the gap stuff that they're running and the fact that I would argue that they're more of a gap team than ever.
And with Dominic Puni sort of elevating to a level where they're going to have to have a very deep and serious conversation about one of those guys
[00:20:05] Speaker B: who's just like, yeah, he's pretty good, let's pay him 30 a year.
[00:20:08] Speaker A: I mean, yeah, it's not that, but like, it's going to be tough. Like, I don't think that they.
I think that he is now elevated to a point that's well beyond what Aaron Banks had where it's like the market is going to say he's worth a lot and the Niners are going to be like, I don't know if we can actually replace that.
Like, even as little as we think of guards and how like plug and play they are, like, that guy's better than that. And so obviously going and giving. What was it, a third and a fifth for Nelson.
Yeah, that's a lot.
It's also nothing.
[00:20:40] Speaker B: You know, it's nothing. I would look at it like you're giving up a third because you, I mean, it's not ridiculous like you're giving up a fifth, but. But like you're probably going to get a comp pick next year that's at least fourth if you let him go.
Now, if you don't extend him from the 49ers perspective, like, Seattle's probably going to keep him around and I don't know if that was like a term of the deal. We'll find out more but like, whether he had to go to a place that was going to extend him. Personally, I think, like, you can get the deal done with the Colts. He doesn't have a no trade clause.
[00:21:13] Speaker A: Like, and the Colts GM used to work in the interim. GM used to work in Seattle, which is.
[00:21:18] Speaker B: So you want to. You ideally want to send him to a place where they're going to give him money.
I still think you can get a deal done where you say, like, we're probably going to let you walk, but you're going to get paid based on being in this system, whatever. For sure, it doesn't matter. I think that calculation being part of it is sort of irrelevant as far as the 49ers are concerned in terms of like having to pay him. Like, they're probably never going to pay. Like, they would probably never pay him in that situation.
[00:21:43] Speaker A: Be a short term deal for a third and a fifth and then, which
[00:21:45] Speaker B: is to say a third and fifth and then you get the compact next year to replace the fifth. Probably for a better pick, a third
[00:21:52] Speaker A: round pick for the rest of the season. I mean they just gave up a fourth round pick for the rest of the season of DeForest Buckner. Though I, I would say that they probably have a pretty good inroads on keeping DeForest Buckner around at a reasonable Buckner trades.
[00:22:04] Speaker B: A much easier one to make. Yeah, it's. I understand it.
[00:22:07] Speaker A: Trading for an offensive lineman in season is hard.
[00:22:10] Speaker B: It's tough. It's tough. Which is why when I like point out Colby being objectively bad, that's not to say he doesn't have good reps, but I feel comfortable putting that clip out there because he's objectively bad. He's objectively a problem. I grade every offensive line snap the 49ers have taken this year. I'm going to go through and do it again this week.
I feel comfortable saying that he started off well, has been bad, is getting worse, is not only missing assignments last year, not knowing the play and then just getting stacked up and destroyed is the most responsible for failed runs, for pressures through his face. So like it's a real issue. And on your roster again, I think they're going to go into the buy and say Carver Willis compete for this job right now over the bye week.
[00:22:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:55] Speaker B: And it's going to be bad for both of them.
Again. I don't expect the 49ers to make a trade like this. It's not something that's in their character. I do think they probably should have given it more of a thought than I'm sure they did.
[00:23:08] Speaker A: They probably would have had to beat out a third and a fifth.
[00:23:11] Speaker B: I mean which I don't really blame them for not doing. It could cost them it. It very well might.
[00:23:16] Speaker A: Well, okay. Just going off of something we were
[00:23:19] Speaker B: going to do later.
[00:23:19] Speaker A: Like their biggest needs ranked and I literally have nine positions where you could consider a need and I thought defensive tackle of all of these was low.
Yeah.
[00:23:29] Speaker B: I'm like.
[00:23:29] Speaker A: And it was kind of with you.
[00:23:30] Speaker B: I think they could have gotten by with their group as it stood. I mean I get it. It makes sense.
But it felt like we just loved the Forest Buckner and let's go get DeForest Buckner back. Because. Because he's available for a reasonable. And I get it. He's a really good player. It's going to help.
No qualms against that.
But I'm with you. I didn't. I didn't consider defensive tackle in that like probably top three.
[00:23:54] Speaker A: Yeah. My top three are left guard, tight end and nickel.
[00:24:02] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:03] Speaker A: I could only mainly because I have
[00:24:04] Speaker B: a lot of faith in seagull safety. Just depending on stout because I don't know how bad the stout thing is,
[00:24:10] Speaker A: but I would just, I would. Again, that is not to say like biggest need meaning best player. It's just you need a body and the Nate Hobbs. I. I can't count on Nate Hobbs. I think Nate Hobbs is actually a nice player. I like them in training camp. I think he's good. I wouldn't blame them if they were just like, no, we're good with Hobbs.
[00:24:28] Speaker B: So much of this is also dictated by like how. What do they know right about when
[00:24:32] Speaker A: guys are coming back and when did they know it?
[00:24:35] Speaker B: Because with wide receiver it's like, okay. They're kind of expecting Debo to come back, which shocks me because it seemed like it was a really bad hamstring injury.
[00:24:43] Speaker A: He fumbled the ball. It was such a bad hamstring injury.
[00:24:45] Speaker B: He literally pulled and he went. It's over.
Not to laugh at the injury, but just it looked horrible.
[00:24:52] Speaker A: So it's such an over the top reaction again, like his hamstring real busted. I'm not arguing that he's in any way not tough. It's Debo Samuel. But like the reaction was oh boy. And Achilles just went like that is the reaction of a man whose life is just left his body.
[00:25:08] Speaker B: But they're expecting him and Robinson back.
[00:25:11] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:25:12] Speaker B: Eventually. I do think Stribling comes back at some point. I don't know what you can expect from him.
[00:25:17] Speaker A: It's.
[00:25:18] Speaker B: It might not be until the postseason. We'll see.
[00:25:21] Speaker A: It's a tough play.
[00:25:22] Speaker B: We'll see how you get them back. You. If they think like Evans is healthy. I still think wide receiver. You can make a very compelling point to try and go get somebody and you for sure. And it is a position where like you could probably send somebody like a conditional sixth and get like a cast off type player.
[00:25:38] Speaker A: Right.
[00:25:39] Speaker B: But I have trouble seeing them like making a full swing for like a wide receiver or finding like a player in that mold that kind of fits what they do. And with the fact that their. Their system so specific, like they've tried it with Brandon Cooks and once again he's had like terrible snaps where George Kittle's literally throwing his hands up in the air after the snap going. He's did it again. He doesn't know the timing. He's running at the wrong depth. It's a problem.
[00:26:03] Speaker A: The only one 13 years. 13 years.
[00:26:06] Speaker B: The only one, Josh Downs.
[00:26:09] Speaker A: Well, and this is. This was going to be off of the point I made, like if you're thinking wide receiver, everyone wants to go for the bigger names. First off, there's no real big names.
Josh Downs is probably the biggest actual name. Like people talk about Brian Thomas Jr. People talk about Jerry Judy. Josh Downs is a much better player than them. I'm not sure that it's in the Colts best interest to get rid of Josh Downs, but like neither here nor there in in that if you're thinking about a wide receiver upgrade, it's a very specific job.
Jacob Cowing, replacement.
That's it. That's the only thing who can do Jacob Cowing's job and all that it entails better than Jacob Cowing. First off, that's probably a pretty long list, which means that there's probably some guys available via trade especially late that can get the job done. Who can replace Jacob Cowing as the third receiver? Because I got to throw some numbers at you here from the Atlanta game. This team went to hell when they had to go to 11 personnel.
Like that is the cut and dry of the offense of this. So they have turnovers now they're chasing the game and they have to go to 11 personnel. When they were in 11 personnel spread, so that includes empty sets, they had a sub.
It was a 0.1 EPA per play.
[00:27:25] Speaker B: Not great.
[00:27:26] Speaker A: It's not good. It's not good. When they were in heavy sets, they had a point 0.1 plus EPA, half a point. When they were just in regular 11 personnel but with a true single back and they ran it. That was early.
Both of the interceptions came with 11 personnel. Obviously both of the fumbles came with with heavier sets. And I was thinking about this in kind of a wider way. Of course. Of course 11 personnel is not going to work when you don't have good receivers and you're rolling out fucking Brandon Cooks and Jordan Watkins, who looks like really competent compared to his peers, but still had two really bad drops in this game. I know that people. Oh, it wasn't a drop.
[00:28:04] Speaker B: One. Yeah, one bad drop one. I mean the other one, the one
[00:28:08] Speaker A: in the end zone is not a good drop. I understand it's a tough play, but when your entire track record throughout training camp is he can't finish the play, he's open, the ball hits him in the hands and then he drops it or he can't finish the play and
[00:28:21] Speaker B: then you do it, it's a tough play.
[00:28:22] Speaker A: Okay, Fair, Fair. Okay, whatever.
[00:28:25] Speaker B: You don't disagree. Like, he. His whole thing is, like, not coming down with the ball, not trusting them in traffic.
[00:28:30] Speaker A: And. And by the way, you could see
[00:28:32] Speaker B: early in this game, which is like, a lot of, like, what you need in a 49ers receiver is to, like,
[00:28:37] Speaker A: I don't need you to make special plays. I need you to make the place. Again, it's about the system, not the player.
I mean, there was a clear point.
It's funny because you and I.
The one where Cooks runs into Kittle on a deep mesh effectively, and Kittle is. Are you kidding me? You could see Brock. Oh, no, there was. Yeah, Brock throws that into quad coverage to Cooks.
Right? So, like, Brock does throw that ball where Kittle's coming over, but then Kittle's rouse. And you can just see Brock say, never again at that exact moment. Like, because he got away with.
[00:29:12] Speaker B: Because Watkins was a potential option with a shot play, like, down the sidelines, he could have gone there for sure. I don't blame him. You probably should have. But, like, if. If Cooks had not completely blown it, like that was there, like, he did.
[00:29:25] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:29:26] Speaker B: He didn't even have to do anything special. He just had to run the route with, like, the roughly correct timing. Even if the timing was a little off, it would have worked, but he just completely botches it.
[00:29:35] Speaker A: But on the end zone camera, you see Brock just, like, shaking his head. You see Kittle shaking his head and it's just like, dude, this is why Brock doesn't throw you ball. Because you have to be in the right place at the right time. That's your only job as a receiver. He doesn't need you to do special things. He just needs you to run the play as designed. And if you're 13 years in the NFL and you're still running into your tight end who does do everything right consistently and has for a decade now. Yeah, that's going to be a problem. Again, coming back to the 11 personnel idea, the Rams had this same issue last year and their response to it was, we do tight ends now. We are the tight end team now
[00:30:09] Speaker B: that they're like, we have two good wide receivers, everyone else.
[00:30:13] Speaker A: And like. And when either of those guys were out there, like, we will replace them with tight ends and we will do 13 personnel. And the 49ers are like, we will do that. But they couldn't do it all the way with the heavy set because they were great from heavy sets and they wanted to be in heavy sets. And then they're like, oh, well, we can't go to 13 because our third tight end is Braden Willis.
So, like, we can't do that as a reasonable personnel set to move the ball because that's the beauty of what the Rams did. They have a great run game and in. The Niners had a great run game in this game, but they could also pass the ball with explosion, right? They could get the success rate of the ground game, plus the explosive plays from 13 personnel. And it wasn't, you know, big, but it was. They were very good chunk plays out of 13 personnel. And the Niners can't really do that out of 21 or 22 or even 12 in. In a lot of cases because it's so much predicated on the run game. If you had that third tight end and I. I'm willing to go either direction with a third tight end, which is either a big old blocker or I can't. The ton just mold of. I can't block a soul, but, boy, can I run some route.
[00:31:22] Speaker B: Offer something.
[00:31:23] Speaker A: Braden Willis offers nothing and there's no reason for him to be playing. They cut him for a reason.
They looked for any other person for a reason. This is the. I think that is number one on the list of things you have to do because you can't. Yes, you're going to get wide receivers back, but you cannot trust that these guys are going to stay healthy. And you cannot get somebody at this point in the season that can be a game changer without giving up some serious capital. But you can go get a really nice tight end. And I just call back up the interim GM of the Colts and I say, what's it going to take for me to get Mo Ali Cox, baby.
[00:31:54] Speaker B: I mean, I love it. I love it.
[00:31:56] Speaker A: Red zone threat, massive blocker. Now Farrell can run some more routes. Again, not ideal, but better than what you have with Willis. For sure. Kittle doesn't have to take on so much blocking responsibility that simplifies his game. I think the Niners have to lean in at tight end and double down on. On the trades. I'm not sure they will, but I think that's what they should do because again, 11 personnel was total and it's kind of been total shit all year for them.
[00:32:20] Speaker B: Yeah, I think.
I'm curious if you can trade. If. If you can actually trade people off ir, because if you call them up and say, hey, like, you're not gonna get anything for this guy, here's like. Here's like a seven, seven. The round pick and take your Pick. Do you want CJ West? Do you want Nick Martin? Not to just cast off CJOs, but they might be in a position where it, like, doesn't matter at this point. Maybe.
Probably not. I. I think he's still got some utility for him, but, like, call up, say, hey, here's Nick Martin and. And a seventh. I don't know for whom.
[00:32:53] Speaker A: Mo Ali Cox.
[00:32:54] Speaker B: Mo Ali Cox.
[00:32:55] Speaker A: That's going to cost a first, buddy. I mean, we all know the value of a Mo Ali Cox. I mean, are there any other greatest
[00:33:02] Speaker B: tight end, tight end names of all time, by the way? Yeah, I like Mo Ali Cox. A lot of size. Like, just. They haven't had that, like, Feral. Feral adds that element.
But, like, I don't think they've ever had it. And not a lot of teams have a situation where they have, like, a deep tight end room. The Chargers tried to build one and it all went to hell. The Rams have one. Some teams have tried to develop that, but the 49 has been pretty bad.
[00:33:25] Speaker A: I'd call up the Broncos and be like, you don't know what the hell you're doing at tight end. Give us Evan Ingram. Like, let's. Let's rock and roll with that.
[00:33:32] Speaker B: I mean, what about my boy? My boy?
The Broncos have the rookie tight end whose name escapes me. Dallin Bentley out of Utah.
[00:33:41] Speaker A: Dallin Bentley. Yeah. I mean, I did him. He was.
I'm just saying, like, of the ilk of.
[00:33:47] Speaker B: It's not a great trade.
[00:33:49] Speaker A: Tight end. No, don't go get the seventh round tight end.
It is.
Again, they're not going to go and get somebody who's, you know, a big time. They're not going to go get a laporta or a Likely or a Craft or a Fan. They're not getting any of these guys. They're not. Tyler Warren's not available. He's also injured. But Carolina has some. Some weird depth. I probably. They probably won't trade with you on the basis of they're in the same conference. I'm just trying to. I'm grasping for straws here. Just trying to figure out which AFC teams have tight ends that you can make a move for or which teams are totally out of it. I know that Dallas Goddard's a name that's been bounced around.
It's not a bad play.
It's just. He's going to cost more than he's worth.
Like, he's washed.
[00:34:40] Speaker B: He's totally.
[00:34:40] Speaker A: Why he can't block at all anymore. I get it.
[00:34:43] Speaker B: His body's also Waned. I should. We should note like, just in terms of the context of, of both trades, like Seattle has a lot more to trade.
They have like six picks and like four projected comp picks coming up this year, whereas the Niners aren't going to get any compex this year for like the first time that I can ever remember.
[00:35:03] Speaker A: Right.
[00:35:04] Speaker B: So it's going to be like they don't have as much to work with.
Just, just to note for context. I don't know that they will trade for a tight end. It seems doubtful to me.
I mean, the cheapest possible option for like a blocking titan would be like a Chris Manhurtz from the Giants.
[00:35:22] Speaker A: My God, don't, don't tease me with
[00:35:24] Speaker B: such conditional 20, 28 7th round pick.
[00:35:28] Speaker A: Do not threaten me with a good time. Now the Giants have something to play for here.
[00:35:31] Speaker B: I guess
[00:35:36] Speaker A: Cam Latu is available on the Patriots.
[00:35:38] Speaker B: Yeah, I've always noted that.
[00:35:42] Speaker A: Big fan. How about a Jelani woods from the Jets? Mason Taylor's playing out of his gourd. Obviously they have Kenyan Sadiq. They're not going anywhere.
[00:35:49] Speaker B: A lot of tight ends, they do. They've got like Jelani. I think they have like five.
[00:35:53] Speaker A: I like Jelani Woods. The Colts, by the way, just always have a good blocking tight end. You can catch passes in the end zone, which is a great character. That's a great tight end. That's a classic tight end. To me, that's a good shout.
[00:36:04] Speaker B: Go to the jets and say, who's your fifth? Give us. Give us Jelani Woods. Just give us anybody. The point is, I don't know that they'll value this. I didn't expect that we would even get into tight ends. But I'm with you. It's a problem. And Braden Willis doesn't offer them anything.
[00:36:19] Speaker A: Daniel Bellinger from the Titans, your big
[00:36:22] Speaker B: belly head, you've always.
[00:36:23] Speaker A: I was a big belly head. I liked him with the Giants. I liked him there. Again, I'm just running through names. Ian Thomas with the Raiders. I like Ian Thomas.
I like Leon Thomas a lot. I would love to go get Charlie Kohler. He's not tradable. I don't know.
[00:36:35] Speaker B: I think. Yeah, I think we should talk about the secondary too, because you mentioned it, like nickel being an issue. I think they're just going to trust that Stout's going to eventually get healthy. I would like to know if they really do expect Nate Hobbs back soon because that changes the calculus for them.
And then to me, like, safety is a real problem position. Again, I I talked about it at the start. Like, I graded out every Jair snap, and it's like, not that he's not seen the game that well. I actually think he's, like, logically reading it out for the most part and generally making the right decision.
He's just slow. Like, he just is slow. And if he hesitates for a second, he doesn't take great routes to the ball.
And he can't afford to take bad routes to the ball because he's slow. Like, and. And I know it shouldn't just be all about speed and. And the idea of, like, him understanding the play is really important. He's generally in the right spot. It just results in a lot of, like, missed tackles, explosive plays, and situations where, like, he's a liability. And if anyone.
If they get in a position where there's, like, too high, which, you know, they're kind of. They are running it, but kind of they're running more like cover six.
And they're not having him be the high safety because they know he's just going to get outrun. And they're like, Mustafa has to do it. But, like, which isn't that Mustafa to be your strong safety, like, you want Siegel to be the free.
So I really do wonder how they handle that when he comes back. Trying to make a trade. Midseason for safety is actually a very viable position to do that for a lot of people.
It's just hard.
It's, like, hard to look around the landscape and, like, find a premium player like that you can add right now. That's really going to upgrade you. I think with a lot of these things, they're just going to be answered by guys coming back from injury, and
[00:38:24] Speaker A: I don't blame them for doing that. I mean, it's a whole. It's like 30% of your roster is injured. Like, you know, you were doing pretty well with a lot of these guys.
You know, quickly, like, just going through some safeties. I mean, the Jets, Fitzpatrick, Belton, Moore, Cisco. That doesn't particularly do it for me.
Dolphins aren't going to move on from their safeties. They're trying to build something there.
Man. Everybody in the north is. Is live. AFC North.
[00:38:54] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:38:56] Speaker A: You know, there is something to be said for.
Forgive me. What's his name?
Former Cal zero for the Colts.
Be something. He does the celebrations.
How can I not remember this guy's name? We'll move on.
He's a safety. Bynum.
[00:39:16] Speaker B: Bynum. Yeah. He's a great. He's a good player. I mean, He's a good player.
[00:39:20] Speaker A: Titans, go.
My God, the Titans.
[00:39:24] Speaker B: It's bad.
[00:39:25] Speaker A: Look, we're not. You're not going there.
And the other. The other aspect is the Chargers with Tony Jefferson, Derwin James. Yeah, there's something.
[00:39:35] Speaker B: I mean. I mean, the Colts are going to have to keep someone on the roster.
[00:39:39] Speaker A: Do they, though?
Do they?
[00:39:41] Speaker B: I guess.
[00:39:42] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:39:42] Speaker B: It's. Keep Daniel Jones, I guess. I mean, safety's tough because players are sort of affordable, but there are not a lot of, like, truly good ones.
[00:39:53] Speaker A: Correct. Which is why they are destiny. I mean, C.J. gardner. Johnson's definitely available from the Bills.
[00:40:00] Speaker B: Yeah. Just the worst guy, you know, Jason Pinnock.
[00:40:05] Speaker A: I actually feel okay about the 49ers safety situation.
[00:40:08] Speaker B: What about Yeast East? I do remember the Bengals now. Yeah,
[00:40:19] Speaker A: There is. If it's Siegel and Mustafa, you got a pretty good one two there. We haven't seen it really play together, but maybe a couple series. But I like what's going on there. And so.
Okay, that's fun. And then Jair is your backup. My issue with J Air is everything that you listed out. He's playing way too slow. He's never been someone with a quick trigger to begin with, and he is just getting caught in all of the sauce every play.
[00:40:45] Speaker B: He's getting clobbered at the second level, too. Like, he's truly getting, like, knocked on his rear by, like, Kyle Pitts, who's not a great blocker.
[00:40:52] Speaker A: That's. That's what happens when you're slow and indecisive because your eyes are in the wrong place.
[00:40:57] Speaker B: Like, on a couple plays. Like, there's one play, I think I want to say it was the hook and ladder where Mustafa is coming from the other side of the field from a shorter angle. And he beats Jair to the ball.
[00:41:09] Speaker A: Yep.
Jair in position. He reads it. He takes five steps in the same spot for no apparent reason and then starts running. And Jair Brown has now made up. And I looked at this five times. 30 yards of difference in that time that J Air Brown was doing a little tip tap dance, hanging out in the spot. And it's like, buddy, I get that, you know, you're concerned about missing the tackle. You want to take the right angle, but there is just some point where you got to go for it. You have to go for it. But the problem is he can't even go for it at. He can't quick trigger. He's never been a quick trigger guy. Like, it's one thing to want to slow somebody down. He's taking slow and making it slower.
[00:41:46] Speaker B: I get why they trust him. Not. And by trust him, I mean trust him.
[00:41:50] Speaker A: I get why meeting rooms.
[00:41:51] Speaker B: I mean, at this point, especially with Siegel out, it's not a question, but, like, yeah, like, he knows the assignment for the most part.
And I wish it was like, speed wasn't the only thing, but, like, it's a real, real, real problem that's showing up. Not in the run game, on. In both facets of the game.
[00:42:09] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:42:10] Speaker B: And I just think at this point, like, you need speed. The way the defense is structured, you can't have one guy out there who's moving in mud, and it's just. It's at a different speed.
[00:42:19] Speaker A: It's really tricky. This is a thing in the NFL, so in college, you just play your best players and you keep everything simple so that you just have your best players on the field and they go out and make plays. But so much of the NFL is just a manifestation of what you do all week. And Jair Brown is a very sharp guy who says the right things.
His brain works at a good level. His brain and his body just aren't correlated to the same level of speed. And he gets. I've said this since day one of his career. He gets paralysis by analysis. And there is a sweet spot with safety, and it's a. This is why it's such a difficult position to be really, really good at. There's a sweet spot.
[00:43:02] Speaker B: I find it the toughest to evaluate every year in the draft. I'm like, some guys, like. And you're like, all right, he's smarter than everybody, and he's fast. Right. Like, okay, great.
[00:43:11] Speaker A: He's decisive.
[00:43:12] Speaker B: Right. You need. You need to have the brains and also the trigger, which are sometimes diametrically opposed, where you're like, you need a guy not to care, but you also need him to really care, know exactly what's going on. It's very difficult. It's why, like, Ed Reed is, like, one of one of one of one. Because he's just, like, elite athlete playing mind games with other people and enjoys, like, the blood sport of it all,
[00:43:35] Speaker A: you know, hurting dog.
It is. It is the quarterback of defense. I know that people like to think middle linebacker still is. I know that, you know, there have been some teams that have experimented with green dot at safety that has gone great, but it is it. You have to be operating. And this is why, you know, we watch Brock this year, and I would even argue in this game, that was still the case. Like Brock just operating At a speed mentally faster than everybody else. You have to be there because you're going to be thrown in a bunch of different directions. A lot of stuff's going to be thrown at you and you need to be able to process faster than just a normal player because there's so much responsibility. It's why safety is our destiny and it's why Jair Brown is a huge liability. I'll make the same argument in reverse Like Upton Stout is, every team has liabilities. It's not to say that the Niners are a fundamentally flawed team, but if you look at the liabilities, I would rank them as it stands right now if we're just talking players, Brown, Colby, Stout.
[00:44:41] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't. I'm trying to think about Stout as the last part because I don't know how much of a liability he is so much as like his body is a liability. Like he's just hurting liabilities, liability. I mean like giving him like a few weeks off to get healthy. I'm a little less concerned about that. I don't think it's a non issue. I think it's a problem right now.
[00:45:03] Speaker A: They hadn't, they hadn't really played anybody all season who really could attack from the slot.
[00:45:10] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean the issue for me like it's just like you can actually never put Jack Jones on the field again youn can't have him out there because he's getting cooked. He's holding every play.
About Bernardo and Lenore, I still think they're in a pretty good spot. I think Mustafa has been pretty good. I think that one that should have been a touchdown to London was probably on him because I think he was playing just quarter safety when he should have been deep third and reacted late. Luckily Penix threw an absolute one of the worst paths I've ever seen legitimately.
[00:45:45] Speaker A: Six foot, the rare guy with like seven foot long arms over the middle, nobody in frame and he threw it what, 10ft over his head.
[00:45:52] Speaker B: The rare ball where you're like I might have been able to make that through which no, you probably couldn't. But you think about it, that's how bad it was there.
[00:46:02] Speaker A: There were roughly 15ft of ways that he could have aired in any direction. He could have put it out far too much in front but put some air under it and London still could have run under it. He could have thrown it behind him and London could have stopped and turned around and gotten there in time. If you put enough air under it, he could have thrown it low which would have been an air. He did, he did the One Direction.
Like even if you under throw that ball, London has enough space to come back and get it. There was nobody around him and he's like, what if we worked with three dimensions and went right up top?
[00:46:32] Speaker B: Yeah, it was bad. It was bad. I wanna, I wanna get into some. Because I think we're gonna have some fun bye week stuff that we'll get into on the. This is technically the bye week, but then our bye week is really next week.
[00:46:43] Speaker A: Well, yeah, going into Wednesday for sure. Yeah.
[00:46:45] Speaker B: Right.
I so a few changes that I expect to happen. I actually do think Carver Willis will end up maybe taking the draft job or they start doing a rotation over the bye week. I think that might happen.
[00:46:59] Speaker A: Get in on the action.
[00:47:01] Speaker B: He's still on ir, is he not?
[00:47:03] Speaker A: Yeah, but I'm pretty sure that they could, you know, get.
[00:47:06] Speaker B: I wouldn't mind that. I wouldn't mind. They're not open so he can practice.
[00:47:10] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:47:11] Speaker B: And they have opened his window to decide is this something we want to do?
[00:47:14] Speaker A: I think you open his window so you can practice. You get a three man rotation going in there. We're right back to where we were at training camp and Enrique Cruz has a hamstring injury.
[00:47:24] Speaker B: Yeah. How do you, how do you run that competition knowing that, like, you actually don't have enough people to practice and you don't really want like a real offense out there?
[00:47:37] Speaker A: Like, well, you got a good defensive line to practice against.
[00:47:42] Speaker B: You just have him in the. Darian Lao and, and Brendel just like practice.
[00:47:49] Speaker A: I think that they're, I mean, they clearly are pretty comfortable with Pleasants and his ability to just hand. They threw him in there without having taken a rep at guard at all in the preseason. They just threw him into a preseason game.
[00:48:01] Speaker B: He certainly moves way worse than Colby, but at least I feel like he packs a punch.
[00:48:08] Speaker A: There's a thing to say about Austin Pleasance, but you're not wrong. The fact that he is more powerful and yet less of a mover than Colby speaks to something.
[00:48:17] Speaker B: Colby is just so soft handed. And we saw it in college and I tried to be like, all right, well, there's been good, good things. He's like, he's just not a good. He's just not a good player.
[00:48:28] Speaker A: I don't want to, I don't want to keep going back to an anchor take because new evidence requires new opinions.
[00:48:35] Speaker B: But if you go back and we gave him so much credit when the season started, we're like, you look.
[00:48:41] Speaker A: It was good. It was legitimately good against a sleepwalking Rams team, and it has been distinctly worse ever since. Every game, it gets a little bit more.
[00:48:51] Speaker B: When I said he's regressing, I literally meant since week one. It's getting worse.
[00:48:55] Speaker A: It's the same thing that happened last year when he got tossed in against the Saints. He got in there, and I don't know, it's like, guys who throw 2 miles per hour faster on opening day, like, or their first MLB start, like, there's something in it where it's like, oh, I got to go out here and do it. And then once you get comfortable. So, yeah, if nothing else, the competition will probably spark something in them because, again, it sparked something in them in training camp. It took all the way to Australia for them to figure it out, and it was probably more default than anything. But, like, they. Everyone to a man in that locker room, when I asked about him, told me, like, he really upped his game in the last, like, seven, eight practices when he was. It was pretty clear, like, they don't want to do this, and he upped it. So you got to keep a fire under his ass. But I go back to the analysis that we had of. I had of him when it's like, okay, so you're at Iowa and you're soft.
How's that work? Yeah, like, why would you expect.
[00:49:50] Speaker B: You kind of want to. You kind of like every Iowa guard that's like a late. You just. Every Iowa guard, you're, like, fun.
And he just was so frustrating to watch. So frustrating where he just, like, soft, like, would allow guys to just bully him and get into his chest, and his hands didn't land with any thumb.
And you're watching him next to guys who are the opposite of that, who are, like, playing with a level of physicality and aggression.
[00:50:12] Speaker A: It's Iowa. That's what they do. They absolutely maul you. And he's not a Mauler. And it's like, okay, I guess it has to be. There's obviously some characteristics there that they're playing them. But, like, why would you think that he would develop the traits of toughness at. At the NFL level just because other guys are tough? Like, you played in the Big Ten for a team that literally had their strength coach fired because he was killing dudes because they're so tough there?
[00:50:36] Speaker B: Maybe, hey, maybe he'll come back and we'll get a Mike McGlinchey still here. Tweet from him. Who knows?
[00:50:41] Speaker A: He's Not. He's not much of a tweeter.
[00:50:42] Speaker B: Yeah, I. Yeah, I think we should
[00:50:45] Speaker A: there that we'll talk about.
[00:50:46] Speaker B: Grab a few questions before we loop around to some stuff. Is there anything we haven't covered that you want to get to before we do?
[00:50:52] Speaker A: No, I. I thought the run game against Atlanta was unbelievable.
[00:50:54] Speaker B: Phenomenal.
[00:50:56] Speaker A: The designs were exceptional. The counter run with Kalon Black where they brought dash motion and the entire Atlanta defense is like oh hell yeah.
[00:51:05] Speaker B: Well on a couple of those, like there's a couple of times he has some nice blocks. There's also times he gets destroyed.
[00:51:10] Speaker A: Get this fancy dancer man. Pretty good at pulling every now and again.
[00:51:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:51:14] Speaker A: The problem is then when the other person runs into him and it's great on outside zone. But again they don't run outside zone much anymore. They did against Seattle but like that's not the predication of their run game these days with Dash and it was
[00:51:28] Speaker B: or it can be. It just depends on the opponent and the situation. But you're right, it's. It's been a much more balanced diet with a lot more gapski. I agree.
[00:51:35] Speaker A: The beauty of Puni the other guard spot is that he is not a great outside zone blocker and he's not a great guard. He's not a great gap scheme blocker. But he's above average at both of them.
[00:51:47] Speaker B: He's not great in any one facet but he is a great survivor. He's a great I just get it done player.
[00:51:55] Speaker A: He's. He's. He is a. You have to be there to get it sort of player.
I've been watching a lot of NBA lately. Like I have a list of like you have to see him in person to get it. Camp campus. By the way, Kyle Anderson's on there. Cam boozers on there.
[00:52:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:52:11] Speaker A: I'm starting to think maybe pods might be on there kind of. You got to see it together.
[00:52:14] Speaker B: I've always been a pods defender and it's not a popular position and I
[00:52:19] Speaker A: looking good after two. It's looking good after two.
[00:52:20] Speaker B: I just like a ball knower. I remember when I said a certain former player did not have a great basketball IQ and people lost their minds at me.
[00:52:31] Speaker A: It's only been borne out relentlessly since then. Anyway, I love the design of the run game. Again everything about that game against Atlanta was we have this one plan. So long as we don't fuck this up, this one plan will work. And then they went and fucked it up. Not the plan but the whole like we're going to hold on to the football thing. And they weren't wrong. But I would have liked to have seen more pragmatism. But I'm also going to give them the benefit of the doubt of, like, we didn't have time for a second option. Like, we got to go with what we got to go with. And we had to come in with some pretty funky stuff to win this game. So, yeah, I'm viewing it as an anomaly.
[00:53:06] Speaker B: Yeah. 49ers Super bowl appearances correlated with two plus Oregon players rostered. This is. I like when people put out, when there's like a good data point. They're like.
They're like, not all things.
Causation is not correlation.
[00:53:21] Speaker A: Or, you know, correlation is not causation.
[00:53:23] Speaker B: Correlation is not causation. I know words. I know the English language.
[00:53:26] Speaker A: But in this case.
[00:53:27] Speaker B: In this case, it's a fact.
Yeah.
[00:53:31] Speaker A: Clearly all the good Ducks are at the NFL level. So you want to get them now.
[00:53:34] Speaker B: That's right. Brad asked to CJ west, change his number maybe to 96.
That means Brian James Thompson. James Thompson. I forgot his name. Gets cut. Would he survive? Waiver wire. Do they make an injury for him? I wonder if they just cut like Khalid Kareem.
I don't know. I'm. I am curious, like, what they do.
[00:53:54] Speaker A: They're gonna somehow cut Ogbo out of
[00:53:57] Speaker B: this even though he's no longer on the Rock? Somehow. Find a way.
Yeah. Because it can't be Valdez. Yeah. I am curious that.
[00:54:05] Speaker A: Actually, that is an interesting. I mean, maybe they just carry an extra one.
[00:54:08] Speaker B: And
[00:54:10] Speaker A: this is a team that literally had to keep an active injured player last week. So I'm not terribly concerned with the roster machination.
[00:54:19] Speaker B: Maybe they just cut Jack.
They just straight up cut Jack Jones for the time being. And then they go practice squad bump for a. For a corner, maybe. I don't think. Actually don't think they have one.
It's just like Brandon Codrington, the returner.
Anyway, thank you, CG Snipe, for supporting the cause. Appreciate you.
Brock6969 asks if we sell merch yet.
No, maybe we. Maybe we look into that in the bye week. We've wanted to do it. Just do it the right way. We don't have time.
[00:54:49] Speaker A: It's not happening during the Bible.
[00:54:51] Speaker B: We would love. We would both love to do it. We just don't have time for things. And we end up watching film and getting really excited about other things. And then we go, ah, man, we should have done that.
People want it.
[00:55:02] Speaker A: People want It. And they. It's all very good. There's some. I'm sure there's a royalty issue that we'd have to hit with the design or all that crap. But, like, yeah, it's doable, but not by me right now. Yeah.
Give me four weeks. Or should we make the WNBA finals end and then maybe we can have a conversation.
[00:55:22] Speaker B: Jason says Bose and Buckner after bye week is huge. Also, you can read.
Yeah. Next. Next up, from dissident dissonance catching the stream in the middle. So forgive me if you're already deep. Buckner seems like a nostalgic romantic decision steeped in fanfare. 27 4th seems way too pricey. I think it's the appropriate price.
He's still a very good player, but he is not the player he once was.
A third would have been too pricey, but that's why it didn't cost a third.
I think it was about what it should have cost. Maybe you could argue a fifth, but he's too good of a player to give up for a fifth, so I think that's what you pay for it. I do agree there are limitations in his game now. There are health concerns, but again, you don't want to ask him to do all these things. My dog is currently putting his head on my lap.
[00:56:12] Speaker A: Well, he can tell that you're. You're glitching out a little bit. And so. Yeah.
Would you have liked to get him for a fifth? Yes.
[00:56:19] Speaker B: Would you.
[00:56:19] Speaker A: Should you have paid for a third? No. As Jake just laid out, there's a market for this guy. Like, let's not pretend there's not a market. So I'm sure the Niners came in and said, yeah, I'm sure that the Colts are like, second or a third, and then everyone's like, no. And then every other team's like six or a fifth. And then the Colts are like, no. And guess what? Compromise was found. And I'm sure DeForest Buckner probably had some input, because I would imagine that there were three or four teams that put in the exact same bid.
[00:56:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:56:47] Speaker A: Yeah, that sounds right.
All right. What. What else do we have?
[00:56:51] Speaker B: I got one more paid, and then I gotta almost get out of here. What do you guys think of the officiating on Sunday?
Lions, packers got all the attention. I didn't think our game. I didn't notice the officiating being that bad. I didn't really think that was a factor in why the 49ers lost. Yeah, I didn't think it was. I Don't remember it being great, but I was not like appalled.
[00:57:10] Speaker A: From what I recall, no. Niners do seem to get a lot of let's talk about it refs, which is interesting, but that was not a poorly officiated game and it wasn't a sillily officiated game.
I imagine there's going to be some Torbert in our life down the line. Those games just turn silly.
Okay, let's address this one from Justin. Appreciate all your input and love you too. But you act far too much like we are doomed or we are making the wrong decisions. We are still a contender no matter how much you look at it. And I ain't applaud you for not watching the stream while commenting.
Like, what the hell are you talking about?
This team is 6, 6 and 1. We literally just gave them the amount of times we said I'll give them deference. Probably set a record for the Atlanta game. And you want to talk about the folks who want to do doom and gloom, here's how they do it. They brush it up like they're telling you something really fun and then they tell you that the Niners have to go get a bunch of top line players and then they go, oh, wouldn't that be great? And they don't provide any actual deep analysis. They've never actually watched tape on any of these guys. They go on Bleacher Report, which is a cesspool, and steal names and then yell them out and then get you all hot and excited because the human mind loves nothing more than novelty and unexpected and unexpectedness despite all the flaws.
[00:58:26] Speaker B: Like this team with Mike Evans is the best team in the NFL as it stands.
[00:58:30] Speaker A: I mean there may be arguments for other teams, but they are in that conversation.
[00:58:33] Speaker B: We'll see how the Vikings play out. Their offense is a mess and we'll see. See, I don't know. They seem fraudulent. They got a tough schedule too. We'll see what happens.
[00:58:41] Speaker A: And, and I don't know what's going to happen in that game. I mean one defense might be good enough. We saw the Seattle Seahawks last year. So the idea that like, oh, this is doom and gloom. No, like yes. Are we naturally pessimistic? Absolutely. I'll go first in line on that. But like the, the idea of like they're getting to force bucket. We're not going to sell you false bills of goods this we Jake and I. I'll speak for myself, but I know you're in agreement with this. Like, we clearly agree this team doesn't need to go out and make any brash moves. You know what teams do need to go out and make brash moves? Shitty football teams.
[00:59:12] Speaker B: Yeah, I like, I like both the Quentin Nelson move and I like the Buckner move for the 49ers. I'm not even sure they needed to make it, but it's certainly helpful.
[00:59:21] Speaker A: Not bad. Not bad.
[00:59:23] Speaker B: I actually kind of agree with Griff. It's not been great for McKivitz. He seems stiff. He seemed.
There are times where he like locks on when he gets connected. He's like driving people around but. And he hasn't been bad, he's just been meh. And I thought he was pretty good last year and he's been kind of mad this year.
[00:59:44] Speaker A: That's where I'm at. I, I think it's sneaky, but I don't think it's a fundamental problem yet.
[00:59:48] Speaker B: Yeah, that's it.
[00:59:50] Speaker A: We will do, we'll do our very fun like mid season awards show.
[00:59:55] Speaker B: We're doing our little more than a third of a season award show which is a world famous award show. Renowned. It's sponsored by Palantir.
All right, see you folks. Bye.
[01:00:10] Speaker A: Gonna make you sit in that.
