0:00

The Nfl Annual Meeting wrapped up Tuesday

0:02

afternoon with the leads owners and acting.

0:04

One of the most significant changes the

0:06

game has ever seen. There were only

0:08

three votes against the league's new kick

0:10

off set up and one of those

0:13

no votes came from Forty Niner Ceo

0:15

Jed York, the new principal owner of

0:17

the franchise Will hear from New York

0:19

is he explains how he rationalises all

0:21

the teams close mrs of the past

0:23

five seasons generally. Chan and I report

0:25

from Orlando, Florida after speaking with Coach

0:27

Kyle Shanahan for his thoughts on the

0:30

current. State of the Roster will

0:32

have all that and much more

0:34

on this episode of Forty niners.com

0:36

An act Yeah right now welcome

0:38

to another edition of Forty Niners

0:40

Talk on Nbc Sports Bay area.com

0:42

Introducing your host Matt May Yoko

0:44

I write this is Forty Niner

0:47

thought For occupied they go Tires

0:49

map Naoko generally chin and we

0:51

are coming at you from the

0:53

Nfl Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida

0:55

where we are breaking news therefore

0:57

it's brought you buy toilet breaking.

0:59

News. I use the

1:02

biggest news of the day Jennifer other

1:04

than the fact that after a late

1:06

night of good clean fun at the

1:08

owners meetings we made it through Tuesday

1:11

with are falling asleep, That's the only

1:13

bar that can be breaking news. Yes,

1:15

It is breaking is actually. But

1:17

the big thing is just

1:19

this new. the new optics,

1:22

the aesthetics of the kickoff,

1:24

a play that for generations.

1:27

Was. A very exciting play.

1:29

It's turned into a complete

1:31

bore, including the Superbowl Re

1:33

or Super Bowl in Nfl

1:35

history where there wasn't a

1:37

kickoff return, thirteen touch backs,

1:39

twelve of which went through

1:41

the end zone. And.

1:44

That the owners decided. For.

1:46

One year. To. Enact this new

1:49

rule where it's gonna take a little bit

1:51

of getting used to. I think. Yeah.

1:53

It's guys had a lot of getting

1:56

used to. I think it's been such

1:58

a tradition of. The. same away

2:00

they've been doing kickoffs for since

2:02

the league began and they've made

2:04

little tweaks here and there but

2:06

it seems like a very drastic

2:08

change. Completely different structure for the

2:10

kickoff and it'll be interesting to see how

2:13

it works out. I'm gonna try my

2:15

best to kind of summarize. I'm gonna let you

2:17

do that. Okay. Okay so the ball is kicked

2:19

off from the same place. 35-yard line. That's

2:22

where the that's where the kicker is

2:24

and none of his teammates. His other

2:27

10 teammates on the kicking

2:29

team have to line up

2:31

with one foot on the receiving team's

2:33

40-yard line. So we're talking 25 yards

2:36

from where the kickoff takes place. Right.

2:39

Got that? Okay the receiving

2:41

team has a setup zone of the 30

2:43

to the 35 and at

2:47

least nine players must be in

2:49

that zone. Seven of those players

2:52

have to have their foot on the 35-yard

2:54

line. So that is what's

2:57

that? Five yards from where the

3:00

kicking team lines

3:02

up except for the kicker. Now

3:04

here's part of this is that the

3:08

kicking coverage

3:10

team and the kick blockers

3:13

or the guys on the return

3:16

team that are blocking cannot

3:18

move until the ball hits

3:20

a player or the ground in

3:22

the landing zone. What is

3:24

the landing zone you asked? Thank you

3:26

for asking that question because I have

3:29

the answer Jennifer. Yes. The

3:31

landing zone is the area from the

3:33

goal line to the 20-yard line and

3:36

so any kick short of the

3:38

landing zone the ball automatically goes

3:40

to the 40-yard line. So

3:43

that's a great advantage for

3:45

the receiving team. If

3:47

the ball lands in the landing

3:49

zone it must be returned no

3:51

questions asked or else your hand

3:54

shall be slapped. Yeah so

3:57

there's definitely going to be movement on kickoff

3:59

as a to what it is now

4:01

where there's just a kick sailing out the back

4:03

of the end zone there's going to be action.

4:06

Perhaps because if the kick

4:08

does sail out the back of the end

4:10

zone in that scenario which

4:12

uses outline instead of going

4:14

to the 25-yard line as it had been

4:17

previously it now goes to

4:19

the 30-yard line and there's even some

4:21

talk about maybe moving that up to

4:23

the 35-yard line to

4:25

really encourage more kick

4:27

returns. The other part

4:29

is if the ball lands in the

4:31

landing zone and skips into the end

4:34

zone and it is not returned out

4:36

of the end zone the ball goes

4:38

to the 20-yard line. So my guess

4:40

is teams will try to teams will

4:42

have to return men back

4:45

deep the kicker will

4:47

try to split the uprights

4:49

try to hit it into the landing zone

4:51

and skip it into the end zone so

4:54

that the opposition gets the ball at the

4:56

20-yard line. So teams are

4:58

really going to be looking for

5:01

an accurate kicker because

5:03

that's going to give them a huge competitive

5:05

advantage it's not just the strength of the

5:07

leg anymore it's accuracy I mean

5:09

there is strength as well of course

5:12

in regards to punts but for that

5:14

it's got to be someone who can really

5:16

manipulate the placement of the football in

5:19

that distance. I would think so I

5:21

think hang well hang

5:23

time isn't that much of an issue

5:25

anymore because it's a distant thing you

5:27

cannot leave you cannot

5:30

move until the ball is touched

5:32

so hang time is completely irrelevant

5:34

other than kickers might feel

5:37

more comfortable getting air under the ball

5:39

in order to drop it say at

5:41

the one-yard line or you're near the

5:43

goal line where

5:46

it's kind of pinned into a corner. So

5:49

you know more emphasis like Jake Moody will have

5:51

to kind of learn how to go about that

5:53

as will every kicker in the NFL and every

5:55

special teams coach in the NFL will have to

5:57

kind of come up with a lot of with

6:00

some things and Rich McKay from the

6:02

competition committee and the special

6:04

teams coaches were talking about the special

6:06

teams coaches that were here in Orlando

6:09

to talk a lot about, you know,

6:11

it'll probably be vanilla in the preseason

6:14

as teams kind of figure out what to

6:16

do. And then, and maybe not

6:18

try to give away any secrets of how they're going

6:20

to approach this. And

6:22

then this really lends itself to

6:24

scheming things up and running plays

6:27

off of the plays and how

6:29

you approach the coverage of this.

6:31

So it'll be, it seems a

6:33

little gimmicky to me. It

6:35

seems a lot gimmicky to me, but

6:39

it's also kind of fun, I think,

6:41

to see something new, new and fresh.

6:43

Yeah. And part of it is

6:45

the safety, you know, they don't want guys with

6:48

a, you know, getting up to 20 miles an

6:50

hour with a 35 yard head

6:52

of steam crashing into each other, they

6:54

want to reduce the risk

6:56

of head injuries. I think we

6:59

all can get behind that. That's, that's a great

7:01

goal. And I do think

7:03

it's, it's, it's fun, but

7:05

Jen York doesn't exactly like the

7:07

rule. I mean, and I, I

7:09

get where he's coming from, where it is a

7:11

drastic change. And I think what

7:14

he believes that there should

7:16

be a reevaluation point at

7:18

mid-season to maybe tweak it

7:20

because it's a big change. Now the

7:22

small tweaks that they've done in the past, they're like, okay, this

7:24

is going to last for a year, but this

7:26

is a big change. And for them not to

7:28

be able to go in and manipulate it in

7:30

mid-season after they've seen whether it can be successful

7:33

or, you know, there could be major issues

7:35

with it, but there's

7:38

no point in mid-season where they're able to

7:40

do that. Right. It's a one year thing. Yeah.

7:44

It's a try. And then they'll, they'll figure out they'll

7:46

go from there. But one of

7:48

the things that Jed York talked about

7:51

was that whenever you're trying something new,

7:53

there's always going to be these unintended

7:55

consequences. And he doesn't want something that,

7:57

you know, nobody has thought of. to

8:00

this point become something that

8:02

kind of muddies

8:05

the waters for this season

8:07

and like, oh, it kind

8:09

of ruined the game because teams were doing this

8:11

or this. It kind of said he doesn't want it

8:13

to be an asterisk season. Like this is the season where

8:15

this happens, so you can't really count it as the same

8:17

as the rest of the season. Yeah,

8:20

but overall, I mean, it kind

8:22

of excited to see it. It's

8:24

based on the XFL rule. I'm

8:26

sure all of our listeners are

8:28

big XFL fans. So it's based

8:30

on that rule, but it's something

8:32

that it just looks funky. It

8:34

does. And even when

8:36

you see the outline or the

8:39

diagram of how it's going

8:42

to look, it just looks funky. Right.

8:44

But kick her out there all by

8:46

himself. As

8:49

is the case with anything new, we'll

8:52

get used to it. Right. It's

8:54

going to be interesting to also see

8:56

how teams have

8:59

to adjust their personnel for this situation

9:01

as well. So there's a lot of

9:03

things to consider. How are they going

9:05

to manipulate the people on

9:07

the field? How

9:09

are they going to choose who's going to be? Obviously, you have your

9:11

core special teams, guys, but how are they going to be lined up?

9:13

How are they going to be used in

9:15

the play? Yeah. So you

9:17

have to have like offensive linemen in

9:20

that setup zone to

9:22

try to make it, obviously have

9:24

to be athletic offensive linemen to

9:26

make like an open field block,

9:29

the opposition's best cover guy. Do

9:32

you go bigger than you ordinarily would?

9:35

Whereas usually on kickoffs and punts,

9:38

you're talking about defensive backs,

9:41

linebackers, those positions,

9:43

some wide receivers. There's

9:45

a premium on speed. And

9:48

this, when the ball

9:50

lands in the landing zone or

9:52

is caught in the landing zone, it's going to be

9:54

a little bit more condensed

9:57

because all the players will be basically.

10:00

Basically all

10:02

the coverage players and all the return

10:04

players will kind of

10:06

be all in this big

10:08

old just smooshed together. The

10:11

play that we kind of looked

10:13

at on social media, just kind of an example

10:15

of what the XFL did, it did seem like

10:17

there was just a mesh, like mosh

10:20

pit of players like right in the middle of the

10:22

field where it all, they all converge. So

10:24

it'll be interesting to see how they work

10:26

it out. Absolutely. Okay, so we

10:30

did on Tuesday talk to Kyle

10:33

Shanahan after talking to John

10:35

Lynch on Monday. I

10:38

wouldn't say that there was really any news

10:41

coming out of Kyle Shanahan's gathering with us.

10:43

Certainly a lot of news coming out of

10:46

John Lynch's. I

10:49

guess the first thing, one of the first topics

10:52

was Kyle

10:55

Shanahan's decision for the defensive

10:57

coordinator. And the

11:00

two real strong candidates for

11:02

that job were Brandon

11:04

Staley and Nick Sorensen. Brandon

11:07

Staley, the former linebackers coach

11:09

of the Bears and

11:12

Broncos, defensive coordinator of the Rams, the

11:14

head coach of the Chargers. As

11:16

it turned out, he really

11:19

wasn't a candidate for the

11:21

defensive coordinator position. Kyle

11:23

Shanahan said that he really wanted

11:25

to stay in-house all along, and

11:28

through his many conversations over the past

11:30

couple of seasons with Nick Sorensen, it

11:33

was basically a fait accompli that

11:36

Nick Sorensen was going to be the next defensive

11:38

coordinator. And I think going

11:40

internally was really important for Kyle Shanahan

11:43

because of what happened in 2023 with

11:45

Steve Wilkes. Not a bad coach, just

11:47

didn't have the same vision that Kyle

11:49

Shanahan did. Nick Sorensen has

11:51

been with the Foreigners Defense. He knows

11:54

what Kyle Shanahan is asking them to

11:56

do. He's got the same system in

11:58

place, knows the players. And I

12:00

think he'll be able to be in lockstep with

12:02

Kyle Shanahan on the defense as opposed to how it

12:05

worked out last year. And

12:07

we saw Kyle Shanahan look

12:09

more and more tired as the season went

12:11

on because he was, I think,

12:13

running the defense and the offense, trying

12:15

to help see both get to the level that

12:18

he wanted it to be at. And

12:20

I don't think any head coach wants to be

12:23

running both the offense and the defensive side. Yeah,

12:25

I mean, he wasn't running, but he was probably, he had his

12:28

hands in it way more than before. Yeah,

12:30

he had his fingerprints on that defense more than

12:32

he has in the past. And

12:35

I asked Shanahan

12:37

about, you know, when Brandon Staley came in,

12:39

was it pretty much under the premise of,

12:41

you know, I'm not going to hire you

12:43

for defensive coordinator, but I'd like you to

12:45

be on the staff in some capacity. And

12:47

he basically, he did say yes. That's exactly

12:50

what it was. And so he

12:52

has a very high opinion of Brandon Staley

12:54

as a football guy, as a bright guy,

12:56

somebody who can offer opinions and

12:59

maybe kind of help

13:01

this defense evolve with

13:04

the times and be

13:07

a sounding board and somebody to help out

13:10

Nick Sorensen, who will become a

13:12

first-time NFL defensive coordinator. And

13:15

Kyle said that he already has gotten so

13:17

much from Brandon Staley on like

13:19

Leonard Floyd, who he's coached before when he

13:21

was with the Rams and

13:24

different players, personnel, I think any

13:26

more eyes on more players, it's

13:29

going to be an honest evaluation of a

13:32

player. So when they're looking at free agents,

13:34

and you know, I'm sure he has

13:36

some contact with players that are coming in

13:38

the draft, maybe from scouting reports previously. So

13:42

just more input is going to help Kyle

13:44

Shanahan and John Lynch make better decisions on who they're

13:47

bringing into the building. Okay. Well, one guy who

13:49

they don't have to bring into the building, but they

13:51

want to keep in the building is

13:53

Brandon Iyubes. And I mean, we predicted this a while

13:55

back, that there will be a lot of people who

13:57

are going to be in the building. Uneasy

14:00

times there will be hurt feelings.

14:03

There will be a little bit of

14:05

drama and there has been with

14:07

Brandon IU doing

14:09

some emojis after

14:11

after John Lynch talked about

14:14

You know keeping Brandon I you again and it's

14:16

all part of the process and all that and

14:18

I let's see What are the emojis emojis were?

14:21

dollar sign a guy walking

14:24

No, no, no dollar sign. Oh

14:26

talking talking. Okay, so money talks and

14:28

then up Say

14:31

a lump of no, no, no is a

14:33

bull a bull Oh, you're edible those are

14:35

bull and then a pile of

14:37

something brown something brown. Uh-huh. And

14:39

then a man walking Yes, so

14:42

it's money talks bull

14:45

stuff Walks, okay. It's

14:48

kind of like figuring out remember lucky beer that

14:50

yes I do remember lucky and their puzzles that

14:52

were underneath the cap There's gonna be some listeners that

14:54

don't know what we're talking about. Lucky beer had the

14:56

puzzles the anagrams Yeah, uh-huh underneath and you'd had to

14:59

figure it out This one was a little not too

15:01

hard to figure out for Brandon I use my

15:03

uncle Bob was he

15:05

liked to drink lucky beer Uh-huh really into

15:07

the high quality beer and

15:09

I loved it every time he would

15:11

come over and bring the lucky beer

15:13

and then Flip the bottle caps and

15:16

we could play that game. Yeah, so thank you from

15:18

the past Thank you, Brandon. I Brandon. I need my

15:20

new uncle Bob Here's

15:23

the one thing that We

15:26

have to like kind of look at when

15:28

it comes to Brandon. I you and I

15:30

think that He's gonna

15:32

be on the team. Yes, I do. Yes,

15:35

and I I get more My

15:41

belief in that becomes more firm by the day

15:44

Because of what Brandon I

15:46

means to Brock Purdy You

15:49

know Brock Purdy's favorite target

15:52

Brandon I you Who

15:54

caught the most passes from Brock Purdy

15:56

Brandon I you who had the most

15:58

receiving yards from Brock? Birdie, Brandon, I

16:00

use who tied for the most

16:03

receiving touchdowns from Brock pretty Brandon,

16:05

I, there we go. The

16:08

point being that with

16:11

a young quarterback, he's going to be around

16:13

for a long time. You need to

16:16

give him the tools that

16:18

can help him be successful. And

16:21

it is so clear that the

16:23

best player that

16:25

can help or the player who can

16:28

best help property maintain

16:31

that high level play is

16:33

Brandon. I use Brandon. I mean, you were four for

16:35

four. You get a five for five was

16:37

really, you got a passing grade on that math. Yeah.

16:40

Math is math is good. Math is math

16:42

is tough too. It is. No,

16:45

I think that especially with Brock party being

16:47

successful, but he's also a young quarterback, he's

16:50

still so young and to have,

16:52

and I'm not saying that Brandon, I use a

16:54

security blanket, but it's a trusted

16:56

target. They already have

16:58

chemistry with each other. It's,

17:01

you know, it's not easy because nothing

17:04

in the NFL is easy, but it just gives

17:06

him an out, he understand, they understand each other.

17:08

They're on the same page already for

17:11

a brand, Brandon, Iuke and Brock

17:14

pretty to continue, I think

17:16

will be a benefit, a huge

17:18

benefit for the team, for the offense, you

17:21

know, it, it just makes sense. Yeah. You

17:23

know, what else makes sense for us to

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Let's go places. All

18:36

right, we're back on 49ers Talk. She's

18:38

Jennifer, I'm Matt. We don't often reintroduce

18:40

ourselves, do we? No. Did

18:43

they forget who we were? Well, you never know. Okay.

18:46

You never know. We talked to Jed

18:48

York on Tuesday. Yes. And

18:51

it's one of these things that I think 49er fans

18:53

kind of wrestle with, right? Because the

18:56

49er fans were spoiled,

19:00

a lot of them, in the 80s, in the early

19:02

part of the 90s, certainly

19:04

the 80s, with the Super Bowl

19:07

titles. And what people don't

19:09

realize is it was a different time. The

19:12

49ers were loaded. could

19:16

have Joe Montana and Steve Young on the roster

19:18

at the same time. Now, there was one

19:21

more. The

19:24

last Super Bowl came in 1994. That

19:26

was a salary cap era. And

19:29

frankly, since then, you know, there's been a

19:31

lot of Super Bowls since that last Super

19:33

Bowl and 49ers haven't gotten over that hump.

19:36

So we all know the legendary

19:38

stories of Eddie DeBarlo and how angry he

19:40

would get and be ready to

19:43

fire Bill Walsh if the 49ers

19:45

win a couple of years without winning a Super

19:47

Bowl. And Carmen Polis too. And

19:50

Carmen Polis, all that stuff. So

19:53

what Jed

19:56

York addressed was maybe kind of his shift in

19:58

mindset. understanding what

20:00

the realities of the NFL are.

20:04

And he spoke specifically about, you know,

20:06

Brandon, I use contract and where that

20:08

is and the decision to move

20:10

on from Eric Armstead to

20:14

basically, you know, create that salary cap room

20:16

that's going to be needed in the future.

20:18

So here's, here's a little bit of Jed

20:20

York about kind of his expectations and where

20:22

his mindset is as the CEO of the

20:24

49ers and dealing with now many of the

20:26

people that many

20:30

years of the organization, not winning

20:32

a Superbowl. I mean, there's, there's

20:35

a difference between when he

20:37

ran the club and what

20:39

was, you guys bring

20:42

out how you pay Brock and

20:44

salary cap and he didn't have salary cap,

20:48

right? And we didn't have salary cap. Brandon

20:52

would have been done three weeks ago

20:54

or whatever it was. And like, you wouldn't like, he's a

20:56

guy that you love that you'd want to keep. And

20:59

it's not always a question of like, do

21:01

you love these guys? Eric, like you wouldn't,

21:03

you wouldn't let a guy like Eric Armstead go if

21:05

you, if you had no salary cap. So

21:08

those are things that have changed. And it's

21:10

trying to accept the realities

21:12

of what the NFL is and

21:14

knowing that there's

21:17

only so many things that you can control when

21:19

you have a fixed cap. The

21:22

things that I can control are

21:24

our team functions in the community.

21:29

What, what they represent. I

21:31

can have a direct impact on that. I

21:34

can't necessarily have a direct impact on what

21:36

play do we call on four and three. So

21:39

it's more of a realization as

21:42

you go through it. Some of it is a

21:44

maturing process, but it's it's hard

21:46

when your standard was set in

21:49

a relatively sort of unachievable

21:51

way of the 49ers that I grew

21:53

up with. It's very, very

21:55

hard to do that unless you

21:58

have the best quarterback. in

22:00

the league and you know you're relatively

22:02

destined to be in the Super Bowl.

22:05

I think we have a

22:07

great quarterback I don't know that anybody is Patrick Roberts.

22:09

I don't know that anybody as Tom Brady

22:12

was in their prime and his prime so

22:14

you have to go to build a franchise that

22:17

can compete with those types

22:19

of players and and that's

22:21

that's what I'm proud of and I think

22:23

our team has every bit of an opportunity

22:25

to go win Super Bowls. We

22:27

will never stop competing for that. I

22:30

just feel like when

22:33

I when I

22:35

experienced a loss to Baltimore like

22:37

I literally thought like my life

22:39

was gonna end right the

22:42

first time the 49ers ever lost a Super Bowl

22:44

and like it's just this big shameful

22:46

thing and then you take a step back

22:49

and say we are

22:51

number two. If anybody else is number two

22:54

you keep working but you would

22:56

be proud of your accomplishments and it's trying to figure

22:58

out that balance of we always want

23:00

to keep pushing. But

23:02

you can't shame yourself for being

23:04

secular. Right but you're always

23:07

gonna keep working and that's how I feel. Alright

23:11

so he ended that by talking about you know

23:14

he does expect Brock Purdy to be one of

23:16

the top quarterbacks in the league and I think

23:19

that was kind of a theme for

23:21

Kyle Shanahan too knowing that

23:24

Purdy in a short period of time

23:26

has played so well a

23:28

year ago the questions we were

23:31

asking was you know will he be

23:33

ready for the regular season and

23:36

he was ready for the

23:38

regular season led the NFL

23:40

and passer rating set the franchise

23:42

record for most yards in

23:44

a season and he did it in 16 games

23:47

and now one of the things that the

23:49

Kyle Shanahan said was that he is so

23:51

pumped up for Brock Purdy's offseason because

23:54

the 49ers can start their offseason

23:56

program on April 15th and

23:58

he's looking for him to become more consistent,

24:00

but there's a lot of work to

24:03

do just to kind of break down

24:05

the film and go over everything, every

24:07

snap of last season. Yeah, there's

24:10

a lot to look at and I think that, you know, every

24:13

player that we've talked to that has had

24:16

an injury and had to go through the

24:18

off season of rehabbing and trying to figure

24:20

out, you know, how to

24:22

get their body back into the condition to

24:25

play football and then

24:27

their next off season, they talk about

24:29

how much they enjoy just a normal

24:31

off season, being able to go back

24:33

from the start during OTAs, start

24:36

their workout programs, start their conditioning and then

24:38

be ready the first day that they get

24:40

back on the field. All those things help

24:43

a player get ready for the season. It's crazy

24:45

to think that Brock Purdy did

24:47

not get on the field and practice with

24:50

the team until so late.

24:53

Yeah, he was like, he had a towel in

24:55

his hand, doing drops and kind of acting like

24:57

he was throwing a football, but with a towel

24:59

in his hand for a lot of the off

25:01

season until he was finally cleared to play. So

25:04

it's, it might be unrealistic

25:09

to think that his stats can be

25:11

better than what they were. But he's

25:13

going to have months longer to actually

25:16

be with his team on the field

25:18

to prepare. So, yeah, but

25:20

still, potentially, I mean, I just

25:22

don't think his stats can be

25:25

better. But what Shannon had

25:27

talked about was maybe more consistency and

25:29

kind of cleaning up some things. And

25:31

you know, there will be adjustments made

25:33

on the defensive side. That's teams, especially

25:35

those in the NFC West try to

25:38

figure out how to get to Brock

25:40

Purdy. I think

25:42

one area that is really

25:44

encouraging for the 49ers is

25:47

that their entire offensive line is back. And

25:50

that continuity is huge. And I know

25:52

49er fans are under this

25:54

impression that the players had the worst

25:57

offensive line in football when the reality

25:59

was. people the 49ers had

26:01

one of the better offensive lines in football.

26:03

I looked at the most sacked quarterbacks. Brock

26:06

pretty is like a fourth from the bottom.

26:08

Yeah. So that means there are

26:11

28 other quarterbacks that were sacked

26:13

more often than Brock, I believe he was

26:15

sacked 24 times in 16 games. And

26:18

so one of the keys, I learned this

26:20

a long, long time ago from the late

26:23

great Bob McKittrick, just the continuity of the

26:25

offensive line, the more those guys play together,

26:27

the better they should get and,

26:29

you know, with Trent Williams, with

26:31

Aaron banks, with Jake, Brendal, with

26:34

probably John Feliciano at guard and

26:36

Colton McKibbit sat right there is

26:38

a very good group of

26:40

starting offensive linemen that has a chance to

26:42

even get better with what the pretty and

26:45

I was doing the draft. But, you know,

26:47

it's, it's funny to hear what

26:49

people inside the guys

26:52

who watched the film and know what the assignments are and

26:54

what guys are asked to do. It's,

26:56

it's interesting to hear them talk

26:59

about Colton McKibbits because inside the

27:01

building, people have a very

27:03

high opinion of him as a player

27:05

and as, you know,

27:07

a teammate, a leader in all

27:10

that. So that's why the 49ers

27:12

decided to sign Colton McKibbits to

27:15

a contract extension right before the start of free

27:17

agency. The offensive line is such

27:19

a thankless job. Offensive line and cornerback,

27:21

I think are the, are the players

27:23

that are scrutinized the most because they're

27:26

only looked at and their name is

27:28

only called when something bad happened. Mostly.

27:30

Yeah. I mean, at least cornerbacks have

27:32

the opposite, the ability to get an

27:34

interception. True. Yeah. But anytime an

27:36

offensive lineman's name is called, it's

27:38

because of something bad. So you

27:40

might hear an offensive lineman's name

27:43

called twice, but the 70

27:45

other plays, 65 other plays that

27:47

they might've had on the offense, they played and did what they

27:49

were supposed to do. So it's just,

27:51

it's a thankless job. Speaking of

27:54

cornerbacks, nice transition.

27:58

Really, when you look at it and I pose this. question

28:00

to Shanahan on Tuesday. When

28:03

you look at the prayers roster, the only

28:05

spot where you really look at it and

28:07

you go, boy, they don't have anybody there

28:09

is Nickelback. Right. What was

28:11

the challenge for them last season? Yes.

28:13

However, who was their

28:16

best Nickelback? It was Yarmulonore. But

28:19

whenever the 49ers moved

28:22

Lenore inside to Nickel, they

28:24

were extremely vulnerable on the

28:26

outside because Ambrie Thomas really

28:29

struggled down the stretch. He was the guy

28:31

that people picked on. The thing that John

28:34

Lynch talked about on Monday,

28:38

Isaac Yatum, the free

28:40

agent pickup from the Saints who had his

28:42

kind of breakout season, kind of a shift

28:44

in mindset that John Lynch said he could

28:46

relate to, kind of overthinking things early in

28:49

his career. And then just saying, I'm confident

28:51

enough. Let's just go play football. Let's go

28:53

kick some butt. So this

28:57

is something that I hadn't even thought

28:59

about, but it's possible that

29:01

in Nickel situations, I

29:03

mean, Lenore and

29:06

Terry various Ward are no questions asked

29:08

the 49ers starting quarterbacks. But

29:11

Lenore showed the ability to move inside.

29:13

And now that they have a guy

29:16

like Isaac Yatum, maybe

29:18

that gives the 49ers that ability to fill

29:20

that spot and have their Nickel defense set

29:23

up. I still think they're going to take

29:25

a Nickelback or a guy who's capable of

29:27

playing Nickelback in this draft, but they

29:30

really do have that. It gives them

29:32

some options. Yeah. Yarmulonore and

29:34

what is season? And I think what you

29:37

said about cornerbacks having confidence, that's what kind

29:39

of pushed Yarmulonore over the top because he

29:41

spoke to Richard Sherman and Richard Sherman says,

29:43

Hey, you just got to like move on

29:45

from that, like have confidence. You know, you

29:48

can go out there and do it. And

29:51

really having that pep talk,

29:53

that conversation with Richard Sherman

29:56

took Yarmulonore to the next level.

29:58

Yeah. And you've seen it with him. on the field,

30:00

he is, he's not losing that starting

30:02

position. Not even close.

30:04

He's playing really well opposite Trevor's

30:06

ward and, you know,

30:09

showing that he can also play nickel

30:11

where they have to really

30:13

analyze what the offense

30:15

is going to throw at them, how they're set

30:17

up the formations, the gap schemes, all

30:20

of those things. That's a really big transition for

30:22

an outside corner to go and play nickel. And

30:24

it takes, I remember K1 Williams,

30:26

who was so good at it, said, it

30:28

takes years. It's not something that

30:31

happens overnight. You know, our colleague, Dante, Whitner

30:33

said, Hey, it's, it takes

30:35

a lot of time to get the maturity and

30:37

the knowledge, the football knowledge, really, to, to be

30:39

able to analyze in a split second

30:42

what the offense is going to throw at you. Another

30:46

position kind of a note is safety

30:48

and it sure sounds like the 49ers

30:50

are happy with their safety situation. They

30:52

have been, you know, they looked at

30:54

Julian Blackman last week, a free agent

30:56

from the Colts, but when

30:59

Kyle Shaney had talked about

31:01

Blackman and just the entire safety

31:03

class out there that remains unsigned,

31:05

it's not, Hey, you're, we

31:07

think of you as coming in for being a

31:09

starter. It's not that at all. It's Hey, we're

31:11

thinking about you coming in and competing for a

31:13

role on this team because they

31:16

have a very high fan.

31:18

Talano Haffunga, who is coming back from his

31:21

ACL injury. And then they really liked Jair

31:23

Brown. I mean, Jair Brown was a guy

31:25

that they really liked through the draft. And I think he

31:27

played really well. And he got better. He

31:30

had a couple of rough games, but I think for

31:32

any player that's a rookie, they're going to go through

31:34

that growing process. Yeah. And you do need

31:36

those young guys to step up. Yes. That's

31:39

just the salary implications. You need that constant

31:41

churn of young guys

31:43

on relatively low fixed

31:45

salaries along with, you

31:47

know, all the guys at the 49ers have paid a lot of

31:50

money too. And including the guys at

31:52

49ers plan on paying a lot of money to

31:54

Brandon and I and Brock,

31:56

you know, the only bad thing I can say

31:58

about Jair Brown. That

32:01

interception really hurt his defensive

32:03

backs coach. How

32:05

about that? Yeah. So one of

32:07

the craziest things that we learned on

32:09

this trip to Orlando was

32:12

that Dre Greenlaw was not

32:14

the only one to sustain

32:16

a non-contact torn ACL, I'm

32:18

sorry, torn Achilles, torn

32:21

Achilles during the Super Bowl. The

32:23

defensive backs coach, Daniel Bullocks, probably

32:27

about almost a quarter of the game after,

32:29

I think it was early in the second

32:31

half after Dre Greenlaw

32:34

sustained his torn

32:36

Achilles, gosh, torn

32:38

Achilles late, early in the second

32:40

quarter. Bullocks tore

32:43

his Achilles late, early

32:45

in the third quarter when

32:47

he jumped up after Jair

32:49

Brown intercepted Patrick Mahomes.

32:52

Wildly horrendous luck

32:54

for the 49ers. And

32:57

funny, but not funny, but Kyle Shanahan didn't

32:59

even know that it happened during the game.

33:02

Daniel Bullock stayed out there, was in the

33:04

locker room, apparently didn't say anything to Kyle

33:06

Shanahan, but everybody else on the team knew

33:08

that he had torn his Achilles. And

33:11

Kyle Shanahan, after

33:13

the game, was talking to Mandy, his wife,

33:15

who said, do you know that Daniel Bullocks

33:17

tore his Achilles? He's like, no, it's Dre Greenlaw.

33:19

And apparently they got into a huge fight

33:21

about it. And then the next day they

33:23

got on the bus in Vegas to get

33:25

on the plane and Daniel Bullocks walks

33:27

onto the bus with a boot and

33:29

Mandy says, told you. So yeah, too. Don't

33:33

flip Mandy. No, don't mess with her.

33:35

She knows her injury stuff. She

33:37

does. Kyle always like just,

33:39

he doesn't like to get into the injury stuff

33:41

with us. He professes

33:43

to know nothing. I know nothing. All I know

33:45

is they told me it was a foot. Yeah.

33:48

So yeah, maybe we should go

33:50

to Mandy for injury updates. Yeah, she

33:52

could do a press conference once a week.

33:56

Let's sign up for that. Okay.

33:58

Well, that is it. it

34:00

from the NFL annual meeting

34:02

in Orlando, you know,

34:06

the sights and sounds, anything that kind of

34:08

stands out to you about what

34:10

you saw here in Orlando. I will say

34:12

this, it's a

34:15

lot different, a heck of

34:17

a lot different being at NFL functions

34:20

and not seeing, you know, Bill

34:22

Belichick and Pete Carroll, some

34:24

of the older elder

34:27

statesmen of the NFL. And

34:29

I look around that room now of

34:32

coaches and it's a bunch

34:34

of very young,

34:36

youngish coaches. It's

34:38

a new generation of NFL.

34:41

One thing, yeah, one thing

34:44

that I asked Jed York

34:46

about and we kind of talked about it off

34:48

the record during the party. And then again,

34:51

when he spoke to us is the

34:53

way that Kyle Shanahan and John

34:56

Lynch's tree has grown through the

34:58

league. And

35:00

now you see GMs, you see

35:03

coaches that have all come from

35:05

the 49ers. And

35:09

I think along with being more mature about

35:11

approaching the game, Jed

35:13

York understands that how

35:15

he's kind of helping the

35:17

league evolve is by getting his

35:20

people, people from his organization out

35:22

and having them be leaders because

35:24

they have the same vision. We

35:27

always talk about how Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch

35:29

are as honest as they can be with us.

35:31

They obviously have to keep some

35:34

things behind the curtain, but as much as they

35:36

can, they're as honest as they can be. And

35:38

a lot of other beat writers tell us how lucky

35:40

we are that we get to deal with them. And

35:42

it's true. And that mentality

35:45

is being kind of spread throughout the

35:47

league through the guys that have

35:49

come from the Bay Area. All right.

35:51

Well, that's a wrap

35:53

from Orlando. And for

35:56

Jennifer, I'm Matt. That's the third time.

36:00

introduced us. You forgot. Yeah.

36:02

In case you forgot, just

36:04

that's a reminder to leave a rating and

36:06

a review. Wherever you get

36:09

your podcasts, we are trying to

36:11

grow this 49ers talk community. And

36:13

we've gone about a week without a podcast and then

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we do three in a row. Yeah. Or do we

36:17

do two in a row? No, we do two in

36:19

a row. Two, whatever. Again, again,

36:22

math is tough. Math is not easy

36:24

people, not easy at all. Please

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drop us a review and also reach out

36:28

to us on social media, things that you'd

36:31

like us to discuss going up. Yeah,

36:34

you know, the draft, the draft

36:36

is probably coming up. Right. Let's

36:38

let's our next podcast. Let's let's

36:42

tune in or let's

36:44

get the contributions of somebody who knows a

36:46

lot about the draft to kind of give

36:48

us a 49ers flavor of what to look

36:50

for. Should we do that? Yeah, let's do

36:52

that. Let's do that. That'll be on the

36:54

next episode of 49ers talk. In the meantime,

36:56

thanks for tuning in and we will see

36:58

you or you will hear us next time.

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Some people just know bundling with all street

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means big savings. Just like they know

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the right ingredient means big flavor. They

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doing.