Bootleg FootballSource
Bootleg Football artwork
PodcastFrom Bootleg Football

The Australian mind cannot comprehend the San Francisco 49ers

STACKED extracted the fantasy-relevant player signal from this podcast and kept the full transcript here for context.

1 hr 10 min
Duration
Estimated from transcript
Sep 7, 2026
Published
Mon, September 7, 2026
12
Player insights
7
Players mentioned
Topics
Brock PurdyMike EvansRicky PearsallChristian McCaffreyDeebo SamuelJacob CowingJake Tonges
Player analysis

Player insights

12

Brock Purdy

PositiveProjection1:33

Purdy was highly efficient in the second half of the season; from Week 11 onwards, the 49ers' scoring drive percentage reached a historic 55%, with Purdy's play being a primary driver of the team's elite passing EPA.

Insight page
PositiveProjection23:26

The source notes that the 49ers' offensive line played better last year than at any point in the Brock Purdy era, providing a unit that the team could win behind, which was a significant improvement over the previous two to three seasons.

Insight page
PositiveValue43:57

The source describes Purdy as a franchise quarterback found in the seventh round. While the source emphasizes the team got incredibly lucky to find him, he remains the core of the team's success.

Insight page

Christian McCaffrey

PositiveUsage0:21

McCaffrey remained a focal point of the 49ers' offense, contributing both on the ground and through the air, including a notable performance with a rushing and receiving touchdown.

Insight page

Deebo Samuel

NegativeProjection41:28

The source is skeptical about Deebo Samuel's potential for a renaissance at age 30, giving it no more than a 40% chance of success, noting he did not look like his former self with the Commanders.

Insight page

Jacob Cowing

NegativeRole47:17

Cowing is viewed as a useful special teamer and wide receiver. The source notes he was a fourth-round pick, which they felt was slightly rich, but he is contributing a little bit.

Insight page

Jake Tonges

PositiveValue39:36

The source considers the $4 million contract for tight end Jake Tongas to be a good deal given his versatility in both blocking and pass-catching roles.

Insight page

Mike Evans

NegativeProjection40:34

Mike Evans joined the 49ers on a $14 million deal. The source notes he was presumably brought in to be the wide receiver one, but his fantasy outlook depends on his health.

Insight page
PositiveRole69:05

The source describes Mike Evans as a 'dream fit' in Kyle Shanahan's offense, specifically as a 'dig merchant' and a deep threat who forces defenses to respect the boundary.

Insight page
NegativeProjection70:16

The source expects Mike Evans to produce less than he did with Baker Mayfield because Brock Purdy is a different type of quarterback.

Insight page

Ricky Pearsall

PositiveProjection44:11

The source notes that Pearsall is good in theory when on the field, though he has dealt with injuries and a shooting incident since joining the 49ers. He is considered a potential top-half-of-position-group player, and the source views the 2024 draft class as solid largely due to his potential.

Insight page
PositiveRole69:26

The source views Ricky Pearsall as a 'mid-level assassin' with speed that must be respected, projecting him to excel in intermediate routes like the backside dig or flood concepts, similar to how Pierre Garçon functioned in Shanahan's offense.

Insight page
Full transcript

Episode Transcript

789
0:00Things have been weird in San Francisco for a long time.
0:04It's their vibe, and they like it that way.
0:06Honestly, it's helped create a ton of great music, art, and some really good football too.
0:12Things got weird on the field last season for San Francisco.
0:15They lost a ton of top talent to injury, and they still made magic to rack up 12 wins.
0:21Third and goal, McCaffrey. Touchdown! Another one! One on the ground and one through the air.
0:272026 feels like it could be the last chance to keep a lot of this band together for one more big show.
0:34So surely things were peaceful this offseason as the Niners locked in for that elusive run at the title.
0:40Right? Right? It's day 30 of the Bootleg Summer Series, and we're just going to try and get through this one without pulling both hamstrings.
0:48Welcome to the Bootleg Football Podcast. I'm Brett Coleman.
0:51That's EJ Snyder. It's been a very eventful summer in the Bay Area.
0:55EJ, are you ready to talk about literally anything else than what's going on there?
1:00Lots of things besides all the things. Yes, you know, if you're a follower of Bootleg, you know that the Summer Series
1:07is talking about the things the team largely has done on the field to address the things that didn't go well last
1:14year that kept them from being, you know, a finalist for the big trophy.
1:19And those are the things we're going to focus on.
1:22Everybody else is focusing on lots of other things.
1:25We acknowledge that those things exist and that they can be a distraction to a team.
1:30But come the middle of October, this team is going to be lining up on the football field with the guys they
1:37have healthy, trying to win games, trying to win a very competitive division.
1:41That's what we're going to focus on today. I would say they're going to have a bigger problem if we get to
1:48October and they're still 29th in pressure rate compared to the problems that seemingly exist right now.
1:54So if I was them, that's what I would try to fix because this team did have real problems, like really, really significant problems.
2:02And we will get into those. But I think we should also take some time to celebrate the fact that despite some
2:09real, like substantial flaws with this team, still managed to win 12 games, still managed to be a very productive offense, despite
2:16having two quarterbacks taking significant snaps throughout the year.
2:19You know, you get banged up at receiver. Kittle goes out.
2:22You know, you're down to what LB five and LB six by the end of the year.
2:28You know, most of your defensive line gets injured, still winning 12 games with all that is like that deserves to be
2:35celebrated right off the top because I don't know how many staffs in the NFL could have pulled that off.
2:41My answer would be zero. And I know that's going to piss off a lot of people in the division that think we give Kyle too much credit.
2:51I'm going to give him all his flowers for 2025 overall rank in the division 12 and five.
2:56Same as the Rams. Now, if you are a longtime bootleg listener, you know how we speak about McVay and the Rams from last season.
3:04One of the probably two most powerful teams in the NFL.
3:08When I look at the Niners and what happened to them last year in my head before going back to the record
3:15books, I was like, that's a nine win team, 10 win team.
3:19Great job by the staff. Shouldn't have even been in double digits.
3:23They won. They won 12 games. They won 12 games.
3:26The same as the Rams. What are we doing here with the number of games missed due to injury, which was among
3:33the highest in the league last year? Yes, they come in third in the division, but they came in third to the
3:40Super Bowl champion and the team that probably would have been the Super Bowl champion.
3:45Had they beat the Seahawks? That's I'm not going to say it's fine.
3:49They don't think it's fine. They've been working to write that since it happened.
3:54But 12 and 5 with what went on in the Bay Area midseason on this podcast, you and I, after Fred Warner went down, said, well, that's nice.
4:03It's over. They're done. Like, whatever. And then a funny thing happened over the next month.
4:08It wasn't over. And Robert Sala coached his ass off and made all these backup linebackers perform in the aggregate almost the
4:15same, which is a banana statement, just to say.
4:18So home record of 5-3. They were absolute road warriors.
4:217-2 on the road. They were strong down the stretch.
4:25The strongest, actually, in their division at 4-1. Incredible coaching job.
4:2812 wins is wild for the 2025 49ers. Now, I will say some slight caveats here.
4:33Nine of those wins were the Saints, the Falcons, the Cardinals twice, the Giants, the Panthers, the Browns, the Titans, and the
4:41late season Colts after Daniel Jones and Sauce got injured.
4:44So, nine wins against pretty bad competition, if we're being honest.
4:47But you can only play who's on your schedule, and I think it is a credit to them that they did take care of business against inferior opponents.
4:56And when you add in that they also had a couple, like, to me, season-defining wins, maybe even three season-defining wins if
5:04you count the Bears game, even though the defense was awful in that game.
5:08But, hey, still won it. But if you count the Bears game, then the two early season wins over Seattle when everybody was healthy.
5:16That was week one. So, everybody was healthy, beat the eventual Super Bowl champions, showed what they could do.
5:22And then probably about a month later, that was when they beat the Rams.
5:27Now, Bosa was injured in that one, but they had everybody else.
5:30So, when this team had all of their guys, they were still in the weight class of what most people consider to
5:38be the two best teams, which is Seattle and L.A.
5:41And they beat both of them. So, you know, with this team coming back healthy this year, ish.
5:47Ish. Being loose with the definition of healthy here, but it's better than it was in November.
5:52I'll say that. You know, I think it's fair to put this team in that tier because when they have all their guys, they're extraordinarily hard to beat.
6:01And even when they don't have all their guys, they're still beating all of the average to below average teams in the league.
6:09Yeah, they didn't get to make the schedule. They also didn't get to lay out who they were going to have on the field to beat those folks.
6:18Again, you played with a backup quarterback for a bunch of the season.
6:22Most teams, if you go to the backup quarterback, you're thinking 30% to 40% wins would be great.
6:28They exceeded that. And so, given the circumstances that they dealt with, again, they don't choose their schedule or their injuries.
6:34They played them as they got them, and they won way more than they lost.
6:39Tremendous job. We'll talk about how they did that with the bootleg power score.
6:44For that, we used six numbers. Passing, efficiency, using EPA per play.
6:48Rushing, same thing. Defense against the pass and the rush.
6:51Points scored and points allowed. We assign their league rank.
6:54Add them up. Divide by six. That gives us a raw score.
6:58We stack all the raw scores, and that puts them in the realm of their peers.
7:03How powerful were they compared to other teams? 49ers is interesting.
7:07Passing EPA per play. Sixth elite. Almost a top five passing offense in the NFL.
7:12Solidly within the top ten, even with a ton of backup quarterback play.
7:16Rushing EPA per play. Tied for 21st. I'll just skip to the points differential at the end.
7:21They were plus 66. Plus 66 was the ninth best point differential in the NFL.
7:26It proves what you can do with an elite passing game.
7:30Sixth and an average 21st rushing game. Passing is still the thing that's going to get you explosives for the most part in the NFL.
7:38And still the thing that's going to put points on the board.
7:42Niners put points on the board, and it was largely due to that passing attack.
7:47Passing EPA per play allowed in terms of defense was not great.
7:51Again, you're going to talk about pass rush quite a bit.
7:54They were 25th. Rushing EPA per play allowed. Tied for 20th.
7:58With some of the injuries you suffered, you could see that.
8:01And you could also figure that they would have been a few, maybe three to four spots higher had that not happened.
8:08And a middle-of-the-pack rushing defense is fine in this particular category.
8:12Points scored. They scored 437 points. That was good for 10th.
8:15Points allowed. They allowed 371. That was good enough for 13th.
8:19So very good scoring team. Very good scoring defense.
8:22Again, points differential plus 66. If you add up those numbers, 6, 21, 25, 20, 10, and 13, divide by 6, you get a raw score of 15.83.
8:31That puts them 17th overall. So I would say, based on that, just like we said at the top of the episode,
8:38San Francisco outplayed the strength of their team. They were better than the sum of their parts.
8:44The 12-5 team is not middle of the road in the NFL.
8:47So their record was better than their power score suggests.
8:51This is another one of the teams, and we've had a few of these this offseason, where the total points scored and allowed.
8:58We probably should replace it with points per drive, because those numbers were both deflated and inflated at the same time, offensively and defensively.
9:06In terms of points allowed, they were not the 13th best defense in the NFL in terms of keeping people out of
9:13the paint, but they were excellent at just limiting possessions.
9:16And if you're looking at scoring offense, they were not the 10th best team in terms of scoring.
9:22They were actually much higher than that. If you're looking at scoring drive percentage, so the percentage of their possessions that they
9:29are scoring, they were third best across the NFL for the entire year.
9:33And when Purdy got back in week 11, like week 11 on, they were number one, like by a lot.
9:40They were 55%, which is absurd. The only other team that beat that for any sort of similar stretch of time was
9:47the early season Colts in the first eight weeks of the season, where they were at 61%, which again was historic.
9:54Like the best I had ever seen over that large of a sample size.
9:58And the Niners in the back half of the year were like competitive with that.
10:03That is how good Brock Purdy in this passing game was in the back half.
10:08It's a big reason why their EPA per play ended up at six.
10:12It's just because of that, what, eight, eight ish game stretch.
10:16So I think using efficiency per drive is probably a better representation of what this team was.
10:21And I look at it as a much better executed version of what the Packers and the Panthers were going for.
10:28If you've listened to this entire series, when we talked about the Packers, we talked about how they intentionally limited possessions for
10:35each team because they were going to try to win on efficiency per possession rather than like raw totals.
10:41And if you listen to the Panthers, it was a similar kind of thing where they tried to limit possessions because they
10:48didn't think they could compete like blow for blow.
10:51And so they tried to shrink the game, generate a turnover, give themselves one extra bite at the apple and try to win on the margins there.
11:00You know, the Panthers ended up with eight wins.
11:03I think the Packers ended up with nine, maybe 10, largely because they fell apart once Micah got injured.
11:09Whereas the Niners executed this to perfection and ended up with 12 because they were a better offense efficiency wise than both
11:16the Panthers and the Packers like significantly better. And their defense wasn't actually good at pretty much anything.
11:22Quite frankly, their defensive line was so banged up and the linebackers were so banged up that they weren't like great.
11:29But what they could do was just die slow.
11:32Right. That was the model for this team. Die slow, kill fast.
11:36If you do that enough, you're probably going to win.
11:39And they won. And so if you're looking at like plays per defensive drive, they were very high in that.
11:45Again, six and a half plays per defensive drive tied right there with the Panthers.
11:50They were 17th in terms of points per play allowed.
11:54So they were just average enough with just enough plays where if they can force you into getting a couple threes and
12:01Brock Purdy's getting a sevens, you're probably going to run out of time before you get an opportunity to make up that gap.
12:08That was literally just how they won the game.
12:11Trade threes for sevens and just wait for the clock to run out.
12:15And they they were really, really exceptional at that as a team.
12:19I think the coaches understood that motto. And, you know, I think there was a ceiling to that.
12:25Right. You run into the true juggernauts in the playoffs like eventually you're going to get out talented.
12:31But for everybody short of the elite tier of team, that's a really hard style to contend with, especially with Brock Purdy playing the way that he was.
12:40One quick break, then we'll get right back to it.
12:43I promise. Today's show is brought to you by our friends over at Ridge.
12:48I've got my Ridge wallet right here on camera.
12:50If you're watching the video version of the show, it's a lot sleeker and smaller than I'm used to having.
12:57You know, for many years, I've carried around a giant leather monstrosity that has all of my cards and cash and loose
13:04change gift cards, basically everything that I own all in one place.
13:08And this is a lot more freeing. After all, you don't have to carry everything all the time, as I've come to find out.
13:16Now, Ridge doesn't just have wallets, though. If you're shopping either for yourself or for a loved one, they make rings and wedding bands.
13:23They make power banks, phone cases, watch straps, even weatherproof, impact-resistant luggage, if that's what you need.
13:29The whole catalog is massive. But even if you're just looking for a simple wallet at the end of the day, they've got 50 different colors.
13:37They've done collaborations with every NFL team, every MLB team, even your favorite college team.
13:42There's just so much there. So if literally any of that interests you at all, go check out their entire catalog over at Ridge.com slash bootleg.
13:51Again, that is R-I-D-G-E dot com slash bootleg. Thank you once again to Ridge for sponsoring today's show.
13:56And with that, let's get back to it. We talk about bend but don't break.
14:01And this defense was bend, bend, bend, bend. Just take as long as you possibly can to bend.
14:07And if we give you three at the end of it, we'll take that because the likelihood is we're going to get
14:14at least three, but we might get seven. So we're not falling behind.
14:18We're going to pull even at worst and at best.
14:22Once we get Brock back, we're probably going to double you up and then we're going to do it again.
14:28And then we're going to do it again. And then we're going to do it again.
14:33So if you have 12 and 13 play drives and you end up getting a field goal out of that, we did our job.
14:41We've won. And yeah, then you run into the superpowers where they can have a five play drive and get seven and
14:48you have to go back and try and match.
14:51And you might run out of gas. The 49ers did.
14:54But throughout most of the regular season, even after big injuries on the defense, we talk about Warner, we talk about Bosa.
15:02These are stars. The defense was still able to hold that line defensively and just bend, bend, bend, bend, bend, and maybe give up three.
15:10Sometimes give up zero force upon. But again, if they gave up three, they could be very secure going back to the sideline that they did their job.
15:19And the offense was going to play complimentary football, support them, and even maybe give them more margin to work with the next time.
15:26They just had that umbrella built over the top that was so hard to crack, right?
15:3282% zone rate is just short of Houston in terms of zone rate.
15:36And Houston played a shit ton of zone. Remember, the leader in terms of zone coverage percentage across the NFL was the Chargers last year at 90.
15:45So they weren't that far off the league leader in terms of zone coverage percentage.
15:49And the vast majority of that was just starting out in two high and then rotating down to cover three.
15:56They played the second most snaps in the NFL, starting out in a two high look and then rotating down into one high.
16:03Predominantly cover three. They were second in terms of cover three usage in the NFL.
16:08And they just did it over and over and over again.
16:12You didn't know if it was going to be three weak or three strong.
16:16So they would keep you guessing on which way it was rotating.
16:20But other than that, you kind of knew what they were going to do.
16:25And their only goal was just don't bust the coverage, right?
16:28Don't give up an explosive if we can afford not to give up an explosive rally tackle.
16:34You know, if they take seven minutes to score on us, that's fine.
16:38Like they were OK with that. But they were just going to play simple structures and play them well with a bunch
16:45of backups and just kind of nickel and dime you to death.
16:49And it was it was a phenomenal game plan.
16:52It was a big reason why Robert Sala got hired for his his second head coaching stint this offseason is because very
16:59few DCs, I think, would have had the discipline to do what he did with that many backups and have it be effective.
17:06Yeah, it's I think an honest admission. And that's what you want from coaches in the best possible case is what are we really?
17:14What can we do? And you hear us say it over and over again.
17:19If you can't play man, don't play man. If you know, if you're not getting anything from Blitzen, you should come up
17:26with another way to get that pressure. And it is a very narrow line to walk.
17:31You can fall off either side of that really quickly.
17:34And he held his guys together. Big credit to him and said, we can play this style with what we have.
17:41And that's a very honest assessment of talent, where you are as a team, how ready you are, you know, your schedule, everything else.
17:49And the best coaches are able to do that.
17:52It was a tremendous job by him. And I agree with you that without that, he probably doesn't get over the top
17:59in this coaching cycle to get his second head coaching gig.
18:02But because of it, everybody, I think, around the league looked at that job and said, whew, that's okay.
18:09Not a lot of coaches could have pulled that off.
18:12Nice job. Especially with how bad that defensive line was.
18:15And I get it. They lost Bosa in week two.
18:18And even you and I this time last year, when we were talking about the defensive line they assembled, which we liked
18:25a lot on paper, it was very much, okay, they drafted, you know, Mikel, great run stopper.
18:31Alfred Collins, great run stopper. CJ West, great run stopper.
18:34Their pass rusher is Nick Bosa. If they were going to get pass rush from anything, it was going to be Nick Bosa.
18:42And then Nick Bosa got hurt like September 21st.
18:44A lot of football being played after September 21st.
18:47So they really had no pass rush to speak of after Bosa got injured.
18:52That's why they were 29th in pressure rate. They didn't really blitz a lot because they're like, well, that's probably not going
18:59to solve our problems because our whole thing is like not leaving space on the back end.
19:05So we're just going to kind of accept that that we're not going to get pressure and we're going to try to
19:12force a throw underneath and rally and tackle. But we're not going to give you a bunch of space to work with and allow yards after catch.
19:20It was really their only option defensively was just to kind of eat it.
19:25Unfortunately, I do want to bring this up. You and I were really high on Alfred Collins and CJ West.
19:31They did not play well and we didn't expect them to come out and be great pass rushers.
19:37They were abysmal pass rushers. And the surprising part about it, they weren't much better against the run.
19:43I don't really know what happened there because if you watched Alfred Collins at Texas, like very few defensive tackles, really very
19:50few defensive players in his class had that kind of highlight tape against the run.
19:55And yet he was getting blown off the ball as a rookie.
19:59CJ West, same thing. He was like the anchor of a really tough Indiana defense, got to the NFL, was getting blown off the ball.
20:07And I understand Collins. It's unfair to judge him so far this offseason because he's coming off a shoulder surgery.
20:13But even when they were healthy during the year last year, they just didn't play well.
20:19And I had hoped that they could get something out of all the investments they've made on the defensive line.
20:25They got basically nothing. And that was a big reason why they traded for Osa in the first place is because they
20:32saw what the two young guys did last year.
20:35And like, we can't go through that again. We barely survived it in 2025.
20:40We're not going to survive it in 2026. I really hope they step it up this year because those two guys were not what we saw in college.
20:49Very far from it. No. No. And it's, we talk about the concept all the time on this show that progression is not linear.
20:57And we had hoped that they would both continue to take positive steps from the tape that they had in college that we really liked.
21:05Progress was not linear. Alfred Collins, and I've had this discussion with other folks that watch defensive line around the NFL.
21:11You know, I was talking with John Leder and John Oning about this.
21:16And I was like, man, Alfred Collins is a hard watch.
21:19And he was one of my five defensive gems, I'm pretty sure.
21:23And I was betting on progression. And he not only didn't progress, he didn't even hold neutral.
21:29He regressed. And there have been some reps early this year that haven't looked really good either.
21:34So, again, he's getting healthy. Neat. But, yeah, you need them to step up.
21:39And, unfortunately, the whole thing kind of reminds me of Kansas City.
21:42Right? It's not that we haven't invested. We keep getting guys on the defensive line.
21:47But it's been Chris Jones against the world for, oh, a long time now.
21:52Because most of those guys haven't panned out. And it's the same with San Francisco.
21:57With Bosa against the world. But Bosa got hurt.
22:00You can imagine if Chris Jones got hurt in September and didn't play the rest of the year.
22:05What the Chiefs' defensive line would look like. And that's kind of what San Francisco's defensive line looked like.
22:12Was a bunch of guys, young guys, that we hoped would take steps.
22:16That didn't, not only did they not take steps as pass rushers, they regressed as run defenders.
22:21And at that point, what do you do? Like, you don't have five other guys to rotate in like you do in college.
22:29You've got a 53-man roster. These guys you've invested in, and really none of them played well.
22:34You hope that at least one of them can kind of hold the line.
22:39And that was not the case for San Francisco.
22:42There's just been a long string of defensive tackles brought into this franchise.
22:46Whether through trade, free agency, draft. Like, they've been trying to replace DeForest Buckner for how many years at this point?
22:53They haven't been able to do it. And I think the Osa trade, not waving the white flag, but just acknowledging of like, we got to get something.
23:02We just have to get something. We'll throw 20 million at him, try to fix the problem.
23:07But it's been the ghost of this, that this franchise has been running from for a long time is replacing Buckner.
23:14Hell, they thought they did it with Ken Law.
23:17Didn't work out. Yep. You know, is what it is.
23:20Weirdly though, not even weirdly, interestingly, I do want to give praise to the Niners offensive line, which played better last year
23:27than they have, I would say, in the entire Brock Purdy era.
23:31Yeah, two or three years before that. Yeah. McKivitt's had a career year.
23:35Pune looked good. Like, they would both, when they gave up pressure, they gave up pressure quickly.
23:41But the rate of them giving up quick pressures was not as high as what we had seen in the past.
23:48It was more so, okay, like, a couple times a game they would get got, but it wasn't every third drive, you
23:55know, when McKivitt's pressure is like ruining it. Right?
23:58He was more consistent. Pune was more consistent. The entire offensive line, they were 10th best in pressure rate allowed, which, when's
24:05the last time the Niners offensive line was a top 10 pass blocking unit?
24:09It's been a while, right? But even more interestingly, because I know people will be like, well, yeah, Mack Jones threw the ball in like 0.7 seconds.
24:18Like, of course, their pressure rate's going to be good.
24:21If you look at just throws between two and a half to three and a half seconds, they were fifth best in the NFL.
24:29They actually went up. So, really good pass blocking line.
24:32They got it done on the ground as well.
24:35It was some tough sledding there, but they got it done on the ground.
24:40Like, I don't know if this offense would have been able to function as well as it did in the absence of
24:47Brock Purdy without the offensive line playing as well as it did.
24:51And I haven't really seen them get credit for that.
24:54Even I, myself, am guilty of not giving them credit for that in a moment.
24:59But looking back with how many really bad offensive lines we've talked about this summer, and then you look at the Niners offensive line, you're like, well, shit.
25:08That was pretty good. Yeah. All things considered. Comparatively, it absolutely was a line that you can play behind and a line, obviously, that you can win behind.
25:17And that really kind of hasn't been the case for two to three years.
25:22High-profile failures, especially along the inside. We've criticized those pretty loudly.
25:25And we need to shout out the success just as loudly as we criticize the failure because it has been a detriment to their offense.
25:33It's been something holding them back, something that they needed to work around.
25:37And this last season, it was something they could work with, something they could win with.
25:43So, we need to sort of correct that imbalance.
25:45And the offensive line is only as strong as the weakest link, right?
25:50The weakest part. And they've had some very weak parts, and it's really caused some nasty collapses.
25:55And last year, that unit was not the reason that they were struggling.
25:59If they struggled, it was a reason that they were succeeding more often than not.
26:04And that's impressive. It's impressive work from the players to step up.
26:08It's impressive working from the coaches to find the right five and put them in there.
26:13And, honestly, offensive line just has a lot to do with toughness.
26:17You've got to be in there. Everybody plays hurt.
26:20And they held the line last year, and that was a big deal for San Francisco because it hadn't been the case
26:27for two or three seasons before that. Yeah. The real issue was our receivers are banged up, so we're just relying on Juwan Jennings to absolutely carry us.
26:36And then Kittle got banged up, and CMC was doing what he could.
26:41He could, you know, Yeomans were there. Everything he could.
26:44Everything he could. You know, Mac Jones, like, they didn't just have one quarterback injury.
26:49They had two quarterbacks injury. Remember that Mack Jones, I think it was a Thursday game, where, I mean, talk about toughness.
26:56He gutted it out. He was damn near on one leg, one shoulder, just getting the shit beat out of him.
27:03Eternal respect to Mack Jones for playing through that, knowing that he had to because you couldn't turn to Purdy in that moment.
27:10Purdy was hurt as well. So I just really what an incredible season by this Niners team with all of these obstacles.
27:17Yeah, they didn't end up going as far as they wanted to, but they went probably further than most people thought was ever possible.
27:25Hi, Alternate Timeline Brett here. Before we get to all the 2026 stuff, if you've liked a lot of the data that
27:32we brought up so far, we have companion infographics for every single team, including the one we're talking about today.
27:38With over 15,000 total data points that we have collected throughout this summer, each team gets its own companion infographic, which is roughly about 20 pages long.
27:47It has all the data on this team you can think of, whether it's alignment data, personnel data, cap allocation, coverage data
27:54broken out by down and distance, blitz data. I mean, basically anything you can think of, we've got it.
28:00So if you want access to that, you can find that down at the link in the description below or at the QR code on the screen.
28:09Reminder, we also have bonus episodes that go live every single Friday over on Patreon, recapping every single division.
28:15We're going to pick division winners, MVPs, rookies of the year, all that stuff.
28:20So if you want bonus episodes, plus more data than you could probably handle, that is over on the Patreon.
28:26Thank you once again to all of our patrons that have made, honestly, this series possible to make in the first place.
28:33We could not have paid the people who help us make it without your guys' financial support.
28:39So thank you to our patrons. Thank you to all of our executive producers on Patreon.
28:44Their names are on screen right now. They have been OG supporters of us and made so much in our lives possible
28:51while we try to chase this dream. So thank you.
28:54Thank you. Thank you. And with that, let's get back to the show.
28:59All right. From here on out, we're talking 2026, which means EJ, we get to talk about Matt Eberflue is your favorite person.
29:06Oh boy. We have to again? Yes, we do because he's actually on this staff, but we'll start at the top.
29:13GM John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan have been there for a while.
29:17Um, you know, notwithstanding, let's just call them other issues.
29:21They're in control of this team. Assistant head coach and offensive line coach is Chris Forrester.
29:26A little foreshadowing. We'll come back to that later.
29:29The assistant head coach defense is one Matt Eberflue.
29:32And we got to talk about it. I don't want to talk about it.
29:36Trust me. I don't want to talk about it.
29:39But after the mail-in job he did in Dallas, which quite frankly, I warned all my folks that follow the Cowboys about.
29:46And they said, Oh, you're just, it's just sour grapes because you're a Bears fan.
29:51And I was like, Oh, I, it's not probably going to be the experience you think it's going to be.
29:58And six weeks in to a person, they all came back and went, you weren't kidding.
30:03And I was like, no, no, I was not kidding.
30:06And one of the reasons that we're very excited about the Cowboys prospects this year is because of Christian Parker and how
30:13much elevation that's going to be for their defense, just starting off with that coaching change.
30:18So when you see Matt Eberflue pop up, you know, Beetles, Beetles, Beetles, and he's on a staff and he's the assistant head coach.
30:26You're like, based on what exactly? Everybody goes, Oh, he's a good defensive coordinator.
30:31And you're like, are you sure about that? Because the last two places he's been, that's not been the case.
30:37So not sure why he's on the staff. He is on the staff.
30:41Not sure what his job is. I I'm just going to lean into Raheem Morris being the DC and you know, his
30:48first, uh, first season in San Francisco as the DC, he was the Falcons head coach for the last couple of years where he was.
30:56So hopefully he's calling the shots because I would say anybody, but Eberflues at this point, certainly for the Niners fans in my life.
31:04I hope that's the case. The offensive coordinators, Clay Kubiak, he's been with San Francisco for five years.
31:10This is his first as OC. He was an offensive pass game specialist in 24.
31:15He was an assistant QB coach in 22 and 23.
31:18And just because I knew you'd ask, I literally put this note in.
31:22Cause you're like, what did he do for the other year?
31:26He was a defensive quality control coach in 21 when he started with San Francisco, but has been with the organization and
31:33now gets elevated to call the offense. His special teams coordinator is Brant Boyer 14th season as an NFL coach first as
31:40a special teams coordinator for the Niners. He was the jets special teams coordinator for the last nine seasons.
31:46So one of the rare teams where all three coordinators, offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator and special teams coordinator are new with the organization.
31:54That's not fairly typical unless there's been a whole scale change.
31:57And even then sometimes a lot of those this year, especially retained one coordinator or another.
32:02So a clean slate of three new coordinators is pretty rare in the NFL.
32:07I want to touch on, on Raheem a little bit here.
32:11Cause I'm fascinated to see what carries over versus what doesn't from Salah.
32:15Cause remember they, they were not a blitz heavy team at all last year.
32:19They were 29th in blitz rate and also 29th in pressure rate.
32:23And Raheem has tended to in the past, just kind of throw bodies at the problem to get pressure.
32:29And I think there's difference between, you know, tendency and philosophy, right?
32:33Tendency can be, um, you know, like what kind of fronts do we like?
32:38What kind of, you know, covered structures are we favoring?
32:41And then there's philosophy, which is things like, you know, uh, two blitz or two not blitz.
32:46That is the question, right? Like how aggressive do we want to be?
32:51What downs and distances do we want to be aggressive?
32:54Um, how are we handling like sudden change situations?
32:57Like that, that kind of stuff, right? Like are, are we, are we a team that, that wants to go into like zero in the high red zone?
33:06Or are we not? Like that to me is philosophy, which is kind of like turning the knob up and down.
33:13And then there's tendency, which is like, how, okay, how are we executing that?
33:17And Raheem has tended to be a lot more aggressive, I would say than Robert Sala.
33:22Whereas I, I associate Robert Sala more with like discipline.
33:26Isn't the right word, but I would say the floor of a Robert Sala defense has always been higher just because it's,
33:33structurally, it always felt like they were more about eliminating explosive backbreaking plays.
33:37Whereas Raheem is more about like generating explosive backbreaking plays for the defense.
33:41I guess that's the best way to describe the difference in philosophy here.
33:45So I'm really curious to see, you know, does Raheem kind of put that, put that aggressive stamp on this defense, which wasn't necessarily aggressive last year.
33:54Or maybe they would have been if they had all their guys, but they weren't.
33:59And if he does turn that knob up a little bit, what are the impacts on, you know, the linebacking core, the
34:06secondary that maybe all of a sudden have more space that they're going to have to cover than they did last year?
34:13It's just an interesting thing that we don't know the answer for right now, but probably within four or five weeks we will.
34:21And the flip side of that coin is also fascinating.
34:24If he chooses to do that, which players on this roster are going to benefit from that?
34:29Maybe they didn't play so well in that. I will say very disciplined style of Robert Sala about making sure that gaps are maintained, space is controlled.
34:38You're at the right depth, all that. Raheem's a little bit more about send the dogs, right?
34:44And there might be players who benefit from that aggression.
34:47Maybe those defensive line players we talked about are better turning it loose and getting upfield and not having to necessarily hold
34:54two gaps and be very disciplined about that. So it's always fascinating when you see a coaching change, who that benefits and
35:01who kind of gets lost in the wash because they don't fit the new direction.
35:06In terms of assistant coaches, on the offensive side, I'm only going to highlight two names because, again, if you're moving off
35:13from the offensive coordinator, you want to know who's going to be helping out the new offensive coordinator call the game.
35:20And it's run game coordinator Joe Graves and pass game coordinator and wide receivers coach Leonard Hankerson, who, again, is a longtime 49er staffer.
35:28He's going to be in charge of the pass side, Joe the run side, and they're both going to be helping out Kubiak.
35:35The defensive staff is absolutely stacked. Defensive pass game coordinator Jerry Gray, 30-plus years of coaching experience, plus nine years as an NFL player himself.
35:43Two-time D.C. Bills and Titans. On the other side, defensive run game coordinator Johnny Holland.
35:48Stop me if you've heard this one. 30-plus years of NFL coaching experience, seven years as an NFL player himself.
35:54Just between those two guys, you're talking about 60-plus years of NFL coaching experience.
35:59And then, of course, you've got defensive line coach Chris Kosurik, seventh season as the Niners D line coach, one of our favorite position coaches in the NFL.
36:08And then we're going to open up what I'm going to call the family business section.
36:13The assistant offensive line coach. That's a nice way to rebrand nepotism.
36:17Isn't it? Isn't it? What do you do for work?
36:20Oh, it's a family business. Oh, you mean like the mafia?
36:24No, no. I'm a football coach. The assistant offensive line coach is Roman Cipullo, and that is son of 49ers great Jesse
36:31Cipullo, who played 14 years with San Francisco his entire career was as a Niner.
36:36Defensive quality control coach is Jake Lynch. Yep, that's right.
36:39Son of John Lynch. And the seasonal coaching assistant is Micah Forrester, son of assistant head coach Chris Forrester.
36:45So, yes, the family business is alive and well in San Francisco.
36:49I have a lot of questions for the family business.
36:52And I think we will get to those very soon, probably before the draft section, now that I think about it.
36:59We'll do the free agency section, then get to the draft section, because I have some bones to pick with this family business, but what do I know?
37:08Anyway, let's do free agency first, and then we'll get into that.
37:12It's kind of our yearly trauma exercise when we go through the 49ers draft history.
37:17But for now, notable losses in free agency. Bryce Huff, Cleland Farrell, Kalia Davis, Kendrick Bourne, he's now with the Cardinals to be their wide receiver three.
37:26Dee Winters is now with the Cowboys. Brian Robinson Jr.
37:29is now with the Falcons. The other B. Robinson Falcons running back.
37:33Jason Pinnock is with the Giants. Ben Bartsch is with the Lions.
37:37Sky Moore is a Packer. Spencer Burford and Darrell Luter Jr.
37:40are now with the Raiders. Jordan Elliott is a Titan.
37:44And Juwan Jennings, everybody's favorite wide receiver three, is a Minnesota Viking.
37:47$8 million a year. Love that deal for Minnesota.
37:50A lot of losses here, some of which hurt more than others.
37:54But I would say not more than three of these are ones that cut me deep.
37:59Yeah, the one I'm going to bring up is Kalia Davis, the defensive tackle, who ended up with the Browns.
38:06When I was watching 49ers film last year, he was the guy that was wrecking shop in the middle of that line.
38:13We talked about the defensive tackles that weren't getting it done.
38:17Kalia Davis, week after week, not getting a ton of recognition, doing a lot of dirty work that is not fun to do on the interior defensive line.
38:26And he was really effective taking on double teams, corkscrewing the knee down, and making sure that gaps doesn't get blown open for runs.
38:33Like, he was the guy doing that messy business that has to happen on the inside of the defense.
38:40And so I know a lot of people probably see the name and go, ah, he went to the Browns.
38:46He only played 45% of the snaps. Not that big a deal.
38:50Might be a bigger deal, especially on this defensive line than it would be on some other teams.
38:56But a good get for the Browns. Tougher loss for the 49ers out of this section.
39:01In terms of who they spent their money on to keep, obviously it's Trent Williams.
39:06That's the big one. He gets $25 million at 38 years of age because he can still get it done, folks.
39:13It's good work if you can get it, but you can't get it because you're not Trent Williams.
39:18Luke Gifford is the current starter at Sam. Now most defenses don't start a Sam linebacker.
39:24Their base is nickel. But again, he's only getting $2.5 million.
39:27And if you're getting a starter for $2.5 million, you're doing all right.
39:31Kicker Eddie Pinheiro is re-signed. Jake Tongas, third, second or third tight end.
39:36Very valuable player for this offense. He gets $4 million.
39:39He could. Yeah, they use him a lot, both in blocking and in pass catching.
39:44So I thought that was good given the tight end market.
39:47That's, I would say, probably about half of what folks of his versatility are getting.
39:52Then they also retain Edge Sam Okuano. He played 53% of their snaps.
39:56He's still sub 30. They get him for $2.3 million, which when you see the flashes from him, they are pretty high.
40:03$2.3 million. I feel it's like a little bit of a hometown discount because he knows he's used well in this defense.
40:10But he has some flashes as well. Remind me of Khalid Davis a little bit.
40:15Different position, but same thing. You turn on the film and you're like, who's that?
40:20And you look it up and it's Sam and you're like, okay.
40:24So made a lot of sense to see him retained.
40:27And then as for outside additions, where they spent their money outside the building, you had the Osa trade bringing him in.
40:34He's getting $20 million a year. Mike Evans. So, first of all, shout out to Bucs fans.
40:40They corrected us in the comments on that one.
40:43I thought that the Niners outbid Tampa for Mike Evans.
40:46Apparently, Tampa matched it, but Mike chose the Niners.
40:49But either way, he was getting $14 million. So he is now with the 49ers.
40:54He was presumably on paper to be the wide receiver one, but we'll see how healthy he can be this year.
41:01Either way, I think he'll be a good presence for Deshaun Stribbling to follow around while he's learning to be a pro.
41:08Because Mike Evans is a future Hall of Famer and pretty good guy to learn from.
41:13Jack Jones they brought in to add to the corner room.
41:16Christian Kirk they brought in to add to the receiver room.
41:20Because again, guys keep getting injured. And so much so that they went back to the Debo Samuel well for $4.1 million a year.
41:28He's 30 years old. It's been a little bit since it felt like he had Debo-like gas in the tank.
41:34Do you have any hope that he will look like 28-year-old Debo at 30?
41:39If there is any hope, it is with him in San Francisco.
41:43That is where he had the greatest heights of his career.
41:46He did not look like that with the Commanders, I should say.
41:50It looked like it was pretty well over. If there is any kind of renaissance brewing, it would be in San Francisco.
41:57If I had to put odds on that, I'm not going higher than about 40% that it'll happen.
42:03Like it could happen. And again, it would only happen here.
42:07Do I think it is going to happen? I'm not going to put folding money on that one.
42:12I alluded to it earlier. I want to lead into the draft section with our patron viewer note.
42:18This comes from Drake Cha. He says over on the Patreon, EJ and Brett, this is my first year of being a
42:25patron, but been listening to the pod since day one.
42:29The evolution of everything you guys have done has been nothing short of amazing.
42:33We appreciate you, Drake, for being here as long as you have.
42:37Probably since before we even got on camera when we just had a still image on a YouTube channel for every single show.
42:44So if you've been here that long, we appreciate you and everybody else who has tolerated some really awful production value over the years.
42:52But now we're here. Drake continues. As for my beloved 49ers, the criticism has been very strong in terms of the front office.
43:00So what do you guys think John Lynch and company have to do to make it over the hump, barring injuries to our squad?
43:07Caveat. Yeah. How many asterisks can we put next to that?
43:11And if we don't make it over the hump, will there be some sort of foreseeable changes to our front office slash coaching?
43:18Thanks, guys. And keep up the great work. And congratulations on how far you've been making it.
43:24Cheers to 2026 and onward. Thank you once again, Drake.
43:27Right. History. The criticism is deserved. And if you just look at the last five years, right?
43:33I won't do the last two years because this year's class hasn't played yet.
43:37And the 2025 class, it's only been a year.
43:40Might be too early to cast judgment, even though early returns, at least on the defensive line picks, not ideal.
43:47But again, we'll kind of stick with 2022 through 2024.
43:502022. It's Drake Jackson, Tyrion Davis Price, Danny Gray, Spencer Burford, Sam Womack, Kalia Davis, Tariq Castro Fields, and Brock Purdy.
43:57Mm-hmm. Not a great class overall. But when you get your franchise quarterback in the seventh round, you get a contributor in Kalia Davis.
44:04You get, you know, at least a guy that started a bunch of games for you in Spencer Burford.
44:11Like you could do worse than that, but it's like clearly not the ideal draft overall.
44:162023, Jair Brown, Jake Moody, Cam Latu, Daryl Luter, Robert Beal, Dee Winters, Braden Willis, Ronnie Bell, Jalen Graham.
44:22Whole lot of fucking nothing, in my opinion. 2024.
44:25Three drafts ago. Ricky Pearsall. Good in theory when he's on the field.
44:29We'll see. Renardo Green. Dominic Pune. Malik Mustafa. Isaac Garendo.
44:32Jacob Cowing. Jarrett Kingston. Tatum Bithin. Three straight drafts.
44:35Did they get anybody even remotely close to being the top half of their position group in the NFL?
44:41I think this is a tough stretch. Like when you look at three straight years and you stack it together, it's not great.
44:49Like just in terms of whatever hit rate you want to use, average hit rate for the NFL, hit rates within our organization.
44:56Like I honestly think the 2022 draft is better if you turn it upside down.
45:01Oh, absolutely. Like if you'd started with Brock Purdy, Tariq Castro Fields, and Kalia Davis, knowing what those players turned out to be, that'd be great.
45:09Drake Jackson was a huge question mark for me.
45:12And we don't need to go into our grades for all that.
45:16That is not a great year. They get incredibly lucky.
45:19If you, you know, say they make the choice not to make Brock Purdy Mr.
45:24Irrelevant and you look at that draft, it's terrible.
45:27Like by any, well, if they don't take Brock Purdy, that means everybody would have been fired anyway because they're coming off
45:34the Trey Lance trade, trade didn't work out. And if you're pinning that on Mr.
45:39Irrelevant, that is lucky in the extreme. That means every single team in the NFL passed on him six to seven times.
45:46Like nobody thought he was good. It's not like, Oh, the 49ers knew.
45:51No, the 49ers knew they would have took him in third round.
45:54Like they took him in the seventh round with the very last pick.
45:59So lucky, better than good. Not a good draft.
46:022022, not a good draft. 2023. I'm with you.
46:04There's really nothing there. I, we didn't necessarily like it at the time.
46:09I, I don't feel great about it now. It's not a good draft.
46:132024. Ricky Pearsall again gets shot when he gets to San Francisco.
46:17Not something you anticipate. He's been injured again. Renardo green.
46:20Good player for them, right? Dominic Pune. We just brought him up.
46:24Good player for them. Starter. Malik Mustafa has played in stretches and you know, he's a hell of a hitter.
46:30I think he's a solid role player again. Fourth round choice.
46:34That's fine. Garendo. We had some high hopes. Hasn't worked out.
46:37Jacob Cowling. Wide receiver, special teamer, useful player. Fourth round pick.
46:41Little rich for me, but I'm not going to argue it because would have been fine.
46:46Fifth or sixth. Kingston and Bethune. Nothing but six and seventh round picks.
46:50I'm not going to kill that draft. Freaky Pearsall had been healthy and productive for his first couple of years.
46:57Renardo green has had a bunch of starts. Dominic Pune, bunch of starts.
47:01One, two, three. That's a, that's a pretty solid draft.
47:04You're talking about top half. No, probably not for any of those guys, possibly Pearsall, but I'm going to say 2024 solid.
47:11But when you stack 2022, 2023 and 2024 together and really all you get out of it is the ghost of Ricky
47:19Pearsall, Renardo Green, Dominic Pune, Mustafa kicking in a little bit.
47:22Jacob Cowling kicking in a very little bit. Purdy got super lucky on.
47:26Kalia Davis was good. Tariq Castro Fields kicking in a little bit.
47:30Burford kicking in a little bit. That's it for three.
47:33What I'm going to say are very full classes.
47:36This isn't like San Francisco had four choices or something like this is a lot of draft picks.
47:42It's like damn near 30 picks. Yeah. And for that, it's below average by any measure you use of success, of retention, of anything else.
47:50We need to remember that the team that's in their division, their northern rivals who won the Super Bowl, had a very similar stretch of three years.
47:59John Schneider, we talk about him wandering in the wilderness.
48:02And he got it back for the last three years.
48:06His last three years of drafts have been locked down, deal with the devil type stuff.
48:11Amazing. This is Lynch's period of wandering in the desert.
48:14Did he get back with last year's draft or this year's draft?
48:18I think it's harder to say that. Like when those Seahawks drafts happened, we were like, these are great drafts.
48:24And we said so at the time, like literally the day after in our best classes episode.
48:30We said, no, this is like Schneider is back.
48:33He is on it. I don't feel the same way about the last two drafts for the Niners.
48:39They might be better than these, but that's a low bar to clear.
48:43And so I think when we're talking about like what, you know, what do they have to do to get over the hump?
48:50It's to not string together three years like this one.
48:53Correct. That's what you have to do. That's how the Seahawks got over the hump.
48:58They stopped stringing together three years of bad drafts.
49:01And the core of this team has been built off of, you know, that late 2010s core that they built together.
49:08And then you sprinkle in Brock Purdy. But like when they brought in George, when they brought in Fred, you know, Bosa, like all of these guys.
49:17They've really been kind of living off that for a long, long time.
49:21And now those guys are up there. About ready to lead.
49:24Yeah. Right. And they're not bouncing back from injuries as fast as they have been.
49:29They're getting injured more than they have been. Like your left tackles 38.
49:34And they brought him in. I think it was.
49:36I see Trent got there. What, 2018? Somewhere around there.
49:40Before they, you know, started going to the Super Bowl every other year for a time.
49:45And so I just I look at. I look at how successful teams build.
49:49And they're constantly replenishing. Right. Like they build a core.
49:53And that core grows together. And that core tends to get expensive.
49:56And then you replenish the roster underneath them by, again, nailing draft picks that are cheaper and contributing on cheap contracts.
50:03And when you're not kind of replenishing that, that that not lower half of the roster, but I'd say lower half of the cap table.
50:11But with quality guys where you're getting kind of like plus EV for the money.
50:16And then you just have to lean more into your core and just gets older and more expensive because you can't move on because you have nobody else.
50:25It just creates this scenario, you know, kind of like what we're looking at right now where they're on razor thin margins.
50:32It's because they haven't drafted well enough. So I think if things go poorly, you know, is Kyle Shanahan in trouble?
50:39No, I think John Lynch is, though. Because we know Kyle's not the issue.
50:44Yeah, he would be first. Lynch would be first because I think more responsibility lies with him.
50:49The other way that you sort of have a safety relief valve is as you hopefully draft well and those players play
50:56well, you get the decision like Kansas City's taken several times.
51:00Do I pay this guy or do I trade him for a bunch of assets and then try and spend those draft picks?
51:07Well, that's one way. The other way is, OK, I didn't get a chance to trade him.
51:13He's a quality player. He's going to fetch a pretty good price in free agency if we let him go and I'm
51:20going to get compensatory selections and then I need to spend those well.
51:24Right. Those are the two sort of loopholes. Right.
51:27I'm not going to pay this guy 30, 20, 30, 40 million dollars a year.
51:32I'm going to trade him for a first rounder and a fourth rounder and I need to I need to hit on
51:39those picks or going to let him get to the open market.
51:43I'm going to get a third and a fifth.
51:46I need to hit on those. The bottom line is you got to hit on draft picks no matter what.
51:52Right. There isn't any get out of jail free card that has you picking poorly, especially not for multiple years.
51:59And if you do, it will catch up with you.
52:02You will run out of depth. You will run out of money.
52:06Right. You'll be trying to retain retain your aging and expensive core and then you won't be able to go out and
52:13spend 20 or 30 million to make a splash in free agency to get that guy that you didn't draft.
52:20So it will come due in that way. And the overall quality declines.
52:24And I'm talking about backups. I'm talking about special teams.
52:27I'm talking about all of it. And those are the margins that are eventually going to cost you games when those aging
52:34stars aren't available or leave or retire or are on the sidelines with injury.
52:39You don't have the young fireballers to come in and say, oh, well, you took the job.
52:44Neat. Or if you do, you get reduced quality and then that costs you wins.
52:49And so it does come due. You can't run away from it forever if you don't draft well.
52:55And the 49ers, by any measure, have not drafted particularly well in a while now.
53:00Which then brings us to this year's draft. If that's not a setup.
53:04How do we feel, EJ? Oh, that's not a setup.
53:07Well, they went against a lot of what I will call conventional wisdom.
53:11And they do seem to have been proved right with Dijon Stribling in the second round at pick 33.
53:17A little early. A receiver I think we both liked.
53:21I really like Stribling. But when they took him at 33, you can go watch the draft live stream.
53:27I was like, okay. They really, really liked him.
53:30But it was a surprise. It wasn't criticism and it wasn't panic.
53:34It was more surprise. But it was like, oh, interesting.
53:37Right. I like the player. Good player. But it was different than what we expected.
53:42Several teams had come out afterwards and said, well, if they didn't take him, we were going to take him within the next seven to ten picks.
53:50So they got him where they needed to. And early returns are very good on Stribling.
53:56Again, if he can stay on the field, I think that's probably a hit.
54:00Romello Height, they get in the third round at 70.
54:03The edge rusher, the other edge rusher out of Texas.
54:07This is David Bailey's other side edge rusher. Not as talented as Bailey.
54:11Not as complete a player. But I think someone that can contribute certainly as a sort of DPR to start and could
54:18grow into being a solid NFL player. And in the third round at 70, when you're talking about edge, usually you have to get them earlier than that.
54:27This was kind of the back end of that.
54:30Still has talent, has some flaws, but we're gambling on traits and we're leaning into guys like Chris Kosurik to develop guys like Romello Height.
54:38I can see the path to the first two picks.
54:41No problem. 20 picks later in the third round at 90.
54:45They get Kalen Black, the running back from Indiana.
54:48I was not super high on Kalen Black. I think he is a good runner, not a great one.
54:54This was early for me. Of course, he goes off in the preseason.
54:58That's what's going to happen. San Francisco seems to be able to get very good performances out of running backs that they pick.
55:06Whether or not we like them, typically we have liked the guys that have done pretty well in their system.
55:12If they get a bunch out of Kalen Black, they're right.
55:16I'm wrong. I can live with that. We get to day three.
55:19Fourth round, pick 107. Grayson Halton, one of your favorite players in the draft.
55:24Defensive lineman out of Oklahoma. One of the few true penetrating, slashing three techs who can really cause havoc on opposing offenses.
55:31I like this pick. I actually didn't think he was going to last this long.
55:36You were beside yourself that he'd lasted this long.
55:39I couldn't believe it. Yeah. Oh my God. I was like, what do I not know?
55:44Because watching him on tape, I was like, he's better than the vast majority of defensive linemen still left on the board.
55:51And he just wasn't going. And again, so far, early returns are good.
55:55I like him a lot. Dare I say he's going to be their solution alongside Osa to their lack of interior pressure.
56:02You know, if at this point, if Alfred Collins and CJ West turn into the first and second down guys and Halton's
56:10your third down guy and then Osa's your everything guy.
56:13Like, okay, I can live with that rotation. I do feel like part of the reason why they took Halton here is
56:20because they were worried about what they saw from Collins and CJ West last year because they got nothing from them in the pass rush department.
56:28But if we're just building a platoon, I think the best versions of all of those guys that they've drafted in the
56:35last two drafts could make a really, really good platoon.
56:39They all got a hit. But as far as mixing skill sets and body types and in my head, it just makes sense.
56:46So I'll put it that way. Yeah, it pencils out.
56:49And I think their sort of value meter just came into line with Halton.
56:54They were like, hey, we're at the start of day three.
56:57He's still on the board. He could really help us here.
57:01We're comfortable with whatever they knew about the player that we didn't that, you know, caused him to get to day three.
57:08They were like, no, we'll pull the trigger here.
57:11So we go from a player that you were super high on and super surprised was still there to a player I
57:18was super high on who they picked a lot earlier than a lot of other people thought they might, which is Carver Willis.
57:26It says guard. He played tackle at Washington. They get him in the fourth round at 127, 20 picks after Grayson Halton.
57:33I really like Carver Willis. I will say that.
57:36I never thought he would go in the fourth round.
57:39I really liked him as a pick him up in the sixth.
57:43And I think he has a couple fixable flaws.
57:46And I'd reached out to multiple people who know a lot more about offensive line than me after I watched Carver Willis.
57:53And I said, tell me if I'm wrong, but I think there's a lot of things you really like here as an offensive line coach.
58:01And I think the things that he doesn't do super well are correctable things, not physical lackings or just, you know, he shuts his head off.
58:09Like, I think they're coachable points. And there are a couple of them, which is why he didn't get drafted earlier.
58:16All three of them came back and said, I think you're right.
58:20I think there's something there. And I think I would spend a late round pick on him if I had a good
58:27offensive line coach and maybe get like a very functional swing tackle.
58:31All of that to say, that's not typically what you pick in the fourth round.
58:36So if they make Carver Willis work, who is currently slated as a starting guard for them, he exceeded even my expectations.
58:43And I was a Carver Willis defender. So we'll see how he plays inside a guard.
58:48I think he has some real, he has some tremendous strength.
58:52That was very clear on his tape is even when he loses, he can make himself right with strength.
58:58So his transition to guard, I feel better about than a lot of, you know, tackle to guard converts.
59:04We'll see how it works. He can help stabilize this line for second straight year and maybe even elevate them.
59:10Totally worth a fourth round pick. I really like their next fourth round or even more Ephesians Priceock.
59:16One of my favorite kind of undervalued corners in this class.
59:20The other Washington corner, because Washington had two of them in this class.
59:24I loved him on tape. If for some reason, the Huskies just keep producing these long press corners and they they tend to do well in the league.
59:33I'm not saying he's going to come out and be like a Pro Bowl caliber corner.
59:38But like, yeah, if you had to play him right now because your room takes injuries.
59:43I think he could he could survive, which again, for a fourth round corner.
59:48Yeah, if I could say, yeah, you can put him out there against insert NFC West opponent here and he would survive
59:55like, hey, go cover Michael Wilson tomorrow. That's a great value for pick 139 to get a startable, playable corner that is
60:02not going to make you want to walk off a bridge when he's out there.
60:07Fully agree. Ephesians Priceock, tall, lanky, extremely long, uses his length extremely well.
60:11You saw it in the preseason is aggressive with it.
60:15A lot of times when you get slider corners who have a lot of length and they're not particularly aggressive, they sort of negate their own strengths.
60:23He's not that guy. He's going to be in your face.
60:27He plays like he's 35 pounds heavier than he is.
60:30And I'm with you. I think he is going to be functional in that corner rotation for them.
60:36So great value at 139. We skip down to the fifth round, 154.
60:40Jaden Duggar, the linebacker out of Louisiana and Enrique Cruz Jr., the tackle out of Kansas, who actually thought would go before Carver Willis.
60:48I liked Enrique Cruz Jr. at 179. So the fact they got them both solid depth picks back to your question about
60:55did they get anybody that's going to be top half?
60:58You know, of their position in the NFL. Well, I think Stribbling certainly could be.
61:03I think Grayson Halton could be. And maybe, maybe, maybe if Carver Willis works out to the nth degree, he might tickle that range.
61:11I think this draft slightly needle up from the last three.
61:14But we don't know. It's super early. It's way too early to truly grade a draft class.
61:20But again, all we've got is initial returns. What we've seen through offseason, OTAs, preseason games.
61:25There have been some flashes from these guys. And if you're going to spend pick 179 on a dart throw on the
61:32offensive line, like might as well do it on the dude with a 999 RAS.
61:37That's Enrique Cruz Jr. from Kansas. Yeah. He's 6'5", 313 with a 35-inch vert at 313.
61:42That's edge rusher vert. Ran a 494. So a sub 540 with a 174 10-yard split.
61:47Elite, elite athlete. Got huge hands. Adequate length. He's like just shy of 34 inches, which is totally fine with me.
61:54I really like him as an athlete. Kind of out of control on tape, but that's okay.
62:00That's why he went in the fifth, right? He's a ball of clay.
62:04We trust our guys to mold him. And if you get like the best version of what Enrique Cruz can be, that's
62:11literally a starting tackle in the NFL. That's how gifted he is physically.
62:15Long way to go until he gets there. But that's why he went in the fifth.
62:20It is a pure dart throw developmental, let's see what he can be eventually kind of guy.
62:26As for UDFA's Mikael Kamara, you know, he had a bunch of fans.
62:30You know, CJ West's old teammate at Indiana. Ended up on IR, unfortunately.
62:34Jalen Stroman made the practice squad. Will Pauling made the practice squad.
62:38Wesley Grimes made the practice squad. Khalil Dinkins made the practice squad.
62:42And then James Thompson made the 53. So a bunch of the UDFAs that they brought in are still getting paychecks for the 49ers.
62:50It's pretty good. Yeah, six of eight UDFAs that you brought in in a class still being employed by the team after
62:57the cut down to 53 is a ridiculous hit rate.
63:00If we're talking about a good hit rate, one, maybe two, three UDFAs, no matter the size of your class, is great in any capacity.
63:08Again, on the practice squad, if you've had to put them on an injured reserve, unfortunately, they're still on your team.
63:15But like you're talking about six out of eight.
63:18That's unheard of. That is a it either means it's a very easy team to make, which it was a 12 win team.
63:25The anti-Broncos. Nobody made the team. Even guys they drafted didn't make the team.
63:30It's either a very easy team to make or your scouts did a great job assembling the UDFA class that is going
63:37to give you cost control labor that are going to contribute.
63:41Again, James Thompson Jr. on the 53 to start the season doesn't mean he'll be there all year might bounce up and
63:48down probably will between the practice squad on on any given week.
63:52But that is that is far better than any of their drafting results for the past four years.
63:58Brings us to our last segment ceiling and floor.
64:00I really do think if you can win 12 games last year through all of that, you can win 12 games any year.
64:08So sign me up for a ceiling of 12 again.
64:11And hell, maybe even 13 if everybody stays healthy, but it's a niner.
64:15So I'm just kind of like factoring in that they won't be.
64:19But I can't in good conscience go lower than 12 after last year's team hit 12.
64:24Like that would just be stupid of me to do.
64:28So I'm going 12 as the ceiling. As for floor.
64:31I am going eight just because the schedule is like a little bit harder this year, not like crazy, crazy hard compared to some of the other teams.
64:40But it is a little bit harder. And I still do have some unanswered questions about the defensive line.
64:46Like, OK, we refreshed the ideal pool and, you know, Bosa's coming off injury.
64:51Like we'll see. Again. Again. We'll see how the defensive line plays.
64:54I do wonder what Raheem is going to do stylistically and if that's going to work.
65:00I would love to see all of the skill positions for the 49ers be healthy.
65:05We'll see if that ever happens. Ever. I'm just going to just one second of imagining.
65:10Evans, Pearsall and Stribling is a starting three. If you could get all three of those guys as you're starting three wide
65:17receivers, that's one of the stronger receiver cores in the NFL.
65:20Right. It's top third easily if they're all healthy, but you're getting one of them right now.
65:26So it's one at a time. And you just never know which one it's going to be.
65:31You're only getting one of the three. Three together would be too powerful.
65:36You can only have one each week. You pick.
65:38No, it's just unfortunate because, again, it's not that the organization picked poorly, right, or chose the wrong thing.
65:45I mean, Mike Evans as a dig merchant in Kyle's offense.
65:48Come on. Like, that's a dream fit. It's perfect.
65:51No, I want Mike running, you know, the Mike Evans special, which is just go balls down the boundary because you have to respect it.
65:59Yeah. And then stripling. I want to be like that mid-level assassin because he also has speed that you have to respect,
66:06which then just makes it easier for him to just effortlessly win on whether it's, you know, he's running the seven on
66:13flood and just meeting the ball at the sideline.
66:16Or if he's running the backside dig on the backside of flood.
66:20Like, there's so many things you can do with him because he's so physically gifted.
66:25He's good after the catch. He's a threat deep down the field.
66:29Like, I think he is going to be that classic Kyle Shanahan receiver that gets whatever he wants at like a 17-yard
66:36depth because you'd rather give him that than give him the thing that's 30 yards down the field.
66:42Like, remember like Pierre Garçon back in the day in this offense.
66:46Pierre got whatever he wanted in the intermediate because teams were terrified of him down the field.
66:51Yeah. I think stripling could be that. So Evans, he's going to be getting his cardio.
66:56I don't think he's going to produce as much as he did with Baker just because Brock, different kind of quarterback.
67:03I'll say that. Good quarterback, different kind of quarterback.
67:06Stripling though, like he's going to eat. I really do think he's going to eat.
67:11If he's the guy that's playing from this receiving core on a given week.
67:16I think they draw straws every Wednesday. All right.
67:18Who's going this way? So unfair. My ceiling is the same at 12 because I think this team will actually be a better version of last year's team.
67:28And they won 12 last year, but the schedule is going to offset that a little bit.
67:33So the win total is the same, but I think a stronger team, even at a 12 win ceiling, my floor is nine.
67:40Because if you won 12 last year with everything that went on playing a backup quarterback, all the high profile losses, total
67:48number of games lost due to injury being near the top 10 in the NFL.
67:52Like if you won 12 with that, I don't see you winning less than nine.
67:57So, you know, we're only a game different on the floor.
68:01We're the same on the ceiling. This is a vicious division.
68:04The coaching is really strong, got stronger in the offseason.
68:08The rosters are really strong. You could argue got stronger.
68:11It's the, you know, division home of the Super Bowl champs.
68:14Like there's no easy games here, but as you said, when they were healthy early in the season last year, before the
68:22injury set in, they beat both of those teams.
68:24So they've still got, you know, that they give Shanahan offseason bragging rights over the Super Bowl champion coach and McVay, who he knows really well.
68:33Like, hey man, when we went straight up and I had all the horses, what was the result again?
68:39You want to get me a beer? After, in a couple days, we're going to see Shanahan and McVay face off at
68:46least a couple days as of when this goes live, we think, presumably.
68:50Ideally, this goes live before that game. We'll see.
68:53But they're opening up in Australia against the Rams.
68:56So we will be recapping that game, not immediately after it happens, but in our week one recap show.
69:02Make sure to come back for that. But tomorrow specifically, we're going to be talking about their opponent, the Rams, because we are wrapping up NFC West week.
69:11We have two episodes left, technically three episodes left in the Summer Series.
69:16We've got the Rams, the Seahawks, and then our patron NFC West wrap up over on Patreon.
69:21We are doing our best to fit these under the wire before kickoff.
69:25I think we're going to be able to. Famous last words.
69:29But we'll see. Either way, thank you guys for watching and listening.
69:33We will see you back here tomorrow for the Rams.

More episodes from Bootleg Football

6