49ers update: The right way to monitor the Brandon Aiyuk WR market

49ers update: The right way to monitor the Brandon Aiyuk WR market

49ers update time on this Thursday between media availability at OTAs and media availability at 49ers mandatory mini camp that is next week Tuesday and Wednesday so I anticipate that being a busy week for the channel I think that there’s going to be a lot of interest regarding Christian mcaffrey Brandon auk we shouldn’t assume anything but if we are going to play a betting game I think that Christian mcaffry and brand and iuk are likely to be at the 49ers facility next week everything that has happened so far in the off season has been voluntary next week that’s the only thing that happens all offseason that is mandatory and the F fines from the NFL would be mandatory as well for Christian mcaffrey and Brandon auk if they were not at 49ers veteran mini camp it is the one event in the off season that sends players off into their formal large time off before they return for training camp so even players who are unhappy with contracts or veterans who would rather be elsewhere during voluntary OTAs they have to be at the mandatory mini camp so that’s going to include Trent Williams now I don’t expect these players to suit up and take part in drills at mandatory mini camp especially somebody like Brandon auk because when Deo Samuel was going through his contract stuff when Nick Bosa was going through his contract stuff both of them showed up to the facility but they both just watched in sweatpants and Nick Bosa was watching in sweats yesterday at practice so was Fred Warner otaa this is mainly for the younger players they could it’s a crash course they want to get up to speed in time to be ready for training camp so that they have a Fighting Chance during training camp to be able to make a splash with the 49ers it’s tough when the roster is as loaded as it is but we have more receiver news across the NFL today today we saw Jaylen Wadd get a new contract from the Miami Dolphins so now the Dolphins like the Philadelphia Eagles are paying two receivers well north of $20 million annually and Wadd signed for in the apy regard $28 million annually but here’s the thing we shouldn’t be looking at an average per year because there’s going to be a lot of fluff in average per year I mentioned this several times and a lot of people think that the Brandon iuk Market is actually getting more expensive for the 49ers the longer that they wait because they’re seeing some of the apys of these new deals but no it’s not actually getting more expensive and I will illustrate why because you should be prioritizing fully guaranteed money of these contracts and if you look here you can see the fully guaranteed money of the top 15 or 16 receiver markets uh receiver contracts in the NFL the ones that are shaded in Gray are the ones that were signed this off seon I’ve mentioned several times that average per year can be filled with fluff because the money there isn’t guaranteed somebody like Tyreek Hill for example he leads the way at over 30 million guarant uh 30 million per year but the last year of his contract has got a lot of fluff in it take a look at this the last year in his contract has a $ 43.9 million base salary that’s not guaranteed so it’s not likely that he plays on that exact contract in 2026 the amount was pre-selected specifically so that Tyreek Hill could get to $30 million per year same deal with Alan ra St Brown’s contract our trip is waiting says United in the advertisement the Alan ra St Brown contract is in a position where he has an option that taxs on at the very end that’s not guaranteed that allows it to hit those $30 million so Alan Ross St Brown at 30 million because of a team option that’s not guaranteed Tyreek Hill non-guaranteed $4 43.9 million base salary the conclusion to all of that is that we should be looking at fully guaranteed money that is going to be the operative number in these negotiations you can go for a vanity record you can go for a vanity statement via the fluff via the apy but you can’t do that with fully guaranteed money so if we prioritize fully guaranteed money and we look at the receivers that lead the way right now Tyreek Hill even though Pete led the way with that contract at 30 million per year a couple years ago when he signed it he also led the way in fully guaranteed money so we can firmly say that Tyreek Hill’s deal is the most valuable for receivers in all football AJ brown right during the draft this year right before it signed a deal worth $51 million in fully guaranteed money that’s an extension with the Eagles so he’s firmly at number two the really surprising one this offseason was Calvin Ridley at 47 million fully guaranteed from the Titans that was signed during free agency notice I put the dates over here on the right side the deals that we have seen signed lately that everybody thinks are somehow moving the needle for the Brandon iuk situation they’re all down here in terms of fully guaranteed money so there was Devonte Smith people freaked out on April 15th only $34 million in fully guaranteed money way short of the top Alan Ross St Brown signed on April 24th same deal 34.7 million in fully guaranteed money then Nico Collins signed a couple days ago I told you guys this was going to be about $30 million in fully guaranteed money before I had the actual figures well here you go $ 32.1 million in fully guaranteed money for Nico Collins then there is uh Jaylen Wadd at 35.9 those were the reported terms from pro football talk 35.9 million fully guaranteed money signed May 30th so the trend here is that the deals that have been signed more lately have not come close to the high water mark in fully guaranteed money whereas the initial wave did so AJ Brown Premier receiver that came near the top didn’t quite break the Tyreek Hill barrier here but it came close I think Calvin Ridley might have been the most surprising one you could probably criticize the Titans for that especially if Cal Calvin Ridley doesn’t produce at completely Elite level since he’s near that Tyreek Hill AJ Brown Number Judy and Pitman those are both big full guaranteed totals but they’re not close to 50 million I think that Brandon auk with how efficient he’s been and I’ve written that article talking about what the 49ers can expect to to pay Brandon iuk what we can expect from a potential deal I think that it’s a $50 million kind of gauge for Brandon auk in terms terms of fully guaranteed money and again that would be at the top of this list or near the top of this list I think that between iuk Justin Jefferson and cidi lamb you were talking about true Big Fish you can put them in the same category as your AJ Browns as your Calvin Ridley I know that Calvin Ridley it’s funny that we’re including him in this category but with the fully guaranteed money of$ 47 million from the Tennessee Titans financially we have to do that these guys right here these are relative B listers Jaylen Wadd Alan Ross St Brown Devonte Smith even Nico Collins who signed a little bit early maybe Nico Collins will be an aister by the time of his next contract but he wanted the Financial Security a little bit early Jaylen Wadd also signed early he’s on the same track as Brandon iuk as far as fifth year option goes but that option isn’t until 2025 for Jaylen Wadd but MoneyWise as you can see here these guys are in the 30s the lower to mid-30s as far as fully guaranteed money that’s that’s Bist money for these receivers the true A-list money is at the top and the big question was had Brandon auk established himself as a true A-list receiver and you know I could go through this again I think every single time that I talk about Brandon iuk I’ve got to put up some kind of data to show you because this this is it makes it extremely difficult when people are so fixated on only raw statistics to gauge their receivers especially on the 49ers when they’ve got so many weapons but this is a cool new company it’s called field Vision Sports and we could take a look at wide receiver performance for the 49ers the xaxis is going to be the total EPA total expected points added by every player and the y- axis is going to be the average success rate so total EPA yes that’s going to be a little bit more of a volume stat right because the the more targets you get the more catches you get the more EPA you can add but we have a little bit more of a rate stat an efficiency stat on the Y AIS what is the success rate when the player is targeted and you of course you want to be further up and to the right and the right upper right quadrant is a really really good spot to be Jawan Jennings he’s got a good success rate they didn’t utilize him nearly as much he only had 19 catches last year it’s not to say that he wasn’t very valuable and they resigned him yesterday but he’s he’s in the vertical area of the Y AIS but he’s over here on the left because the lack of usage your upper right guys are Deo Samuel George KD who had a 10,00 yard receiving season even though he’s playing without a core injury for much of it and Brandon auk look at Brandon up here on the upper right I mean I think that really really showcases where Brandon auk was in terms of the rest of this 49ers offense in production the highest success rate when throwing to him and also the most cumulative expected points added when throwing to him we can also compare Brandon auk’s grades to the rest of the National Football League and this is something that I I did in the big article what might Brandon auk’s new contract look like that’s going to be up on the athletic I’m gonna pop it open right now so you can go ahead and check it out but the Staggering staggering chart in this article right here is and by the way the this is what it looks like I’m copying and pasting the link I’m going to toss it into the chat section the here let’s we’re going to scroll down to the Chart The Staggering chart here puts auk against the rest of the NFL and try to find him the hint for you is that Brandon auk is up here top right so x-axis is raw PFF separation grade y AIS is the catch point and the yak grade remember that Brandon auk was in the upper right when we looked at uh this right here amongst the 49ers in terms of the EPA added and the success rate well when we’re talking about the whole NFL in terms of Separation grade and catch point in the ACT grade he’s a complete outlier over here now Jaylen Wad and Tyreek Hill have both gotten paid for the Miami Dolphins look at Tyreek Hill’s an outlier Jaylen wd’s an outlier they both deserve to get paid Justin Jefferson he deserves to get paid he’s and that’s that’s coming and I think you know one other thing with this whole Brandon auk situation everybody’s like why don’t the 49ers just learn their lesson and pay him sooner well first off learn what lesson because if you see the most recent contracts are signing for Less fully guaranteed money so the market isn’t actually getting more expensive but as far as when you pay somebody these contracts it requires two parties to sign on the dotted line I think people need to be reminded of that the 49ers can’t just make a contract happen Brandon auk has to agree to terms of course if the 49ers offer some kind of exorbitant price he’ll be happy to sign right away but that’s not how negotiations work Brandon auk is going to want the best contract possible for him and the 49ers as a good franchise as a well-run franchise are going to want the best possible contract for them if those two numbers are far apart right now then you just have to wait because at a certain point of time Brandon auka is probably have to get come down a little bit and the 49ers might have to move up with their offer but they’re going to meet in the middle oftentimes when two sides aren’t ready to to sign the deal they’re far apart enough to where if if it’s gonna have to get done sooner one side’s going to have to Lunge out of its way out of its comfort zone to get to a point to where that deal can be executed and at this point I don’t think that the 49ers and Brandon auk are there yet because I look at prior history I look at 2020 with George KD 2021 with Fred Warner 2022 with Debo 2023 with Nick Bosa it took them past May 30th to get a contract done and there’s nothing wrong with that that as you can see as I’ve just demonstrated no things aren’t getting more expensive and when you talk about what might set more parameters to help the Brandon auk deal get done you have to think about Justin Jefferson’s contract and you have to think about CD Lamb’s contract I think again between Jefferson CD lamb and Brandon auk those are three names that are much more likely to be up here in the top half amongst this A-list money the fully guaranteed money over 40 million maybe even approaching $50 million as opposed to here so we’re seeing the receivers who are willing to sign at some kind of discounts right now guys that are signing early right they’re signing early to get a little bit more Financial Security in the now but the teams I think are are ultimately benefiting by not paying them A-list money so Jaylen Wadd signs a year early Alan Ross St Brown a year early right Nico Collins he just signed a year early Brandon auk doesn’t want to sign early he doesn’t want to be part of this cluster he wants to be part of the upper cluster and I really think if you look at this objectively Justin Jefferson who’s probably going to lead the way of Everybody by the time this is all said and done Justin Jefferson is going to help set a parameter that brings even the Brandon iuk situation to a conclusion that’s that’s the way that the numbers are indicating right now and we’ll see if that does end up coming to fruition but I think the main key is to prioritize analyzing fully guaranteed money over apy also remember that people are going to give you all sorts of information people are going to act like Jawan Jennings signing for what about seven million a year somehow means something with the Brandon iuk contract it doesn’t Joan Jennings is the 49ers number three wi out he plays a lot in the slot he’s an excellent blocker we’re talking seven million per year we’re not talking about money that’s going to be 25 to 30 million per year this is a almost I don’t want to say a niche role but it is for Jawan Jennings Because it’s a special one within the context of how rough and tumble the 49ers are I mean the guy is a complete baller but he will Maul people blocking as well and they love Jawan Jennings whenever the man coverage is really focused on the outside receivers such as it is against a team like the Chiefs who really really focus on locking down outside receivers Jawan Jennings is a big-time Target that the 49ers go for in such situations so if you want to beat the Kansas City Chiefs with the way that they play defense against San Francisco Jaan Jennings is a guy that you want on his foot on his football team outside completely irrespective of Brandon auk and Debo Samuel being on the team because Jennings is going to do work blocking on the inside he’s going to do work making big clutch catches on the inside hell he could even do some work throwing from his inside receiver position as he did in the Super Bowl when he threw the touchdown past to Christian mcaffrey that has absolutely nothing to do with the contractual situations of receivers who play different positions than Jawan Jennings Jennings is a big slot Master the nastiest receiver in the game when it comes to blocking I don’t see anybody else pushing guys into the Gatorade jugs and he’s making huge catch after huge catch in third wide receiver situations meanwhile Brandon auk is a true ex wide receiver you rely on him to beat that man coverage on the outside so that’s the role that Brandon auk plays and then Debo Samuel’s playing that Z receiver position and obviously he I mean he’s a breed of his own Debo Samuel he he’s stampeding people out on that football field I don’t think that we’ve seen a receiver better at accumulating yards after the catch maybe in NFL history than Debo Samuel so these are all A-list type players in their own regard Jennings maybe not statistically as a wide receiver but he’s an A-list blocker that’s for sure and those go for a cheaper price than an aist X receiver like Brandon iuk those guys are going to be more expensive so this is the kind of scale that we should look at the Brandon iuk market and we should remember that the larger pictures the forers don’t get these deals done until later good signs and I’ve reported this consistently throughout good signs have been present throughout this entire process with Brandon auk he wasn’t avoiding the facility entirely before OTAs he he was still checking in doing his treatment that that slipped out a couple times I forgot who said it a couple 49ers players mentioned auk had been there auk has come out and said straight up that he wants to get something done with the 49ers on interviews and history tells us that these contracts are typically executed by the 49ers and the players representative by about July in the case of Nick Bosa it took longer but I do think that the 49ers are incentivized and you know really do desire to get this done sooner than when Nick Bosa signed his deal at the end of the day too the 49ers have Brandon iuk under contract already for this 2024 season so when we talk about leverage and we try to assign drama to a situation you guys this is business these are negotiations auka is under contract for 14.1 million the 49ers have the fall back of having him play at that deal of course it incentivizes they’re incentivized to to pay him an extension sooner so they can move that money around as far as the salary cap goes they could actually lower his 2024 cap hit and buy some more flexibility but if they can’t reach a longer term deal it’s amenable they have that as a fallback Brandon auk has a nuclear fallback on top of that he can say okay fine I’m sitting out but then he wouldn’t gain any of that money so I I think that the 49ers own ultimate leverage here and that’s going to bring the price down to something uh within the realm of of what we’re seeing and I think that we’ll have more parameters available when other a-listers sign and that’s Justin Jefferson and CD lamb both of them have more impressive volume receiving wise than Brandon auk but that’s not Brandon’s fault Brandon’s efficiency is his calling card and he’s on a football team that you know volume doesn’t make sense for the 49ers nobody’s going to have the volume title on an offense that has this many weapons I mean look at that iuk KD Debo Samuel mcaffrey Ray Ray McCloud Jaan Jennings you have Ronnie Bell and Chris Conley this is by the way where you don’t want to be in the bottom left that means that you’re gonna have below average success rate and below average EPA I know not a lot of tries not a big sample size for Ronnie Bell and Chris Conley but I do think that with a big sample size Brandon auk is up here on the right an outlier in a positive way for the 49ers all right let’s move on let’s talk a little bit about the 49ers OTA availability yesterday their offensive line coach Chris fer discussed their offensive line investment strategy he was asked something along the lines of why don’t the forers used first and second round picks more often on the offensive line and Chris fer the offensive line coach himself he explained well because that’s not the most optimal way for the 4 ners to progress let’s listen to what he said and then we’ll break it down I you know I don’t know about I that’s for John and K for the most part my personal opinion this is my personal opinion if they ask me invest in guys that touch the ball guys that can touch the ball and score touchdowns and then there’s there’s a range of guys second third fourth round fifth round even that we will find starting offensive lineman in um at some point can you draft Yeah you draft Trent Williams you draft your the pick and draft you’re getting a Difference Maker but there’s guys that can make difference to touch the ball well in the second third fourth rounds or second third rounds at least and and definitely in the first round that that guy that touches the ball it makes a huge difference in the game The Right Guard makes a difference we’ve talked about it before but that’s why we’re able to find fourth and fifth round draft picks and if they’ve been you go find you know it’s how dominant is the difference between pick you know 34 versus pick 54 in offensive line play and that’s where that’s what you’re trying to balance all the time so will be best available play all those types of things definitely will and were we possibly ready to draft guys higher in a draft yes but if there’s somebody that can touch the ball and make plays in my opinion I’m you asked me Chris do you want him want the guy that touches the ball for me uh because I think we can develop those players much more readily and have developed those players through the times because we do have a specific things that we’re looking for we know what we’re looking for through the course of time that’s the advantage of being together with Kyle for so long that we kind of can pigeon hold these guys are we always right heck no we’re not always right and nobody is on anything so yeah could you put five first rounders across the front but I don’t know that we have to to have success and and it hasn’t been that case as far as running the football and protecting the quarterback you know are do we have yeah we don’t have five first rounders so there’s always going to be that but the fact that you can throw a short pass to Debo even though the right tackle is getting beat it ends up being a 60- yard touchdown so yeah the right tackle block somebody but the guy gets tackled at five yards you don’t have the 60- yard touchdown boy that right tackle did a great job what’s it matter if the guy touching the ball can’t take it to the house so there’s the trade-off and you’re constantly playing that game so the 49ers I mean first off let’s let’s get this straight I saw a lot of people misinterpreting and downright Mis misquoting Chris fer they they have drafted offensive linemen up High I mean Mike mcin in 2018 and and Aaron banks in 2021 those are first and and second round picks respectively and they have used capital on an obvious first round type of player named Trent Williams so they have found it necessary to bring in what is at least perceived to be Elite Talent UPF front but obviously they are not spending the type of first round capital on the offensive line that some other teams have spent and Chris fer describes the tradeoff at play I mentioned during the draft that you know a receiver counts as pass protection too if you can beat man coverage on the receiving end the quarterback can get rid of the ball more quickly and if the quarterback can get rid of the ball more quickly it makes the offensive line look better football’s the ultimate team sport so you don’t necessarily have to add at a particular role to make a certain issue better if your issue is that the quarterback is facing too much pressure you can improve the blocking or you can improve the ability to get rid of the ball more quickly either through a quicker release from the quarterback or in the case that I’m just talking about better Separation on the back end Chris firster example uh in that regard was Debo Samuel housing a quick screen pass for a touchdown even if the right tackle misses a block in the play if Debo Samuel still houses the play for a touchdown well that’s going to be worth it even if you win that block but you have a worse player than Debo Samuel and you only get five yards as Chris fer said well who cares if you have the better offensive lineman it is really hard to argue with the positive results that the 49ers have gotten with the way that they’re balancing this whole offensive investment operation this was the number one offense in all football last year everybody understands Chris fer included that the pass protection wasn’t great last year the 49ers are doing what they can to improve it Dominic puny for example we heard firster talk about it yesterday their third round pick out of Kansas he didn’t ow a single sack in two years of FBS college football at Kansas firster said this guy is a better pass protector than he is a run blocker remember in the past the 49ers had prioritized run blocking over pass protection well now puny definitely is a better pass protector than run blocker he said that he’s gonna have to catch up a little bit in terms of the Run blocking to be ready for the very specific things of the 49ers do at the NFL level so there you go that there’s an investment in pass protection the 49ers ranked in the 20s last year they need to get to a certain level of competence they already reached it in 2021 after they signed Trent Williams and Alex Mack had eroded a bit last season I think they primarily need to fortify the interior but but yes they they do need to get get better at pass protection they have recognized this they have made moves to address it not just Dominic puny they also drafted jerck Kingston and they’re also working that Center position probably for the longer term with Bri May and Drake nent added to the team by the way Drake nent his dad played with Chris fer at Colorado State in college Drake Nan’s dad is Terry Nan he also played a bit in the NFL Terry was the QB at Colorado state in the early 80s Chris fer was the center speaking of centers at Colorado state in the 80s I thought that was a cool uh little connection that that we learned yesterday but the 49ers do not want to just draft offensive linemen for the hell of drafting offensive linemen that would be a Preposterous strategy and they probably would be a lot less successful than they are right now they’ve been very successful over the past five seasons both as an offense and as a team overall in general the 49ers believe and I think that the data probably fleshes this out that there is more readymade impact talent to be had at the skill positions Beyond round two than there is at on the offensive line especially at offensive tackle we know how the 49ers think they believe that offensive tackle necessitates a very unique skill set physically that’s really hard to find beyond the very top part of the draft this year they didn’t pick until number 31 even somebody like Roger Rosen Garten who was really fast I don’t think that the fort Anders believed that he had quite the lateral movement ability to deliver the way that they needed him to at that tackle position plus he was also undersized relative to the average tackle and you know they might have liked Roger Rosen Garten but they didn’t like him enough to take him with their 31st overall pick and then once it came to the second round they obviously liked Renardo green better so what the 49ers did is they waited to invest in the interior line because they thought that they would have more close to readymade players available there Dominic puny was a great example they nabbed Dominic puny in the third round and they grabb Jerick Kingston in the sixth but drafting lineman just to say that you drafted a lineman that at any position drafting a receiver just to say you drafted a receiver drafting a QB just to say that you did that that is a recipe for disaster you have to pick players that you believe will fit your system that you believe are the best players available at the time that you pick because if you’re just trying to make a segment of social media happy because you think of this event in terms of Madden ratings and plugging and playing a player very robotically you’re not going to be very successful the 49ers of a sucess successful track record in the NFL draft they have a successful track record of building a football team and Chris fer explained their thought process he also said we know that we’re not right every single time because nobody’s right every single time but over the longer course of action here when the 49ers have built their offensive line it it does seem and you know I’ll be I was the first to criticize that there have been some spots where they’ve missed with some spots that potentially things could have been better that could have helped this team get to a Super Bowl but over the longer range especially when zoomed out and when we view the entire offense and the entire roster they have a mass quiet the stockpile of skill position weapons they have built a semi-competent line that I think took a step back in 2023 and they are looking to get back to the level that they were at pass protection wise in 2021 and and most of 2022 and once they can get there I think that this 49ers offense can stand to take yet another step forward even though it was already number one last year speaking of that lateral movement here’s Chris fer on the short shuttle times of the 49ers offensive linemen that were added to the team this year that obviously starts with puny and goes to Kingston and then Mae and Drake Nan all of those guys had short shuttle times of 4.47 seconds or faster which is on the upper echelon of all offensive linemen that have ever been tracked so it seems like the 49ers really focused on this that was my question to Chris fer and I thought that he had a really interesting revelatory answer about what the 49ers look for and how much analytics might inform their decisions when they’re drafting offensive linemen uh rookie offensive lineman had really fast short shuttle times how big of a point of emphasis was that in meeting rooms prior to the draft and have you seen some of that translate on the field already that was I know somebody sent it to me I think whoever put out there whatever I don’t have one of those social media things but I somebody sent it to me and I saw it well that’s cool but I think it’s more of a uh the traits we see the traits in a player and it just so happens to translate short shuttle now short shuttle to me short shuttle is a science short shuttle you can you can train the kid to run a short shuttle there’s a there’s a thing to the feet the hands I don’t know what it is but literally they can they can just by training it properly knock time off it that doesn’t demonstrate as much of their core uh skills right the three cone drill has a little harder doesn’t matter how technical you are there’s so much start and stop and weaving I go a little bit more on on the three cone personally but it’s funny that the short shuttle it obviously must have some carryover because these things that I talked about that we see on tape that you don’t you don’t see our plays but you see the traits of the player it must be something that’s good in the short shuttle as well so wasn’t something we pinpointed I’ve been with a lot of personnel people that go like look if if an offensive linean doesn’t have a short shutle this we’re not taking or if a tight end doesn’t have a 20 of this or three con or vertical they won’t take them because the over time that’s what analytics does they just chart on a graph and say look these guys that are under this number or above this number don’t make it and so they say why would we take them because odds are they don’t make it um that’s a little too analytical but it’s a good jump off spot to say boy they better show some other things to say they’re going to so that that was an interesting stat it it makes me look at a little bit uh it’s just interesting to see how it showed up it was cool so firster acknowledge that he saw that short shuttle stat I mean I I wrote a whole article about it and he’s obviously an old school offensive line coach that he’s going to be watching the tape he’s not going to be relying on the Nerds analytic numbers but you can’t discount the testing especially since that is inherently a more scientific way of doing stuff than the ey test and I think that the way to succeed in football is to find the right balance between accepting the analytics integrating them into your thought process and also being a gut feel film guy you know watch the tape get your feeling on a player get your get your sense of what he’s made up of but also look at the stopwatch also look at all these great more scientific measurements that we have at our disposal and I think that there was consensus from the fort aners we heard John Lynch talking after the draft and during the draft he kept on mentioning consensus Fort aners have an R&D Department that’s looking at the analytics they have Chris fer who’s looking at the tape they have Kyle Shanahan who’s looking at the tape they have a lot of Scouts who are looking at the tape and also have Intel on these prospects who they are as people what they can do physically in terms of workouts how that might translate onto the field so you get all of these Minds all of this research all of this Intel and then you make a decision after combining the multitude of information and John Lynch highlighted that the 49ers had consensus this year so we’ll see how it goes with these offensive linemen that they brought in we do know that the consensus led to guys who by the at least the tail of the tape the tail of the testing have very good lateral movement ability which can help in both run blocking and pass protection because I think we saw 49ers interior linemen get their you crossed up way too many times guys would cross their face defensive tackles would be able to cross the face of 49ers guards of Jake Brendle the center and pressure Brock birdie too often last season and the 49ers need to tighten up they’re in the I think the right side of the offensive line is obviously weaker than the left but I don’t think that Aaron Banks was great in pass protection at left guard last year either Jake brindle needs to have a stronger year in pass protection he needs to I mean he’s in such a high pressure position because he’s also calling out the protections a lot of times when you do see a stat like nine unblocked pressures on blitzes from the Chiefs in the Super Bowl you naturally are going to look back at the center because the center is in charge of so much setting protection for the 49ers in any Shanahan offense up front and obviously Right Guard that was the weak spot of the 49ers offensive line Spencer berford gave way to John Feliciano and then John Feliciano got hurt in the Super Bowl Feliciano is back now we’ll see Feliciano can play center as well he’s actually playing some center now with Jake brindle out with NE tendonitis during otaa so there’s a lot of different ways this can go a lot of different spots for Dominic Poney to potentially fill in he’s working out a guard so probably left or right guard to begin and we just have to wait and see how the 49ers are going to use the new resources at their disposal to try to improve up front as far as Colton mckivitz goes we had a smart con uh comment about Colton mckivitz from Joseph mckivitz took on a lot in his first year starting not one flag and kept to his footwork and hand placement you cannot give up on someone after one year yeah especially when there’s again no clearcut upgrade for over Colton mckivitz you’re picking at 31 the premier tackles weren’t there somebody else said and I’m not going to find the comment but somebody El said instead of picking latu they could have drafted an offensive lineman that is exactly the wrong way to think about this they picked lotu in the third what third round offensive lineman could you have guaranteed last year before you knew anything of how these guys are going to play in the NFL what guy could you have guaranteed late in the third round would be able to step in and become a multi-year starter for the 49ers you couldn’t you couldn’t with the benefit at hindsight in a few years after some of these rookies play well I’m sure there’ll be a third rounder maybe a fourth maybe a fifth round offensive lineman that has played well but that’s not information that you have on draft night so you have to go with who you think is going to fit your system the best which player is the most quality talent in the context of your system and that’s what the 49ers believed that offensive linemen good enough to make an impact in their system last year were only available in the first couple rounds maybe the top of the third round they didn’t pick until later in the third round this year they believed that there were some guys at the very top of the draft that could make a difference but they didn’t pick until number 31 so it again it’s not easy to get better in the NFL when you’re already as good as the 49ers are and that one weakest spot yes it is the right side of the offensive line but one of the reasons why they have so many good skill position players on the outside is because they haven’t had to pour a whole lot of resources draft wise into that right side so I mean they they used the first round pick on Mike mcin way back in 19 or not that old 2018 then they used in 2020 the fifth rounder on Colton mckivitz he started for one season you can say that he improved over the course of that season and as Joseph says you don’t just give up on a guy right away unless you have a slam dunk Surefire replacement that you can acquire at a reasonable cost so you don’t have to compromise spending elsewhere and the 49ers obviously didn’t have that now Dominic Poney he’s an intriguing Prospect he’s gonna start at that guard position that’s where he’s going to work first that’s where he’s working right now but he played tackle in college and the fort Anders believe he has true five position versatility so this is not to say that Colton mckivitz is going to be starting at the end of the season it’s Al you it’s also not to say that Colton mckivitz is going to be the same player last year as he’s going to be this season the 49ers are counting on Improvement but you load yourself up with realistic options because it’s not a game of Madden and you give yourself as much of this optionality as possible and with a small roster right 53 men is not a big roster 49ers have really liked offensive lineman who can play multiple positions because it gives them more of that potential adaptability you can plug and play guys anywhere I think puny five position type of player really embodies that the more options you give yourself the better chance you have at improving the line they’ve already done it once again the 2021 2022 lines were above average in pass protection 2021 especially I think the retirement of Alex Mack set the 49ers back a bit they they’re probably hoping that he’d be with the team for at least one more year into 2022 he wasn’t with them 2023 was one of the worst pass protecting years they’ve had so far but they had the skill position weapons and they had the great quarterback and Brock pie to overcome a lot of that so I think they want to get that pass protection better at least to replacement level so that py can take the next step in his development but doing so is obviously not an easy or exact science and that’s why it was so fascinating to listen to 49ers offensive line coach Chris fer now we’re going to move on to special teams and the new kick return rule this is 49ers special teams coach Brian Schneider on the Uncharted new territory that the 49ers are entering along with the rest of the league on the new kick return role Let’s uh on the new kick return rule let’s listen to this and listen to and maybe even speculate a little bit about the different roles that the 49ers might assign on special teams for this new play season when you get the news it’s you know a lot of anxiety because you know what you’re looking at is the only thing you really have to look at is the XFL and those it’s different too than that um so you really try to do as much as you can until the players got here is cuz it was all in my brain and one thing would go to another and then all of a sudden it’s a I think it’s about here now for me in terms of once we get the fundamentals together once we asked the players to communicate with us talk to us what do you see and once we kind of broke it down that way to get to some I think some fundamentals that will stick in terms of how to get there and now we have to see where it goes because it’s different that’s for sure XFL tap did you watch a ton a ton and the difference there is they really had they’re on the 35 yard line and there’s just 10 across with one returner so even five yards in the spacing and timing it it’s just really different and it’s really really fast so you can kind of pull off years past but the spacing and timing and like like George for instance for us Odum he was so skilled at speed number one and then weaving down the field to put him in position as it’s you know developing so I I think everyone that sees it for the first time it’s really strange CU you see the kickoff and I’m standing right here and it’s it’s just like it’s like you’re in space you never see that happen without everyone moving and so it’s really like the music went off every I was like in the Twilight Zone and then when it happens it’s just it’s really fast so getting used to all that for the players and and it’s going to continue to evolve so how much in what ways has it kind of changed how you view what you’re looking for in a returner specifically well and that’s where I think you have to start it’s all about the ball and so that’s where we always start so you always try to anticipate what kickers are going to do and it could be anywhere so that’s where we start preparing so is it going to be like a short stop is it you know what type of Fielding balls are you going to get what type of guys are there and then what type of Runners are there I mean is it going to be better to have a bigger back where you can break through the arm tackles because everyone’s going to be engaged is it going to be a quicker guy but it all starts with the football so that’s where you build everything everything from and really trying to figure out where they’re going to kick it how they’re going to kick it sounds like figuring it out oh we’re everyone’s still figuring it out like um the way I feel about it now again that that’s the best way I can explain it in my mind it was here in my mind with all the things that could go on and you wanted to try to get some base fundamentals that you think you could just from geometry basically and uh so you put all those in and then once you see with the players okay now at least we have a starting point where where I think we can get it pretty close to the fundamentals to get in position to make the block and then we’re going to see how it all evolves so I feel good where we’re at right now and again there’s 301 coaches like me that don’t know exactly if we’re on the right track what it’s going to look like so more than anything it’s going to be adjusting and so right now I feel good kind of finally with the players and getting their input and working through it all but that’s going to be it’s exciting I mean I’m fired up this is this is the coolest thing to happen in terms of in my coaching career because it’s what are you going to do you have a great opportunity to do something that’s never been done before so it’s a race to figure it out and it’s going to be constantly adjust you know there typically isn’t a lot of room on special teams to to gain a whole lot of efficiency every once in a while you’ll have a phenomenal returner a phenomenal special teams unit that does truly make a difference the 2011 49ers the Tony Montana Squad that’s that was one of those units but typically offense and defense have a much larger impact on the game I think the margin with Which special teams can make an impact this season is is going to be much wider because of this new kickoff rule so Brian Schneider is right I mean he’s excited because he can have more of an impact on games because it’s going to be an inexact science for quite a while maybe the whole season maybe more than a year maybe it’s going to take a while but this is a radically new play the players gonna have much much less of a running start it’s going to be much more like an offensive play and to be honest relative to what kickoffs were over the past few years that was a dead play you had hardly anything coming out of kickoff it was a very neutral play now you’re going to have a chance to make a positive impact or a negative impact on your football team with kickoffs and kick returns it it’s gotten to the point where the Kansas City chief said that Harrison bucker might not kick it off because it’s going to be much more important to have a kicker who can tackle so they might have somebody like Justin Reed who’s actually able to kick he’s a safety out of Stanford they they might have Justin Reed kick the ball off because it’s going to be a whole lot more important to have that 11th player that kick or tackle and uh the kicks you’re not incentivized to boot it through the end zone anymore you’re incentivized to put it into the receiving zone or whatever they catch it the the catch Zone and that’s that’s between the one yard line and or the goal line and uh what is it 25 yards up the field so you kick the ball you set up a return the covermen don’t have a running start or at least not as big of a running start it’s going to be much more like a scrimmage play so the question is do you want bigger men you know even offensive linemen and defensive lineman battling at it in close quarters or do you want more tight end like bodies or you want Jawan Jennings like bodies engaging in some of that blocking I think the 49ers have some players who might work well for this because I you probably want a hybrid of a fast player a quick player and a big player with with the rules being not you know it’s resembles an offensive play but it still has some open field special teams characteristics to it as well and then you get to the returner position are you going to want to stockier player or you going to want to shiftier player I think again the 49ers have both with somebody like Debo Samuel It’s the Best of Both Worlds kind of thing that might fit perfectly into the new kick return rule the Isaac gendo with his athleticism profile 220 but 44 speed he might fit perfectly into the new kick return profile meanwhile the punt returns are going to stay the same and the punt returns they remain a very tricky play the coverage units have gotten so good in the NFL and the coverage units have outpaced what the return units have done on the punt side of things couple years ago we waited almost the whole season to see the first punt return for a touchdown in the NFL so punt returns there’s a lot of potential downside if you muff the punt and because the odds of a touchdown return are so low there’s not a whole lot of potential upside anymore so the focus around the league I think should be and the focus in the 49ers has been to minimize the potential downside on punt returns and I know they they probably lost the Super Bowl because of a downside play on the punt return when that ball hit off of derell lutter Jr and Ray Ray McLoud was was unable to hop on the fumble so the you know they br they signed Trent Taylor they brought him back and he didn’t muff a single punt for the 49ers back when he was with them from 2017 to to 2020 they’re gonna work Jacob coing out at that position Ricky Piera is gonna work out at that position and it’s G to end up being the player who gives the 49ers the most confidence that he won’t screw things up that’s the first thing and that’s the primary thing that you have to look at at the punt return position all right let’s go to 49ers Q and A a few minutes of this and then I am GNA watch some hockey with my buddy Joe he’s a big New York Rangers Fan and they’re playing the Florida Panthers still weird that South Florida has an NHL team that’s good doesn’t seem like the best hockey climate down there but you play hockey indoors you just got to have that air conditioner pumping Robert Beal could be a really good special teams player with these new kickoff rules and kick return rules you’re right he’s added a little bit of weight so maybe he has lost a little bit of speed but they think they found a happy Zone with Robert Beal he’s probably around 255 260 now as opposed to around 245 last year I am ready for some questions let’s go guys does pun’s ability to play offensive tackle allow them to keep one backup offensive tackle in Jaylen Moore I I don’t think that puny and potential tackle flexibility is something that’s on the 49ers mind as far as making roster Cuts yet because he’s initially going to be working at guard and if he only works at guard through training camp then you do not Factor him as an insurance policy ATT tackle you have to see him play tackle the NFL level first so first they want him get him very Adept at the interior line because that’s where they need most help that’s where they need the most immediate depth and then they’ll start working them in at that Tackle Spot I don’t think that’s going to happen before the end a training camp barring some kind of injuries and if that’s the case then I think that you don’t Factor it into your insurance policy The Tackle position look out for Brandon Parker at swing tackle this is a veteran who’s had some success in the NFL he just has had two straight Seasons cut really short by injuries a little bit later on today be sure to tune in to this we’re going to go through every single player and every single position on the 49ers roster so I’m gonna go watch some hockey but we’re going to go through this a little bit later so be sure to be on the lookout for that I haven’t scheduled it yet but I think I’ll just go live on it happens maybe in an hour and a half or so and we’re gonna have a big show talking about all of this on the fort aners roster so Brandon Parker will be mentioned Brock py will be mentioned George odm will be mentioned of course we’ll talk Nick Bosa Brandon auk every single player on the roster a quick rundown of what the 49ers are doing how’s that sound we’re g to be working hard by the way your feedback was was taken we put up uh the 49ers poster back there Studio it’s functional now it’s not what it’s going to look like yet during the season but we’ve got it up and running on May 30th all right 50 minutes flat we’ll talk to everybody soon

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