49ers BREAKING: Nick Bosa contract insurance | SF signs EDGE | Shilo Sanders tries out

49ers BREAKING: Nick Bosa contract insurance | SF signs EDGE | Shilo Sanders tries out

All right, we’ve got some 49ers news. They have made their first post Nick Bosa ACL tear signing. It is a practice squad signing of a familiar name. William Bradley King, veteran defensive end, 265 pounds, was with the 49ers in August during training camp to help them navigate through some injuries. He is going to be back with San Francisco. Now, I do expect the team to make one of two moves from the practice squad to the 53 tomorrow. It’s either going to be Robert Beal Jr. from the practice squad promoted full-time or Travis Gibson, the veteran defensive end who is on that practice squad for San Francisco. So, William Bradley King will effectively replace one of those two players on the 49ers practice squad. That is my prediction just looking at the larger scope of things. San Francisco also worked out three safeties today. One of those safeties is Shiloh Sta Sanders. That is Coach Prime’s son, Shiloh Sanders. He’s was with Tampa Bay over the course of training camp, was cut, played for South Carolina, Jackson State, where Dion coached and then Colorado where Dion obviously coaches. I’m looking at the 49ers roster right now and unless there’s a new injury that we’re going to find out about tomorrow, uh the 49ers are not looking to replace anyone at safety. However, it is worth noting that they’ve got an open practice squad spot. So, it’s Shiloh Sanders. It is Jaylen Mahoney, the former 49er safety who’s been with the team a few times now. He most recently was with San Francisco over the course of training camp. and it is Brandon Joseph, a safety out of Notre Dame who worked out for the 49ers today. So, to help you understand and and see how this is all working for the 49ers, we can open up the 90man depth chart and I’ve already actually predicted one of the moves. Anything I added a new color code here. Anything that is colorcoded in orange, that is a predicted move. I think they’re going to move Robert Beal Jr. or Travis Gibson. But for now, we will predict Beal from the practice squad to the 53. They are officially going to sign William Bradley King. Maybe we have to wait until tomorrow for that to be an an official thing. But then when you see both of those moves happen and you combine it with the fact that Demarcus Robinson is going to be activated off the suspended list in time for practice tomorrow, the 49ers will have filled up their 53man roster and they will have 16 of 17 possible spots filled on the practice squad. So I think that’s where the potential Shiloh Sanders signing comes in. They worked him out today. It’s probably more likely that the 49ers sign a familiar face in Jaylen Mahoney to the practice squad. So, why don’t I pred predict that right now? Why don’t we put Jaylen Mahoney into the 49ers practice squad? Why don’t we highlight it in orange? Oops, it’s the wrong one. I need to highlight the text background, not the text itself. There we go. So, my predictions are Beal to the 53 Mahoney to the practice squad. As you can see there, predicted move, not actual move that will fill out the 53man roster and the 17-man practice squad for the 49ers. All right, so that’s the new signing in the whole Bosa saga. Earlier today, I talked about Trey Hendrickson. I talked about Kavon Thibido. We can talk about any potential trade. Realize that there is no team in fire mode after three games. It is September 23rd right now. If the Bengals, who are currently two and one, by the way, it’s not like they’re a losing team at this moment, even though Joe Burrow is hurt. If the Bengals decide that they’re going to go into fireale mode, and they say, “Okay, well, Trey Hendrickson’s 30. We only have him under contract this year. We have been unable to strike a long-term deal. Uh, let’s ship him out. Let’s ship him out uh out of here.” If the Bengals say that, then it’s probably not going to happen until some point in October. I would say the same thing with Kavon Tibido and the Giants. They’re at least gonna give Jackson Dart an opportunity to show that this team could surprise and contend this year, but it’s just too early in the season to expect fire sales at the most valuable position. But the trade deadline is November 5th, and at some point before then, opportunities will heat up. The 49ers, for example, in 2022 traded for Christian McCaffrey several weeks before the trade deadline. I think three weeks before the trade deadline and that happened because it was clear that the Carolina Panthers weren’t going anywhere. It’s very possible that some of the teams right now who are potential sellers will become definite sellers over the course of the next few weeks. The timing actually works out for the 49ers because they need to determine what exactly they need at that edge rushing position that’s vacated by Nick Bosa. Bosa has led the NFL in pressures since 2019. He’s one of the best players in all of football. He impacts the game even when he is not impacting the stat sheet. Obviously, the 49ers will need to somehow someway pick up that slack. I’ve talked about the multiple ways that for sure need to happen. Offense is going to need to heal up and deliver top five efficiency. I’ve talked about the smoke and mirrors that Robert Salah is already employing and may even intensify moving forward. I’ve invoked the example of the 2020 49ers who finished number six in defensive DVOA under Robert Salah after losing Nick Bosa to an ACL tear. So, there’s all these great data points and examples and guidance principles for the 49ers to use. I absolutely get all that, but it may also ultimately come down to after a period of determination for San Francisco, the need to acquire more talent because Bosa is just that good. You can try to pick up the slack every which way at different positions and you could probably pick up a lot of it. We’ve seen Super Bowl winners, three of the last seven Super Bowl winners have not had a top 10 defense by DVOA. They’ve been number 12 to to 14. So, I mean, the 49ers could do all that, still be in good position, but if a good opportunity presents itself to pick up a player at the second most valuable position in football, which is edge rusher, then San Francisco would be foolish to not pursue it. And if they improve to 4-0 on Sunday against Jacksonville, then they they really might owe it to the locker room to really investigate every opportunity that they have. The thing is that the opportunities may not truly materialize until October when more teams are in fireale mode. Anyway, with that all in mind, we need to talk about money and we need to talk about the fact that the 49ers took out an insurance plan against the salary cap on Nick Bosa’s contract that can rebate them about $7 million on the cap. And that is significant because every million counts. The 49ers have been spending a lot of money. They are again in the top three of cash spending in 2025. That’s because they spent a ton on resigning their A-list players over the course of this off season. The 49ers financial planning is such that they carry cap space over that’s not used from season to season. You can see where their situation for this season stands right now. I keep really detailed track of this. They’re at $47.3 million remaining on the 2024 cap or well, sorry, I’m looking at the wrong one. 2025, it’s less. It’s 32.3 million. Sorry, they’ve been using more. I’m like, that was a little bit high. I keep track 2024. I keep tracking 2025. 2026, I haven’t really filled out the the sheet yet. So, don’t look at this and treat it as gospel. I know that it says 335.6 6 million, but that’s because I don’t have prices for guys like Perie, McAffrey, Bosa in 2026. 2025 though, 32.35 million by my tally. Now, this doesn’t mean that the 49ers have 32.35 million to spend. Why? Because whatever they don’t use is going to be carried over to 2026. And whatever they don’t use in 2026 will be carried over to 2027. Costs are going up every year. Brock Pery’s contract right now has a very small cap hit, something around 10 million, maybe even less. Those cap hits are going to skyrocket above 30, above 40 million in future years. So, you can see how the 49ers need extra money now to carry over into the future to keep things sustainable. They obviously do have a spending threshold of some level. I can’t say if it’s exact because they don’t even know how big the salary cap is going to be in the future, but they have to play it by feel. They have a spending threshold now of what they’re comfortable forking over for players in the near term so that they can stay sustainable in the long term. The question is where is that limit? Because they’ve already spent again the the top three amount of cash over the course of this 2025 annual fiscal year. And the fact that they’re getting $7 million in salary cap relief through insurance for Nick Bosa, the fact that they got I think about 5 million last year for Brandon Aayuk. So that’s about $12 million between two guys who have torn their ACL’s over the past two seasons. The fact that the 49ers have been buoied by year after cap relief because this is going to be a credit on the 2026 cap that theoretically expands their spending threshold for now. That’s why you take out the salary cap insurance. A number of teams are now doing this. Not everybody does it because it costs a little bit more money. The teams who are really cheap don’t take out salary cap insurance. But the teams who are really interested in competing on a year in yearout basis, they will take out that cap insurance so they are not crippled under the NFL’s limit by injuries like the the ones that the 49ers saw to Brandon Iayuk and Nick Bosa. So we can say 7 million is going to be added to the 2026 limit for San Francisco 2026 credit 7 million for the 49ers. But since salary cap space is tied from season to season, it all comes from one big pool. So, there’s a reason why I have this right here linked to 2024, linked to 2025, linked to 2026. I think it’s probably a good time for me to start working on this 2026 sheet because we’ll have a better idea of what the 49ers feel comfortable spending in 2025. To give you an example, Trey Hendrickson is set to make 16 million over the course of this entire 2025 season in base salary. However, that has already seen three weeks go by. So, I’m doing a calculation right now. 16 million. It’s a lot of zeros. Divide 16 million divided by 17 games. That is a lot of money per game, but we’re going to multiply that by three. Trey Hendrickson has already been paid 2.8 million over the course of this season in base salary by the Cincinnati Bengals. So 16 million minus 2.8, even I could do that math. That’s easy. 13.2 million is what Trey Hendrickson is set to make over the course of this year. every subsequent week will make Trey Hendrickson’s owed money on May’s salary for the rest of this season $941,000 cheaper. So every single time that he suits up for the Bengals, they pay him $941,000. The price tag gets lower and lower. We know that the 49ers will now have 7 million of extra spending money due to the BOSA insurance. Maybe they ultimately try to figure out a way when they when if they do make a move, if and when they do make a move, uh to be able to find one at a price point that fits with the money that they’re saving on Nick Bosa salary cap insurance, if that makes sense, because this is a very, very precise dance that the 49ers are playing. They are walking a tight rope financially. They’re spending more money than any other team in the league. No team has spent more on its players since Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch took over than the 49ers. They have more star players than any team in the league. They also are now dealing with more injuries to star players than any team in the league. They also are 3 and 0, so they owe it to themselves. They owe it to the locker room. They owe it to the the roster work that they did this off season to put as good of a foot forward as possible and compete. Well, uh, they’ve they got to find a way how to make that cap sustainable because that’s been the ethos of this whole roster build for the 49ers. You remember when John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan first took over in 2017, they said that we want to make a team that is not only good, that competes for Super Bowls, but also competes for them on an annual basis. Never just one season and then oh my god we’re going to be bad for three or four years because the bubble popped because the level of sustainability was was breached. So that’s why the 49ers are are looking at this in cautious terms. I thought one of the most interesting quotes from John Lynch this off seasonason when he was talking about the 49ers off season of restraint on the free agency market was it wasn’t just the the players and the 49ers decided not to overpay and sign. It was also the the fact that they decided not to resign some guys that they didn’t get into the upper reaches of a bidding war for for multiple players over the course of this off season. And it was very clear that the 49ers were going to do that entering free agency because we talked to John Lynch at the NFL combine in Indianapolis. And he said that, you know, this is it’s tough when you’re personally attached to some guys like Dre Greenlaw, like Talano Hufanga, like Charvarius Ward. It’s tough to say, you know, we’re not going to pursue you to the level that other teams are financially going after you. But John Lynn said, “I think that some good can come out of this for the roster because this is a young man’s sport. Obviously, it’s a young man’s sport where you benefit from experience. You have to find that mix of both. But when you’re looking to get younger, healthier, hungrier, better on run defense, that was the big key for the 49ers on that side of the ball. Sometimes it’s gonna very directly overlap with getting cheaper because players on rookie deals, that’s the o ultimate cost control in the NFL. So that’s exactly how the offseason worked for San Francisco. They were able to reinvest a lot of their money into the A-list players and they were able to get hungrier, younger, and cheaper at some of the Blist positions. And now they can move forward with a certain amount of spending flexibility. They definitely built some in because they they always like to build some in for trades. The 49ers have made a trade in every single season of Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch except for 2018. Keep that in mind. They have been very, very active and aggressive on the trade markets. They definitely left themselves some room. Now they have to react to circumstances. Nick Bosa’s ACL is torn. We’re still quite a ways away from the trade deadline on November 5th. How do you fill the gap between September 23rd and November 20 November 5th? Well, you monitor the situation. You monitor the market. You wait for some teams to go into sell mode. You collect your insurance money for the Nick Bosa injury, which is 7 million after you collected about 5 million last year for Brandon Iayuk. You take a look at the books, which which we’re doing in full detail right here, and you determine how much you can spend this season if an opportunity does pop up at one of those edge situations. at one of those ed edge positions. For the time being, you rely on your in-house talent. And the move that the 49ers made today of William Bradley King, who used to play for them in August over the course of training camp, does set the table for promotion of either Robert Beal Jr. or Trev Gibson from the practice squad. You see what you have if you’re the 49ers. Only thing you can do is wait at this point. It’s like an airplane that’s not cleared to land until there’s a market until the trade deadline gets closer. You don’t have clearance to land. So, you got to circle around the airport a few times. You got 49ers have to play probably a few games, at least one, probably at least two because I think there’s a window for San Francisco to potentially do something in early October after they play on Thursday night against the Rams. They’re about to play two games in five days. Jacksonville on Sunday, a chance to go four-0. The Rams the following Thursday, and if they beat Jacksonville, it’ll be a chance to go 5-0 and three and 0 in the division. If about nine days from now, the 49ers are 5-0 and 3-0 in the NFC West, absolutely hell yes. I would expect them to make a firm push of the chips into the middle of the table for an edge rusher who can truly truly make the difference. If you are off to a 5-0 start with three of those wins coming against the NFC West, you absolutely owe it to the players, the coaching staff, you owe it to yourself. I mean, the 49ers went into this wildly aggressive roster rebuild this off season. And I I hate to use the word rebuild because people don’t understand the word rebuild. It it is super rare in the NFL to be able to make your team younger to the degree that we saw the 49ers do it over the course of this off season while you maintain several Hall of Fame pillars on your roster. So, the 49ers simultaneously got younger, but they didn’t get less experienced at the A-list foundational positions. I mean, we could look at the roster just to to illustrate all of this. I’ve already moved Nick Bosa over to the 49ers injured reserve list. So, unfortunately, his name is no longer in there. But you’ve got foundational pillars at all of these positions. Even, you know, I got to get Brock Pury back in there. We’ll take the injury shading off. We expect them back this week. But Pertie at quarterback, Christian McCaffrey at running back, they really would love if Brandon Aruk stepped into being a foundational pillar at receiver, but if he doesn’t, I think Ricky Piol, I mean, if Ricky Pearaul goes for 1,600 yards this year, let’s call Ricky a foundational pillar, screw it. We’re going to call Ricky Piol a foundational pillar. They have one at receiver. They have one at tight end, George KD, though, is currently on injured reserve. They have Trent Williams. Colton Makivitz is really blossoming. Bosa, the guy at the defensive line, and and now you’ve got to make contingency plans, and we’ll talk a little bit about Bryce Huff in a bit, but you’ve got to make contingency plans along that D line since he has torn his ACL. Warner at linebacker, Lenor at cornerback. I mean, that is a lot of A-list talent that the 49ers have, all while they’re able to pump in young rookie talent over the course of the past two seasons and also acquire young talent via trade like Bryce Huff to fortify this roster. So, the the mix of the two is what has allowed the 49ers to be 3 and 0 right now. This is why they’re defying the odds of all these injuries. They have actually struck a very great chord mixing the the premier veteran talent with the youth infusion. Last year the 49ers were too old. They were too slow. They were too injured to overcome. They they weren’t well coached enough either on the defensive side of the ball. And I personally think that Kyle Shanahan did not have his fast ball last year. I think it’s it’s human nature. You know, like you you’re tired after several deep playoff runs. You’re physically tired, you’re mentally tired. We saw the weight of all that pressure and fatigue come crashing down on the 49ers last year. One of the best examples of the strain that the 49ers were under in 2024 is the game against Seattle in week 10. When Nick Bosa was in there before he got hurt, Seattle was averaging like 3.8 yards per play. It was terrible. They weren’t doing anything. Absolutely nothing for the Seattle Seahawks. Then Nick Bosa got hurt and all of a sudden Seattle ripped off like seven yards of play. They came back, Gino Smith led him right down the field and they beat the 49ers. The 49ers were not insulated at all in 2024 against the potential catastrophic loss of an A-list player. Brock Perie got hurt, missed two games, they went 0 and2. Nick Bosa got hurt, they immediately fell off of a cliff. Defensively, Brock Pie’s gotten hurt here in 2025 and they’ve gone two and 0. Nick Bosa got hurt early in the game against the Cardinals and they still held Arizona to 13 points because remember two of the points came via safety. So, shouldn’t count against the 49ers defense. There’s countless other examples of resilience that the 49ers are showing in 2025 that they didn’t show in 2024. So, they owe it to themselves because of how they’ve constructed this roster. I mean, they have put a lot of care into finding the right balance between youth and the veteran pillars who they’ve invested a ton of money and they’ve spent a lot of money already on this roster. I feel that they owe it to themselves to see this thing through, especially if they start this season 5 and 0 with three NFC West wins. And I’m not saying they’re going to be favored in LA. They’re favored this weekend against Jacksonville. Three-point favorites against a a Jaguars team that should not be taken lightly. Jacksonville is actually the number two defense after three weeks by EPA per play. I want everybody right now to go ahead and head over to the San Francisco standard. I’ve got the big piece on 49ers grades from the Arizona game. An epic epic battle that the 49ers were able to win. That is available for you on the standard. So go ahead and and check that out. We talk about Bosa salary cap relief and the potential of the 49ers going and adding at defensive end. And of course today they added William Bradley King for the practice squad. And we’ll see the expected temporary or I shouldn’t say temporary. We should not going to be an elevation. It’s going to be a promotion in all likelihood for either Robert Beal Jr. or for Trev Gibson. Uh so the 49ers are already moving to at least fortify the depth of the room uh to put themselves in that holding pattern until other potential opportunities arise. But we should talk about who they actually have at the top of this depth chart right now. And it’s Bryce Huff. And Huff has been playing so well for San Francisco that it’s really impossible to ignore. I mean, I know that I love giving you this particular chart. Let’s get this up on the screen. Hold. Yeah, here we go. I know that this has been a good way to illustrate what Bryce Huff has been able to do for the 49ers because we see it on a week in weekout basis. He’s uh getting very very close to opposing quarterbacks and that’s exactly what you want when you’re talking about pushing the pocket. But he’s ranked amongst the top five edge rushers in all of football in terms of pass rush grade. He’s ranked just behind Trey Hendrickson himself in pass rush win rate so far this year. I mean, Bryce Huff is playing the best football of his career. He’s playing three down football when called upon, too. He’s ranked number 22 in run defense grade. That’s step one in picking up some of this Bosa slack. Mike Williams is step two in picking up some of the Bosa slack. Mike Williams has seen his pass rush win rate infinitely increase over the first three weeks. He didn’t win anything week one against the past they and at the time the thought was okay as long as he’s a good run defender that’s enough for the 49ers but he won 20% of his pass rushes this past week against Arizona after winning like 7% in week two against the Saints. All three of the rookies, Mikel Williams, Alfred Collins, CJ West, they got in on that one pressure that was nearly a safety against Kyler Murray. So, when I talk about a fluid situation and I talk about upward mobility for the 49ers and you know, the fact that you had an idea of what they had in 2020 after Nick Bosa went down and and Robert Salah had to work some miracles along with Chris Cacer to get Carrie Haidider Jr. to eight and a half sacks and the 49ers kept the number six defensive ranking even without both. I mean, that was Robert’s finest hour, what he was able to do in 2020. I think that he’s got more potential this year, more moldable clay this year because this is such a young unit relying on so many new pieces. I mean, let’s go back to the 49ers depth chart. Let’s let’s just see how this is constructed versus years prior. I I like to put the rookies in green. and the new additions in teal. So, I’m just zooming in on the defense itself. Obviously, Bosa is no longer there. It’s a gaping gaping hole. Nobody highlighted in the A-list pillar for the defensive line, but Mike Williams, new guy. CJ West, thumb surgery today, by the way. There’s a chance though that he’s back for the game this weekend. New guy. Alfred Collins making progress for the 49ers. In the 49ers grades piece right here, we have Alfred Collins snap count. for the game. 31 snaps for Alfred Collins. That is by far Alfred’s biggest workload of this season. I mean, he started with with nine snaps in game one. So, in Seattle, you saw Alfred Collins with nine snaps. Two weeks later facing the Arizona Cardinals, another division game, he’s at 31. And you know, his rotational usage is not really tied to Nick Bosa’s because he’s a defensive tackle, not a defensive end. So that shows you if he’s playing three times as much as he was in week one, that shows you how quickly Alfred Collins is growing for the 49ers. Nick Martin, now this is a player who hadn’t appeared yet. He’s been inactive. I have to credit Joseph Dana. He is a follower and I don’t know if he watches the YouTube videos, but he’s a follower on Twitter. He was just wondering if there’s any chance that they come up with another sub package that includes Nick Martin as a pass rusher because the 49ers already have three sub packages, which is more than the usual two. One of the sub packages involves a standard Nickelback right here, Upton Stout. Another one of the sub packages involves their standard base linebacker. It’s right here, Luke Gford. And the third sub package involves the big nickel Jier Brown who you know maybe we even I’m gonna redo this depth chart a little bit because Jier Brown is no longer playing a safety position. He’s playing a Nickelback position and I know that Chase Lucas is technically the backup to to to Upton Stout. But what I would do here is move Chase Lucas to the outside because Jaier Brown is getting more play time than him and have Jire in as Stout’s backup because we saw Jaier with what 25 snaps playing the big nickel position. The little nickels up than Stout. He had 32 snaps. Chase is a backup to Upton. So if Upton’s unavailable and they need a small nickel, they’ll go to Chase. And then if they want to go to the third potential personnel package, sometimes the one they begin the game with and they want base against the run defense and you want a heavier player, Luke Gford is going to play that third spot. I know it sounds a little bit complicated, but it’s I think it’s helping illustrate my point and it’s that Robert Salah is executing a lot of minations on the back end for the 49ers. And these minations can help them pick up some of the pass rushing slack left behind by Bosa because the smarter you are, say Arizona’s running a ton of 13 personnel with big tight ends and but you still need some speed because those tight ends are probably the toughest position to cover. Got a guy like Trey McBride that we saw from the Elijah Higgins too from from Arizona. Those are two guys who can be tough to keep up with. You might want somebody that has closer to DB speed but also has some real size to cover them. That’s where you enter Jaire Brown. That way you’ve got a bigger cover guy than Upton Stout who’s only 5’8. But if the other team is going to be running multi-wide receivers, if you’re going to see some kind of 11 personnel or, you know, what have you, a slot wide receiver being part of the mix, well then you’re probably going to want a smaller defensive back who’s quicker but also strong at the same time to be able to take out the run because run defense is such a priority. That’s why they went out and got up and stout. He might be 5’8, but he can move. And he’s got the grip strength of an ax. I mean, this guy is very, very strong. And he had 21 bench press reps. That says enough. The most of any DB at the NFL combine. So, that’s what Stout’s for. And then if you really need some size, if you really need some muscle while retaining some of the movement ability, that’s why Luke Gford is your number three linebacker. So, in this way, the 49ers defense is way more amorphous than it was last year. And you know, this is just again from one of my followers over on X. I’m I’m not going to say that the 49ers are actually planning this, but maybe they can become even more amorphous down the road and maybe Nick Martin can have a pass rushing package if they don’t feel that he’s fully ready for a three- down linebacker position quiet yet, but they get to the point where it does make sense to activate him on game days because guys are going to get hurt. There’s going to be attrition and they really like him for special teams and he’s already up for special teams with that size speed combination because he’s strong. He’s a lot like Upton Stout in that I mean brings real muscle to the table. Nick Martin had the most bench press reps of any linebacker at the combine. 26 uh and he could blitz. He’s explosive. We saw him grow as a blitzer over the course of the preseason. May maybe they’ve got a fourth sub package with an extra pass rusher that Robert Salah can utilize. All I know is that this is an all hands on deck time. It’s time to be as creative as possible. Salah’s already been very very creative over the course of the the first three weeks. We saw it into training camp, too. But the the aggressiveness of the blitzes on third down, the the intelligence behind some of the blitzes. I mean, the the way they cut off Kyler Murray’s passing lanes with Fred Warner and his big 66 frame. All of this that the 49ers have have put together over the course of uh the first three weeks indicates that Robert Salah probably is not done yet when it comes to how he views this defense and how he views the different permutations of what the 49ers can run. All right, I was not able to take any questions earlier this morning, but I’m happy to take them now. I know I talked about the new signing. I know I talked about my predicted moves for tomorrow. I know I’ve talked about the Trey Hendrickson trade, the potential Kavon Thibido trade. I know that I’ve talked about Nick Bosa’s salary cap insurance and the relief that can help San Francisco pay for a trade. I don’t know what I haven’t covered, but go ahead and ask your questions and I will try to cover it. Got one super chat in here. G I don’t know why Gardner Johnson was CJ Gardner Johnson was released but uh he might command a little bit of money. It’s probably going to be more than a veteran minimum and the 49ers will only get a player who they feel especially if they’re paying more than the minimum who they feel would firmly unseat a problem on their team, right? Who can upgrade San Francisco’s roster. And uh I don’t know if that exactly is the case because they’re running a pretty delicate combination of youth and and potential and speed on the back end. This is the fastest defense the 49ers have ever had. So we can’t just say, “Oh, they’re going to sign every single free agent who becomes available. All right, I’m ready for some questions. Let’s get him in here. Why not let the Hulk have some playing time? Well, he’s a defensive tackle. He’s not a defensive end. And so far, the tackles have stayed healthy for San Francisco. As you can see here, Elliot, I thought they’ve played well. They’ve been a good run defense this year. I think they’ve actually generated some pass rushing juice. The rookies Alfred Collins and CJ West are are both definitely coming along. If CJ can’t go this week, they still haven’t kicked the tires on Jordan Jefferson, whom they picked up off of waiverss from Jacksonville of all teams and they’re playing Jacksonville this weekend. So, I think Jordan Jefferson, he’s a secondyear guy. He’s actually further up in the pecking order than the Hulk, Sebastian Valdez. But at some point this season, I think they’re they’re going to need Sebastian Valdez. It’s just the way that football works. So 49ers fans should know better than anybody that that there is injury attrition. So I would just be patient on that front. Oh, Evan Anderson also on the practice squad. I forgot to mention him. Sorry about that. They might even elevate Evan Anderson at some point. They, you know, they could feel that Evan Anderson is ahead of Jordan Jefferson, but they needed the 53man spot to poach Jefferson from the Jags. So, it could be that Anderson gets priority with an elevation. But, we’ll just have to see. Really, we have not reached a decision point for the 49ers in this regard yet because their defensive tackles up until this point, up until the CJ West broken thumb, have remained healthy and he still might be available to go with a caston on Sunday. What would I give up to go get Trey Hendrickson? I think that Tim’s idea, and I put it up there, this is on the San Francisco standard or earlier, conditional trade would be something that might be necessary for both sides. I think that if you’re the 49ers, you have to find a way to protect yourself in case you do trade for him because it wouldn’t be overly cheap. I don’t think it’d be overly, you know, insanely expensive because Trey Hendrickson is 30 years old. But you do have to find a way to protect yourself if the guy doesn’t resign with you or if you don’t want to resign him. And in case this is a complete dud, in case he gets hurt two weeks from now, you can’t just go out there, spend a valuable pick, and then have Trey Hendricks and miss most of the season and not make the playoffs. A conditional pick that has some incentive tied to it uh would be the only way that I could see something fair getting worked out. And I think Tim said big trade package for Trey Hendrickson if he plays over 60% of snaps and the 49ers make the playoffs and he resigns with them. And it gets significantly smaller if he plays over 60% of snaps but they don’t make the playoffs and and it gets even smaller if uh he doesn’t reach 60% of snaps. Turns into basically spending a second round pick and that’s it and saying well that that’s the price of doing business. You got to move on with your life if it doesn’t work out. So something on like an escalating scale like that I think would would make some sense. Would would the Bengals go for it is the question, that’s where you have to thread the needle. And I think it’s just too early to be talking about something like this uh right now in in in more detail than we already are because the Bengals are two and one. They’re not in fire mode. It’s September 23rd. More time needs to pass off the the season clock here before we know who’s going to want to sell and and who for sure is a buyer. The 49ers aren’t sure, nor should they be at this point. And and the Bengals aren’t sure, nor should they be at this point. So, give it some time. As September turns to October, I think that we’ll be in a much better spot to gauge this kind of stuff. Right now, I mean, the goal for the 49ers is this right here. Stay in that upper right. This is the DVOA chart. Move further to the right. That better offense as they get healthier with Demarcus Robinson and company coming back. You can move further to the right. See if you can keep the defense at around the same level. Even if the defense drops, but you move further to the right, then you stay in the same kind of tier. You you become the Rams essentially if you’re the 49ers. Better offense so far for the Rams. Worse defense than San Francisco. Normally I show you the tier chart that has the diagonal lines. You can kind of imaginarily draw the lines in for yourself this time. Yes, Hendrickson has had 17 sacks in each of the past two seasons. The dude’s a player. The dude’s a player, right? Cincinnati’s been unable to find a long-term agreement. They compromised with him to keep him in the building at a $16 million base salary this year, plus whatever the signing bonus is. The 49ers don’t care about that, though, since the signing bonus is paid by Cincinnati. And he he might not be Bosa. He doesn’t generate the same types of pressures as Bosa, but he certainly finishes for Cincinnati. and he certainly would make the 49ers better. Then then the question is, does the opportunity even present itself and can the 49ers thread the needle financially the way that they need to party playing this week? I think it’s likely, but it has not yet been confirmed. Can I explain insurance? Is it a percentage of the cap hit? That is why can the 49ers only recoup 7 million? Yeah, you could only take out a certain amount of of insurance. So, it for the bigger the contract, it is a percentage thing. The bigger the contract, the more insurance there’s going to be against the salary cap. So Aayuk’s contract, I think it was about5 million in insurance payback for the 49ers and the payout for Nick Bosa is going to be $7 million. J49 asks, “Is Mack playing on the knee?” Uh, he’s dayto-day this week, but I think the good news for the 49ers is that Brock Perie is almost fully healthy for San Francisco. was trending in a very good direction last week. We’ll see how this week goes, but it may be one of those situations where Mack gets banged up, but Pertie comes back. And it’s a good thing that they have two good quarterbacks. Not a lot of teams can say that, but two good QBs for San Francisco. Want to take a minute here to thank our sponsor, Harry’s Harry’s Razors. These things are awesome. As you could tell, I’m now cleanly shaved after Magic. I did a show earlier this morning talking about Kavon Pibido and Trey Hendrickson and I said, “I need one of these razors.” Well, I got one of the razors and and it worked. But, you know, you talk about the ones that don’t work. The dull blade and irritates your neck and $20 for a pack of four refills. Forget about that. You’ve got to go with Harry’s. Each razor has a weighted ergonomic handle that gives you total control. No more slipping or awkward angles. It feels premium in your hand, balanced for a smoother, steadier shave. For a limited time, our listeners can get Harry’s trial set for only $8 and a free gift at harrys.com Lombardi. Just over head over to harrys.comlombardi to receive our exclusive discount. After you purchase, they will ask you where you heard from them. Please support our show and tell them that we sent you. Again, harrys.comlombardi. Would very very much appreciate if you go support Harry’s. They are the sponsor for this particular show. Going back to the Q&A, W1323 says, “The easy schedule has everyone blinded.” Well, but I mean the schedule is what’s coming up, but you do realize the 49ers went into Seattle. Seahawks are ranked number one DVOA in all football, and the 49ers beat them on the road. And they would have beaten them by two touchdowns had Eddie Pierro already been the kicker. the extra point. I mean, the not the extra point, the the expected points of of special teams were negative 11 in that Seattle game and they still beat them and they’re the number one DVBO team in all football. You can’t beat anybody better than number one. So, you know, there’s this talk about the 49ers having this easier schedule, which I might have understood over the course of the offseason, but now you actually have data from the games they’ve played, and they went in and they beat Seattle. They beat Arizona short-handed at home. I imagine Arizona without Murray, without McBride, without Marvin Harrison Jr., without Buddha Baker, without Josh Sweat. How do you think the Cardinals would have done against the 49ers? I don’t think they would have done very well. and the 49ers still won that game. And then you project forward and you say, “Oh, this is an easy schedule.” But do you consider the fact that the Colts have had the most efficient offense in football through three weeks? Maybe that Indianapolis game won’t be as easy as everybody thought it would be. You know, there’s all these preconceived notions. The NFL changes quick, man. NFL changes quick. You can’t rely on preconceived notions. You’ve got to adapt to data as new data flows in. As Steve says, you can only play who’s on the schedule. And to me, it seems that the 49ers have done an impressive job against a team like Seattle to beat them on the road. So, yes, that is a good point. Wayne says, “The NFC West is the toughest division to play.” And I I think it’s really hard. I think the NFC North also is tough. I think that the Lions made a statement last night in Baltimore. We know that the Packers are good even though they lost the Browns. So, it could be between those two divisions. I think it’s also too early to to firmly tell some of these things, but we could start to see the beginnings of trends and the NFC West definitely has a bunch of tough outs in it. Kevin also has a good point. Easy schedules relative. They are all NFL teams. Yes, I think a lot of people watch college on Saturdays and then try to apply the same rules to the NFL on Sundays. Doesn’t work. Every single guy on these NFL teams was the best player on his college team. All right, everybody. Thanks for watching. Go ahead and hit that subscribe button. And while you’re at it, go sign up for the San Francisco Standard. I’ve got grades on every single 49ers position group uh right here up on the standard. I mean, this is as in-depth as it’s going to get in terms of 49ers coverage. There’s Bosa, there’s Huff, there’s the DVOA chart. This is the best most in-depth 49ers coverage there is. We even have all-time field goal percentage down at the bottom. Every single corner of the 49ers roster covered on the San Francisco standard. So, if you want the strategy behind what they’re actually doing instead of all the stupid gossip that you hear out there. If you want people telling you about the exact salary cap insurance and how those mechanisms work, read us on the standard. Keep on watching these videos. I appreciate your patronage. Go check it out. I am linking this article in the description and in the comment section. So, I’m going to pin it at the top and if you sign up at the standard, you might have a prize. We got an exciting thing coming up. We might have prizes more often uh for people and we might have a competition that we can host often with people, especially for members. So, sign up for a membership on the YouTube, on the standard. We will talk to you all very soon.

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