49ers Alarm UPDATE👀: Brandon Aiyuk return | How it ties with O-line help

49ers Alarm UPDATE👀: Brandon Aiyuk return | How it ties with O-line help

All right, this is a significant update on Brandon Iayuk and his potential return to the 49ers this year. Kyle Shanahan in his conference call Monday actually put out a date. Now, it’s not the official target date. That’s a different thing that’s going to be determined by the physical metrics that Brandon IU hits. They call those the markers in his rehab from this severe knee injury. But Kyle Shanahan tossed out week 10 as this general idea of when the 49ers coaching staff is expecting Brandon Iayuk to return. Just finished week six. 49ers play the Falcons. We saw them beat the Bills last night on Sunday Night Football. That’s going to be a showdown on Sunday night. Then they head to Houston. Then they head to New York. And then the Rams are coming to town for week 10. Is there a chance that Brandon Iayuk is back for the 49ers Rams game? At the very least, the 49ers are thinking of Aayuk returning before the buy, which is later than ever, historically late. Week 14 for the 49ers. I think that there had been some speculation, and this is all outside speculation. It wasn’t based in any sort of fact. And there’s a lot of Brandon Iayuk reporting right now that’s not based in fact, but there had been some some speculation that he wouldn’t be back until December until after the buy. The bottom line here is that he tore up more than the ACL in his knee. This was a truly severe knee injury and you can’t put the normal ACL timeline on it. The way that I look at it, anything that the 49ers get from Brandon Iuk this year is house money. But the chance now that they can get him sooner rather than later, like around week 10, mid-season, as opposed to just the stretch run, I think is a big big potential positive for the 49ers. One thing that’s been missing the most from San Francisco this year is perimeter blocking. This run game is ranked near the bottom of the league, averaging just over three yards per carry. And if you watch the tape, they’re obviously missing George KD. He’s a leverage piece for the line of scrimmage, but one thing that he does really well is block on the perimeter. He’s he’s got movement ability and he can get out to the edges. The receivers though in this system, and that includes George KD as a tight end, but the wide outs also have to be able to block. Kyle Shanahan runs an outside zone, so he tries to use the entire width of the field. And if the wide outs aren’t effectively blocking, and this was has been an issue, was an issue again in Tampa Bay, the 49ers are not going to run as efficiently as they need to run. In fact, the only wide receiver who ranked above 70 in Pro Football Focus grade when it came to run blocking in Tampa was Jawan Jennings. And Jawan didn’t have a great game. Jawan had the it was on a pass play, but it was an offensive pass interference play. It was a swing pass out to McAffrey and he just leveled the defensive back. Can’t have that. had a false start a little bit before, but he’s still scoring better than Kendrick Bourne and Demarcus Robinson. Well, here’s Brandon Iayuk. Excellent run blocker. When we we’ve talked so much about some of the just absolutely manly blocks he’s had. We talked the most about 19 structure fool in Pittsburgh, week one of the 2023 season. 49ers could really use Brandon out there for his blocking ability. Well, even if he doesn’t have the the same explosiveness as he did before this knee injury, I would think that Brandon Aayuk still has the same mentality, same blocking ability that he did before because he’s going to he’s going to be strong. You you’d think that he’s going to be physically strong after his rehab. I think that that the explosion it might be something that doesn’t come until 2026, although I am just completely speculating on that part. I am not a trainer. I’m not a doctor. I just look at different recoveries from serious knee injuries and and I note that that sometimes it does take a little bit of time to to get that explosiveness. But from technique standpoint, from a mentality standpoint, a willingness standpoint, you might think that Brandon Aayuk is hungry to get out there and silence the doubters and maybe lay a few good blocks and and do what the 49ers need him to within the context of their system. And I think that can really really help the run game. And that leads me to to the next thing before I play you the Kyle Shanahan audio from the conference call following the loss to Tampa. 49ers interior offensive line has really been struggling. I mean, you take receiver blocking problems and you mix them with interior offensive line problems. It’s not a good combination for the run game because things are getting blown up in the middle and then they’re not getting the the perimeter. the the only two linemen who have been playing consistently good football for the 49ers are the tackles are Trent Williams and Colton McKivvitz. Now, in a way that’s good news because in a way you look at that and you say, “Okay, well well tackles the hardest position on the offensive line to get plus physical play from because the the demands for tackle are the most stringent. They’re they’re having to cover the most space. You typically can find replacement level guard play in a much less expensive fashion than you can find tackle play, but it doesn’t negate the need for good guard play. And the 49ers aren’t getting that. Dominic Puny in terms of Pro Football Focus grade last year and percentile score was 89th percentile as a rookie in 2024. He has dropped down to 24th percentile here as a sophomore in 2025. So he’s better than 89% alignment last year, better than only 24% alignment in term of of grade this year. Kyle Shanahan, as you’ll hear on the call, acknowledged that Pun has not been nearly as good as last year. He says that the knee injury in week two of the preseason against the Raiders is something that set Dominic Pun back. They’re confident that Pun is going to get back to his level of play, but if you watch the tape from the Tampa game, it wasn’t good. Now, that might have been the biggest challenge the 49ers interior line’s going to face this year. Vea lit he literally is the biggest challenge at 347 pounds but the way that he was splitting Puny and Brendle not good the Brendle’s blocking in space not good in this game Brendle it it it actually has been a mixed bag for Jake Brendle this year and he does have the cerebral responsibility of calling everything out that’s a very very tough job in Kyle Shanahan’s system but boy it’s Richard Sherman was upset said about it. It was it was the screen pass to Christian McCaffrey. He couldn’t keep Levante David blocked. Like, you’ve got to finish blocks on screens or at least hold them long enough for for something to happen downfield. If you can’t block for Christian McCaffrey in space, you can’t really block for anybody in space. And then Conor Colby at left guard. I mean, he’s been thrust into action. Not really fair to him. He’s a rookie seventh round pick. Has not scored well, that’s for sure. 49ers probably won’t get Ben Barge this week back, but but they’ll hope for Ben Barge the week after against the Houston Texans coming off the high ankle sprain. That’s really really needed for this offensive line. You you you need to get that veteran Barge back in there. Maybe that helps Jake Brendle look a little bit better. But the one variable that the 49ers didn’t count on was a true regression from Dominic Puny. And you can’t have bad guard play at both guard spots. You can fix one of the guard spots with Bart’s return. You can fix another one with Pun’s return. Let Brendle handle the cerebral stuff, calling out the safety rotation, setting the protections, do all that. Tackles already playing well. Get the wide outs back, get George KD back, and boom, all of a sudden the 49ers can potentially field an elite offense, which I think they might have to do given the fact that the defense is where it’s at. If you want to trade video about the defense, I know I did one yesterday, but but I think we need to talk about that more. important for the 49ers even if even if a Super Bowl this season is not something that that that’s uh very likely for them to attain. You never know once you make the tournament, but even if that’s something that may be out of their realistic reach, at least as we talk about odds right now, they cannot let the bottom fall out of this defense. And they should also, as you’ll hear Kyle say right now, be interested in any maneuvers that can make them better, not only for 2025, but also 2026. It It’s the no rental mode for the 49ers. You want to add players who can make you better now and into 2026. And I think when you talk about trying to be better for 2026, you to help these youngsters out, they’ve lost their Shepherds and Fred Warner and Nick Bosa. So to help him out, m maybe you’re able to find veteran players who are under contract for at least this season and next who can turn into at least leaders who are evocative of some of the foundational pillars that the 49ers made sure to have on their roster earlier this year. I look at Quincy Williams. I know other people are talking about Deario Davis. I think that somebody with Robert Solah connections would probably be best for the 49ers, but it all is worth talking about. Anyway, Kyle asked about some of this stuff and more. Here is his conference call. All right, guys. On the injuries from yesterday, Fred Warner did have fracture, dislocated ankle. His surgery set for tomorrow. Um, nothing else from the game right now. Um, updates on players who missed the game. We got Jordan Watkins with his calf, expected to get him back in practice this week. Uh, Ricky with his knee. Um, still evaluating whether come back this week. We’ll have to see him on Wednesday. Rock party similar with his toe. Um hopefully he can get back in and do a little bit more this week. Uh Eour with his hamstring will have to continue to rehab and our IR guys Kevin Given will continue to practice and um expecting to get George KD back um into practice this week. Go ahead, Carl. Do you have an approximate time frame on on how long it’ll take Fred to get back on the field? Um no I don’t. No. I mean I’m not expecting this year. Yeah. Are you are you confident that or do you know that um you know training camp for next year is a is a likelihood or possibility? Uh yeah, I didn’t I mean I would think it’d be strongly I think usually things like this are around three months. Um but I haven’t asked all the questions you guys are asking me yet, but um I assume it’ll be good for offseason workouts and stuff like that. Kyle, when you weigh when you weigh a four and two start and three wins in the division against kind of the shock and disappointment of what happened yesterday with Fred, how difficult is it to get your team to refocus on that 4 and2 record and where you are? Um, I mean, I don’t really try to get us to focus on anything from what the past is. It’s about what’s happening going forward. And I mean, the reality is we lost we lost another really good player. Um, but what are we going to do about it? And there’s lots of stuff I can show show our guys and stuff from the tape that’s very encouraging of, you know, some real good things Tatum did when he went in and replaced them. We got a lot of young guys doing some real good things on defense. Um, but what type of team are we going to become going forward and I think we have players here we can win with. Um, but it makes it harder to make mistakes and things like that. And I thought that was something we did too much of yesterday. And um those are the things I’m really focused on now about if we want to keep if we want to make something out of our record going forward of what we’ve already accomplished with that four and two um guys got to keep getting better. We got to put pressure on some veterans to um to play the best that they can and these rookies who I believe are coming along um need to put the pressure on themselves to clean up the mistakes. Hey Kyle Kyle on the defensive bust um in the second quarter that led to the uh 34 yard touchdown. The announcers suggested that the TV announcers suggested that that could have been related to Fred Warner’s absence that he would have normally been the guy kind of straightening things out uh pre- snap. Is is that the case? And what exactly happened on that bus? Uh yeah, I think it’s fair on that one. I mean, you have a change of strength, motion, and someone’s peeling for a back and um just it’s a real tough one that a bunch of different things to go through it, but something like Tatum had a lot on his plate. He came in and I thought did a lot of good things get us lined up, but I think that’s something he’ll be a lot more ready for next weekend and all the reps and things like that. Um no one can be as good as Fred um at at those type of things, but that’s something I expect him to be able to handle in the future. Kyle on the play. Kyle, there were only uh because he was on on special teams. We thought he was out there. Um and he came off the field. We didn’t realize it till the snap and um needed 11 out there. Would have called a timeout if I saw it, but I didn’t. And um it was unfortunate mistake. Who was the player that was on special teams that should have been out on the field? Um, it doesn’t matter, but we should have had another deand out there. Is there are we still in the same uh situation in regards to Brandon making his way back? Uh, still no time frame at all. Uh, yeah, no time frame. I always look around that week 10 thing, but we’re not putting an exact date on it. I know he’s rehabbing real hard and he’s put together a few good weeks here and um hopefully he’s getting closer and closer, which I believe he is, but no, we’re not giving an exact date on it. Coach, after the game, Demodor Lenor kind of spoke about the fact that, you know, it’s on me now being that he now is one of the few captains kind of healthy now, especially on the defense. Just wondering if that, you know, garner having extra conversation with theor Leno, especially with kind of what Matt just asked as far as like being able to kind of direct his teammates. like that kind of falls on you or is there no added responsibility to the captain that Deion is this year without both and runner? Um I mean when it comes to that stuff I mean a mic linebacker directs the traffic just like a center or quarterback does on offense. So that’s more position based. You don’t have the corners making the calls and everything for your front and strengths and where the pressures come from. Um but I mean I like Demo talking that way. I mean, uh, guys who have been here and guys who have played at a higher level, yeah, they all we need them playing their best at all times, especially in a situation like this, but it doesn’t it also means that doesn’t mean that guys just start making stuff up and doing stuff that they don’t have to do. Um, but there is, you know, Dino has been one of our better players here over the last few years. And, um, I love that he’s basically, in my opinion, saying he needs to play that way every week now, um, going forward more than ever. Kyle, Kyle, how often is it that a player who had an injury like Fred did did addresses the team after the game like he did? Um, I’d say not not a ton. Um, I’ve seen guys do it before. Um, it’s not something you ever ask a guy to do or anything like that. You never know where guys are with injuries and stuff. Sometimes they they can’t even function at that point depending on when it happened in the game. Um, but it was it was cool to have Fred come out and uh and do that, asked to do it. And um he was in a good place. I mean, guys are hurting for him big time. Um Fredson is not only as impressive of a football player I’ve ever been around, but as impressive of a human as I’ve ever been around and the foundation and base he has just as a man and how he lives his life. Um I mean, you guys read his quotes and stuff and how he’s looking at this and that that’s as real as can be when you hear how he speaks and that’s why we know he’ll come back next year stronger than ever. Kyle, John was talking um last week about you know he was being pretty aggressive about trying to find a path NFL left by Bosa with with the spread out for the season. Does it make you guys less inclined to maybe be you know active buyers at deadline? Um yeah I mean I don’t think we are being that aggressive. I mean we’re just we’re looking for things that make sense for our team right now and in the future. Um, you know, not having Fred makes that harder. Um, but it’s, you know, I don’t see a big difference between, um, Sunday before that game started and today. Um, it all definitely hurts losing a guy like Fred, but in terms of people who are available that can improve our team for this year and next year, um, I don’t see the situation that much different. Kyle, what led to Pittok being a guy that played every single snap for every game and then nothing yesterday and just two special team snaps? Uh he was the starting safety for the first four weeks or five weeks and um we thought Jier Brown had been earning some time um at safety and we knew with Mustafa coming back we were going to start um rotating and getting Mustafa in there so he can eventually take that over. We know Mustafa is going to be one of the starters out there and um it was nothing against Jason. Um we just knew we had to make a decision to rotate um one of those guys with Mustafa and we went with rotating Mustafa and Seagull um which gave really kind of that week to give Tig Tig his opportunity to play a whole game at safety. The other two had gotten it the previous five weeks and we thought Tig deserved it and um without Pino we get in some big nickel roles just like um Tig had in the past the previous three weeks and just big nickel to become a factor in that game the way it played out. Did did you what did you see for Mustafa in this game and do you think he’ll be ready for the full-time role this coming week? Uh yeah probably more about talking to him and how his body felt really how it feels kind of today and tomorrow um how he does in practice this week but I think he got about 20 plays and um he looked good moved around flew around he was ready for that moment and um I like that we were able to get him in there do all that stuff and um get him out healthy and hopefully he’ll be closer to that this week. What do you do with that other What do you do with that other safety spot, Kyle? Is it kind of a a weektoeek thing who who would start alongside Mustafa? Um, I mean, I think we got three guys who are capable there and those are what all those three guys are battling for. Um, I don’t think one guy has fully taken it and run with it like like Mustafa did last year. Um, so that’s something that we’re going to continue to evaluate and but I don’t think any of that’s set in stone. We’re we’re trying to hope that they they make that decision for us. Dominic how would how would you assess following up on that? How would you assess Jer Brown’s performance yesterday? I thought he did a decent job. You know, I thought he was physical. I thought he made some plays. Um not too many mistakes. I thought I thought Tig was solid. Dominic Cooney seems to be struggling. Is Is he still feeling the effect of his preseason injury or what are you seeing from Cooney? Um yeah, I think I think Dom has played better before, you know, in his rookie year. I think there was a big injury coming into the season which was a huge setback for him and has made things more difficult. Um I’m sure that I’m sure that hasn’t made things easier for him but um a lot of guys are battling stuff and I got a lot of confidence in Dom. He’s played at a high level for us before so I expect him to do it again. Carl, you address the time for Conor Colby to come back uh open the practice window for him this week. And along with that, the assessment of uh Conor Colby at left guard. Um yeah, March, I didn’t I didn’t get anything for this week, so I’m not assuming this week. Um hopefully next couple weeks. Um All right. What was the other How’ Connor do? Yes, I think Conor’s getting a lot of experience. he’s playing uh which was going to really help him in the future. I think, you know, nothing’s perfect. I think he’s got a number of good plays and a number of plays he’d like to take back. Um but I think this is a moment in his career that is um going to help him going forward and not hurt him. Carl, you addressed sideline stuff with Jawan after the game, but you know, he then told us, you know, he detailed his injury, said he had five broken rips, a high ankle sprain, low ankle sprain. Obviously, it’s unusual for a player to do that. Are you okay with that? And is Jawan, do you feel like in a good mental space at the moment? Yeah, I think Jan’s in a good mental space. I think, um, you know, and Jan’s a very emotional player. I think that’s one of the things that makes him great. Um, so anytime we have a tough loss like that that he is banged up and playing through a lot of stuff, you know, I don’t think he’s in the best mood, especially after a loss like that. Um, but Jawan is good. Uh, Jawan battles completely to come play in that game. I know he’ll battle it again and do it this week. Um, but got a lot of love for Jawan and I just hope he I hope he can get healthier so he can get back out there and be more consistent for us. When you said you guys were good, had you you know by the time the game was over in the locker room, had you talked to him um to clear the error? No. Okay. You guys didn’t look good. You guys didn’t look like you were good in the second quarter. Is it just like that how you and Joan roll or like No, I think when you’re in a I think when you’re in an intense football game and stuff that you know two people who know each other pretty well and are pretty competitive about things can have really really intense conversations um that don’t always come off as a normal conversation just hanging out, you know, after a press conference with you. But um it’s stuff that you don’t you know don’t you don’t need to make too many assumptions about um because it wasn’t anything that big of a deal. Yeah, we were aggressive and intense in our conversations, but um I think conversations like that can also lead to making people closer and leading to a better outcome for people with KD um is the expect I guess the hope or expectation that he can play Sunday since he’s returning to practice. Uh, yes. That’s a hope. Any guys good?

49ers Alarm Update: 👀 Brandon Aiyuk return | How it ties with O-line help

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