Grading the 49ers’ Rookies After 10 Games

Grading the 49ers’ Rookies After 10 Games

The 49ers are on the verge of making a huge mistake. [Music] What’s up? How you doing? Good morning. We’re your hosts. I’m Grant Con. That’s Brandon Deutsch. Check him out on Tik Tok. He’s got over a 100,000 subscribers uh on Tik Tok. I’m a millennial. I’m still learning how that works, but Brandon’s an expert. Brandon also has a YouTube channel. Check him out on X. He’s all over the place. Brandon, uh, thanks so much for coming on the show. Thank you so much for having me. Um, again, to the to the people watching, I apologize about my voice coming down coming back from a cold, so I had a cough for a week, but nothing stops me about Niners Talk. Let’s get into it. The I learned of Brandon through Maj, as people on the channel know Maj. Maj is all over the place and he has good taste and he introduced me online. Brandon who makes really good Tik Toks. He had a killer one about the Niners a few days ago. I suggest you check it out. I retweeted it this morning. So in that vein, Brandon, do you think it’s a mistake to bench M. Jones right now? Assuming that’s the Niners’s plan. Well, first off, I appreciate the um sentiment about my TikTok page. I do appreciate you checking it out and uh yeah, I try to I try to look I’m an honest NerS fan, right? I’m not a homer. I’m not going to come out and be like, “Look, Brock Party is the man. Brock Party’s this. Brock Party’s that.” I think we know what Brock Party is and he’s a good quarterback and he’s good when he has his guys there. The fact of the matter is since he has started to gain confidence with his legs, I think that’s kind of hurt him a little bit in this Kyle Shanahan system because he’ll try to extend plays. It makes the line look worse than it is. I’m not saying the line is good. We know the offensive line has problems, but especially in that Jaguars game, I know he was injured, but he extended that play toward the end of the game and, you know, fumbled and got sacked by Eric Armstead. M. Jones gets up all out within two seconds. So, what I’m thinking just, and I’m not saying M. Jones is the answer, you know, for the next 10 years at quarterback, but for this system, a guy that gets the ball out quick, gets it to the playmakers with guys that have been hurt. I mean, no one knows if Aayuk is ever coming back. I mean, he might be traded in the offseason. We don’t know. Ricky Pierce is supposed to be back, but I’ll believe it when I see it. Right. So, right now, I do think that M. Jones is the answer quarterback. I think what’s what you said is really interesting about Brock sort of falling in love with his legs. Uh, not Mac’s legs, his his own legs, his ability to scramble. It just sounded wrong. Um, and I totally agree with that. It’s like when Brock first came into the system, 2022, 2023, he didn’t scramble a lot. And if he did extend a play, it was usually to throw. And it seemed like those were his best years statistically. I mean, his efficiency was off the charts. And the criticism of at the time was he’s a system quarterback and these guys are all open and who who couldn’t dink and dunk their way down the field with Christian McCaffrey and George KD and all these guys on the field. And I think he’s aware of the criticism and he understood that he was putting himself in position to potentially make get paid 50 plus million dollars a year. And I think he understood that simply standing in the pocket and throwing to Christian McCaffrey wasn’t going to get him that kind of money and that he had a skill set that went beyond that. And I think he kind of fell in love with not just playing that way but sort of proving showing off let’s call it that way. showing off and showing that he’s a playmaker and not just a system quarterback when what this team needs is a system quarterback 100%. I mean, they made a Super Bowl with Jimmy Garopppolo. It’s not like they can’t make a Super Bowl with M. Jones, you know, and that might sound crazy to some people and I know, you know, David Lombardi has talked a lot about QBR and stuff, but like it’s not M. Jones, you look at this advanced stats, they’re pretty similar to Pertie. I know Pertie’s EPA might be a little better because he takes more risks downfield, but then you also get those risks. Like look at Pertie’s interceptions the last like two years since the team was healthy in 2023. He’s simply not the same player. And that’s fine. He’s still a good quarterback. So is M. Jones. And when you have somebody that’s playing the quarterback position and mastering Kyle Shanahan system right now like M. Jones, you can’t take him out. Like I don’t care. Like especially with Pertie being injured, he has a turf toe injury. He comes back, let’s say this week, right? They play him and he gets hurt again. What’s the excuse then? You know, like if this is the guy you paid this enormous contract to, why would you go out and risk him when a quarterback is playing at a level that can win you 10 or 11 or 12 football games and get you into the playoffs anyways, right? Like why would you risk his his long-term health? It makes no sense to me. It seems to me also that the Niners should be under some pressure to make the playoffs this year. They missed it last year. These guys act like they have long lifetime contracts here, but I don’t know. I’d like to see him make the playoffs. And if they start hurt this week and he’s not 100% healthy and it’s sort of a repeat of the Jaguars game, I mean, that could be another loss that you should have won that could be the difference between you making the playoffs and not. I mean, you could argue that if they had started M. Jones against the Jaguars, they win that game. The Jaguars aren’t that good. We’ll never know for sure. But how many games are you going to give away trying to get Brock Perie out there when you don’t have to, God forbid you miss the playoffs because of that? It’s not just that, Grant. It’s like the reason why, and this goes into the trade deadline talk that we’re going to talk about, too, because this is a wideopen NFC. You’re telling me the Niners, even without their defensive players, let’s say they traded for one defensive guy, Bradley Chub or something for a third, like they were going to pick anybody good with that third round pick anyways, first off, but they don’t even use Nick Martin. But back to the point, like let’s say you got, God forbid, okay, they get him, right? And then they get their offensive players back. You’re telling me that team with a healthy Pawol, perhaps I starting to get into the mix, Perie if you want, or Jones, doesn’t matter. And then you have Bradley Chub and Robert Salai calling defensive plays. You’re telling me in a singular playoff game with Christian McCaffrey at full health. You can’t beat the Rams who are the Super Bowl favorites. You absolutely can. And next year, what’s going to change? They have a harder schedule next year. Especially if they make the playoffs, they’ll have a harder schedule. They play the AFC West. They have to ace another draft to even have the depth to perform at the elite level. Christian Tren will be a year older. Not just that and KD, but you know, tight end position is a little different. Kelsey still I mean he’s kind of watched 36 right like K probably still has three or four elite years left but then the Brock party contract kicks in and then the rest of the roster you can’t pay as much money you already paid I 30 million he’s been sitting on the pine for a year can you even trade him who wants Iayuk how do we know he’s even the same player you know yeah so we’re going to do a little bit later in the show is go through the last two drafts and grade each pick sort of think of it as like a progress report not a final grade If the Niners are going to get back to being the contenders they envision themselves, they’re going to need these picks to pan out. So, we’re going to go through and and see where they’re at. Um, I do get the feeling they’re going to bench M. Jones this week. And maybe I’m just a stupid conspiracy theorist, but I feel like Kyle came out himself after the Rams game and was like, Brock could have played in this game. He said it. Yeah, he could have played. I just didn’t want to put him in that situation, which is such a a weird thing to say. So, now you get to play the Cardinals who I mean, you probably beat him with Taylor. I mean, Adrien Martinez. So, we’ll see. I also think Ricky Piol’s coming back this week and uh I think the organization, while they like M. Jones, and it was good for Kyle Shanahan’s stock for M. Jones to play well, it’s not good if he plays better than Brock. And the Niners are very concerned about the narrative around their team. And as long as they’re not going for the Super Bowl this year, I think they’re going to try very hard to make Brock look better than Mack down the stretch. I’m a tinfoil hat guy. when are they going to win a Super Bowl, right? Like like the fan base is, you know what I mean? Like it making the playoffs for a fan base that has made consistently the Super Bowl and has made the NFC that doesn’t mean anything to them. That doesn’t mean anything to you have to win. And when are they going to win with KD getting older, Christian McAffrey getting older? I know they got Mike Williams and some young players that are decent, right? But like you got to start thinking about does Christian McCaffrey become a slot receiver within a year and a half and do they do they then actually ever play Jordan James? Do they get a running back? Right? These are questions they need to ask themselves because you god forbid you become the commanders. You have the oldest roster in the league again like the Niners last year and then you suck. I mean they’re knocking on the door for that right now. Let’s talk about one of their younger core members uh foundational members Brandon Iayuk. gave this man $30 million a year. I think they’ve paid him already about $50 million to do a bunch of nothing. He was running around making a big show of it earlier in the season showing that he was almost ready, kind of ready. Then he stopped doing that. What do you think the plan is for Brandon? I mean, after this last loss, George KD stood at the podium and said, “Hopefully we get this guy back soon and that’ll make a big difference.” You’re muted. Yep. Can you hear me now? There you’re back. You’re back. No, now you’re muted again. All righty. I will fix. Now you’re back. Now you’re back. Now you’re back. Now you’re back. All right. So yeah, this mic has issues. Um, fine. I was going to say Paw at his best I think can be better than Brandon Aayuk and he’s making less money, right? So at the end of the day, what are we doing Bayonuk $30 million a year? Like Kyle Kyle the Lynch didn’t want to do that deal, right? Like Kyle came off that whole thing in an alternate universe. They don’t pay Brandon and they’re perfectly fine. They have 30 extra million to spend in the offseason, right? Like I don’t see the future with the 49ers. And he can beat man coverage. They need a guy to beat man coverage, but so can Ricky Pearl and that’s why he drafted Jordan Watkins. The issue I have with the Watkins draft pick is can Perty throw the ball 60 70 yards down field in space? Why do you draft him? with the Danny Gray all over again, right? You know who can? Who? M. Jones. Yeah. Yeah, he can. It was funny like in the off season at training camp, Jordan Watkins with the twos. M. Jones was with the twos. I was bullish on Jordan Watkins because M. Jones were throwing to him every day. Trusted him, got him the ball down the field. And uh I don’t know that we’re ever going to see that um with Pertie. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t I don’t think we’ll see that with him. Do you think Brandon Aayuk is gonna play this year? No. Why? I had to take a guess. No. No. Why? Why? What is there an incentive for muted? Yeah, it’s okay. Giving up that mic. I’ll go get another mic at some point. This mic is I I don’t know what’s wrong with it. Uh, we’ll use the MacBook for right now. That’s fine. That’s fine. Yes. I look What is an incentive for him to play? He got his money. It was obvious he didn’t want to be a 49er last year when before they paid him, right? Then he had that like Kyle told him to put on those pants or whatever the Niners practice stuff and he was acting like a diva. You know, call a spade a spade. Probably a great guy. don’t know him personally, but he it appeared as he was acting as a diva and did not care. Whether that’s true, I don’t know. I don’t know him. But from that point, you needed to trade him. He obviously wanted to be a Pittsburgh Steeler. Go let him rob in in Tomlin and Arthur Smith’s offense. You know what I mean? Like then they had that thing with the Patriots. Oh, I don’t want to play for the Patriots. Well, look at now. It would have been great for him if he had played for the Patriots, right? Because then he is Drake May quarterback right now. So to me, I mean, I think he’s a trade candidate in the off season, especially in a draft, like if they hit the 17th, 18th, 19, you have a guy like Mai from SC, like you’re not going to take him if linemen are gone, are gone, do you take receiver? I mean, you could have argued they should have taken a receiver. Uh, like they could have taken a Bua instead of Mel Williams. I mean, if he’s good. Yeah. Uh I I do think it’s interesting that Brandon Aayuk wanted that contract, but also sim simultaneously didn’t want to play for the 49ers. It’s like he really thought that he could name his price and his team at the same time. And he nearly did. I think he felt that the Niners owed him that contract and that that it didn’t necessarily like tie him to the Niners. Like it was just he’s on their team, you drafted him, you have to give him an extension cuz he earned it and we’ll see where he ends up. But yeah, I I feel like he never really like he’s I feel like he’s been emotionally off the team for a long time. He he erased all the Niners references from his social pages and never brought him back. And it seems like he never really repaired his relationship with John Lynch. He might be cool with Kyle Shanahan, but that’s not enough. And I think it’s not that they regretted signing him. They never wanted to do it in the first place. And I think that uh they wish they hadn’t. Yeah, I I I agree 100%. And it’s also like people give Ricky Pawol a lot of crap, but when when he’s been healthy, and I know health has been a concern with him, he has looked at this stage in of his career better than Brandon Au did his this this stage in his career, second year when BA was obviously in the doghouse, didn’t play much. Um, and then, you know, I think Ricky can be a star. I do still truly believe he can be a one, a wide receiver one in this league. So, if that’s the case, why if you’re eventually going to pay Ricky Piol, why would you keep Brandon Iuk? Also, Ricky Piol doesn’t have a like, you know, a destroyed knee and Brandon Iayuk does. I don’t know what he’s going to look like when he comes back. My question to you is, and there’s no way to know, do you think it’s more likely that Brandon Iuk has been ready for weeks and the Niners simply refuse to put him back on the field for whatever reasons, or do you think it’s more likely that his knee injury is way worse than the Niners ever really told the public? And it’s potentially uh career altering. I I think they don’t want him back on the field because if if he looks if he looks anything different than what he did before, it can lower his trade value even more so than you know the mystery box. Yeah, exactly. Oh, is he still Brandon Aayuk? Okay. 30 million. Yeah. Right. Because if you put him out on the field, no training camp, no preseason, he’s not gonna look good. Guess what? Yeah. What do you expect? He’s going to light it up. It’s the same thing you asked Kyle the other day. Like, if he’s not in his full speed, why play him? I mean, it’s probably apparent that Brandon Aayuk is not the same player post knee in surgery than he was before. So, why show that to the rest of the league before you try to trade him for a for whatever this offseason? Yeah. Yeah. But the other side of that is like why would any team trade for that contract without seeing him play? I mean, that’s kind of crazy. The Browns would do it, the Jets would. I mean, there’s all the organizations that always trick in the top five will do something stupid like that. Like, there’ll be a team that does that. That’s a good point. All right. Uh, the Niners think they avoided doing something stupid at the deadline. They traded for Keon White about a week before the deadline, but then Mike Williams went down with a torn ACL, and once again, they were really decimated on the Dline in particular. They have no pass rush right now, very little. And um I guess a lot of Niner fans, some people in the organization were really hoping that they would do something and they did nothing. What do you think of that one week later? Um I think it’s going to come back to bite them. Right. You have a clear opportunity to contend this year. Now, I’m not saying they’re going to win a Super Bowl with this roster, an injury depleted roster or whatever, right? But in a wide openen NFC where you already beat the Rams once with virtually the same team just Fred Warner, I know it’s a big difference, but if you had traded for somebody that could get pressure, it could have been different this past weekend because they gave up 42 points. And it’s not even Robert’s fault. Like what is he supposed to do with a bunch of fifth, sixth rounders and guys that, you know, can’t play football at a high level. Like that’s it’s not his fault. Like people want to say Robert Sal it’s his fault that you gave him a bunch of guys that wouldn’t even play on the Denver Broncos right now. Wouldn’t even start. Most of the Niners players right now on that defense and you expect them to hold the Rams less than 4, right? Like it’s not going to happen. They should have traded for somebody. They should have at least given up a third round pick. They weren’t going to pick somebody good like that anyway. So I I just don’t get it. Lynch won it on this season for what? for next year. Well, we know they’re going to be good next year. Next. Yeah. And I think what’s so funny is it was clear that the third round pick was sort of the magic pick because the Eagles traded their third to the Dolphins for Jaylen Phillips, who is a good player, is kind of young, and had made an immediate impact for the Eagles. Uh the Niners decided not to trade their third round pick. And I think it’s great that it’s highlighted for fans and analysts what they do with their third round picks. It’s like, okay, this is such an important building block for your franchise. Let’s look at what what you’ve done with third round picks in the past. I mean, you’ve pissed them away on kickers and backup tight ends and safeties who suck and a bunch of wide receivers who are awful and running backs. I mean, you’ve hidden you’ve hit on like Fred Warner and like maybe Dominic Puny. That’s that’s what you can hang your hat on round three and that’s what we have to look forward to next year. It’s the same stuff every year. I mean, you can make the argument Lad Mcconkey should have been picked, right, instead of Ricky Pierol. like, yep, he was there if you wanted a receiver. Cooper Deene is who I wanted with that pick before the draft, but they didn’t want they didn’t want Cooper Deene. That’s fine. Last year, I wanted Walter Nolan. It was obvious defensive tackle. Need him need a DT that can stop the run. Maybe have some upside as a pass rusher. No, let’s take an edge rusher who couldn’t even get sacks at Georgia. Like, and and look, I don’t Mike Williams might eventually become something. He can obviously stop the run, like whatever. He’s an edge setter. You don’t draft in the top 15 an edge rusher that can’t sack the quarterback. I don’t care about these advanced stats. Oh, double teams, whatever. When you look at him play football, he can’t get to the quarterback as an He’s a two down player. He’s a two down player, which sucks. You can’t take a two down player. You can’t do that. Yeah. And then you look at the names that they passed on like Grace Zable, Amecha Ibuka, uh Tyler Warren, Jaylen Walker, there’s more. I mean, Omari Hampton, Jackson Dart, like all these guys who are going to be Pro Bowlers year after year. And you took run defender. And Dane Bugler is is a great um evaluator. And he didn’t even have Michael Williams, I think, top 25. Nobody did. I mean, in retrospect, he shouldn’t have gone top 25. the kind of guy you’d love to draft with the 40th pick in in overall. Yeah. Upside upside guy. Big guy, strong, looks like he should, but who also looked like that? Javon Kinlaw and he’s been bad his whole career, right? And you know, he’s Adam Peters’s guy. They gave him $40 million to do absolutely nothing in Washington. But this is another guy looked big. Looks like he should be able to play DT. Never panned out. Never good. Drake Jackson, another guy. Second round. this idea that you could take a a a like a defensive lineman from college who has no pass rush moves and teach him pass rush moves in the pros because you have Chris Casser and Nick Bosa. Man, that’s never worked. And they keep trying. It’s it’s incredible. You would think if it’s failed a few times, they would get in their head, okay, maybe we’re not the best at drafting pass rushers with upside. Let’s go get like a Jaylen Walker or somebody that has that is a bit smaller, skinnier. They don’t like skinny pass rushers, but or James Pierce. They they could have taken either of those guys. That would have been a better pick. You know, like guys that actually showed pass rush moves in college. So what? They’re not 275. Or they could have taken Derrick Harman, who’s actually a defensive tackle. Exactly. Another guy, Walter Nolan or Dererick Harman. Like I was fine with either of those guys. The last guy I made a reaction video on TikTok when this happened. I said, “This is the worst pick I they could have possibly made.” They could have taken Shamar Stewart and I would have been happier with that pick because at least Shamar Stewart tested well at the combine, you know. He and he like generated some pressure in college, too. Exactly. Exactly. I’m not saying he’s good. I would have been happier if they had taken him. That is how low of a bar 49ers first round picks have have become, you know. Yeah, it’s true. But, God forbid you trade one for a player you know is good. Three Much Sauce says, “What is Mac’s true market value in terms of millions per year?” What do I think? Mhm. I think it’s for sure in the 20s right now and climbing. He might get to that Sam Darnold level at three years, 100 million. Well, Sam Darnold’s now going to get a mega extension this off seasonason from Seattle. Good point. Good point. Another guy that was in the building that uh you know was a they never really took seriously. It’s like, thank you very much. You’re a hell of a backup quarterback, but you’re no Brock Party. Sorry. Well, the Vikings made the same mistake. They’re like, “Oh, let’s get cheap. Let’s try and get JJ McCarthy.” And they realize, “Okay, JJ McCarthy is not Sam Darnold. We made a mistake.” And now they’re four and six or whatever, you know? Yeah. And and that which brings us back to Mack. Like, which teams do you think could potentially um call up the Niners and ask about Mac this off season? Well, I think it first it depends what Aaron Rogers is going to do, but the Pittsburgh Steelers, he’s a prototypical fit for that system. They love those types of quarterbacks, like pocket passers, true, not runners. Like he he fits him to a tea, right? That’s one team. Theoretically, the Raiders, but the Raiders just traded for Gino, so they kind of have to bite the bullet there. They gave him what, like two he they can’t get out of that contract until after the second year, I believe. It’s not the Sam Darnold contract. Trying to think. Cleveland. No, they’d have no interest. It’s probably Pittsburgh. What about Minnesota? If JJ McCarthy isn’t um good, it fit the system. Light it up with Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison. What about Miami? If Mike McDaniel doesn’t get fired, well, I don’t think Mike McDaniel should get fired. I mean, I’d love him I’d love for him to get fired so he could come back and be the offensive coordinator and help Kyle out a little bit. I doubt he would do that. So, I think he would go somewhere where he could call plays. That’s just my prediction. He can’t call plays here. It’s like being the OC for the Rams or Niners is like not really a job, you know? Like unless Kyle would let him call plays like Andy Reed lets Matt Naggie call plays, but I don’t think Kyle’s going to do that. No. And Kyle is one of the best one of the best coaches in the league in my opinion. I I stand by that. Like I I I I would rather have Kyle in a lifetime contract than John Lynch. I’ll tell you that straight. I don’t care. At least Kyle could get a team to a Super Bowl with Jimmy Garopolo. John Lynch has missed on so many draft picks. I can’t believe John Lynch’s job is safe in my opinion. I’m not saying John Lynch’s a bad guy. I think he’s a great guy. Probably, you know, has had a lot of good picks, you got to give credit where credit’s due. But like, dude, anybody that that trades three firsts for Trey Lance, first off, big red flag. Then the first draft, the first pick you have since that draft is Drake Jackson over Nick Bonito. Right there. and you miss them like for Trey Surman, Ty Davis, Price. Like, take take your pick of third round running backs that they’ve taken that never play. I mean, how is his job? And now you got Nick Martin. Well, yeah, but Nick Martin is probably good. They just never play him. He can’t be worse than Curtis Robert Robinson right now or Dwinners. He just can’t right now. That’s what I would say. But I think they would say that there somehow he can be worse. Unless this is just some like weird rookie punitive thing because he’s not taking enough notes and meetings. I mean, I don’t know how the Niners work. Sometimes they’re kind of petty. Maybe, but like what I don’t get is what a But I what I do want to say is like I do think that John Lynch is on the hot seat. And I think if they miss the playoffs, he’d be so easy to scapegoat because what does he really do other than ask the coaches who they want to draft and sort of build consensus and get it wrong. He doesn’t really bring a lot on his own. Well, when Kyle wanted M. Jones, he said no. Said no. See, that was that could be the one that that seals his fate at the end. If they if they go nine and eight and miss the playoffs and Jed wants to fire someone, Kyle could say, “Hey, man. I wanted Mac. This guy talked the whole organization out of it.” How you feel about that? Maybe I should have more say over personnel or maybe you should bring in a real personnel guy. Well, not just that. I think you know what? I know Jed gets a lot of crap from Niners fans, especially with the leads United stuff and you know, whatever like the other spending stuff that they’ve been doing, but like think of it from his perspective. If you’ve pa paid all this money for these teams the last decade and they keep coming up short, why would you give them more money to spend if you just know they’re going to fail? Like perspective, he’s trying to make a profit. He’s like, “Why would I spend they have 50 million still probably in cap space for 2025, right? Why would I spend that cap space if we’re not going to win a Super Bowl? If I can’t trust John Lynch to win, especially when I want to spend things on spend money on other things like uh stadium renovations in in leads or a goalie or whatever. I mean, he has a lot of investments and he’s been, to his credit, giving blank checks to John Lynch for damn near a decade and it hasn’t necessarily gotten them any closer to uh the promised land. So, I I think it’s fair to tell John and Kyle, both of them, hey man, none of that. I’m not going to bail you guys out with with unlimited spending anymore. John, you got to show that you can draft and pick talent. And Kyle, you got to show that you can develop talent. And I think right now, I mean, John’s not giving him much to work with. I agree 100%. And and I think you don’t need to fire Kyle if you fire John. True. I don’t know why people think they’re just married together. Like Kyle’s the best coach they’ve had since Harbaugh. There’s no doubt about that. One of the only coaches they’ve had since Harbaugh. You can make an argument he’s the best coach they’ve had since Bill Walsh, right? Like you could make that argument even though he hasn’t won. He’s gotten to like three Super Bowls or two Super Bowls, right? in four NFC championships. Seaffort was better. So Seaffort just before your time though. Yeah, sure. Okay. So like you can make that argument. I think fans are maybe a little too harsh on Kyle Shanahan. I think he’s one of the best coaches in the league personally. Now he has flaws. I wish someone could take over his play calling in the fourth quarter of Super Bowls. That’s the thing about Kyle. It’s not that he’s bad, right? It’s just that like we know him. it’s been 10 years and his biggest flaws are always there and they’re self-imposed and they usually come from a place of like I hate to say it like arrogance like agree you know what I mean and that’s the tough that’s the tough stuff it’s like we’d love to see you grow a little bit stop getting in your own way same thing like why is Christian McAffrey at 31 getting 500 touches this season when B- Rob can run up the middle like dude he’s so stubborn dude Christian is an all-time great we know it he’s a great dude hard worker great teammate Like, okay, congratulations. You’re getting 15 carries a game max. I don’t care. Like, like, why is he getting 25 carries when Bro can run through a guy’s face when And that’s why I feel like Kyle is like, “Dude, are you a genius, man?” Because everyone in the world can see that B- Rob has earned more carries and Christian has earned less. He could you could throw it to Christian as many as much as you want, but like everyone It doesn’t take a genius to see that. Man, I always think about the alternative though, Grant. Like, who they gonna hire? I’m an USC fan, right? It’s like the Lincoln Riley thing. Like who are we gonna hire if Lincoln Riley gets fired? We’re not getting Nick Sabin, right? Like it’s the same thing with the Niners. Who are you gonna hire if Kyle Shannon gets fired? Well, they’re not gonna fire him this year. Let’s be first of all, he’s not getting fired. But like in the past when because I’ve been banging the drum to fire him for a while cuz I feel like he’s what I would call a highle loser. You could say that about Jim Harbaugh, too. Like a guy that gets you there but doesn’t get you across the finish line. I I said a few years ago, I really like Shane Stiken. I don’t know, he’s doing a pretty good job. And then last year, I think we all like Ben Johnson, but like maybe maybe you don’t if you do fire Kyle Shanahan down the line, you don’t replace him with the next, you know, flavor of the month offensive coach. Maybe you’d be looking for something else. And again, it doesn’t seem like that’s where this team is going right now. He’s doing a he’s two games over 500 with a bunch of injuries. He’s doing a pretty good job. Yeah. I mean, this is probably the best job he’s done as a coach his entire career. Like personally, I mean, and that maybe that shows growth. I always get concerned because Andy Reid was, you know, a loser at the biggest moments for a long time, right? He found his quarterback and won a bunch of Super Bowls. I always get concerned if they fired Kyle, he’ll go somewhere else, get a quarterback, and win two or three Super Bowls, right? Maybe he just got his quarterback. Maybe it’s Mac. Well, yeah. Yeah. I’m just saying like if they had drafted Mac instead of Trey Lance, and they could have had like Mac and Jimmy on the same team, I think Mack would have taken his job pretty quickly. And I don’t know what what that what a MAC led 2021 Niners or a 2022 Niners team would have done because I think he’s way better than Jimmy. I think that comparison is disingenuous. He reminds me a lot more of like Matt Ryan. Yeah. I don’t I don’t get everyone’s like, “Oh, M. Jones is just Jimmy G.” Like, no, he’s not. I mean, did you watch Jimmy G play football? Like he had happy feet in the pocket unlike M. Jones. He didn’t stand in the pocket long enough like M. Jones and deliver strikes. He threw it straight to the defense half the time. Like what are we doing here? He didn’t seem to know what he was looking at. He didn’t seem particularly cerebral. Like max of high football IQ slant every single play. Let’s throw the slant to Debo. Let’s throw the slant to, you know, every anybody like it. And he would get hit and get hurt. Whereas Mack is the most durable Niners quarterback they’ve had so far. I mean, it’s only been seven starts, but like eight. But I mean, he’s a freaking warrior. He get the feeling he would die on the field to keep this job. Not only that, it it it I want to ask you this because I think we agree here. What what if they had made Brock Purdy play on the the option because I say this because he’s been hurt his entire career. Even in the 2023 season, he had that UCL injury, right? Like he he was recovering from that. The one year he was healthy, they made the Super Bowl, right? Like you could party fans be like, “Oh yeah, he’s elite when healthy.” But when has he been healthy? Been healthy one time in his career. He’s 16. Right. We talked about it before before the season. It’s like, um, why not make him play out the fourth year of his rookie deal? Why not? It’s like, well, cuz he hasn’t made much money. It’s not fair. Okay, it’s a business. Uh, and other people would say, well, he’s only going to get more expensive. The longer you wait, the the more expensive. Yeah, maybe if he stays healthy and has another great year, he gets more expensive. But you get more evidence and more confidence that you’re signing the right guy. So, it’s like worth it almost. If you if he gets hurt again, he’s going to get way way cheaper. Like, they could have not signed him, had the season unfold exactly how it’s unfolding, and still decided that he’s the right quarterback for them, but then extended him next year for way cheaper. They missed an opportunity. Yep. I think their thinking was their guys are going to come back healthy, right? Like all other guys, right? McCaffrey was the clear like, “Oh, if he’s healthy, we have a chance.” And Perie obviously plays very well with all of his guys healthy. And I think they were thinking with the market like oh 60 million if he has another MVP year but you know and obviously now that that risk or more like 30 million if he has another injury played year. Exactly. Which which I’m I’m fine with paying per 30 million a year. I don’t care. Better than that seems like the like the responsible contract for veteran quarterbacks. It for a while it was like any team with the quarterback who had one good year who was eligible for an extension got 50 plus million like Tua what? But now it’s like no no no no hold on what about this Baker Mayfield Sam Darnold middle ground and I think you can you can build a a Super Bowl champion that way. Also you know Brock, right? Like he’s not the type of guy that would have sat out if you had if you he was going to play. If you said four’s your option he was going to play. He’s a leader. He’s not going to be like I’m not going to freaking play. He’s, you know, like that’s not who he wasn’t gonna hold out. He wasn’t gonna take shots at you on social media. Wasn’t going to scrub his social. He wasn’t going to do any of that stuff. He was just going to be a good player, a good teammate. My thing about Brock is he’s always going to be limited. And it’s not his fault. He’s six feet tall. You know, that’s obviously a limitation at the quarterback position. Say what you want. How many six feet quarterbacks like it’s Drew Brees and then you count them on your fingers, right? That have been good. That’s number one. He can’t throw the ball downfield. It’s number two. He has arm arm weakness, right? Great processor, top tier. I’ll give him credit there. He’s a great processor of defenses. Can read coverages very well. But he’s always going to have these limitations. And he’s injuryprone. So you got a six-foot quarterback. Can’t throw throw throw the ball downfield. Injury prone. That would probably be out of the league if he was drafted by the New York Jets. Yeah. You know what I mean? By now. Yeah. I completely agree with that. Plus million dollars a year. It’s nothing against Perie. We’re just stating facts and people wouldn’t get mad at us, but like it’s that’s the fact of the situation. And with Pertie, I think his processing what what we all liked about it is that he was able to get like deep in his progression. He he he followed Jimmy who was a one read quarterback and if the one read wasn’t there, he was screwed. Brock was consistently getting to like the third or fourth read in his progression fast and it was very impressive. They would talk about it. Now, I don’t know that he plays like that as much anymore. I mean, I think he does try to get deeper in his progression because he does want to push the ball down the field and prove that he’s not a dink and dunk one read guy, but then you look at a guy like Mack who doesn’t have any of those insecurities or whatever you want to call. He doesn’t have to prove those things. He’s just getting the ball out of his hands. And that to me is also very highlevel processing. Like who do you think processes better, Mac or Brock? Quicker. Quicker Mac. Quicker Mac. I think Brock takes more risks, which can be good or bad, right? Yes, Brock can get you the explosive play more often, but he’ll also throw the pick more often. You know, I I wish we could have seen a little bit more of M with Pearl because without Persaw, the Niners offense isn’t explosive, but he is and I think Mack has the arm to get it down the field to him. Well, and Pearl, you know, what’s what’s the big problem with the Niners offense right now? You can’t beat man coverage because they have nobody fast enough to beat man coverage. Pier Saul and Iuk were the only two guys on the roster besides Watkins who we barely see that can beat man coverage. Rar Cowing who will never play in a game ever again. No. Um but you know what I mean? Like if if if Peter Sol and I aren’t on the field, you can’t get those downfield throws. So why are we blaming Mack for not throwing the ball downfield? I see everybody on Twitter. Mack doesn’t throw the ball downfield. Perty does. Well, that’s why Pury threw three picks in against the Jaguars. Yeah. You know, and again, if Pearson had been out there the last 5 weeks, I bet you Mack be throwing the ball down the field. And again, my tinfoil hat theory is that when Perty comes back, that’s when Persaw will come back. And you know, because the Niners want the offense to look better with Pertie. And all of a sudden, you’re going to see Kyle calling shots down the field to from Pertie to Piol to show how much better the offense is with with Pertie. And I’m telling you, that’s a big function of Pearaw. That guy was balling before he went down. He was really good. that that I don’t trust all advanced statistics, right? Like PFF said Jake Brendle was good at football, which is ridiculous. Yeah, we can see that. But I mean, if you watch football, you know Jake Brendle’s one of the worst centers in the league. Um, but they did say that Piol was the best at catching passes with limited separation, which is a metric that shows he can be a star, right? Because when he gets separation, he’s going to catch it anyways. If he has no separation, he’s catching it like this guy’s a stud, you know? So, like I have no question Brock’s going to ball out over these next four games. If he doesn’t, he’s horrible. Like, how can you not go four and0 and throw 300 passing yards a game and three touchdowns against the Browns, Panthers, Titans, and Cardinals? The Cardinals don’t even have Marvin Harrison Jr., they’ll be throwing a Michael Wilson and Trey McBride the entire game. I mean, if they should pick up Michael Wilson this week. Yeah, Michael Wilson probably a good I should pick up Michael Wilson. I’m kind of Stanford legend Michael Wilson. Yeah, he’s a he’s a good player. Bill Kennedy says, “How much impact would you expect from a round one pick, a top 15 pick eventually? We’re expecting Pro Bowl, potentially maybe a future Hall of Famer.” That’s what you’re hoping for when you pick that high for for I just want to see him get four sacks in a season. Four sacks in a season would be a good start. Bill Kennedy says, “Pretty no good in the rain turnover machine.” That game against Cleveland’s going to be interesting. And it is raining now in the Bay. I wonder if it’s going to rain this weekend. I could look at a forecast, but that seems hard. Okay. Do you think this team can still compete for a Super Bowl given all the injuries this year? No, there’s no chance. There’s no chance. Can they make the playoffs and win a singular playoff game? Absolutely. Maybe. Yeah. Absolutely. Because their offense should get back to 30 points per game. I don’t care about their defense. If they’re scoring 30 points every game, they have a chance to win. And it it should get back to that point very soon, right? Like that’s Why do you think it’ll get back to that point very soon? I’m not saying you’re wrong cuz KD said it will. But I’d like to know what do you think? Yeah, because KD’s awesome. They almost got back to it last week, but you have Persol, right? I mean, that obviously opens up so much downfield and then the possibility of adding Aayuk and then you have to guard two guys down. I’m not saying Aayuk’s I don’t think he’s going to play the rest of the season, but just Let me devil’s advocate this one. Let me devil’s advocate this one. None of that shit’s going to help the running game. Well, no. No, the running game sucks. It sucks. And I think that that’s something we’ve never seen from a Kyle Sanahan offense on the Niners is like, yeah, you you can pass the ball, but you’re super onedimensional. I think that’s gonna Well, we’ll see. No one wants to say it, but Christian’s not a running back anymore. You know, he’s not. He’s a wide receiver, player, but he’s a wide receiver. He’s an elite wide receiver, too. He could be one of the best in the league, and he is one of the best, but he cannot His vision’s fine, right? But he doesn’t have that burst like he used to. He can’t run through the tackles. Their guards aren’t playing that well. He can’t get to the edge at all. He can’t get to the edge. He can’t get to the edge. Nope. B- Rob. If they played B- Rob, well, first of all, they should have never traded Jordan Mason. I think Jordan Mason would have been great for this team, this specific team. It’s like, what did they get for Jordan Mason? Was it Maris Seagull? Okay. Who’s who hasn’t played? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think he’ll be fine and he can’t be worse than Jer Brown eventually, but like, you know, like he’ll be fine, but why didn’t they keep Mason? Like, I don’t get it. Mason was so good last year. Like, it make another mind-blowing decision. Like, trading Debo was obvious. The guy was washed. We all knew this. Like, it wasn’t Didn’t take a genius to figure that out. But Mason’s in the prime of his career. Yep. And it’s like, okay, you traded Mason, you didn’t want to pay him. Okay, I sort of understand that. But the big problem here is the reason you traded Mason, the reason you waited until round five to draft Jordan James is you thought Christian McCaffrey was going to be Christian McCaffrey again at 29 almost 30 years old. That was a gross miscalculation. If you had just drafted a running back a little earlier than Jordan James, maybe maybe you taken Cam Scataboo instead of Nick Martin, you’d be fine. But you really thought that Christian McCaffrey was going to be like an offensive player of the year candidate again? It’s not even close. Yeah, 100%. And it’s not Macy’s fault. He’s had so many injuries throughout. He’s an all-time great. He’s a Hall of Famer, right? Should have been a Super Bowl champion if it wasn’t for the collapse in 2021. This is what happens to running backs at his age. Like if you look at Marshall Faulk, who was the Christian McCaffrey of my childhood, the same exact career trajectory. He was 28, he was like the best player in the year, and then 29, he wasn’t anymore. I was like, damn, that [ __ ] happened fast. The way it goes. It was funny. KD the other day was like, uh, I don’t I don’t really buy into that shelf life thing. How’s Derrick Henry doing? Not great, George. He’s on my fantasy team. He’s [ __ ] killing me every week, George. Derrick Henry is also 63, 240. True. You know, and it’s not like McAffrey is a smaller guy, you know? It’s not his game. His game is not run through the tackles and run through a guy’s face, right? Like that’s Brian Robinson’s game. Exactly. Or Jordan Mason who they should use like Yeah. McCaffrey. And and the thing is is like, okay, you want to compete next year. John Lynch is thinking, “Oh, we’ll get Bosa back by, you know, week three hopefully or week one.” Like, “We’ll get Mike back by mid-season.” Not like that’s going to make a difference, right? But we’ll get our guys back. Okay. But then Christian’s 30 is at 5. Tren’s 38. Yeah. He’s not going to be healthy. Every running back in the history of of football has gotten injured or or has been minimal in the way they’ve been utilized or have played. Yeah. If you’re playing for 2026, then why why aren’t you shutting down McCaffrey now? Cuz if you give him 500 touches this year, it’s over the his career. Yeah, his career is over. He’ll never be the same. Now, he might be a good receiver, like a slot receiver. He’ll never play running back again if you give him 500 touches this year. You’re way play running back next year. Like, play Jordano. Well, yeah, I I guess. I mean, he has he has speed, but I don’t know if his blocking is good enough for Kyle. I was joking. He’s not ever going to play again. [Music] The thing that kills me about this year is like you could tell you could talk about all the reasons why this team can’t compete for a Super Bowl this year. I mean, defense freaking sucked without uh against the Rams and they seem to sort of like as a unit, as a group, sort of understand that they’re not going for it this year, which is amazing. But then you look at the teams that are supposedly in the hunt and it’s like Yermid, Yerid, Green Bay, Philly. Like Philly is one of the three best teams in football the last seven, eight years and they look super mid. You’ve already beat the Rams. The one team you never ever ever can beat is the Chiefs, but there’s no guarantee the Chiefs will even be in the Super Bowl if you get there. It just seems like of all the years to go for it. So of all the years like that you could feel you could win the Super Bowl being like the seven seed, being 10 and seven. You could do that this year. In the past, like you felt you had to be the number one seed and have that buy and like this year. I wouldn’t be surprised if 10 and 17 won the [ __ ] Super Bowl. I mean, think about the wildard teams. Like, if Seattle, god forbid, wins the division, the Rams could win the Super Bowl as a wild team, as the five seed. The Rams are the best team in the NFC probably. And the Niners beat them once in and out gained them the second time they played them. They just had more turnovers. yet they just didn’t buy in on this team at all. It just makes no sense to me. It makes no sense. I don’t know. I mean, what what is their future once McAffrey and KD retire? Perie, who else? Pierall. They don’t have a left tackle. They don’t have a right tackle of the future. Their guards have been playing like Upton Stout. Okay. Ronaldo Scott, Eddie Panero. Eddie. Yeah. Eddie. He’s not even signed. He’s going to need an extension pretty soon, man. I’d give I don’t call him Dero for nothing. I’d give him a blank check. What’s the MVP of the freaking team? All right, let’s do a little Oh, where you go? Let’s do a little prize picks before we get back to before we grade the Niners picks from the last couple years. The game is more or less was the only words you’re allowed to say with your final answer. And we’re going to go prize pick is always has to make educa like educated guesses on who’s going to start. They’re thinking Mac. Mac. Jones is going to start. I think they’re wrong, but we’ll see. If M Jones were to start this game, they have met 241 and a half passing yards. What do you think? More or less for Mack? More. More. They can’t run the football. So, like, right. Like, even if they’re ahead the entire game, which they should be, they probably won’t be able to run, which means he’ll get like 260 at least. The wrong one. Rushing yards. See, sometimes prize picks tries to mess you up like that. But I’m not going to get messed up more. There we go. Jacobe Brassette 235 and a half passing yards against a team with no pass rush. But no, Marvin Harrison. Doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter. Have a blind squirrel playing quarterback against the 49ers right now. They’re getting a bazillion passing yards, right? It’s true. Um, Bam Knight, who I picked up for a couple weeks, has been awful. 35 and a half rushing yards against the Niners’s vaunted run defense. What do you think? That’s not a high line, but I would go under. I mean, less more. Less less. My bad. He’s kind of terrible. And De Marcado seems better. Not just that. They should be down the entire game, right? They’re not going to run. It’s true. The Niners going to score 40 in this one cuz they said so. Christian McAffrey 70 71 and a half rushing yards. Sure. For Christian. What do you think? Isn’t Arizona’s run defense decent? I I I It is pretty decent. More or less. Less. Less. I mean, yeah, he’d have to go up against a really terrible team that’s just about to fire their coach to go for more than that. I’m sorry. M. Jones. Receiving yards. KD McAffrey. Trey McBride 77 and a half receiving yards more or less. More like 150. KD 50 and a half. Well, Pier is probably going to play, so less I mean, yeah, that’s a smart pick. That’s a smart pick. All right, these are these are Brandon’s picks. At the end of the week, I go through and see who had the best picks. You could be the guy. We’ll see. I like these picks. They look pretty. They got three lesses, three more. Sensible. We’re going to flex it even though they’re all the right picks. Submit it. Download uh prize picks yourself. Use promo code CHN. Play five bucks, get 50 instantly in lineups. All right, let’s do what we said we were going to do. Let’s grade the picks. Yep. It’s early, but I want to do some grading. Grading is fun. Let’s start with 2025. First pick, Michaelel Williams. Give me a grade. Give me a letter grade and we’ll I’ll give you mine. F. I don’t care. F. Like, there were so many good players on the board. I said before the draft they should take Walter Nolan. Now, even if it wasn’t Walter Nolan, you said Ibuka, Amarian Hampton, like there Jaylen Walker, like James, there were so many every anybody else would have been a better pick than Mike. If they were picking names out of a hat, they probably could have done better. Exactly. Exactly. But they got they got they got they were they they loved his frame. They loved Paws, but they loved his frame. That and they loved his character, right? They talked about what a good guy he is. Whatever they whenever the second thing they say about a player is how good of a guy they is. Bad sign. They drafted Jaylen Carter. They won a Super Bowl. Solomon Thomas was also an all-time great guy. God, they wouldn’t stop talking about what good of a guy he was. playing decent now, which is crazy. Like years later, I as like a Yeah. Now that he’s on his eighth team and people forgot where he was drafted, I was gonna give this guy a C just to be nice. I feel like the reason I said C instead of F is because F, I would like reserve that for like the Javon Kinlaws of the world, the guys who are like not only not worth the pick, but not even good players. I think he’s a good player. I think you can see like the how the run defense fell off without him. But yeah, man. I mean, there’s like eight guys at least they should have taken ahead of him. So, giving this one a passing grade is me being as generous as possible. And you having the stones to give it an F makes me kind of jealous. I I think you’re cooler than me right now. It’s all right. I’m going to stand on it. Even if he gets 10 single year, it’s still an F to me. I don’t think he’s ever going to be a Pro Bowler. Okay. Alfred Collins B minus. He can stop the run. I like Alfred Collins. I I don’t think he’s like he was drafted around early, but it’s also such a Ner’s pick because they always draft a guy around early anyways. So, like I’ll take that out of consideration. B minus. Yeah, he’s a sol he’s a lot like Mike Hill in except he’s actually big enough to play defensive tackle. Mike’s a small defensive tackle. Colin’s a big defensive tackle. They both look like two down players to me, but at least Collins has a true position and yeah, he seems like he’s improving. Solid pick where you took him. Although he was a bit of a reach, but if you can get a good two down starting DTackle in round two, it’s not bad. Agreed. What would you give him? I give a B. But again, I’m an easy grader. All right, Nick Martin. I don’t even think it’s Nick Martin’s fault. Okay, first off, before the draft, no one had Nick Martin even going in the top six rounds. Six. And they took him in round three. I’m gonna say I’m only going to give it a D minus because not an F. I’ll give it a D minus because maybe maybe Robert Salai knows something that we don’t and eventually he’ll become good. Like Tatum Bthun is okay. Like Tatum Bthoon at the time was like this guy stinks and like now he’s like decent. So like maybe Nick Martin eventually becomes okay. I like that you’re trying to be optimistic right now. F F I I they’re they’re I don’t even know if he’s gonna be on the team next year. It seems like they are not gonna put him on the field. And maybe it’s because they have some master plan and they develop linebackers like they develop quarterbacks or something. But I think it’s more likely that they think he’s absolutely awful. And maybe they’re wrong cuz they thought up to the stat was going to be like Jaylen Ramsay or something and he’s taking his time developing. But I’m going to take their word for it that he’s truly the worst linebacker on the I mean they’ll play safeties at linebacker over him. So until I get some evidence, I got to say it’s an F, man. Especially where they took him. Pick 75. You could have gotten an instant contributor if not a future something pro bowler. So they could have had Scataboo. They could have gotten I maner too. Yeah. Yeah. I’m say F. Uh up and stout B. I think he’ll be fine. He’ll be good. He’ll be good. I like, you know what I like about him? If anything, he’s a guy that’ll like give his all for the team. Hell yeah. Fearless that matters. Like the Niners do draft some of those guys that are like dogs that just give their all. I’ll give him a B. I think he’ll be a solid player. I like him. He reminds me a lot of Jimmy Ward in the sense it’s like he’s such a good football player. He’s such a good athlete. What’s his position? And with Jimmy Ward, they put him out of college at nickel and he just wasn’t It’s such a hard position to play zone, man. It’s tough matchups. He got worked early in his career by Brandon Marshall. Kind of got work like played out of that position and eventually later on the Salah the Niners figured out, you know, he’s a free safety and ended up being a damn good free safety. I wonder if Stout it will be better suited to play free safety because at that spot you’re not really in, you know, man-to-man coverage as much and and your tackling is so important. He’s such a good tackler. That’s my one thought with Stout. If it doesn’t work out at Nickel Try at free safety. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, he’ll be a great player. CJ West, I’m gonna give a B+. I like CJ West a lot actually. I think he’ll be good. I still think he’ll be very good. He’s big. He can stop the run for a fourth round pick. That’s like all you can ask for. You know, he’s undersized, I guess, but like I like the pick at the time. I thought it was their best pick of the draft at the time. Maybe I was wrong about that. I think CJ West is going to turn into their best defensive tackle next year. I’m worried about CJ West. And here’s why. I loved him when they picked him. I loved him in camp. He was the the star of those one-on-one pass rush drills. But those aren’t that’s not really football. And I’ve seen offensive linemen and defensive linemen who can really excel in that drill and then do nothing in 11on1 real football. And I think the issue with West is his length. They compared him to DJ Jones. DJ Jones arms are about an inch longer. An inch is makes a big difference. His CJ West are at 31 a 12. That’s a little bit below the threshold. I think most linemen he’s facing are going to have longer arms than him and uh it’s going to be hard for him to disengage. So um I had him at more of like I was just saying when I say best defensive tackle on the roster next season, that’s not a high bar. No, I I actually think Alfred Collins has some upside that C.J. West doesn’t have. We’ll see about it though. I gave West a D, but maybe I was just getting mean at this point. I I like your argument for giving him a B+. Maybe we’ll split the difference at C for now. Okay. Next pick was Jordan Watkins. Had some mo I mean, he had a nice catch deep in the preseason. Got hurt. He has two catches this year. Two catches. What do you think? F Why would you even draft a guy that Pertie’s never gonna use ever? It’s just Danny Gray 2.0. Just hopefully get in a hidden run situation with with Rasheed Rice, you know? Like I forgot about that one. Yeah, he was in that. He was there. Oh yeah, he was. Um I gave this a C and the only So you Who did you give the benefit of the doubt to? Nick Martin. I’m giving the benefit of the doubt to Jordan Watkins because there was a stretch last year where Ricky Pierce all had two catches in five games and he was just doing cardio on the field, running routes and doing a bunch of nothing. I I think if you don’t like if you don’t have Kyle Shanahan’s entire offense absolutely memorized, he’s not really going to call plays for you. So, the fact that Jordan Watkins hasn’t produced yet doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s Danny Gray, but it might be. It might mean I mean I you can’t really rule it out. I I saw him in practice and I thought he was better than Danny Gray ever was, but I’m not I mean, you can’t you can’t really judge football players in practice. It’s not really football. It’s like flag football. He’s good at flag football. It’s not just that. Wasn’t Tory Horton available at this pick, unless I’m crazy. Oh [ __ ] Yeah. There were other receivers that were very good available at this pick. And Jordan Watkins just seemed another pick a round too early or two rounds too early, you know, like he wasn’t even the guy at Old Miss. Trey Harris was. That’s true. And that’s the thing. If you’re going to if you’re going to reach for a guy and take him a round or two too early, you better [ __ ] play that guy right away and justify it right away. Otherwise, people are going to be like, “Hey, what was that dumbass pick that you made that everyone told you not to make that you thought was super smart? You immediately changed your mind.” And we could have told you that. Like ridiculous. That’s why it’s like you you’re sticking with Upton Stout. I get it. Not playing Nick Martin at all. Damn, he must suck. Cuz you have all the incentive in the world to show everyone else that they were wrong and you were right to take this guy and they’re like, “No, no, no, no, no, no, no.” Like, we’re not This is our secret. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Uh Jordan James, this was the guy they got for trading Debo. I mean, I’ll be nice, D. I mean, he’s never played a snap in. I don’t see how you give him I mean, he’s never played a snap. Give him an F. It’s not his fault, you know. fault roster politics. We don’t know how good he is. Like he was good at Oregon. He was That’s true. He could be Joe Williams or he could be I don’t know someone good. He could be the anti- Elijah Mitchell where he anti Elijah Mitchell the first few years and then never played again and then it could be Jordan James doesn’t play the first year and a half but that doesn’t really you know what would really piss me off if Jordan James ended up being good. Like, how are you going to go through more than half of a season with no running game and just have a good running back on your team and you’re like, “We think he sucks.” What do you mean you think he sucks? He might. It’s like you haven’t seen him like years. He might be able to break tackles. Yeah. You didn’t You can’t judge these players in practice and meetings all the time. And it was funny, we were asking about Mason for years like, “Why don’t you play Mason? Why is he below Elijah Mitchell on the depth chart?” And their answer was always just like, “Cuz I said so.” because cuz that’s the way it is. And then all of a sudden Mason like becomes the starter cuz Christian goes down and they’re like, “Yeah, we always knew he could do it. It’s just that he wasn’t quite, you know, dialed in in the meeting rooms and we didn’t want to like reward poor study habits.” So he needed to go through that to get to this spot like, “Yeah, yeah, sure. Sure. Get your best players on the field.” Okay. Jordan James. What about So Curtis? No. Maris Seagull. I like him. C plus C. Yeah. I mean, if you take him in round three, F. But he started some games as a late fifth round pick, he can’t cover, but I mean, he wasn’t getting like he wasn’t giving up a lot of separation. He was just getting mossed five times a game. I don’t know. I mean, if he ends up being just a backup, like that’s okay. If he ends up being a starter, that’s a great pick. I don’t know that he’s gonna end up being a starter. Yeah. I mean, time will tell. I don’t hate him. I like him. So, we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. Curtis Ror incomplete. Hasn’t done anything. Conor KBY. I like Conor Colby. Um B minus in round seven. Seventh round pick, a potential starter down the line. Maybe at least backup. Better than Nick Sel ever was. The problem is there’s no pass block. He was not a good pass blocker in college. He was a good run blocker and they can’t run the football. So he’s he’s only been shown with like pass blocking which is not a strength, right? So like we haven’t seen I think he’ll end up starting at guard next year. So I mean he has to, right? Do they have who who’s under contract at guard next year? That’s true, man. Ben Bart might play his way out of town with a couple good games. He might get $15 million here. You see how these contracts go. Could be Connor Kobe. It could be Drew Moss. All right, let’s do 2024 and then get out of here. Okay, we have a little bit more data with these guys. first round pick. Ricky Pierall, he’s had some good moments. He was also drafted ahead of Vlad Mccunki. B+ B+ I I still like he’s been great when he’s been on the field. The only reason why it’s not an A is one, he’s always injured. Two, you drafted him over Lad Mcconkey, which is always going to be in the back of your mind, right? Like, and I like Ricky Pierce Hall, but he’s not going to be better than Lad Maki. And B+ is fair. He looks really good, but he’s had a lot of soft tissue injuries. And I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say the Niners have been very cautious with him the last few weeks and then he’s going to come back this week and have a good strong rest of the season. But if he gets hurt again, then then I might readjust my grade. Renardo Green, if we were judging it on his rookie year, it would have been an A, right? Because he was drafted around too early. No one knew who he was. Um, he had great coaching at Florida State, isn’t it? It it’s uh Certan’s father is the coach at Florida State, I think. Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. Coach um or it might be Asante Samuels dad. One of the two C they have a good quarterback’s coach, right? So, like at the time I was like, “Okay, round two early.” He looked good as as a rook and he’s been just atrocious this season. So, like see I guess. Yeah. I like Renardo Green. I mean, he has given up some big plays. He really has. Um, and he doesn’t really intercept the ball. So, those are two things you don’t love. But he hasn’t given up a touchdown yet this season. He’s broken up, I want to say, seven or eight. What do we got? Eight passes in nine games. And he’s given up a completion percentage of 52. He’s not bad. In round two, I kind I kind of like Ronaldo Green. He might be their best quarterback, but it’s hard to tell who’s their best quarterback when there’s no pass rush and everyone just kind of gets picked on. Like I mean, it’s hard to say, but I like Bernardo Green. Yeah, it’s tough. We’ll give him a B. Fair enough. Okay, Pony. A for sure. I know he’s played bad. He’s played this year so far, but he played well actually this past weekend. He looks a little healthier. I think he was injured. Like I think he was just hurt. Like he’s an he’s an all he’s an allp pro guard, you know? Like I think he’s eventually gonna be an allp pro guard. So I’ll say a a plus. That was an elite pick in round three. Yeah. I mean for a team that really sucks at drafting, especially early, Pierce Hall Green and Pun has the potential to be three good starters for a while and then they came back with Malak Mustafa. Yeah. Which is I think a good pick. I I like Mustafa. I like him. I know a lot of people have been in and out on him, but like he’s a he’s good at at, you know, getting to the ball. His coverage skills I question a little bit, you know, but like why was he on Devonte? It’s not that’s not Mault. Like why the heck was whatever his name is guarding green grass on the other side like not doing anything? Um, I’ll give him a B+. I like Mustafa. I think, you know, they probably should have resigned Huanga, but what can you do? Like Mustafa is probably the cheaper option. I like Mustafa too. I agree with you. They probably should have resigned Hunga. Hunga is like Mustafa is much faster than Hunga. But to me, Mustafa is kind of like Seagull, who’s also really fast in that I don’t really love either of them in coverage. They’re both good. They’re both hitters. Yeah. I don’t think he’s good in coverage. I think he’s a good hitter. I think he’s around the ball. I think he might throw his body around a little bit more than Seagull who doesn’t who’s clearly not as muscled up as Mustafa but Hunga I don’t say what you want about his 40 time that guy makes plays he just does so they don’t really have that right now the best year of his career in Denver right now so that’s true okay next pick um Isaac Garendo damn they traded up for him yeah he had one good game you know so like he had what that one Yeah. Yeah. He had one good game toward the end of the year. I mean, like, he’s not They drafted him because he ran a 4-31, but he can’t play running back, so it doesn’t matter. They gave him Raheem Ot’s number because they thought he was kind of like Raheem Oster. Damn. Raheem Oster’s still in the league. That’s a legend, right? Incredible. Yeah, he’s like 70 years old. Okay. Um, Jacob Cow F. Damn, he sucks. I’m sorry, Jacob. Remember that story where they were like, “Yeah, man. We had like one minute left in the round and we didn’t know who we wanted to take and we were just like asking coaches like to show it show of hands and there was like tied between Jacob Cowing and this other guy. It’s like they really didn’t want him. They were like, you know, your ass when like when you can’t even return punts, bro. Like that.” Yeah. All right. Jared Kingston not on the team anymore. Still in the league. And Tatum Bthoon B+ I mean for a seven A minus B+ like that he’s exceeded expectations for a seventh rounder. He’s good. I think I feel like that 2024 draft there’s a couple Fs in there, but I feel like that 2024 draft was essentially like a BB B+ draft. That 24 draft reminds me of the Rams like quick rebuild first draft. Yeah, two of them. It’s looking like 25 was a skip for the Ner, but if they can, they should be back in somewhat of contention if they can get a few positions of need. The problem problem is they don’t build the trenches. Every Super Bowl champion the last like 30 years has a good offensive and defensive line, right? Like that’s why they lost the Super Bowl because Spencer Berford missed his block on on Chris Jones. It’s true. I mean, if the Niners if the future of the if the if the success of the Niners over the next couple years depends on this upcoming draft, they might want to get a new guy to draft. I’m just saying maybe John Lynch isn’t going to ace it. Although, whoever was picking in 2024 did a good job. Um Jay Odyssey says, “Are you afraid the rookies have hit the wall? This the most games they’ve ever played in a higher level of football. This can be part of the reason why defense isn’t doing well besides losing stars.” thought occurred to me. It’s possible Collins finally got hurt. He’s been playing his ass off. Mel went down. Um yeah, I don’t know if any of them are actually getting better at this point. Possible. Three much sauces. Sorry. Sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead. No, go ahead. Wild. Um it it hurts their confidence is what I’m saying. That’s what I was going to say. Like if they keep leaving them out there giving up 42 points, like they might think they’re bad football players. It’s a good point. It’s a great point. Yep. Three more sauce. Does Brian Robinson deserve as much touches as CMC? He deserves as many carries or more. That’s how I’ll put it. Uh, I want winners says, “Is Martinez the glue in the quarterback room based on what you see. Are Mac and Pretty amicable or is there some tension?” I was talking about this yesterday. This is just what I see in practice and these guys are pros, but I watch this [ __ ] and I’ve never seen Brock and Mack really address each other or look at each other. Now, maybe they’re best friends off the field and they go bowling, but when I see him in practice, they’re so locked in and it’s like they don’t even know the other one is there. They they don’t can’t even see him. And then you have Adrien Martinez who talks to both of them. He’ll go over to Mac. They’ll laugh. They’ll they have a rapport. Goes over to Brock. Same thing. It’s just that Brock and Mac just can’t see. There must be have a stigmatism. They can’t see each other. I find it interesting. I mean, what are we want? I’m sure there is a little bit of natural tension. It’s probably a good thing. I bet you Steve Young and Joe Montana weren’t like chopping it up all the time. They were probably kind of, you know, resentful of each other. I’d be resentful of someone trying to take my [ __ ] job. I agree. Like Mack is playing great. Like Perie was h happy they lost. That’s all I’ll say. He was like now he can come back and play. It’s It’s tough to take a guy’s job who just won a game. Yeah, it’s tough. Josh B says, “It’s crazy looking at other teams play their late round picks. Ted’s Johnson and Krosky are seven round starters and highly productive.” No, no. Krosky sucks. He’s on my fantasy team and I hate him and I wish he’d play better and he sucks and I had to start Chris Rodriguez last week and now he got hurt. Fantasy football sucks and I hate it. No, I know it’s fun. I just didn’t play for 15 years. I want to get back into it this year and it makes me feel like my friends know football better than me and I’m supposed to be the content creator. Damn it, I hate it. It’s all luck. A lot of it is luck. And I’m saying that as a fantasy football creator, like I mean most Yeah, but the 5% that isn’t luck I’m bad at and I I know it for certain. Damn it. Maybe next year. No, my fantasy team has won eight weeks in a row. But I feel like it’s because I’ve gotten scored on the least amount in the league and that’s luck. That’s that’s pure luck. Yeah. Yeah. But you know what? No one cares about my fantasy team. Thank you for watching the show, Brandon. You did a great job, man. We got to do this again soon. I’m sorry about my voice. I’m sorry about the mic not working halfway through. I promise next time my mic will work the entire time. How dare you, Brandon. How dare you? No, that’s a good show. Thanks for watching everyone. Um, they talk I’m down I’m down here at Levis’s. Kyle, we’ll talk. We won’t know which we might know which quarterback’s going to start based on what happens in practice. Stay tuned. Brandon, take

Grant Cohn and Brandon Deutsch grade the San Francisco 49ers’ rookies after 10 games, plus much more.

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