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00:00what a great day to have this conversation man i mean there's not really a bad day to have this
00:04conversation uh but get to youtube to see yeah the best looking guy on the show uh oh thanks
00:11well oh unfortunately you now take the silver medal because the silver fox is joining us on
00:17youtube uh you're right he looks great and in fact on the river islands guest line and on youtube it
00:22makes me want to ask kurt warner who joins us now who's older you or philip rivers
00:27um it's close but uh but i got i got him by you know i got it by 10 years so uh definitely me
00:35um i yeah you wouldn't see me uh trying this at 54 that's for sure can you believe this kurt
00:41i think he's gonna start on sunday uh i mean i yeah we we shall see i mean i it is hard to believe
00:50uh you know and i think the thing that's hard to believe is the five-year thing um you know 44
00:55obviously is crazy but we saw tom brady play extremely well you know into his mid-40s we've
01:00seen some other guys play well into their 40s um but being out of it for five years and coming back
01:05especially if if you're on what four days of practice uh in a new play i don't know i mean it's
01:12it's crazy to me but i love philip um there's so much respect for him uh even to try this uh and put
01:19himself out there like this i just hope i hope it's a semblance of uh that it that it goes well
01:25uh you know i don't think we can have expectations that it's going to go great um but i hope there's
01:30some some really good things that come out of this um you know and it's not something that that he's
01:35regretting when it's all said and done 11 days from now there is a scenario you'll be on the westwood
01:40one broadcast for monday night football the colts hosting the 49ers and philip rivers might be
01:46uh the quarterback i i would love to hear what you have to say on that broadcast
01:51i mean i can't wait i mean if he is at that point in time um i think we'll have a lot of really good
01:58things to be saying um at that point and uh um so i i'm excited i think everybody in the football
02:05world is excited to watch this game and to see how this can go um you remember joe flacco a couple
02:12years ago came off the couch and did some great things for cleveland now he wasn't sitting on the
02:16couch for five years um you know so that's a whole different deal but um but again i you know i told
02:23somebody today there's there's two aspects to this i have so much respect for philip rivers
02:27that i can't sit here you know as a player and the person that he is i can't sit here and
02:32um and say oh it's not going to go well he's got no chance uh but i also have so much respect for the
02:37game um and what it's all about and how complex it is and how fast it is um that i also don't say oh
02:44you know any 44 can four-year-old can come off a couch after sitting on it for five years and go
02:50light up the nfl um you know i don't i don't believe that either um but uh you know hopefully
02:57philip proves me wrong in that regard uh and he still got some of that magic that he had when uh
03:01when he was going good kurt dibbs and i have been sitting here sort of talking out mythical joe burrow
03:07scenarios i don't know did you hear the press conference that that he held yesterday did you hear
03:11it yeah okay so i want to play it again for our audience so that they've got it and then we got
03:17to just start by getting your reaction to all of this you know if i want to if i want to keep doing
03:21this i have to have fun doing it uh you know i've been through a lot and if it's not fun then what am
03:27i doing it for so that's the mindset i'm trying to bring to the table how much fun are you having
03:32right now it's difficult to have fun given the season what you've been through physically
03:37emotionally all of it is it tough yes certainly did you have fun playing or the i mean how much
03:42of it was fun before winning's always fun but in general was it as fun before you got hurt did you
03:48view it that way at least no i wouldn't say i wouldn't say i viewed it that way i think um
03:52what was the changing point changing point i'm not sure i'm not sure there was a singular moment or
03:59time of time it's just a reflection reflection on a lot of things that i've done and been through
04:05in my career i think i've been through more than most and certainly not easy on the the brain or the
04:11body so just trying to have fun doing it again see if you seem like there's something on your mind
04:17maybe i'm reading too much into it but seem frustrating um there's a lot of things going on
04:22right now a lot of things going on right now football related personally all the above how do you
04:27translate that kurt where does your mind go um well i mean my mind goes to you one of two places
04:36uh the first one is you know we mentioned it there that you know it's been a struggle for him to stay
04:43on the field and he's been beat up and he's been hit a lot and um you know when you're constantly on
04:49that road of you know just trying to battle just to be out there every single week it does take the
04:57fun away from it you know you can't enjoy the week you can't enjoy the preparation because it's
05:01all about what can i do next to get healthy and get out there or to order or to manage the injuries
05:06that i have and and it's not just playing ball and you know letting things fall as they may and so
05:11that could be one side of it or that could be what he's talking about is just man you know i just i
05:18can't stay healthy and you know just this grind all the time is is not enjoyable it's not the
05:23football that that i remember and then there could be the other side of it that uh could be i'm not
05:29having any fun here um you know specifically because i'm playing really well the offense is
05:35playing really well um you know our defense is struggling and we can't get that right and so no
05:40matter how well we play we still don't win we still don't get a chance to compete for a championship
05:45um you know we've talked a lot about their offensive line at times not always putting the pieces
05:50together for him and so he's getting hit and maybe that's part of uh the frustration is i can't stay
05:55on the field because i get hit so much and and we're not addressing some of those things so it could
06:02be a combination of both um you know that just right now um it's not fun you know the last two years it
06:09hasn't been fun because no matter what we do uh i have trouble staying on the field and we have
06:14trouble winning um and that's not a fun combination as much as i love football that's not a fun
06:20combination at the nfl level pro football hall of fame of kurt warner here on 95 7 the game so for you
06:26you got to the end of your career and i'm looking at it here you had an overtime win 51 45 over green
06:32bay and then a loss at new orleans and that was it how did you know at the end that enough was enough
06:38um yeah i mean you know i always wondered when i was going through my career when i would know and
06:45i always felt like um you know being a man of faith that god would hit me with a two by four and or you
06:51know just physically it would it would fall off a cliff and go okay dude you know it's it's time like
06:56you can't do what you used to do it's time to walk away um and i didn't necessarily have that because
07:02physically i felt like i could have played four or five more years like you said i mean i could argue
07:07that 51 45 game that uh you know that second to last playoff game was the best game i ever played
07:13in my career um you know in 08 we went to the super bowl and uh you know could have won an mvp so i was
07:19playing really well at the end of my career um but for me it it was pretty obvious through 2008 um the
07:28game had taken a toll on the game and i would say just the situation in arizona where there was such
07:34expectation for the way i had to play for us to win um that it was causing me to to lose weight like
07:41i played in the super bowl in 08 at 201 pounds which i hadn't played or been since i was a junior
07:48in college um but the stress and lack of sleep and game planning and and you know putting so much on
07:54myself to perform well every week you know talk about not having fun it was like you could play a
07:59great game on sunday and you had to turn around and not even enjoy that and get right back to work
08:04knowing you had to play well the next week if you were going to win and so you know halfway through
08:102008 i started considering it uh obviously we went to the super bowl and uh it was a great year
08:16and at that time i thought i might retire um i went back for a couple weeks uh thought about it
08:23prayed about it um and and that itch was still there um you know i knew very quickly uh after
08:29that because sometimes you can get into the season and it can be a long season and whatever and you're
08:33just like ah i'm done uh but you know took some time and i'm like i want to come back so when i came
08:38back in 09 it was about halfway through 09 um and a lot of those same feelings and you know same thing
08:45and i could see the toll that the game was taking on me physically um you know not getting banged up but
08:51just physically more off the field um and it was at that point about halfway through the season i
08:56thought okay this is it this this is this is the end of this um it's been great it's been a great run
09:01i know i could still play physically but this is about longevity and making sure that i take care of
09:07myself for the next chapter and and what i want to do with uh with my kids and my wife moving forward
09:12um and so it really wasn't that hard of a decision you know maybe god you know led me into it you
09:18know he started the thinking in 08 uh and then he hit me with that two by four and you know nine
09:23and i knew it was time to walk away and i when i walked away i had no thoughts of coming back you
09:29know it wasn't one of those guys that get kind of one foot out and one foot in i think it's supposed
09:33to be the time to retire and i'm not sure and then i get out i don't know what i'm going to do and so
09:37you come back um i knew when it was when it was done it was done um i walked away i was happy with
09:43the decision had peace with the decision and uh you know could move on all right so this is i i got
09:49a couple on the joe burrow situation based on what you just said like because uh when we hear what he
09:56said some people's mind went to i don't know maybe that two by four is in his garage i don't know if
10:02he's been hit with it yet um but maybe it's close or maybe this is just about the bangles like do you
10:07believe that joe is getting reflective on his career or is he getting reflective on his team
10:14yeah it's so hard for me and again it's not you know out of the realm of possibility i mean we saw
10:22andrew luck in the heart of his career great quarterback walk away and it sounds like you know
10:29you know one side of it could very easily be the same stuff that um that andrew went through you
10:35know the physical pounding and and the toll that was taking on him physically to play the game and
10:41he walked away early and nobody would have guessed that in a million years and so you know you watch
10:46joe and you know how good he is and you know um you know he's still got stuff he wants to accomplish
10:51it's hard for me to to buy in that you know it's fully about his future and walking away um but more
10:58power to him like again this game's great and it gives us so many great things but it also takes a
11:03toll on you and can take a toll on you physically um and if you feel that way and you have no ties
11:10with your um you know defining your life or your career by you know by all these things that you
11:16could accomplish and you can walk away and be healthy and um you have be set financially and move
11:22into the next phase um you know more power to you uh it's just hard for me to buy that with these
11:27you know with a young guy like him that you feel like has so much more in the tank from a player
11:32standpoint it's hard for me to think that it's this is just reflective of i've been through some
11:38injuries i think i want to walk away i i agree with you which is why my mind kind of leans in
11:43the direction of this is about a team that has not gotten a defense in an offensive line around
11:48its franchise qb so since it's sports radio we get to let our minds wander a little bit um and here in
11:56the bay area if there is this mythical like joe burrow wants out i kurt you've had so many great
12:04conversations with us about brock purdy um if if the bengals if joe burrow wants out should the
12:11niners be interested i i mean yeah that's just a tough question you know i love brock and and i think
12:20brock's really good um but i also do believe joe's better than brock is and and brings more to the
12:28table and so i think you know i mean if that were the case you probably have 28 teams in the league
12:35that say joe burrow would be an upgrade of the quarterback spot not a knock on any of these other
12:42guys that are really good quarterbacks in this league it's just joe's one of the special ones you
12:46know he's he's shown that time and again so um yeah but again i don't know what all that entails
12:53for all these different teams i don't know what that entails uh you know for joe to even get out
12:58of cincinnati i mean i can't i mean i just can't imagine cincinnati letting him go i mean i understand
13:03if you know it was a carson palmer and i'm gonna retire if you don't trade me type of thing okay you
13:09know but but i also think part of um and not that they can't do all of it but you know this offseason i
13:14mean they went and you know they signed jamar chase and they signed t higgins and um you know
13:19and so they made some moves and some things that that joe wanted from that standpoint i think it's
13:24also hard to get everything that you want um in this league when when guys are getting paid so much
13:30you can put so much of it into certain areas and you have to kind of focus on um you know what you
13:35want to do and um you know sometimes you can you can draft really well and you get great skilled
13:41players in the draft or you can get great offensive linemen that aren't getting paid a
13:44lot of money yet and you can kind of put it all together but um you know i just think that's
13:49another challenge when you have a bunch of great players on a team um like cincinnati did you kind
13:55of get top heavy with some of that payment but uh back to your point um i love brock and i think
14:01brock is a really good starting quarterback in the national football league uh so i don't think he's
14:05a guy that you part with easily um you know but if patrick mahomes and josh allen and lamar
14:11jackson and joe burrow become available um i think any team especially with as young as those guys
14:16are any team um you know would at least consider exploring um you know trying to get one of those
14:24guys um you know to come to their place it probably cost the niners a couple of first round picks as
14:28well but not to get too bogged down in that part i'm just curious kurt about the joe burrow fit in
14:33the shanahan scheme because we've seen brock purdy be really good at what they run 21 personnel
14:39a lot of the you know outside zone and the play action stuff is joe burrow so good that he's a
14:45scheme fit for anybody um you know i don't know about anybody but i think he is one guy that that
14:52you know fits in a lot of schemes uh for sure um you know i think joe to me is is one of the best
15:00processors and readers uh of the field in the national football league maybe the best um you know
15:06i enjoy watching him because i feel like he played the game very much like i did uh i don't
15:11know if that's fully conducive to what kyle does um but i believe a guy like that that processes
15:18information really well can fit into that system and find ways to have success and you know have
15:25the ability to make different kinds of throws we talked about that with brock numerous times i think
15:30what makes him so special in that offense is sometimes they they ask the quarterback to make some tough
15:34throws um and he's got the ability to make those tough kind of throws joe has that ability as well
15:40he processes information really really fast um so yeah i mean in a passing uh offense and especially
15:47you know kyle with with the play action and and what they do off the run game i mean joe would
15:51excel in that um you know i think the pass game may be a little more of a struggle based on the way
15:57joe plays uh to how they want to play you know with more of the pure progression versus the full
16:02field reads but um without a question i think uh i think joe uh and kyle if they were to get
16:08together uh could easily you know mesh that together and and come up with something pretty
16:13awesome all right so now that we're uh we we can break down the 2026 niners a little bit more maybe
16:19next time we talk uh we don't want to let you get out of here without breaking down the 2025 san
16:25francisco 49ers i think a lot of fans here in the bay the minute fred warner and nick bosa went out
16:30sort of had a sheepish look at their chances this year but now suddenly people are starting to dream
16:36they're at least healthy on one side of the ball nfc other contenders have some warts too
16:43how do you see where i should say do you see them sitting within the framework of the nfc right now
16:49yeah i mean i don't see them as one of the best teams right now um obviously you know when you um
16:59have someone like christian and the way that he's playing uh he is an x factor and they've used him
17:04so much this year and kind of gotten back to that heavy usage with him and so uh he's that that that
17:10guy that you see and you go okay uh with a guy like that you have the opportunity to beat anybody
17:16but i just i don't know the skill on the outside if you know they get into a pass game uh if if they
17:23can win that kind of pass game i really like their defense i think they've uh overperformed uh you know
17:29as you guys said with some of the injuries that they have so i think this is a really good solid
17:33team uh i don't know if they're a great team now i i don't know if we have a lot of great teams
17:39that are out there um you know but the way the rams are playing and how solid they are across the
17:43board but i know san francisco beat them and and beat them with mac uh in there and so uh i i think
17:50they match up well with everybody because they can win the physical battle uh they're solid on
17:54defense they don't make a lot of big mistakes on defense um and they've got some playmakers uh on
17:59offense that you can kind of hang your hat on i just when i look at them i look at them as kind of
18:04just a step uh below you know some of the the other better teams you were there with marshall
18:09falk when he went thousand thousand and mcafree's on his way perhaps to another thousand thousand
18:14and considering what you said about not a lot of other help on the outside how impressive
18:19is it in your mind what mcafree's doing with an offense that isn't that dynamic
18:24uh well i mean he's impressive so i'm not gonna you know make this sound like he's it's not
18:29impressive but i i would say i'm not surprised i mean when you have a guy like that like we had
18:35marshall um you know we were going to use him and you know we didn't really overuse him in either
18:40area um but he was going to get 80 catches a year he was going to you know get 12 1300 yards rushing
18:47every year um and we were going to mix him up and we were going to use him in a lot of different
18:52ways because we could and because he was a difference maker and a mismatch for a lot of
18:56teams and so um you know all you worry about is the wear and tear part of it uh because i you know
19:03i don't know where he is touches compared to like what marshall was i never felt like we overused
19:09marshall you know i never felt like oh my gosh i'm worried that you know at week 14 and 15 he's going
19:15to be banged up because you know because we give him too many touches i just don't feel like that
19:20that was how it is when i watched san francisco with christian there are times i'm like gosh man he's
19:26getting a lot of touches a lot of physical touches and and getting hit a lot um and so i think that's
19:32the concern but i'm not surprised you know he's the best player and he's back healthy um and you
19:37don't have you know the debos and the iups on the outside you know to really feed that passing
19:43game um you know that you kind of have to work inside out and and he's a big part of that uh
19:48that's an interesting comment like if you were and and i guess you will talk to kyle shanahan next
19:53week i mean would you not that he's looking for advice from you but would you would you
19:58would you suggest in general less touches for christian i mean i think you do what you have to do to win
20:06and um you know if you have a workhorse and you believe that he can handle the load then you keep
20:13putting it on him i mean like if if there's ways you know i mean we had the hall of famers in other
20:19places uh so you know we could throw it to other guys and feel really comfortable and win games and
20:24have success and so we didn't have to there's other teams that have to kind of feed that beast a little
20:30bit more um you know it's always concerning but i but i you know i'm going to tell him to win
20:36however he has to win and i think kyle knows that as well as anybody and i think that's part of the
20:40reason why he's used so much is he understands there's some limitations um you know with their
20:46skill players now um you know young guys and and you know guys like you know jennings who are good
20:53players just not necessarily number ones and difference makers from that perspective you know
20:58and also you lose a guy like debo i mean debo could do some of the stuff that christian did
21:04and so you know some of those you know quick pass routes or even the jet sweeps or throwing it quick
21:09to him you know you could spread that out between him and debo and get the same effect they don't
21:14really have that guy now and so you know i think all that just leads to the uptick um but like i said
21:20i think they're outperforming what anybody expected especially with the injuries they've had
21:24um and christian's a big part of it and kyle as always uh does a great job of finding ways to win
21:30and so i'm not telling kyle anything um i'll talk to him in the offseason if he wants to talk a
21:35little ball but uh yeah he knows how to coach way better than i do marshall 340 touches that year
21:40mccaffrey already at 322 this year so by the time you see christian mccaffrey he'll be well above what
21:47marshall did his thousand thousand year fingers crossed yeah right and i don't have the numbers either but
21:55i would guess a lot of those touches for marshall would come later in games too as as you know we
22:00scored points and took the lead uh we we would feed him more in the run game later in games so you know
22:07it was kind of a different way of uh you know of him doing things too so but uh but yeah it's always
22:12fascinating you know and some of these guys i mean you see christian i mean he's a workhorse and
22:17uh keeps himself in such great condition uh but you always worry right as guys get a little bit older
22:22you know how many touches is too many touches oh our fan base is worried don't worry about that at
22:27all uh the great kurt warner with us here on willard and dibs and uh westwood one monday nights
22:33you might be doing uh 40 plus year old quarterbacks two weeks in a row because you got aaron rogers this
22:39monday and maybe philip rivers the one after that uh a bunch of your former contemporaries so it should
22:45be fun kurt thank you so much you got it no problem take care guys all right there he goes kurt warner
22:50right here on willard and dibs
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