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00:00A quiet day for the 49ers and the whole league.
00:04Nothing has moved on Trent.
00:06Nothing has moved on Jawan Jennings.
00:09Nothing has moved with any of the other Niner free agents,
00:12and they've not brought anybody else in.
00:14So that's where we sit, and that's why Trent Williams is center stage.
00:19Now, you made a comment to us earlier today.
00:21You texted and said fans are angry that the Niners
00:27don't already have their succession plan.
00:30And I want to explore that for a second.
00:32Do you feel like Niner fans right now feel like this has been mishandled?
00:39I think that they feel, and I don't want to speak for fans,
00:42888-957-9570.
00:44Everybody can speak for themselves.
00:46Speak for yourselves.
00:46But I was just saying that the Niners are kind of stuck in that
00:50they have to capitulate to what Trent wants in this moment
00:53because they don't have a succession plan.
00:56So I was thinking about it,
00:57and you would love to have the left tackle of the future in the building already.
01:01That way, you know, if Trent, if this is his last year,
01:04then you go ahead and plug the new guy in there,
01:06and you don't have to worry about it at all.
01:08But I was looking at all the left tackles
01:11at the top of the market in NFL football,
01:14and I was wondering how many of those guys would have been available
01:17at the juncture that the Niners tend to be drafting at,
01:20which is late in the first round.
01:22And the more you go through it,
01:24and I'm looking at ESPN had a survey of executives,
01:28and they ranked all of the left tackles.
01:30And so I ran through the top 10, according to ESPN,
01:33and of the 10, eight of them were taken number 13 or higher
01:38in the first round of their draft.
01:40Interesting.
01:41And Jordan Mailata was a seventh rounder
01:44because he was a rugby player.
01:45So Philadelphia, I don't know how they found him,
01:48Howie Roseman, you genius, you evil genius.
01:50And the other guy is Derisaw for Minnesota.
01:53He was number 23, so still a first rounder.
01:57Trent Williams, of course, number four back in 2010.
01:59The other interesting thing I found in this top 10
02:02is all but two of them are on their original team.
02:06Trent's one of them,
02:07and Laramie Tunsil's now on his third team.
02:10So top 13 pick, and these teams keep them.
02:13So if you're the Niners,
02:15your succession plan really has to be
02:17find a tackle when you can,
02:19make sure you don't miss on it,
02:21and then you go ahead and keep them.
02:23So this is the thing, and it's not an excuse.
02:25I don't think they've misplayed it.
02:27I do think that this has gone a little bit differently
02:29than they expected,
02:30maybe even differently than the way Trent expected.
02:33Am I going crazy, or did two years ago
02:35Trent do an interview after the season
02:37where he's like, yeah, right?
02:38There was a report that it was like,
02:40I'm not sure if I'm playing next year.
02:42Two years ago.
02:43Now, he's 38, and he wants to play
02:46for two or three more years?
02:47Nobody saw that coming.
02:49But the whole idea of a succession plan,
02:53I'd love for the 49ers to have one too.
02:56If they don't have one in place,
02:58I would suggest maybe getting it in place now.
03:01Who knows?
03:01Maybe they used this year's pick on a left tackle
03:04in the first round.
03:06However, I don't know that left tackle succession plans
03:11actually exist that often.
03:14Ephraim Salam, who I do the Fox Sports radio show with
03:18on Sundays, was a left tackle in the league for 13 years,
03:23and he is always careful to point something out to me.
03:25The left tackle position in football
03:28is very much like the quarterback in this way.
03:32It's the only two positions on your roster
03:34you don't have a backup.
03:36I know you say you have a backup,
03:39and maybe you're blessed by the gods
03:42and you have someone like a Mac Jones
03:44who can come in and actually win football games
03:47for you at that position,
03:48but usually you don't.
03:51You do not have a backup.
03:53And so the idea that you would
03:57sort of like grab someone in the first round
03:59and then just let them sit is rare.
04:03Like you don't even have enough left tackles
04:06to have one on each team.
04:08It's just like quarterback in that way.
04:11There's probably half the league's got a good one
04:14and half the league is searching.
04:16And so you're right.
04:17If you've got a good one, you don't let him go
04:19unless he's so angry that he's sitting out years,
04:22which is what the Niners pounced on
04:24when Staley was retiring
04:25and they grabbed Trent Williams.
04:28But I think sometimes you got to move like that
04:30to find your left tackle in the future.
04:32You got to move in the middle of the night.
04:34And once you find him, boom, he plays.
04:36So I don't know how sort of like
04:39as you're putting it ready,
04:40you can be for your superstar left tackle
04:44to suddenly not be there anymore.
04:46Depends on what level he's playing at
04:48and how much you're paying him.
04:49And that's what leads me to the interesting part of this
04:51is, you know, Adam Schefter saying
04:53they're open to trading him
04:55if the price is right in the package
04:57and all the rest of it.
04:58So they could get to a spot here in the next 10 days
05:01where they're offered a first round pick
05:03or maybe it's a first round pick
05:05and a really good player that you like.
05:07And that team takes on his money.
05:09It is, according to many, many people
05:11who do this professionally,
05:12it's a deep draft for offensive tackles,
05:15especially left tackles.
05:17So the Niners could be in a spot
05:18where they could move off of Trent Williams.
05:21And it's not really what this Niner regime has done,
05:24but I can't help but think about Bill Walsh,
05:26who was always, you know,
05:27get rid of him a year early
05:28as opposed to a year late.
05:30And Trent is 38.
05:31So, you know, it might not be,
05:33it might not be a year early now
05:35because he might still play two or three more years,
05:37but he's going to be 38.
05:39So at some point you're going to have to move off
05:42of Trent Williams and find a new left tackle.
05:44And you're right, Mark, these guys,
05:46you don't draft and stash.
05:47Like the Packers drafted Aaron Rodgers
05:49and he sat for what, two seasons or three seasons?
05:53Yeah, and they're the only team that does this, by the way.
05:55And it's a different era now too.
05:56They did it with Jordan Love too.
05:57Yeah.
05:58And you just don't really do that anymore.
06:00And especially for left tackle,
06:01you're right because you get this really large,
06:04talented guy over there and he's not going to play.
06:07So I don't know.
06:09It just strikes me as it's curious
06:11because if you continue to be a good team
06:13and you're going to draft in the 20s,
06:16a lot of times you don't have a draft like this year
06:18where in the 20s you might find a good left tackle.
06:21Okay.
06:21So there's a couple of texts that have just come in
06:23on the Boxman-Gerson-Work injury attorney's text line.
06:26You had talked about fans are maybe angry
06:28because the Niners don't have a backup plan.
06:31Maybe fans are angry just at Trent Williams, period.
06:34I don't know, but we have a couple of texts
06:36that would suggest so.
06:37Listen to this.
06:38650, thank you very much for listening.
06:40We really appreciate it.
06:42I'm pissed Trent held out last time for a new contract,
06:46so screw him.
06:48Okay, so hold that.
06:49That's one text.
06:51And now I want to go to 925.
06:52Thank you so much for interacting.
06:55I am so tired of Trent Williams wanting more and more money.
06:59Leave some for your teammates.
07:02Apparently, he doesn't even care about having a winning team
07:07but just getting his money.
07:09End text.
07:11Those are some pretty significant accusations.
07:14Feelings, yeah.
07:16Boy, I'd love to address this.
07:19I get it if you feel that way.
07:22I know that it's hard as a fan, right?
07:26Especially if you filled up your tank with gas today
07:28to listen to these musings in public
07:33where players have contracts
07:36and then they keep wanting new contracts
07:38before their other contracts are over.
07:40This is very NFL, though.
07:43Their contracts are not guaranteed.
07:45So the only thing I'd say,
07:47I'm not going to tell you to not be mad at the player if you want,
07:50but I do wonder how come we're never mad at the team
07:57because a player saying,
07:59my deal's not up, I want more money,
08:02to me, the team version of that
08:04is, for example, what the Broncos just did to Dre Greenlaw yesterday.
08:09But nobody blinks, nobody says a word when they do that.
08:12We signed you to $35 million.
08:14You got $10.
08:16We're done with you.
08:17See ya.
08:18Well, you didn't really sign him for $35 million.
08:20Well, then if you didn't really sign him for that,
08:24then Trent is completely in the right
08:25when his guaranteed money is gone
08:27to say, I'm 38, football's painful, I'm very good,
08:32I want to go back out there,
08:33but you have to take care of me.
08:35And I'm in position to do so.
08:38And you have the money.
08:40Like, the whole leave some for the teammates thing,
08:43there's plenty.
08:43They have the money.
08:44There's plenty, plenty, plenty, plenty.
08:46I associate more with the second of the texters
08:49in that, you know, it's like you just got the money
08:53and you got all this money, this guaranteed money,
08:55the signing bonus, and you played through it in two years
08:57and all the guaranteed money was gone.
09:00And that's just the way the contract was structured.
09:02And he knew that.
09:03Trent knew that.
09:03And so, yeah, he has the right to ask for more.
09:07And they also have the right to say,
09:08nah, we don't want to give you more.
09:10They can wait and do a post-June 1st release
09:14and the cap hit gets accelerated
09:16and it becomes an expensive move to make,
09:18but it all comes back to the same place,
09:20which is, what are you going to do now, Niners?
09:23Because you don't have another one of them.
09:25And Ephraim's right.
09:26I mean, he was in the league long enough
09:27to know way more than I ever will.
09:29You don't have a backup in the building.
09:31And it's not like a kicker
09:33where Jake Moody kicks for one game
09:36and you're like, okay, we're not doing this again.
09:38Pick up the phone and you find Eddie Pinero on the couch.
09:41There is no, I mean, John Feliciano's a guard
09:44and he's just kind of on the couch.
09:46No, but like Ephraim will point out,
09:48he goes, there's two positions on the field
09:50that don't come out for any plays.
09:52They don't come out.
09:52There's no rotation.
09:54Quarterback, left tackle, period.
09:56End.
09:57Well, all the offensive line, essentially.
09:59Usually.
09:59Not always.
10:00If there's an injury, yeah.
10:01They're definitely not the left tackle, though,
10:03unless your quarterback's a lefty.
10:05And then maybe it's the right tackle.
10:07Like, that's it.
10:08That's it.
10:09So I guess the question kind of becomes this.
10:12If you're mad at a player
10:16for wanting to renegotiate
10:19when he kind of gets near the end,
10:21I would hope you kind of share that for the team
10:24when they cut someone before they get to the end.
10:27In other words, in the NFL,
10:29this is part of the structure.
10:31The way you play sort of sets up
10:34what's going to happen next.
10:36If you play really well,
10:38you get to go ask for more.
10:41If you play really poorly,
10:43they cut you.
10:44That feels fair to me.
10:46But no one ever gets mad at the team.
10:48And the team has more money.
10:50The owners have more money.
10:51You get mad at the team
10:52when the player leaves
10:54and they go and they play great elsewhere?
10:56I guess.
10:56You absolutely do.
10:57No, but nobody gets mad at them
10:59the day that they cut the player
11:01who's been underperforming.
11:02We're cool with that.
11:04We're cool with that.
11:05Nobody ever says,
11:06but there's a contract.
11:08Because there isn't actually a contract.
11:10And if there isn't actually a contract,
11:12then Trent, my opinion,
11:14gets to say the same thing.
11:15Well, there is a contract.
11:16It's just not guaranteed.
11:18Yeah.
11:18But so that's all I'm saying.
11:20If the team's allowed to cut you,
11:22then you're allowed to ask for more.
11:23Well, the team's allowed to pay you
11:25$10 million of a roster bonus in 10 days
11:28because that's a part of the contract.
11:29So if Trent doesn't do anything in 10 days
11:32and they don't trade him in 10 days,
11:34he's getting $10 million.
11:36That's in the contract.
11:37So I'm not going to say you can't side with Trent,
11:40but I'm not going to be super sad about it.
11:43And that's part of his leverage point.
11:45His leverage is I'm really good.
11:47You have nobody who can do what I do.
11:49And you owe me $10 million in 10 days.
11:52Right.
11:52He has significant leverage.
11:55And like, I don't know.
11:57I just don't, I don't have an issue with that.
11:59This idea that if Trent takes less,
12:01the Niners are going to get to go shopping
12:03for a bunch of other stuff.
12:05It just doesn't work that way.
12:06There's plenty of money.
12:08There's plenty of money.
12:10And he deserves some of it.
12:11Yet again.
12:12Yes.
12:13Yet again.
12:14He's really good.
12:15He had a great year.
12:16He's one of the top left tackles in the game.
12:18Yeah.
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