00:00All right, let's talk about the people that are going to be in training camp
00:03and competing.
00:05Rookies report today.
00:07We are less than a week away from being knee-deep into training camp
00:11and training camp battles.
00:12I want to focus on the position battles of note.
00:17What would you say right now heading into camp
00:21is the tightest position battle on the team?
00:28Oh, wow.
00:30Well, there are position battles where it's like, you know,
00:34like we don't know when Doran Armstrong is going to be back exactly,
00:38but, you know, let's just say he's ready to go or start a camp or close to it.
00:42Like how much is he going to play versus Owe and Chase on?
00:46But they're going to play, right?
00:48The position where it's like it's all or nothing is like the left guard spot, right?
00:52It's Brandon Coleman or it's Chris Paul,
00:54and whichever one isn't the guy will be on the bench, you know,
00:58until further notice, that to me feels like the most, you know, tight,
01:03but also like the most, like, you know, again, black and white situation.
01:06I feel like, again, Chris Paul is the one that started the last 15 games
01:10of the season.
01:12He showed a lot.
01:13Yep, showed a lot.
01:14Showed a lot as a pass protector.
01:16Obviously, the free agent market was kind of weird based on the hype or, you know,
01:20the projections that he was going to get a good deal somewhere else.
01:24Instead, he comes back here on a pretty modest deal, to say the least.
01:28And now with this new setup in terms of the zone blocking, you know,
01:33Brandon Coleman is the more athletic guy.
01:35He has the bigger potential.
01:36If Brandon Coleman became a real left guard, I think that, you know,
01:40it would really raise the floor and perhaps the ceiling of where this line can go.
01:45So I feel like if you gave sodium pens with all the people over there,
01:49they would like Coleman to take it, but he's going to have to do it.
01:52And that includes, in his case, you know, playing through some injuries,
01:56being available, and, you know, cleaning up the work.
01:59He's shown more at tackle, I would say, so far in his career than he has at guard.
02:03He's played more.
02:04But, you know, he wasn't that good in the first two games last year.
02:07So that, to me, is a really interesting one because on the surface, you would say,
02:10well, Chris Paul should be the favorite.
02:12But I still kind of feel like Coleman is the one to beat.
02:16But that's what's going to be interesting about this.
02:18Yeah.
02:18So, I mean, I think that's the one that's most obvious, I would say,
02:23in terms of a position battle.
02:24Because if we want to talk about receivers, it's, you know, it's Terry
02:28and then who's the number two receiver?
02:32Well, I don't know.
02:34It could depend on the game.
02:36It could depend on what they're trying to do offensively.
02:39Are they going to be more 12 and 13 personnel?
02:43Or are they going to run, you know, 11 personnel with three receivers out there?
02:47Are they going to need more of a blocker out there?
02:50You know, I don't even know if I would label the other wide receivers
02:58as a specific position battle.
03:02You know, I mean, I think Antonio Williams is going to be on the field.
03:06That's other than Terry.
03:08That would be the player of the rest of the receivers that right now I feel it's a hunch.
03:14It's not comfort level, but it's a hunch that Antonio Williams is going to be on the field
03:21enough that we could certainly call him a player that's out there, you know,
03:26game in and game out among the highest snapped wide receivers on the field.
03:29What do you, I mean, it's kind of hard to define even who would be the number two.
03:35Who's going to be, you know, the other outside wide receiver after Terry, you know,
03:41by the way, Terry's going to line up all over the field too.
03:46Yeah, no, for sure.
03:47I mean, I think like, yeah, we're saying like, it's a pretty much, it's at the offensive line,
03:51you're starting, you're not starting cornerback, you know, for the most part,
03:55it's probably going to be two guys on the outside and, you know, you throw from, from there,
04:00but at receiver, yeah, it's much, and again, this is my optimistic look at what they have
04:06in the receiver room is that, sure, it would be cool if they had an obvious number two guy,
04:12Monk and Clark, and go from there, but the, what they do have is a bunch of guys
04:17that could do a bunch of unique things, and they even talked about this back in OTA or minicamp
04:22of like, they tried to assemble a receiver room, something akin to an NBA roster
04:26where you don't want, you know, everybody kind of doing the same thing.
04:29You need guys to be able to have different skill sets, and they have accomplished that,
04:34so to the point of who's going to be the number two, you know, are you playing against a team
04:37that you think you can beat deep?
04:39Well, then maybe that's at the Omni Brown game.
04:41Are you playing against a team that's got some smaller corners?
04:44Well, maybe that's a Trey on Burks game.
04:47Is Antonio Williams start to show enough that he, as a rat runner, you know,
04:51as a really good fit for David Blau's plans, and then maybe he becomes more relevant
04:57and so on and so on.
04:58And so, you know, I think that's the thing.
05:00I think it's almost like their room is more game plan oriented than necessarily one guy
05:05is going to emerge as the starter, but, you know, that's why we'll play it out.
05:10And, you know, Antonio Williams is the one guy we haven't seen, right?
05:13I mean, even Jalen Lane and Luke McCaffrey are pretty young guys,
05:16but in McCaffrey's case, I think a lot of people are already kind of writing it off,
05:19and Jalen Lane, you know, we didn't see enough last year at receiver,
05:23I think in part because D-Bus Samuel was kind of playing where Lane needs to play.
05:27So, you know, the young guys are where I would say the hope lies in terms of finding a legit
05:31number two.
05:32But ultimately, for this year, it may just come down to the game plan on a given week.
05:37And in that case, it's not really a battle directly.
05:40It's just which guys does Blau feel most comfortable with using in certain spots.
05:45How comfortable do you think they are with Nick Allegretti as their starting center?
05:50I mean, I guess pretty darn comfortable considering, you know,
05:55they're the ones that led, that created this uncertainty from our perspective, right?
06:00I mean, Allegretti is a very solid guy.
06:04He's been a center before in his career, played in college a lot.
06:08You know, he's, the center position is a lot about smarts as much as it is sort of the physical
06:16tools.
06:16And I'm not saying that Tyler Vyadish wasn't a smart guy, but I think, you know,
06:22what goes on between the ears of Allegretti, I think, is one of his strengths as a communicator along the
06:27line.
06:27When you see things, he's pretty physically stout.
06:30And, you know, again, if the left guard spot solidifies whichever guy they go,
06:35and now you have Sam Cosman on the other side, he's now entering this season fully recovered from the ACL
06:42that kept them at half the year last year.
06:45You know, the center doesn't have to be necessarily at all pro.
06:49He just needs to, you know, obviously do the basics of that position and help with the line calls and
06:54things like that.
06:55That's a position where you can kind of get away with a little bit less.
06:57So if everything else is working, I think Allegretti should be fine.
07:01But, yeah, I mean, you would hope that they're pretty confident.
07:03They keep talking about a competition for – I have no idea what this competition is.
07:08I mean, six-round picks can play in this league at center, no doubt.
07:12But, you know, as a rookie, is Matt Goulbin really jumping up that much?
07:16I mean, I don't have any sense that that's the case.
07:18There's nobody in free agency that's an obvious add.
07:21So, yeah, I mean, I would hope that they're feeling pretty good about Allegretti.
07:25And I suspect we collectively on the outside won't feel comfortable with it until we actually see it in action.
07:32Talking to Ben Standing, by the way, we didn't mention that – I don't know if there's a competition or
07:39not,
07:39but there are two kickers in camp, Drew Stevens from Iowa and Jake Moody.
07:45I would imagine it's Moody's job to lose.
07:48Do you think it's more wide open than that or not?
07:52Yeah, I think it's – I would think it's more wide open.
07:55I know when we talked or, you know, spoke with Larry Izzo, the special teams coach, during minicamp,
08:03and, you know, tell us what's going on here.
08:05You know, this kid, Stevens, has a huge leg, and, you know, Moody, you know, he was successful when he
08:13got here.
08:13You know, he's had some struggles earlier in his career.
08:15Like, what matters?
08:15And he's like, you know, he can talk about big leg all you want.
08:18It's all about getting the ball between the goalposts.
08:22And if he – you know, whoever is the most accurate is probably going to take it.
08:26But if Ty goes – if there's a tie, I kind of feel like it's going to go to the
08:30guy with the bigger leg.
08:31I mean, kicking from 55 and beyond is becoming much more common in the league these days,
08:37and that's something that Jake Moody – I'm not saying he can't make it,
08:42but that's not necessarily viewed as a strength of his.
08:46Whereas, like, the Stevens, like, you could just see when we would watch them, like, kicking in the bubble in
08:51particular,
08:51like, when Stevens was kicking, there was, like, a real extra whack with the ball, and you can see the
08:58distance.
08:58And so if he's able to be accurate and give you the opportunity to kick from further out,
09:04I just feel like that's going to be a tough combo to beat.
09:07But, yeah, he's going to have to do it.
09:08Moody was 10 of 11 last year, made both his top tries from 50-plus.
09:13Adam Peters drafted him with the Niners.
09:15Lots of reasons to think he can get it, but I think if it's a tie, I would probably lean
09:19towards Stevens.
09:21All right.
09:23Next week will be a busy week.
09:25By the way, what is the – I was looking through my emails from the team.
09:30Have they laid out the schedule for Quinn and for Peters to talk next week?
09:38Not officially.
09:39They have not.
09:40I believe, though, the expectation is there will be a press conference on Tuesday.
09:47So, you know, again, this goes back to sort of the IU thing.
09:50Are we just going to wait until that minute before they're going to say anything?
09:54But, anyway, yeah, Tuesday is the belief.
09:57And, obviously, you know, unlike last year with the McLaurin deal,
10:00there's no sense of any drama happening about players reporting and things like that.
10:04Will it be both Dan and Adam Peters both up there, do you think, with maybe Newmark?
10:09Wasn't Newmark up there last year, too?
10:11Or was that at the end of this past season?
10:14Yeah, no, it would just be Quinn and Peters based on what they've done here in the past.
10:20I mean, this is typically – you know, it feels like Adam Peters is more part of our day-to
10:24-day lives than he is.
10:25I mean, he only really talks, you know, a few times a year, and this is typically one of them
10:29to start a camp.
10:30And then after that, we, you know, presumably won't hear from him again until the season's over.
10:36So, Thor, you know, they make a big move perhaps, but even then, I don't know if that would matter.
10:41So, yeah, this is the Adam Peters show, and hopefully, you know, he's there,
10:46and hopefully he gets good questions, and hopefully he's as transparent as he can be
10:51to, you know, give us insight into, you know, whatever's going on.
10:55I mean, I don't know the league tampering rules, but would he be able to answer the simple question of
11:04can you rule out signing or having interest in Brandon Ayuk if he were to become available?
11:12Can he answer that or not?
11:14I mean, I'm not a lawyer here, but I don't – if somebody asks a question,
11:19do you want to sign Brandon Ayuk, he'll say I can't talk about he's on another team.
11:22If the question is, do you have – are you not interested in Brandon Ayuk?
11:27I don't see why he couldn't just say yes, right?
11:29I mean, like, that – you know, that isn't – if you're saying you don't want the guy,
11:35how does that impact anybody else?
11:37I mean, it impacts Ayuk maybe, but it doesn't impact the Niners.
11:41You're not messing with them, and if anything, it probably helps the Niners, right?
11:44So, you know, so I don't see why.
11:48But again, this is where it honestly could come down to phrasing.
11:51You know, when I asked Jaden Daniels about Ayuk back in OTAs,
11:55I didn't say, do you want him to come here?
11:56I just said, what's your sense of his football future?
11:59When Dan Quinn was asked, I think, during camp about –
12:03Ayuk was more head-on, like, you know, kind of like, what can you say about it?
12:08And he's like, well, I can't say anything.
12:09So phrasing does matter from our end, but I don't see why he can't just say,
12:14look, whatever the question is, we are not interested in Brandon Ayuk.
12:18I mean, I've had him before as a player, good guy, blah, blah.
12:22But we've moved on with our group.
12:23We feel good about them, and we look forward to seeing the competition play out.
12:27All right.
12:28Talk to you on Monday.
12:29Thanks.
12:29Yeah, see you.
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