- 2 days ago
David Lombardi, who covers the 49ers for the San Francisco Standard, joins Willard and Dibs to react to the Kyle Shanahan car accident and injury news, the start of 49ers training camp, and more.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Kashi Inhan was out at practice again today, similar capacity, not sort of acting as the head coach, but out
00:07there and observing and with sunglasses.
00:10I imagine our next guest was out there and observing with sunglasses as well.
00:15It's a warm day.
00:17SF Standard, David Lombardi on the Niners beat.
00:20River Island's guest line joining us here on Willard and Dibs.
00:22Hey, David, how you been, man?
00:24What's going on?
00:25Good.
00:26I forgot my glasses today, so it was really bright.
00:28I, thankfully, I didn't have a concussion to deal with, but yeah, Kyle's been out there for two days, and
00:34I'm guessing that his limit time-wise is because it is really bright.
00:40There's not a cloud in the sky in July in Santa Clara, so often coming off a concussion, if you're
00:45still feeling those symptoms, then you have to stay indoors in a darker environment.
00:50But he's been able to be out there for like 20 to 30 minutes per day.
00:54David, will you share with the audience the process of something like this?
00:58I have no idea when you started to get a little bit of info.
01:02I've been a little surprised that people, I get it if you're curious, that's totally normal, but if you're like
01:08angry that you didn't get to know earlier, that kind of escapes me.
01:13But can you share with people what happened here for you and as a journalist, kind of how you handle
01:19something like this?
01:22Well, a few days before the announcement, I started to gather that there might be something pertaining to Kyle Shanahan
01:31that might limit his availability for the start of training camp,
01:37but there was never anything that I was able to glean that was confirmed, so there was nothing to report.
01:46You don't just take every single rumor or slight piece of information.
01:51I think Tim Kawakami said that he had 15% of the story.
01:55You don't take 15% of a story and put it out there if you're a responsible reporter.
02:01Now, I know that in this age of clickbait, people will take 15% and fill in the remaining 85
02:07% and put out basically a fake report,
02:10and they don't care if it's accurate.
02:12They just care that they were first.
02:14So maybe that standard or that lowering of standards has created a lowering of expectation for some people,
02:21but the truth of the matter in this instance is that Kyle Shanahan nearly lost his eye.
02:27Chris Sims, his best friend, went on the podcast today and said that Shanahan was very close to losing his
02:34eye,
02:34and this was a traumatizing situation for both Kyle and for his family.
02:40The police have come out and said that there was no criminal activity here.
02:46Alcohol or drugs were not involved, which you put all those things together, that makes this a private matter.
02:54And nobody has to disclose it until it becomes something that affects the professional football team,
03:03and the 49ers did disclose it the day before training camp started.
03:07So I don't think anybody missed anything here.
03:10I don't think that anything was put on public record because, again, there was no criminal investigation.
03:18Alcohol or drugs were not involved.
03:19And I think that, you know, any reasonable, normal person would recognize that Kyle Shanahan is a human being,
03:28he's got a family, and that this was a traumatic event,
03:31and no one is entitled to information sooner than it naturally became available in this case.
03:40No one's entitled to it, David, and you went to Stanford, and based on where I think that this happened,
03:45it happened right by Stanford University.
03:48Are you surprised that, considering it happened at 6 o'clock in the evening,
03:52are you surprised that there aren't other details or eyewitnesses who would have said initially,
03:59within the first 11 days, what had happened and who was involved?
04:03Yeah, I think that is mildly surprising, right?
04:06But it could have just been luck of circumstance that nobody, neither nobody recognized Kyle Shanahan.
04:13Not everybody in the Bay Area is a football fan, especially in Palo Alto, that area.
04:18The Stanford football team, they had some great teams when I was there that struggled to sell out,
04:26you know, inventing new prime numbers and doing much more important stuff than playing football, right?
04:32They were working on cures for cancer and stuff in that Stanford area.
04:37I don't know what the situation was.
04:39I saw that the accident happened in Palo Alto.
04:41So, you know, if there had been somebody who recognized that Kyle Shanahan was in an accident
04:48and had taken it to social media, obviously the world would have known much sooner.
04:53But that didn't happen.
04:55And instead, the world found out, what, 11 or 12 days after?
04:59And guess what?
05:01Nobody's life changed on the outside.
05:03And I would say that this was good for Kyle Shanahan and his family because they had to deal with
05:10that trauma.
05:11They're probably still dealing with that trauma.
05:13The last thing that I think they wanted was that and all this rampant speculation to get out in the
05:18media,
05:19just knowing how irresponsible social media can be.
05:25And I think we also need to think about the other person in this accident.
05:28And that's what nobody is talking about, but nobody goes out and wants to get into a car accident.
05:35And it's going to be, you know, based on the details that we've heard, probably traumatizing for both parties.
05:41So I just find this demand from people on social media, this entitlement like,
05:49oh, well, we needed to know this right away to be completely unempathetic.
05:55Because this is not just a public figure and Kyle Shanahan involved.
05:58Again, in a non-criminal event, that this didn't have anything to do with drugs or alcohol.
06:05This was an accident.
06:05But there's also another party who's a private citizen involved.
06:09So why is the public entitled to know their business right away?
06:13I think it's all well said.
06:15David Lombardi, SF Standard, with us here.
06:17Willard and Dibs, 95-7 the game.
06:19We absolutely want to talk some football with you.
06:22How's Dajon Stribling look so far?
06:27He's looked really good.
06:29I mean, he's tall, right?
06:31He's 6'3".
06:32So he's got those long limbs, which you always want to see in a wide receiver.
06:37Especially somebody who you, I think in the future, the 49ers would love to see him play that X receiver
06:43position.
06:44Mike Evans has also looked awesome, though.
06:46So that's his job for the time being.
06:48But Stribling, the 49ers have this setup where they need a bigger slot receiver because they love running the big
06:56slot and the small slot.
06:58Christian Kirk is probably going to be that small slot.
07:00But Stribling can play that big slot.
07:02But the way I see the way he runs routes, the length, I saw the physicality on tape in college.
07:10He can block.
07:12I think he has all the makings of an X wide receiver over the course of the long haul in
07:17a 49ers uniform.
07:18But he's caught everything thrown his way.
07:20He dropped only one pass at Ole Miss last year.
07:23So we know that he's got really good hands.
07:25And, guys, I just think he's a high-floor guy.
07:27And I think this is a theme of the 49ers draft class.
07:30And this could be a good kind of comparative advantage to glean out of the draft in the new NIL
07:37era.
07:38You have a lot of players who played at several different schools, who are transferring between schools, who are, you
07:44know, buying for bigger contracts, essentially mini-professionals, right?
07:49So somebody like Dajon Stribling played at Washington State.
07:51He played at Oklahoma State.
07:53And then he played at Ole Miss.
07:54That means he's had to learn three different systems.
07:56And all three of those offenses used them in a different way.
07:59So, I mean, at Ole Miss, it was screen passes and goal balls.
08:03And at Oklahoma State, it was a lot of intermediate routes.
08:07The 49ers have gotten a guy who they feel is going to be more of a, you know, I can't
08:14say finished product, but more of a complete product early on than receivers that you might have drafted five or
08:20six years ago just because he's been through so much and so many different systems in college.
08:26And I think that they're going to really reap the benefits of that here over the next few months.
08:30Do you think that they're going to change the scheme a little bit this year and go to more 11
08:35personnel, three wide receivers?
08:37It seems to me with the, you know, with George Kittle going to be trying to work his way into
08:42the season and the wide receiver room they have.
08:44Do you think that that's going to be a shift that Kyle makes?
08:47Well, they didn't have the receiver health necessary to do that a lot over the past two seasons.
08:56And in 2023, when they had that loaded offense, it was a different type of receiver room.
09:02I mean, Devo Samuel was one of the headliners, and he definitely wasn't a prototypical wide receiver.
09:07He was a great player.
09:08He was Devo Samuel, but this wasn't what you would normally think of in terms of a standard separator at
09:14the Z receiver position.
09:15So now that they've restocked that room and they've invested so much in it over the offseason, I could definitely
09:21see that happening.
09:22And that's irrespective of George Kittle's availability.
09:25I think that you've got Mike Evans.
09:29He plays the X, split end, prototypical body there, a future Hall of Famer.
09:35I mean, it doesn't get any better schematically than Mike Evans at the X position.
09:40Ricky Pearsall is a pure Z flanker receiver who's going to really benefit from coming in motion.
09:46I mean, just a smooth, smooth route runner.
09:48And then we go to the big slot position with Dijon Stribling.
09:52I mean, you could pair that with a single tight end set with George Kittle, and you've got really, really
09:58good blockers out there, right?
10:00You've got Evans at the X, you've got Kittle at tight end, and you've got Stribling at the F at
10:05the big slot.
10:06But even though that's a very, very threatening pass formation, right, with three wide receivers and a tight end who
10:14can go on and catch the ball, that is also something that you could run out of with lethal efficiency.
10:20So that's what Kyle Shanahan is going to be going for, and I think that you're on to something.
10:25I think you're going to see a lot of these guys on the field at the same time.
10:28David, how do you handicap the running back race behind Christian McCaffrey between Jordan James and Kalon Black?
10:36I think that Jordan James has been in the system for a year that gives him the early leg up.
10:42So, obviously, Christian McCaffrey is at the top of the list there.
10:47Then it's who's going to be that running back two.
10:49And, you know, the question beyond that is how often does the running back two see the field to give
10:55Christian McCaffrey a breather?
10:57And I think the limiting factor there in the past has been that they didn't really trust anyone nearly as
11:02much as Christian McCaffrey to run the right routes and to keep the pass game humming.
11:06So, if both James and Kalon Black can earn Shanahan's trust in that regard, I think that they'll be able
11:15to spell Christian McCaffrey more than the second running back has in the past.
11:20Now, Black has looked like he's got some juice.
11:23He really does.
11:24It's going to come down to him learning the route tree and establishing himself as a pass protector at the
11:30NFL level because it's all about trust, right?
11:32You can't yank Christian McCaffrey off the field, have somebody come in and blow up a play, maybe even blow
11:38up the season, given how competitive this NFC West race is going to be.
11:42So, you really have to trust who you're going to put there instead.
11:44That's why Jordan James currently has the leg up.
11:49And that's the ground that Kalon Black is going to have to try to make up here over the course
11:53of training camp in the preseason.
11:55Impossible to really gauge defensive players when, you know, you haven't padded up yet and you're not really getting after
12:01other teams.
12:01But just Nick Bosa in his movement, how does he look to you as he tries to come back from
12:06another ACL injury?
12:09So, I stepped out on the field yesterday and I was absolutely floored because Bosa was right in front of
12:15me.
12:16And it does not look like he tore his ACL, especially does not look like he tore his third ACL
12:22in his football career.
12:23He was, I said this to myself and I said this to somebody who was standing right next to me
12:31on the field.
12:32I thought that he looked in better shape than he did entering last season before the ACL.
12:36I said that before Trent Williams said the same exact thing after practice.
12:39So, I think that many people who have been around Nick Bosa are thinking the same thing.
12:44He looks in phenomenal shape.
12:47And I don't know why I was surprised.
12:49I guess I figured, you know, okay, well, if this is the third time that it's happened, it's going to
12:54take longer to recover.
12:55But I think that Nick Bosa has taken lessons from, I'm sure he's got a whole notebook, you know, from
13:01his previous ACL tears.
13:03I'm sure he's taken and applied lessons of rehab and recovery.
13:07And the first really good news of 49ers training camp was that he wasn't on that pup list.
13:13And to me, that was mildly surprising because normally they've played it safe in these situations.
13:18When I saw him the next day, I understood why he wasn't on the pup list.
13:23And it's because he looks completely physically ready to go.
13:27David Lombardi, SF Standard.
13:28I think we're already starting to hear this defense is threatening to look a lot different under Raheem Morris.
13:37How would you sort of describe what you're seeing?
13:41I'll tell you what I noticed on like the fifth play on the first day.
13:45And it was right in front of me.
13:47Christian McCaffrey split out into the flat on a pass pattern.
13:51And who was covering him?
13:52Romello Hite was covering Christian McCaffrey in the flat.
13:55He didn't go well for Romello Hite, but it doesn't usually go well for anybody trying to cover Christian McCaffrey.
14:00That's why he's been a cheat code for 10 years now.
14:03But it just gives you a little bit of a glimpse into some of these five-man fronts,
14:08which are based in a 3-4 concept,
14:12which means that edge rushers are going to be dropping back into coverage a little bit more often.
14:16People have raised concerns about Romello Hite's weight or lack thereof.
14:21He's about 240, but that's very, very intentional.
14:24He's a defensive end who has 3-4 outside linebacker flex capability.
14:30He dropped into coverage at Texas Tech.
14:33He turned on the tape, and the third play, he's breaking up a pass at Texas Tech.
14:38Now, the reason that you do that is not to have Romello Hite covering players like Christian McCaffrey on a
14:44regular basis.
14:45The reason that you do that is that you muddy up the vision for the opposing quarterback
14:50and for the opposing offensive lineman.
14:52So, a five-man front is going to fit the run differently,
14:55and I think the 49ers' own run game has a wrench thrown into it by five-man fronts,
15:00which have been adopted by most of the league at this point.
15:04But B, in terms of the pass game and rushing the quarterback,
15:07and we know the 49ers only had 20 sacks last year, which was the least in the league,
15:12you can really throw an offense into a blender if you start rushing less predictably.
15:19And I think that's the main point here.
15:21I think most of the time, we're going to see Romello Hite roaring around the edge.
15:25We've heard the Dee Ford comparisons.
15:27He's got tremendous burst.
15:29He's going to be opposite Nick Bosa.
15:31They'll be rushing with four.
15:32I think most of the time, we will see that.
15:34But I do think that the 49ers will have tricks in their repertoire to mix things up
15:40to make those standard four-man rushes all the more effective
15:44because offenses will just have to think about so much more
15:47now that Raheem Morris has incorporated it.
15:49How much does Oso Degizuwa make all of that possible?
15:53In other words, his presence in the interior of the defensive line,
15:57how much does that help something like the things you're describing?
16:01Well, that's a great question because I think it was the biggest weakness
16:05of this team last year.
16:07Obviously, when they lost Bosa, they went from, I thought, Super Bowl favorites.
16:11They beat Seattle on the road in week one, and Bosa sealed the game.
16:15But the loss of Bosa last year,
16:18the 49ers from Super Bowl favorites to a fringe, long-shot team.
16:24And they almost pulled off a huge miracle.
16:27They still won 13 games, but that was crazy to me
16:31because they lost the edge rush with Bosa.
16:34The thing about that team, though, last year is that even with Bosa,
16:38they were still suspect at best, and that's a nice word.
16:44They weren't good rushing from the interior.
16:46They were relying a lot on somebody like Iturgros Matos,
16:49who had injury issues of his own.
16:51He was really a defensive end who flexed down the defensive tackle.
16:54They did not have a natural pass-rushing defensive tackle.
16:58That's why they paid Javon Hargrave all that money heading into the 2023 season.
17:03But he got hurt.
17:04That didn't work out.
17:05So that's been a big, glaring gap in this defense.
17:11They need that quality interior rusher, and that's who Osa Degazua is.
17:16So I think it opens up a lot for this defense, man,
17:19and becomes especially lethal once you pair him with Nick Bosa
17:24because Bosa is the guy that commands a lot of attention on the outside.
17:27Now you have somebody who commands a ton of attention on the inside,
17:30who has a high win rate on the inside,
17:32and you can start talking about winning as a pocket-collapsing line,
17:37not just winning in one spot of the defensive line.
17:41With all the mobile quarterbacks that we have in this league now,
17:43if you're only winning on one spot, that quarterback can run away.
17:46But if you're rushing in cohesion,
17:48and that typically takes at least one plus DT and one plus defensive end,
17:53then all of a sudden you can start collapsing the pocket effectively.
17:57David, real quick, with this trade request from Vita Veya to the Tampa Bay Bucs,
18:04while we're talking defensive tackle,
18:07any chance the 49ers get in on that conversation?
18:11Well, he's 30 years old,
18:13so I don't think that he would cost as much as he did a few years ago.
18:17That being said, he's a premium player,
18:19so it probably won't be cheap.
18:21Vita Veya went to high school in Milpita six miles from Levi's Stadium.
18:26So I don't know if he grew up a 49ers fan,
18:29but I did see, I think, Ted Nguyen, who writes for The Athletic,
18:34there's a source that says that Vita Veya wants to play in California
18:38or for the Raiders.
18:40And so he wants to be close to family, I think, is the translation there.
18:44Well, you can't be any closer to family than six miles from where you grew up.
18:48I think he's the biggest dude in the NFL, right?
18:50He weighs 350 plus.
18:53Vita Veya is special,
18:55because normally guys who are 350 plus are just fire hydrants
18:57who take up blockers and are good run defenders,
19:00but he can also rush the passer.
19:02So he is a unicorn in that regard.
19:05So, you know, if I'm an executive in the league,
19:08I'm happy to get into bidding war for this guy
19:11because he is such a unique talent, even if he is 30 years old.
19:15And if a lot of executives are thinking that way,
19:18then it's probably going to be really hard to get him.
19:21But I also think it wouldn't be very smart at Tampa Bay
19:25to not figure out a way to re-sign him
19:28because he's been durable as well over the course of his career.
19:30But, hey, you can always dream if you're the 49ers, right?
19:33I think he'd pair really nicely there as a big DT next to Osa DeGazua,
19:37who's a smaller defensive tackle.
19:38He's like 290.
19:40Vita Veya is like 360.
19:41So he's got an extra 60 or 70 pounds with this guy.
19:45He's massive.
19:47David, great stuff.
19:48And thank you for your flexibility.
19:49Really appreciate you coming on today.
19:52Yeah, no problem.
19:53It was great talking to you guys.
19:54Hope to see you around.
19:55Absolutely.
19:55We will.
19:56David Lombardi, SF Standard.