- 6 hours ago
Cam Inman, who covers the 49ers for the Bay Area News Group, joins Willard and Dibs to discuss the biggest stories from 49ers training camp.
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00:00Let's go with Cam Inman, Bay Area News Group, joining us on the River Islands guest line.
00:04And if you want to see his handsome face, you can go to YouTube and watch him there as well.
00:10Hello, Cam. How are you, my friend?
00:12Good afternoon, gentlemen. How are we doing?
00:14We're doing great. We're doing great.
00:16But how's Ricky Pearsall? Is this done already? What's going on?
00:23Certainly didn't sound good yesterday.
00:26You know, the 49ers usually apprise us, maybe before practices, of what the injury status is of guys.
00:32And when they said Ricky's got the, you know, something going on with the same knee, could be related.
00:38You just knew how serious it was last year with him.
00:41So, obviously, you know what, on Monday, the second practice of camp, he looked pretty darn good.
00:47I think he had about three catches and a six-snap span, like, towards the end of practice.
00:51So, he was looking okay and looked okay on Sunday, the first day, too.
00:56So, yeah, it was a surprise.
00:58But at the same time, it's, if he's, you know, if it swells up, hopefully they check it out and
01:04figure out what to do.
01:05But we haven't had any updates, whether it's, whether if it's surgery and that's going to knock him out for
01:10the year,
01:10or if he's going to just try to ice it out and just rest it and give it a week
01:15or two.
01:16So, we don't know yet.
01:16Do you get any sense or have you found out what his offseason was like, whether or not he was
01:21able to do normal workload or was he babying the knee?
01:26Do you know anything about what he did between the end of the year and the start of camp?
01:31I don't think athletes baby anything anymore, do they?
01:34You know, he posted, he was one of the guys that posted videos of himself working out.
01:40And I know he did posted one, like, right before camp of him working out in New York.
01:45But I will tell you that during, you know, we only were able to watch two OTA practices this spring
01:50because they canceled the mandatory minicamp.
01:53And Ricky was out there for the first one, but the second one he was not.
01:56And I believe he was in the weight room, my son in the weight room.
02:00So, that probably was a little bit of a red flag that, I don't know, okay, well, they're making sure
02:04he's getting back to full health or maybe aggravated again.
02:08So, I don't know, I just know that, you know, when he, going into this season, we thought he's going
02:14to be the starter with Mike Evans.
02:16And then they could complement him with Deshaun Stribling or Christian Kirk, Jordan Watkins, Jacob Cowan, Demarcus Robinson, whatever that
02:23is.
02:24But, obviously, the Niners gave themselves some insurance by getting Mike Evans, drafting Deshaun Stribling up top.
02:32So, I don't think they were overly reliant on Ricky as much as they were a year ago when they
02:38didn't have IU going into the year.
02:40And it was basically Juwan Jennings or bust.
02:43Cam, I hope this is not the case.
02:44I don't want to call for speculation.
02:46But if this were to go down the road where it was something more serious and long-term for Ricky
02:52Pearsall,
02:53what does that mean, bigger picture-wise, for his career?
02:59You know what?
03:01This kind of bothered me yesterday when I heard just somebody, one of the reporters, made a snide remark about
03:07how he's made a class in an injury club.
03:10I mean, I'm appalled by it because this is a career that barely was going to be in existence.
03:16He survived a bullet wound through his chest.
03:19And anything on top of that was amazing, right?
03:22And he's dealt with shoulder injuries.
03:25He had hamstrings, whatever.
03:28When he played, you know, he had said three 100-yard games.
03:33He started off last season with 200-yard games of their first three games.
03:38So, it's not like you're saying he's a bust.
03:40Injuries happen in the NFL.
03:42And I think it's way too early to speculate that his career's over.
03:47But I also am really kind of offended and disgusted if people just kind of, like, rip him apart, like,
03:53just because he's had a couple injuries in a sport where injuries are part of the business.
03:57I'm totally with you on that.
03:58And if that was poorly worded, I didn't necessarily mean career over.
04:02No, no, no, no.
04:02Not on your part.
04:03No, no, no.
04:04Right.
04:04But I guess the question I'm wondering is from the Niners' perspective, right?
04:09He would be, like, this is year three, right?
04:13Like, the rookie four-year extension whole thing would be coming into play.
04:18Like, where would this leave him if he's unable to play football this year?
04:24Yeah, because, well, it wouldn't count as a vested year because he didn't play this year.
04:28So, that year would toll over.
04:30So, they would still get an extra year to judge whether they would want to, you know, that's, at least
04:36that's my understanding.
04:36Because, you know, as a first-round pick, you have a four-year contract, and then the team can decide
04:42whether they want to guarantee your fifth year.
04:45So, I think it might push that back a year.
04:47I'm not positive on that.
04:48But the other thing is, it's like, Ricky's a very positive guy.
04:55Well-liked on the team, and he's not a guy that, like, was very aloof or egotistical.
05:04He has a love for playing football.
05:07So, I don't think there's any question that he doesn't put in the work.
05:11And he just, you know, week four last season, he landed hard on that knee, and it essentially derailed his
05:18year.
05:19And he tried to come back from it.
05:21He played a little bit in the, well, he actually played, I think, 60% or 70% in that
05:26Seattle game, the playoff exit.
05:28Didn't have a catch.
05:29He only had two targets.
05:30So, it was probably more of a decoy, but he gave it a go.
05:33So, I think people have a high opinion of Ricky.
05:36This is not a, oh, God, get him off the team kind of guy.
05:39And they draft Deshaun Stribling in the first pick of the second round.
05:44Was that just a player they liked, or do you look at that now kind of as a hedge just
05:48in case Ricky's knee wasn't good?
05:51Could it be both?
05:52Because I think they loved him a lot.
05:55And just watching how Stribling's played, just in the limited window that we've seen, very impressive.
06:03Not catching every single ball to him.
06:05He's a rookie.
06:06Maybe some are off target or whatever, but, you know, each of the first two practices, he made a play
06:12where you're saying, oh, okay, number 15.
06:16This isn't our 15 of Juwan Jennings.
06:18It's not a Michael Crabtree 15.
06:20Stribling is unique.
06:22He's got some size, but he's also very athletic.
06:25He's got great hands.
06:27He's very mature.
06:29So, I think right now they love what they're seeing out of him.
06:32I asked Clay Kubiak, the offensive coordinator, yesterday, you know, if Evans is playing split end, then the other full
06:38-time role is flanker, right?
06:40And flanker is kind of like the Jerry Rice position where you're in motion.
06:43You're getting a lot of targets.
06:45And whether Stribling would be up for that or, you know, the Niners' trademark response with this offense is you
06:50have to know every receiver position because you can line up everywhere in Shanahan's offense.
06:54But, to me, if he can get down what the flanker is, you know, sure, he could be, you know,
07:03line up in the slot.
07:04They move these guys around all the time, but he's tracking right now to becoming a full-time player faster
07:10than anybody expected.
07:11I mean, and I would love to hear more even about that.
07:15Like, would they be comfortable if it spins that way personnel-wise starting him week one?
07:23Well, I think you're going to have to find that out over the next month, and it's not necessarily preseason
07:28games.
07:29You know, they haven't even done one-on-ones in camp yet where it's one-on-one against a cornerback
07:34and a DB.
07:35The bigger judgments will come in the joint practices against the Titans, right, and against the Chargers, and just see
07:42how you do against somebody on the opposition.
07:45And, really, it's going to come down to do you know where to line up at all the different spots
07:49because you can't just put them in there in a specialized role and have them be full-time
07:55because you're going to have to have them line up in different areas and know what to do.
07:58But, at this point, it seems like he's all right, and they're very encouraged by him.
08:03What has been your initial takeaways seeing and talking to or getting to be up close with Mike Evans?
08:12We haven't talked to Mike much.
08:14You know, we did a Zoom with him when he signed.
08:15He came in, had a press conference upon, like, when he came to OTAs, I believe.
08:21I mean, very professional guy.
08:24Does he need training camp to kind of get the feel with Brock Purdy?
08:28I have a hard time thinking that's the case because, you know, Mike Evans is a guy that's going to
08:34use his physicality to push, you know,
08:36to make, to give himself some room to get whatever Brock's throwing up at him.
08:40I mean, I kind of want to explore the idea of, you know, the Niners bringing back the alley-oop
08:46with R.C. Owens and Brody
08:47and just how they used to do it at Kezar, throw that baby up to Mike Evans because, although I
08:53think 49er fans are still forever scarred
08:55with fades to the right side of the end zone with Kaepernick to Crabtree, those didn't go over so well.
09:01But I think Mike Evans, you know, he's still got juice in him.
09:04He certainly, he's a pro.
09:07You know, even just, like, just in warm-ups yesterday, I'm watching him, and he's off to the side.
09:13He's got two or three guys throwing passes at him in each direction.
09:16This is before the offensive drills, something that Kill would kind of do.
09:20So he's a pro's pro that takes everything very seriously, and that's going to rub off on a lot of
09:24these younger wide receivers
09:26because they have to see how a true star does his work habits.
09:31Cam Inman, Bay Area News Group, with us.
09:33Willard and Dibbs, 95.7 The Game, talking out Niner Camp, which is now underway.
09:37I would love to hear you handicap the entire running back situation.
09:42So that both means, like, what does this James injury mean for Kalon Black?
09:49And how do you see the 49ers kind of peeling back the Christian McCaffrey workload?
09:58I believe the McCaffrey workload gets peeled back when I see it.
10:02But I will say, I see it as Christian McCaffrey getting 90% of the carries and Kalon Black getting
10:109%
10:12and Brock Purdy getting 1% or, like, somebody running a reverse.
10:16I think Kalon Black is extremely exciting in terms of a rookie running back.
10:22You know, he has this tremendous burst, and yet he's going to be 25 years old as a rookie.
10:28And he's a mature guy that he looks like he's got the spring and a step of an 18-year
10:37-old.
10:37He looks fun to watch.
10:39But, guys, I got to caution you.
10:42They haven't had pads on yet.
10:44There's no big live contact hitting.
10:46I'm not saying he's – I mean, he's built like a rock,
10:49so it's going to be fun to watch how he does against the Fred Warners
10:52and Dre Greenlaws coming right at him.
10:54But pads come on tomorrow, and then at some point I would imagine over the next few days,
10:59although they've changed camp up a little bit with their strenuous stuff,
11:03I love – my favorite thing of camp is watching running backs
11:07and pass protection drills against linebackers
11:09because the only way you're going to get on the field is if the coaches trust you
11:14to protect Brock Purdy.
11:16And a lot of young running backs don't know how to do it
11:19or they don't want to do it.
11:21Frank Gore did it better than any running back I've ever seen.
11:25Frank Gore's going to the Hall of Fame because he had 10,000 yards rushing,
11:29but he was a tremendous running back in terms of picking up any blitzers.
11:34So I can't wait to see how Kalon Black does.
11:36You know, Jordan James has a broken rib that he sustained Monday.
11:39I don't know how long that will keep him out.
11:42But, you know, he also was derailed in his training camp last year
11:45because of a finger and a knee injury.
11:48So that kind of set back his rookie season.
11:51So we haven't really seen enough of Jordan James to rule him out of this
11:54because obviously he was kind of taking the number two role going into camp
11:59because of that one-year seniority in the system.
12:02And then Garendo is a guy that tore his pack in the spring.
12:06He's working out on the side, so he's not a total afterthought yet.
12:09And then Patrick Taylor Jr., he's back.
12:12You know, he was kind of like the fifth man when they were going through injuries in 2024.
12:18But I don't see any burst out of him compared to Kalon Black
12:22because Kalon Black looks great.
12:23McCaffrey looks pretty darn good, too.
12:25And I think, you know, Christian talked yesterday about the whole – he's 30 now,
12:29but that doesn't mean he's outdated for the NFL.
12:33I mean, he's still – this offense is still going to revolve around Christian McCaffrey,
12:37in my opinion.
12:37And you were talking about working on the side.
12:39And I know George Kittle's opening up on the PUP.
12:42Are you seeing him do any work, or is he behind closed doors?
12:45And what do you think his status is going forward?
12:49George is looking pretty good from what I can tell and everything that's being said.
12:54He does his, like, his pre-practice work when the media is in our tomb of Levi's Stadium
13:02without windows and we're not allowed out there.
13:04Well, every fan that has a ticket can come out and record, get exclusive.
13:08George Kittle content.
13:11And so when we get out there, George is not out there.
13:13But George does come out for practice.
13:15He watches, talks to guys.
13:17Talked to Kyle Shanahan yesterday in between a break.
13:20So that was kind of good to see.
13:22And when I talked to George back in the spring, he was very encouraged that, you know,
13:28this is not going to be your regular Achilles comeback because his did not require them drilling into his heel
13:35bone to reattach his Achilles.
13:37It was higher up.
13:39And to him, that saved him about two months and kind of puts him on a fast track to getting
13:44back.
13:45And now it's a matter of, I guess, logistics.
13:48Aside from, you know, him being healthy, do you have him fly all the way to Australia, play a game,
13:54you know,
13:54when he needs a lot of treatment and fly him immediately back?
13:58It's, it's, I don't know how that works, but if George is healthy enough to do it, he's going to
14:02want to do it.
14:02No doubt.
14:03Kim, we'll, we'll be respectful enough not to ask to speculate on concussions and how much time and all that.
14:10But when you talk to Kyle, does he sound confident that he'll be coaching for week one?
14:18I think he's cautiously optimistic he will be, but he's, he's taking this extremely seriously.
14:26He was extremely emotional and I don't want to say remorseful, but very concerned about the other driver.
14:34And it was not, he was not concerned about himself or his reputation.
14:38He was obviously, I think he's taking concussions way more seriously than he's ever had in his life now that
14:45he's dealing with it.
14:46Because it is unpredictable and how his brain is responding.
14:51He is not ready to have a press conference right now.
14:55We had seven reporters circling around his desk, sitting in chairs for a nice 30 minute discussion.
15:02It was great.
15:03It was very human, humanistic, very emotional.
15:08And we all understood his state.
15:12I mean, Kyle's looking pretty good, you know, in terms of his face and his recovery efforts, but he is
15:18not diminishing how serious of an injury his brain suffered in this, in this accident.
15:24And, you know, him taking accountability for the crash, we can talk about that.
15:29But, I mean, to me, it is more about like kind of looking ahead, how is he recovering?
15:34And he's going through the proper steps that they need to.
15:38The, you know, music on the field can't help him, but he's out there.
15:41He's been out there for all three practices, watching the team drills for about 45 minutes each day.
15:47And, you know, then he tried, I asked him, I said, you know, how are you doing watching film?
15:53And he said, that's the big thing, because obviously Kyle loves dissecting film.
15:57And he said he had got all of Monday watching it.
16:01But then like that night, the headaches came back and he had a lot of other stress going on.
16:06So it is, it is something to watch.
16:11I will say this, that everything's running pretty darn smooth because of the system he and John Lynch have put
16:17in place for the last decade.
16:19And the coordinators are running the shows where they need to be.
16:22And Chris Forrester can be the front man.
16:24He will be tomorrow when he addresses the media.
16:28And then, you know, see how this, there's no reason for Kyle to rush back right now.
16:32And he really should take all preseason off, let the coordinators handle this.
16:37And then, you know, a week or two before the season, really take a bit more serious look into whether
16:42they have to go to alternative plans for week one in Melbourne.
16:45And right now it's Clay Kubiak, I'm sure, calling the plays in his stead.
16:49And that would be the plan going forward.
16:51How has he been kind of assimilating to the role, even though it's most likely temporary?
16:57Well, Clay got, this is kind of a nice thing.
17:00If you look back, Clay had play calling experience in the preseason, each of the last two preseasons.
17:06Kyle let him call the plays and was at the 2024 finale at Arizona.
17:13So Clay has experience doing it.
17:15He seems very comfortable with it.
17:17Obviously, the name Kubiak's been in the coaching circles for a long time.
17:21His brother's coaching the Raiders right now.
17:23His dad was a longtime coach of the Broncos and Texans.
17:27Clay is very personal.
17:28I really enjoy talking to Clay.
17:30He does not come off as if he's a know-it-all or arrogant.
17:34He has a teaching background.
17:36And so Brock seems comfortable with him, you know, relaying the play calls.
17:40And the beauty is Brock's been in this offense for five years now.
17:44Mack Jones is not a first-year guy in it.
17:46So if it is Clay calling the plays, there's going to be familiarity.
17:51But obviously, Kyle is the best play caller or one of the best in the NFL.
17:57And they're going to want him to, you know, help out with whatever script they do before games, if it
18:01comes to that.
18:02And, you know, John Lynch was expressing optimism on Saturday that he would expect Kyle to be back before then.
18:08But there are guarantees that will happen.
18:09All right, Cam, that was great.
18:11We'll have you on again soon so that we can acknowledge there is another side to the ball in football.
18:17That's special teams.
18:18Yes, exactly.
18:19I got some punter video up on my Instagram at 49ers.cam.
18:23Everybody can rush to that and watch the punters.
18:25Okay.
18:25Yeah, Dibs, will you finish out the segment so I can go to Cam's Instagram, please?
18:29Yeah, because nothing more exciting than punter footage in July.
18:32Love it.
18:33We've got a long time right there, too.
18:34Don't forget Pro Bowler John Weeks.
18:36Come on, give him some respect.
18:38Too hot for radio.
18:39We got to run, man.
18:41That's good stuff.
18:42Cam, thank you, sir.
18:44Appreciate you.
18:44Okay, guys.
18:46Take care.
18:47Yep.
18:47Cam Inman, Bay Area News Group.
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