00:00Sure, Nick Bosa has some tendonitis, and if itises are scary or whatever,
00:06here's a simple conversation we'd love to have,
00:09and we're going to open up the phone lines right away
00:12and be very open-ended.
00:14You can take this wherever you want.
00:17Are you feeling optimistic about the 49ers season right now,
00:21or are you feeling pessimistic?
00:23Period, end of question.
00:25Start here.
00:27How would you answer that question?
00:28I feel optimistic, and I feel optimistic because you've got a quarterback
00:34that you believe in, and I believe in Brock Purdy.
00:37Your wide receiver room would be better with Ricky Pearsall,
00:39but I do think that it's still win-healthy, and that's every team,
00:43so I'll stop saying that, but it's kind of a nice mix of fast guys,
00:48tough guys, intermediates, short guys.
00:51I think Christian McCaffrey is going to have to share the ball
00:53a little bit more this year.
00:55Kittle's calf seems to be in a better spot
00:57than costing him a whole bunch of time,
00:59and Raheem Morris in the defense,
01:01I'm fascinated to see how they go about it,
01:05and the schedule is pretty easy early.
01:07You go to Australia and face the Rams,
01:09and you have three home games,
01:10so if you can come out of that at 3-1,
01:13I think you set yourself up for a good, solid year.
01:16I know this is really going to shock everybody,
01:18but I, too, am feeling optimistic.
01:20There you go.
01:20Yeah, but my reasoning, I buy everything that you just said.
01:24Here's how I'd answer it.
01:26The Niners have a good team.
01:28Do you have to be a homer?
01:29No, in this case, I do, and I'm right.
01:31Like, Bleacher Report says the Niners right now
01:34have the ninth best roster in football.
01:36Vegas says that they are,
01:38I don't even know where it sits right now.
01:40Seventh or eighth in terms of the Super Bowl odds.
01:42I'm not here to tell you, you know,
01:46bang, bang, Niner gang,
01:48we're going to win the whole thing.
01:49Like, that's, it's August 11th,
01:51but the Niners have a good roster.
01:53They're a good team.
01:54They were a good team last year.
01:57They've made some changes and some updates
02:00that actually, I think, could make them even better.
02:03Kyle Shanahan, for one, said,
02:05feel a lot better about this roster.
02:08At this time in August this year
02:10than we did last year,
02:11and that team won 12-slash-13 football games.
02:15Sure, easy schedule,
02:17but dealt with probably the craziest injury year
02:20that any of us have ever seen.
02:22So this isn't a prediction.
02:24This is just me telling you that
02:26if there are 15 fan bases that should feel good
02:30and 15 fan bases that should feel bad,
02:33y'all are one of the ones that should feel good.
02:35Like, you have one of the better half of the league teams.
02:39And now, how does that go from here?
02:42Clap, clap, let's play.
02:44But here's the rant.
02:46Good Lord, are we going to do this all year?
02:50I am sick.
02:52The injuries.
02:53And tired of talking about injuries.
02:57Many of them haven't even happened yet.
03:00Is this how we're doing this year
03:03with the Warriors and the 49ers?
03:05Are we just terrified of uniforms and playing fields?
03:10Should we not go?
03:12I just, I don't know what to do about this.
03:14I don't find it fun.
03:16I don't find it entertaining.
03:18I don't find it to be why I love sports.
03:22There are going to be injuries.
03:25And the Warriors and Niners are not hiding in the weeds.
03:28They're telling, we got some old people.
03:31We got some old people here.
03:32Actually, it's just the Niners offense.
03:34I wanted to get some answers on the Niners age
03:38because I keep hearing people go,
03:39Niners are a really old team.
03:41So I went, all right, let's get some metrics on this.
03:43The Niners have the oldest offense in the NFL.
03:47They have the second oldest roster from top to bottom.
03:50The Washington Commanders actually hold the title this year.
03:54But their defense is the 11th youngest in the NFL.
03:58So that's not even trying to make a point.
04:01I just want to throw that out there
04:02so that we can actually get a clearer picture.
04:05They have, there's very key players who are aging.
04:09Trent Williams, George Kittle,
04:11Kyle Juszczyk is getting up there.
04:13McCaffrey has hit 30.
04:14I get all that, but I just, I don't know,
04:19from substation to Steph's 39th birthday
04:22to Christian McCaffrey turning 30 to old man Trent,
04:26I just, I don't know how we're supposed to sort of
04:31reason and reckon with this.
04:33But if we're just going to spend the next four months
04:37talking about how life sucks
04:39and the Niners always have injuries,
04:41I don't, I'm out.
04:43Like, I don't, yeah, there are going to be some injuries.
04:47Right.
04:47But it might also be okay.
04:49You know what I mean?
04:49I think for me, it's two different things.
04:51One, yes, your team is quote older
04:54and McCaffrey will be the third player since 2000
04:57to come back after a 400 plus touch season
05:01that happened in year nine or later.
05:03Only two of the times since 2000 has that happened.
05:06He's going to be the third.
05:07And normally it's tough to replicate that sort of a workload.
05:11So you might need some help.
05:12And I think that they have it in the building.
05:14The other piece is on the defensive side, Mark,
05:16where you're not old, but Mike L. Williams, ACL,
05:20Fred Warner missed a bunch of games,
05:22Dre Greenlaw, Achilles a couple of years ago,
05:24Nick Bosa coming off an injury.
05:26So you do have some questions about guys
05:28and how good they could possibly be.
05:30But one reason why I'm so optimistic is O.C. Odigizuwa,
05:35for example, is a guy who seems to be a perfect fit.
05:40Odigizuwa!
05:41And he's exactly what they've been waiting for.
05:43He made a big play today in the joint practice.
05:46Whoa, okay.
05:47Whoa, but not whoa.
05:47It's the joint practice.
05:48I know.
05:49It's the joint practice.
05:50It's the joint practice.
05:51Yeah.
05:52We're talking about joint practice.
05:54The Niners had like three pick sixes or something like that.
05:57I don't even know if they won the game.
05:58Like, I don't even know how, like, it's a joint practice.
06:02All of this is just practice.
06:05Like, we're talking about practice.
06:07That's what we're doing right now.
06:09And the Ricky Pearsall thing super duper sucks.
06:14It really, really sucks.
06:16And I don't think anyone with the Niners is hiding from that.
06:20You know, Kyle Shanahan yesterday or over the weekend when he spoke
06:24said that they needed to mourn that for a few days.
06:26It was a big part of their plan for a couple years now.
06:30This is a first-round draft pick.
06:32And it really, really stinks the way that it's gone.
06:35And hopefully Ricky Pearsall will realize his potential someday.
06:40But outside of that, I have not seen anything that has come out of Niner camp
06:46that, to me, has been a whoa moment in terms of health.
06:51But somehow, someway, this has turned into a national story, a punchline,
06:59a substation that's got its own Twitter feed.
07:02Immediately today as the Titans showed up, there's all kinds of tweets about
07:07they put them on the substation side of the field.
07:09It's just like, I don't know what to do with this.
07:13I get it.
07:14It's not that I don't get it.
07:15But I understand what has us here.
07:18I just feel like it's a choice to stay there.
07:22Every football team, every basketball team, every baseball team, Casey Schmidt,
07:27Matt Chapman, we're going to have the journey.
07:29There's going to be injuries.
07:31There's going to be crappy reports that really bum you out.
07:34This is true for every team.
07:36I just, I'd love for our conversation to see if maybe we can be a part of leading the way
07:47out of what sounds to me sometimes like a fan base that's terrified for the team to actually go play.
07:55It's just, it's like that.
07:57There's going to be injuries.
07:59Right.
07:59But like, they're okay.
08:03It's August 11th and they are okay.
08:08Outside of the one guy who's gone for the year, Ricky Pearsall, and I understand that.
08:11And, you know, Will Kittle start on the pup and Michael Williams, will he be ready?
08:16And can Nick Bosa be ready to rev it up here on September 10th?
08:19These are all questions that I'm with you in terms of my worry.
08:23I'm in a zero right now.
08:25And if we get closer to the Australia game and that first injury report comes out and
08:29they already will already be down there because it's going to be an eight day trip ahead of
08:33the game.
08:34So when that first report comes out, you look at it and go, oh, wow, like he's still dealing
08:39with this and he may not play.
08:40And, you know, Kittle might be on the pup and all the rest of it.
08:43At that point, I could actually wrap my head around the worry part of it.
08:47Right now, this is camp.
08:49And if Mike Evans needs three or four days to quiet down a minor leg issue, then give him
08:54four days.
08:54I got a fun question for you.
08:56Who do you think is more likely to play in Australia?
08:58Nick Bosa or Puka Nakua?
09:01Boy, that's a great, that's a great, I think it's going to be a great game in Australia.
09:07That was a fun answer.
09:08The answer is Trent Williams.
09:10Oh, that wasn't one of the questions.
09:11It was Nick Bosa or Puka Nakua?
09:14It's Nick Bosa.
09:15Based on the report today from the Ram camp, Puka Nakua.
09:19There's two reports about Puka Nakua today.
09:21Yeah, a little bit of an eyebrow up for both of them.
09:24So, I think that it's more likely that Bosa plays.
09:27Yeah, I agree with you.
09:28Puka, first of all, left the field with an injury.
09:31Second of all, Adam Schefter said he might be suspended.
09:34I wonder if everybody in Ram's world is like, oh, no.
09:40How are we, like, what do we do?
09:44I just, Puka Nakua might not play.
09:48He might not play.
09:50He might be suspended.
09:51And he got hurt today.
09:52And Sean McVay, do your McVay.
09:54He said, I don't know what's going on there.
09:56We're not quite sure yet exactly what the status is.
09:59I mean, I hope he's going to be all right.
10:00I think that he's got a little bit of a muscle thing.
10:02It might be a ligament.
10:04It might be a tendon.
10:04I got to talk to the training staff and figure it out.
10:06The energy is perfect.
10:08It's still a little gravelly.
10:10Okay.
10:11I'll work on it.
10:12But over the top impressionism is a good thing.
10:15Right.
10:15You want to accentuate.
10:17I'm into it.
10:18I like it.
10:19I channel his over-caffeination sensation.
10:22Is that what it is?
10:23Is it too much coffee?
10:24Cha-ching!
10:26Everyone has about seven cups in the morning,
10:27and then I have three cups in the middle of the day.
10:28I think he's just naturally insane.
10:30He is so intense.
10:32He is like at a press conference,
10:34and he looks like he's going to attack the podium.
10:37He's going to eat it.
10:38He's going to eat it.
10:38Exactly.
10:38He's just like, dog, you are scaring me right now.
10:42I'll work on the tone.
10:43I think you're right.
10:44It's probably a little too scratchy McScratch.
10:46How did Kyle and him get along?
10:49Kyle's like, I don't even want to be here.
10:50And Sean's like, I am so glad to be here.
10:53I think you just answered your own question.
10:54Yeah, thank you.
10:55All right.
10:56Well done.
10:56Opposites attract.
10:57Yes.
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