- 7 weeks ago
Tom Pelissero, who will be part of the 49ers-Rams coverage from Australia on Netflix, joins Willard and Dibs to break down every angle of the game and the 49ers' offseason.
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00:00All right, we're jumping right to this because, by the way,
00:03what we were talking about a minute ago,
00:05my opinion that Miner fans, we got taken on a ride by social media.
00:10That's why we like to talk to people with credibility.
00:13Oh, yeah.
00:14Like this person, Tom Pellicero is one of our favorites.
00:18He's going to be a part of the Netflix broadcast,
00:20which is a week from tomorrow.
00:22Drop a knowledge.
00:23Exactly.
00:24The Niners and the Rams and with the Ringer as well.
00:27Tom, it's a pleasure to have you on the River Islands guest
00:29line here on Willard & Dibbs.
00:31Thanks for doing it, man.
00:33Great to be here.
00:35The 49ers are getting a little bit of a jump start on me,
00:38not to mention the Rams taking off for Melbourne today.
00:41I'll be on a plane Sunday to get there Tuesday morning.
00:45I probably won't know what day it is, but don't worry.
00:48I'll be ready to rock by Friday morning, local time, Thursday night time here.
00:55There's a lot going into it, but 8.30 p.m. Eastern, 5.30 Pacific on Netflix.
00:59We're going to be there.
01:00Yeah, we're going to be there.
01:01And speaking of that, I mean, because you're about to do it,
01:04I feel like you've got to weigh in on the way the Rams are doing this
01:08versus the way the 49ers are doing this in terms of travel
01:11and what makes more sense to you.
01:15It's going to be, you know, a real learning lesson for other teams
01:19that have to do this.
01:21In large part, the NFL has gone to Europe.
01:25You know, they've gone where you're pushing ahead the time zones.
01:27This is the first time they're playing a regular season game,
01:30not just going west, but also across the international dateline.
01:34From the 49ers' perspective, and we all know Kyle's thoughts
01:38on this entire endeavor, they decided their sports science people
01:41were telling them go a week early, get fully adjusted,
01:44which is kind of what you hear when you travel in general.
01:46You know, elite athletes for the Olympics and things, they go early,
01:50then they get fully adjusted.
01:51Sean McVay is looking at this as, you know, the game's being played
01:55at 8.30 Eastern, 5.30 Pacific.
01:57It's just like a primetime game, so why would we go way early?
02:01We're going to fly in, we're going to play the game,
02:03and we're going to come back.
02:04I don't know what the answer is.
02:05I just find it fascinating with all the data that we have
02:08and all the different, you know, sleep studies and sports science
02:12that we do, the two of the teams to utilize that stuff the best
02:15came to completely opposite conclusions, and I guess we'll find out,
02:19you know, in the first quarter whose plan worked out.
02:21And it's uncharted territory, considering, like,
02:24the international dateline, as you said, and just the overall time change,
02:27but for you, what's your approach?
02:29Are you a plane sleeper?
02:31Are you a book reader?
02:32Like, how are you going to survive this flight
02:35and be locked and loaded for the game?
02:37I'm not joking, you guys.
02:39You know, I started this dual rule at Netflix and The Ringer
02:42a couple of weeks ago, I've been drinking from a fire hose,
02:45getting through cut-down day, breaking news, all that stuff.
02:48I have no plan.
02:50I am literally going to go to the airport on Sunday and go,
02:53all right, there's got to be an app for this,
02:55and then I'm just going to use the app.
02:57And whatever that tells me to do,
02:58I'm fully in on just somebody who's technically smarter than me
03:03tell me what to do.
03:04I mean, we've got, you know, rehearsals, we've got shoots,
03:07we've got, you know, different events over there, too.
03:10We've got a little bit of a calibration day Tuesday into Wednesday,
03:14and then, you know, Thursday we're going to be doing
03:16a bunch of different stuff, and Friday morning's the game.
03:18So, you know, ready or not, this game is coming.
03:21This should be, by the way, awesome atmosphere.
03:24Again, I know Kyle's thoughts on all the logistics that go into this,
03:28but, you know, this Melbourne cricket ground is like 170 years old.
03:33It holds 100,000 people.
03:35They're starting the alcohol sales at 6.30 a.m. local time,
03:39four hours before kickoff.
03:41And our set, where L. Duncan and Michael Irvin,
03:45Nick Foles and Clay Matthews,
03:46they're going to be out there with the people.
03:48I have personally asked our pregame producer,
03:51can I do at least one hit outside?
03:53Because I just need to see what this is going to look like.
03:56Everyone I've talked to, including the people in Melbourne,
03:59say, you know, the city is jacked for this.
04:01They're right now in the middle of the AFL playoffs,
04:04the footy playoffs, as they would call it there.
04:06It's going to be on the same surface that these NFL teams are playing on.
04:10So buckle up.
04:11I mean, you are in for a scene.
04:13Netflix does these, you know, experiences better than anybody.
04:17And this is going to be an experience.
04:19There's no doubt about it.
04:20We can't wait.
04:20Tom Pellicero, who is going to be a part of the Netflix broadcast
04:24next Thursday night, 49ers and Rams kicking both of their seasons off.
04:28Tom, obviously the news of the day in that George Kittle and Nick Bosa,
04:32both back at full practice, both will be on the plane
04:36and without any setbacks, are expected to play in this game.
04:40What is your reaction to that?
04:42And what are you hearing is the 49ers early season plan for those two?
04:48George Kittle has been pushing this timeline all along
04:51through this entire offseason.
04:53He wanted to be back week one.
04:54He has said he intended to play week one.
04:56And it seems like he is now tracking to do exactly that.
05:00You know, with Nick Bosa, he missed a good chunk of time,
05:02a couple of weeks in training camp, you know, continuing to deal with things.
05:06He's coming off of a major knee surgery.
05:08I would anticipate, especially, I mean, with the travel and the time change.
05:13I mean, we all know if you've got different injuries, things swell up.
05:16You know, you've got to loosen things.
05:17The last thing the 49ers want to do in a 17-game schedule,
05:21plus they hope a deep playoff run,
05:23is have these guys suffer some type of setback where now it's impacting them
05:26through the rest of the season.
05:27So I would imagine from a snap count perspective,
05:30they will be very cautious about how much they're putting on these guys' plates.
05:34You know, the 49ers come in.
05:36We had an injury discussion the other day,
05:38and there's like three Rams names and 13 49ers names.
05:41I mean, this is kind of the story of it, you know,
05:43too often for the 49ers through the course of time.
05:46But outside of, you know, the Ricky Pearsall situation,
05:48none of these seem like these long-term types of things.
05:52I know that every 49ers fan kind of has the PTSD
05:54and is gearing for this to be a problem,
05:56but I don't get the sense that there's big concerns so much as,
06:00all right, September football is one thing.
06:01A game in Australia is one thing.
06:03We've got to make sure that we're keeping these guys on course
06:05through the course of the season,
06:06and I imagine that they'll be conservative in their approach.
06:09And I was reading an article from one of your colleagues
06:11about that very thing, and the headline paragraph was,
06:14are the 49ers already having a, quote, season from hell?
06:18Is that more of a preseason narrative based on what you said, PTSD,
06:22or is there an actual national perspective of the Niners
06:26just being injured again?
06:29I mean, it was all last year.
06:31There was nobody who got gutted outside of maybe the Lions.
06:34Nobody got gutted like the 49ers last season,
06:36not just the volume of injuries, but the big names.
06:39I mean, it doesn't help.
06:41Whatever you think of the conspiracy theories,
06:43it doesn't help when you see the video
06:45and then you got the substation in the background.
06:47It's become this kind of, it's a cultural phenomenon at this point.
06:51You know, and then just the reality that, yes,
06:54they do seem like they're hurt more than other teams.
06:56I mean, the years where the 49ers have been healthy,
06:58and sometimes even when they're not,
06:59they're a Super Bowl caliber team.
07:01You know, season from hell, it's the first week of September.
07:05Again, outside of Pearsall, none of these are like long-term types of things.
07:10They've got some players who are a little bit older that they're counting on,
07:13all the way from, you know, Kittle to Christian McCaffrey.
07:16Nick Bosa's a veteran in this league at this point.
07:18Fred Warner coming off of his injury.
07:20You know, it's not a surprise.
07:22I don't think it's going to be a surprise to anyone
07:23that they would limit those guys.
07:25You know, make sure they're taking care of their bodies
07:27through the course of training camp.
07:29But, you know, let's see where they are.
07:31Hopefully they're not going to the practice squad
07:33and bringing up some fake 49ers players or something at the end of the season.
07:36Who knows?
07:37Maybe you can start an Instagram and be ready.
07:39I'll be that they're getting that sense that that's going to be the case.
07:42Kind of a similar question as far as their opponent, Tom.
07:46What are you hearing with regard to the Rams' plan for Aaron Donald?
07:51And when it does fully get up to speed,
07:55what are other offensive lines looking at here this year?
07:59Well, first of all, we'll see how much of it all Aaron Donald plays in week one.
08:03He hasn't played in two years.
08:05There's virtually no precedent for this.
08:07There's one player in the Hall of Fame since World War II
08:10that sat out multiple seasons and came back and played again.
08:13And that was Deion Sanders, who was still a good player
08:16when he came back for Baltimore after sitting out three seasons,
08:19I think in 2004.
08:20But it wasn't 1995 Deion Sanders anymore.
08:23There's a reason that 36-year-old guys don't just suddenly come back and do it.
08:28You know, Phillip Rivers playing quarterback, you know, he came back.
08:31He may be a future Hall of Famer.
08:33But even that, I mean, you can see a difference.
08:35I think Aaron Donald's been taking a little bit better care of himself in the gym
08:38that Phillip had during his couple of years out.
08:41But there's nothing that can replace what it's like going through
08:44just the physical banging of NFL football.
08:47So, you know, they need to continue to bring Aaron Donald along.
08:50If anybody can do it at that position, you would say it's a first-pilot Hall of Famer like AD.
08:55But I would say the vision, big picture from Aaron Donald, it's not.
08:59I keep seeing people say, and Riley, he wouldn't come back if he weren't 100% Aaron Donald.
09:04Aaron Donald, even in 2023, he was still a really good player.
09:07But he wasn't quite at his peak, you know, into his early 30s here.
09:11Realistically, I think that this is a 20-30-a-snap game, 20-30-snap-a-game player,
09:18certainly in the early going here.
09:19They'll save him for high-leverage situations.
09:21It's third down.
09:22It's two-minute.
09:24It's, you know, opportunities where he can rush the passer.
09:26And when he's on the field, if he can be something close to the Aaron Donald of the past
09:31for those couple of dozen snaps, yeah, I mean, offenses are going to have to figure out,
09:35okay, we got Miles Garrett, Aaron Donald, Kobe Turner, Byron Young.
09:41Like, where are we going to declare our doubles?
09:44You know, I would say, as wild as it is, you know, to say out loud,
09:48and certainly would have been five years ago, I'm probably singling Aaron Donald.
09:52I'm probably going, all right, until I see him actually do something,
09:56I can't possibly take the chance of taking away all the attention that Miles Garrett commands.
10:01Aaron Donald, the first time that he sees that single team, will be licking his chops.
10:04He didn't get a whole lot of those in his last stint in the NFL,
10:08and we'll see what he's able to do with it.
10:10Feels like a lot of max protect to me.
10:12If I'm an offensive coordinator, I'm facing that front.
10:14The other one that strikes me, Tom, is the idea of Puka Nakua,
10:18because you had another allegation come out yesterday,
10:21and yet there's been really no sense, as far as I sit,
10:24as far as him being on that commissioner's list of being exempt.
10:28Are you hearing anything about anything possibly percolating or building up on that front,
10:33or is it just a non-starter?
10:35The NFL looks into everything, everything that's alleged,
10:39everything that comes out in the media.
10:41They always review the situation.
10:44At times, especially with criminal cases, their hands can be tied,
10:48because they don't like to render final judgment on the suspension
10:51prior to the legal process playing out,
10:54in part because a lot of the records that you might be seeking,
10:57they're not going to be released.
10:58You're not going to have access.
11:00You can't subpoena the police.
11:01You can't get those things.
11:03With Puka, when you're talking about allegations,
11:06you're talking about potential civil matters, those can be adjudicated.
11:11Again, the NFL will look into it.
11:13You can count all the occasions where they have suspended players over things that didn't yield
11:18a criminal conviction, if even a criminal charge.
11:21But those processes take a little bit longer.
11:24It's pretty cut and dried, the ones that they did act upon.
11:27In terms of the exempt list, you had Terry Arnold, who's facing felony charges
11:32and an alleged involvement in a robbery case.
11:36You have Jonathan Cooper, who is also facing felony charges.
11:40And you have Josh Jacobs, who initially was booked on a felony charge,
11:45ended up being charged with reduced charges of two misdemeanors,
11:48but they still involve an allegation of a dispute with a woman.
11:52The NFL, in that case, decided, I thought that one was probably 50-50.
11:56They erred on the side of caution to take him off the field.
11:59Well, usually exempt list is not used unless there is some new revelation
12:04that causes the NFL to completely change their course.
12:08Could they end up suspending Puka Nakua?
12:10Sure, if they have the evidence that it's warranted.
12:12Could they use the commissioner as exempt list?
12:14I would say only if something really significant were to come out to corroborate allegations.
12:19If you read the personal conduct policy, it's very clear.
12:21It's charged with a felony, charged with a crime of violence,
12:24or the NFL's investigation leads them to believe that you likely committed
12:29one of those acts.
12:30If they don't have that with Puka Nakua, there's not going to be immediate discipline here,
12:34and we'll see where it goes from there.
12:35Tom Pelissero with us, 95-7 the game.
12:38Tom, real quick, would love to hear your perspective on Kyle Shanahan
12:41and where he sits in this organization.
12:43He is becoming one of the longest tenured coaches in the entire NFL,
12:48and it's often compared to like when Andy Reid was with the Eagles.
12:52A lot of success, but he hasn't broken through yet,
12:56so we know the respect he has around the league,
12:59but there's also that fan frustration of like, when are you going to get over the top?
13:04So how do you view the Kyle Shanahan experience
13:08and sort of the way the organization and its fan base should see this sitting right now?
13:15Well, I believe Andy Reid was in Philadelphia for 14 years,
13:18and his last season was a bad one.
13:21You know, it was to that point.
13:23Everybody, it was a friendly goodbye,
13:24and they had a big celebration for him in the cafeteria,
13:27and he got to go out his way.
13:28He was the Chiefs coach like a week later,
13:31and he's now going into year, I believe, 14 there as well.
13:35So, you know, with Kyle, listen,
13:37he's still as good as anybody in the NFL at scheming people open.
13:42He's shown over the course of time that his approach to building a culture,
13:47to winning football games, to playing offensive football,
13:51has been highly successful.
13:52And with that success has come this constant,
13:55seemingly churn of defensive coordinators
13:58where you either lose them because they're really good
14:01and they got a head coaching job,
14:02or if you hire the wrong guy, you move swiftly to move on from that coach.
14:08That just comes with it,
14:09and that's something that, you know, the successful coaches have.
14:12I don't get the sense,
14:13and obviously there have been developments with 49ers ownership
14:16in the past couple of weeks that who knows what,
14:19if any, impact that could have on how business is done moving forward here,
14:24but I've never gotten the sense that Kyle Shanahan
14:26was in any danger of being fired.
14:28I never got any sense that this would be anything
14:31other than eventually things might run their course
14:33and it would be in everyone's best interest to move on.
14:36But much like Andy Reid, I just don't see that, you know,
14:40coming to pass if they're still in it every year.
14:43I mean, that's the challenge.
14:44There is a randomness to the NFL, and nobody wants to hear it,
14:47but between, you know, injuries, plays that happen in games,
14:50what happens in the biggest moment,
14:52and is it an outlier relative to everything else that that team
14:55or that player has done throughout the course of the season?
14:59If you're always putting yourself in a situation to be there at the end,
15:04then eventually you're banking on you break through.
15:07At some point, I mean, ask Sean McDermott in Buffalo.
15:10You know, he turned that program around.
15:12They were, you know, in as bad a shape as the 49ers were
15:15when Kyle took over.
15:16And eventually, you know, there's a crazy play in Denver,
15:20and Sean McDermott would probably still swear that that was a catch.
15:23It wasn't.
15:24They lose, and he gets fired a couple of days later.
15:27We'll see if that ends up being a wise move.
15:29The bar is really high for Joe Brady in Buffalo.
15:32The bar, if and when, I mean, it's when for everybody.
15:36Kyle Shannon moves on.
15:37The bar will be really high in San Francisco as well.
15:39But this is not, in my opinion, based on everything I know
15:42and knowing the dynamics of the building, this is not a hot seat situation.
15:46This is not a, if they start out two and four, what do they do?
15:49They have faith in Kyle.
15:51He's shown it again and again.
15:52Everybody there believes he can get them to another Super Bowl
15:56and to win the Super Bowl and put another Lombardi trophy in the case.
16:00Health is a big part of it.
16:02And again, you know, whatever people are writing,
16:04they're not in a bad spot right now from an injury perspective.
16:07They've just got to hope and do everything possible
16:10to be in a better spot than they were a year ago
16:12from a health perspective once they get to January.
16:14Tom Pelissero, we are really looking forward to your participation
16:18on Netflix next Thursday night, Niners and Rams.
16:22We're big fans here.
16:23We weren't worried about you, but congrats on the new gigs.
16:27And thank you so much for coming on.
16:30I really appreciate that.
16:32Not quite the way you draw it up, looking for a job in late July.
16:36But I'm super happy that I ended up where I did.
16:40And hey, for the West Coast fans, 3.30 p.m. next Thursday,
16:44that's when you can turn it on Netflix's two-hour pregame show
16:47before the game.
16:48And you can see how that four hours of drinking has impacted
16:52the 100,000 Aussies in the country.
16:53I love that.
16:54I mean, but we're kind of on the air at that time,
16:56so we may not promote it as much as we probably should.
16:58You can put it on in the background.
17:00They're listening to you.
17:01You can watch the festivities on Netflix.
17:03It's great.
17:04It's a dual-screen model.
17:06That's what we're all leaning into.
17:07That's right, Tom.
17:08Apologies.
17:08If you're watching one screen in 2026, who are you anyway?
17:12You're ancient.
17:13Yeah.
17:13Tom, thanks, man.
17:14Have a great trip.
17:16Thanks, guys.
17:17Okay, Tom Pellicero, he's with Netflix, The Ringer as well,
17:21but the Netflix broadcast, Niners and Rams.