- 7 weeks ago
Greg Cosell of NFL Films joins Willard and Dibs to break down how the 49ers match up with the Rams ahead of next week's game vs. the Rams in Australia.
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00:00Greg Cosell, NFL Films, River Island's guest line, he's our guy, he's our favorite, we are one week away, good
00:08man, how are ya?
00:10I know, it's crazy, it's one week away. Wait, that game is Thursday, right, next week?
00:16The Niner game, Henry, is yes, but obviously the Patriots-Seahawks game is one week from tonight.
00:22I know, that, you know, to have a football game Wednesday night, I don't know, I don't know if I
00:27can get used to that.
00:28But it's almost like it's Christmas, that's what they've been doing on Christmas the last few years.
00:32I know.
00:33And you know what, next week will feel like Christmas for guys like us, Greg, so I'm all about it.
00:38But lots of questions to ask you, as now we know the rosters have come together, and maybe we're getting
00:45a clue in terms of how they're going to deploy certain people and whatnot.
00:51I do want to start again with Dajon Stribling.
00:54I was watching something from Daniel Jeremiah today, and he had Stribling as his number one rookie that he predicts
01:02will make an immediate impact.
01:05What would be your guess, based on just your tape, what you've seen, how they want to go about trying
01:12to deploy Stribling?
01:16Well, my sense is he will make an immediate impact because he's going to play.
01:20The big question, of course, which is always the case with the Niners, is how much 21 personnel they play
01:26with two backs and two wide receivers,
01:28and how much 11 personnel they play with three wide receivers.
01:33And the question is, when they play with two wide receivers, does Stribling play?
01:38Or, you know, I think he'll be worked in in multiple personnel packages.
01:45You know, I think, look, you guys know how much I liked him coming out of college.
01:49I don't think in the games, and I'm not at practice, but in the games he certainly didn't show anything
01:53that would lead you to believe that they're not going to play him
01:56and that they don't view him as a significant contributor.
02:00You know, given the situation of wide receiver, I would have to believe right now that when they go with
02:07three wide receivers,
02:08it'll be Evan Samuel, Stribling.
02:10And again, the big question being, who are the two wide receivers when they play 21 personnel,
02:15which historically, under Kyle Shanahan, they've played more than 40% of their snaps.
02:20And that's been Debo Samuel, like, historically, as you mentioned, but he was gone, and now he's back.
02:25And I wonder about his usage potentially in that wide back role.
02:30Is he somebody that you think could possibly supplant Kalon Black?
02:34Or based on what you've seen from Kalon, would he be more suited to be a true backup running back?
02:41I don't think Samuel's going to be a backup running back in a strict sense.
02:45And again, when he was here, they gave him the ball,
02:48but I don't think that he would actually be the true backup running back.
02:54You know, again, you know, this every year, you know, one thing I've learned about coaches,
02:58you know, every year I get the opportunity to go to the scouting combine.
03:01I've been going since, oh, 1998, 1999.
03:05You sit with coaches, you have a meal with them, and all they do is think about all these kinds
03:10of things.
03:11And they try to tweak and come up with new things every offseason.
03:15So I don't think any of us can sit here and say exactly what's going to happen.
03:19But in terms of being a pure running back, I don't think Samuel would be viewed as a pure running
03:26back.
03:26He'll get carries.
03:28But, you know, the question is, is Black clearly number two?
03:32I think he should be.
03:33I like him better than Jordan James, but I don't know how they feel.
03:36But, you know, we saw Black in the preseason.
03:39He ran just like he did in college.
03:41The other thing about Black that stood out to me in the preseason, and I was disappointed myself last week
03:46when we spoke about him for not mentioning it, but he's a very good pass protector.
03:50That's a big deal, obviously, to the 49ers.
03:53And they do have Black right now listed as number two on the depth chart,
03:57but they haven't really spoken publicly and made that completely official.
04:00Kind of the expectation, though.
04:02While we're on the Niners' offense, Greg, can I ask you to kind of harken back to last year
04:08and tell us, Trent Williams was sort of what version of himself when he played last year?
04:20Still very, very good.
04:22You know, I thought there were, you know, he's so good,
04:25and he's been just ridiculously good throughout his career.
04:28I mean, he'll go down when he chooses to retire.
04:31He's probably one of the five or six best left tackles ever to play the game,
04:36and there will be debates about that, but he's certainly, you know, in that conversation.
04:41But, look, I had this conversation with an O-line coach.
04:44Was it this offseason or last offseason?
04:47About how just father time does catch up to everybody.
04:50I think that he probably had a few more snaps that he wouldn't be happy with last year
04:57than he's had in previous years, but he was still a very good player.
05:00He's certainly not a weakness in the left tackle position.
05:02So the reason I'm asking is I think that the fan base here has a real curiosity
05:07with regard to the offensive line.
05:10I don't think they performed poorly last year,
05:13but the thought process from the fans is they did kind of get overwhelmed
05:18by what Seattle and what the Rams may present this year,
05:22and then they didn't make many changes.
05:24So, like, when you look at that group, what would you say realistically they can do
05:32with the Rams and the Seahawks?
05:35Well, you know, I think, and that's always, I think, something that teams have to deal with
05:40when they have players who performed well and then don't perform as well
05:45either throughout the course of a season or at given times.
05:49And I think Pune is a really good example, the right guard.
05:53As a rookie, he looked like he might be on his way to being an all-pro type player.
05:57Wouldn't you agree?
05:58He had a really good rookie season.
06:00And then last year, he was not quite as good.
06:03So the question is, because he's only going into his third year,
06:07you know, you're not going to sit there and say,
06:09well, this guy can't play.
06:10We need to replace him.
06:11The assumption is I'm sure in the building that you can coach him,
06:15you can get him back to being what he's shown before, and he can become a really good player.
06:20The same is true of Jake Brendel, someone who's not physically dominant,
06:24but is an incredibly smart player, doesn't make many mistakes,
06:29understands leverage, understands angles, but is not a physically dominant player.
06:34So, you know, now you have to decide, do we feel that we need to find a different center,
06:39one who's perhaps more physical given what happened last year,
06:43or do we feel that with more coaching, more conversation, you know,
06:48other things that we can do as a staff, that we can get Jake Brendel to play
06:52at the necessary level, you know, when they play the Williams and the Murphys
06:57and the Jaron Reeds in Seattle, who obviously they really struggled with a year ago.
07:02Those are really hard questions.
07:04You know, and keep in mind, you know, everybody who doesn't,
07:07who feels a certain player is not playing well and feels like, oh, we've got to get,
07:11you know, get rid of him.
07:12Well, you know, there's not a store for any position where you just go to the store
07:16and buy a new guy and all of a sudden he's a really good player.
07:19So, you know, you have to be careful about that because sometimes you can get rid of a player
07:23who's performed well for you and maybe he's, you know, hasn't played as well at times
07:27as ultimately you'd like, but it's not as if someone just drops out of the sky who's better.
07:33And how much is the continuity of a line important?
07:36And I wonder about last year where they had, last year they mostly had that continuity,
07:41but right now, Greg, we've got a little bit of a question mark at left guard.
07:45Does it behoove the Niners to settle on somebody and get that unit to coalesce?
07:52Well, I would say this.
07:53I would say that for a lot of teams, they have to make more than one change on their own
07:58line.
07:58Making one change on your own line, still, there's still continuity there.
08:04Obviously, the left guard, it appears right now it might be Willis,
08:08but, and he certainly got a ton of snaps in the preseason and he had, you know,
08:12a lot of good moments and a couple that I'm sure he'd like to have back,
08:15but it appears he's going to be the starter.
08:18You know, obviously they don't have to announce that publicly, but it looks that way.
08:22So that, that to me is not a major change in the sense that there's not continuity
08:27because four of the five starters will be the same.
08:30Greg Cosell, NFL Films with us, Willard and Dibs, 95-7 the game.
08:34Okay, defensive line, Greg.
08:36First of all, Nick Bosa practiced today.
08:38We'll get to him in just a second.
08:41But the rest of the group is very interesting,
08:43particularly two of the guys who were rookies last year.
08:47They had stop-start seasons in Alfred Collins and C.J. West,
08:51both coming back from injury and let's be real,
08:55their preseason tape was not great.
08:58So what's going on with those two, do you think, based on last year
09:02and what can we expect?
09:04Well, C.J. West, if I'm not mistaken, didn't he only play in one preseason game?
09:08I think that was the case.
09:10That's possible.
09:10I can't remember.
09:10Collins played in all of them.
09:13And it's clear by the number of snaps they gave him
09:16that they kept wanting to see him play.
09:19And Collins is a perfect example in a sense of what I'm talking about
09:22with young players.
09:23You know, he played last year, and obviously you saw ups and downs.
09:27But he's got physical traits that not a lot of players have.
09:31So you're not giving up on him after one year.
09:34And it's always easy to say that, oh, this guy in the preseason,
09:38and most people don't see practice.
09:40They just see the games, as I do.
09:41I'm not there to see practice.
09:43So you see the games, and there's no question that Collins did not play
09:47at the level that he needs to play at.
09:49The tape tells you that.
09:50I'm not going to sit here and say he played well.
09:52He did not.
09:53And there are certainly concerns about the manner in which he plays.
09:57You know, he tends to stand a little straight up for a guy that big.
10:00And with athleticism, he gets moved a little too much in the run game.
10:05And that's a problem that needs to be corrected.
10:07So the question is, can that be corrected?
10:10What are they working on with him?
10:12The one concern I have, and it was a concern when he came out of Texas as well,
10:16is because he's so tall, he tends to play straight up.
10:20But let me give you a comparison.
10:22There was a first-round player chosen by the Philadelphia Eagles five years ago
10:27named Jordan Davis, okay?
10:28Jordan Davis, for the first three years of his career or so,
10:32was not a very good player at all.
10:34In fact, he only played, you know, maybe whatever the percentage was.
10:39It was not a high percentage of snaps.
10:41He only played in run-down situations.
10:43He was never on the field on third down.
10:46And then all of a sudden, last year in his fourth year,
10:49he became a dominant player and played about 60-plus percent of the snaps,
10:55and they gave him a big contract.
10:56So, again, I'm not suggesting it's a direct comparison,
11:00but you're not going to give up on Alfred Collins because of the size
11:03and the athletic and physical traits after one season
11:06and maybe not a great training camp.
11:09Is it too early to say that the Raheem Moore scheme might actually suit him better?
11:13In other words, now you're going to a five-man front more often than the wide nine
11:17that they've previously instituted.
11:20Could that be something that helps Alfred Collins immediately?
11:24Theoretically, because he's not a true gap player, you know,
11:28where you're just wearing a four-man front and you want quick guys off the ball
11:32that immediately get into gaps.
11:34That's not who he is.
11:35But the big question for him is he has to find a way to play with more leverage.
11:40He tends to play too upright.
11:42And no matter how big you are, how strong you are, how long your arms are,
11:46and he has incredibly long arms, if you stand straight up at the snap of the ball,
11:50you will get moved.
11:52Some people think that can be fixed.
11:54Some people think it can't be.
11:55I'm certainly not a D-line coach, so I don't have, you know,
11:58a strong feeling or a correct feeling one way or the other.
12:01But that has to be worked on and it has to be fixed to some degree
12:05or he will always struggle.
12:06When you look at the short amount of tape from Mikel Williams,
12:09how does he fit in terms of the things you're describing once he comes back off the cup list?
12:15Yeah, when is he due to come off?
12:17He's not ready with one, right?
12:18After week four, he's going to be out for the first four.
12:21Okay.
12:22Again, you know, he played almost exclusively defensive end in college.
12:28I think he was drafted as a defensive end.
12:30But as we discussed a couple of times, the way Robert Saleh used him last year
12:35is when it became pure pass situations, third down, long yardage, he moved inside.
12:41So the question is, is that going to happen again?
12:44You know, obviously, Odigizu is going to play in pass rush situations, clearly.
12:48The question is, what do they think of Grayson Halton?
12:52Do they think he's ready to play as a pass rusher?
12:56And we'll know, I guess, because he'll have four games to show them whether he is or not
13:00before Williams is ready to come back.
13:02Or will they feel Williams, you know, can come inside?
13:05What will they do with Keyon White, who last year after the trade literally was a movable
13:11chess piece along the defensive front and played every position?
13:14So what will they do with him when they go to those pure pass and third down situations?
13:19I think these things remain to be worked out.
13:21They obviously have a sense of what they want to do.
13:24But until you play the real games, you don't really know for certain.
13:28Greg, this fan base is justifiably terrified of this Aaron Donald acquisition.
13:34Don't know if he's playing next week.
13:35And we don't know what version of himself he is.
13:37But the interesting thing is he has a terrible record through his career against the Niners.
13:43I can remember a game a handful of years ago where the Niners had injuries and they were
13:48stuck throwing in Brunskill and Justin School in there.
13:51And they totally neutralized Aaron Donald.
13:55What historically have the Niners done to handle him that's worked?
14:03Well, normally it has to do with angles and leverage, because obviously you're not going to just
14:07ask one guy to block him one-on-one straight up.
14:10So it's always schematic when you deal with a really good player like that.
14:15And you can do that more on the inside than you can do it on the outside.
14:19You know, because obviously on the outside, you do get a lot of, you know, one-on-ones,
14:24particularly in pass rush situations.
14:25So on the inside, in the run game, you can tend to handle guys by the way in which you
14:31block.
14:31The issue is who's playing with them now, because that's a really good D-line.
14:36So, yes, we don't know what Aaron Donald will be or won't be.
14:40So that's a speculative conversation.
14:42But we do know that Kobe Turner is a really good player.
14:45We do know that Braden Fisk is a really good player.
14:48You know, obviously they've got Miles Garrett.
14:50We don't need to discuss him.
14:51Everybody knows.
14:52So, you know, they've got a really, really good D-line.
14:56So, yes, can you handle, maybe you can handle someone like Donald.
15:00And like you said, he may not even play week one.
15:04But, you know, there's other players who are really good.
15:07And that's the concern and the issue you face when you face that Rams D-line.
15:11Put yourself inside of Kyle Shanahan's mind or on that laminated play sheet.
15:16When you're looking at things that can neutralize that quality of a defensive line,
15:20what sort of play call should we be looking at that might be successful?
15:26Well, hey, I'm not as smart as Kyle Shanahan.
15:29But, you know, I think that's what you always try to do with guys, you know,
15:34you want a lot of misdirection.
15:36You want a lot of movement.
15:37You want to force them to move early in games, you know, whether it's screens,
15:41whether it's outside-type runs, you know, like I said, misdirection,
15:45where you show them one thing and you get them to move one way
15:49and then a play comes back the other way.
15:51You know, you're trying to create some kind of doubt so that they can't just tee off
15:57and just, you know, win match-ups because, obviously, they're really good players.
16:01So those are some of the things.
16:03Kyle Shanahan, you know, would probably have five more things that he could answer that with.
16:07But those are some of the things, you know, you try to do.
16:10With really good D-lines, you try to get them worn out early in games.
16:14You don't just line up and play because you're not going to win a lot of those match-ups.
16:19Greg Cosell, NFL Films, every single Wednesday right here, Willard and Dibbs, 95-7 the game.
16:24I don't hear a lot of talk about this guy at this point in the offseason,
16:29which is interesting to me, Greg, and I want to talk a little bit about Dre Greenlaw.
16:34And, Dirk, I know he was hurt a lot of last year, but when he did play,
16:39like what did you see and what led to it, quote, not being a good fit in Denver?
16:49Yeah, it's a hard question to answer, you know, as to why they didn't see it.
16:53I mean, I can tell you that the way the Niners have played defense, you know,
17:00with Robert Sala and, you know, he was here, obviously, when Greenlaw, you know, got here.
17:07That style of defense that Vance Joseph plays in Denver is very,
17:11very different from the 49ers defense.
17:13So it's hard for me to sit here and say, you know, why they don't think he fit.
17:18But that style of defense that Vance Joseph plays structurally, schematically,
17:24is totally different from what the Niners have played, where he's really thrived.
17:30So it's very possible that they did not see him, you know, based on his background,
17:35as someone who truly fit the Vance Joseph scheme.
17:38So that's all I could say, you know, again, we're not there, I don't know.
17:42But when he was with the Niners, he was a very, very good player.
17:47So, you know, obviously, he's back, he's going to start, you know,
17:51we'll see, you know, where he is at this point in his career.
17:53He's fought some injuries, you know, sometimes guys get injured and they're not the same.
17:57You know, we won't know that until he's out there playing, ideally, you know, 50, 60 snaps.
18:02Based on what you've seen from Jaden Duggar in college and a brief glimpse into the preseason,
18:07how do you think he might be employed in this Niner defense when you've got, you know,
18:12Warner and Greenlaw, theoretically, a five-man front?
18:15Yeah.
18:15Is he going to be somebody that gets moved around a lot?
18:18Or where do you see him possibly fitting in the most?
18:22Yeah, well, that comes down to how he Morris wants to play.
18:25I think he'll be more, you know, multiple than Robert Sala.
18:28You know, Duggar is, he predominantly played stacked in the preseason.
18:32There were times he did bump out and was outside the box because he does have a safety background.
18:37He's obviously, you know, an explosive moving athlete.
18:40He's got inside-out, sideline-to-sideline, play speed and range.
18:45There was a couple of plays where I saw him matched up to the tight end.
18:49I think he can run with tight ends.
18:51So, you know, again, until we see them play, don't forget, they're going to play a Rams team
18:56and you never know with Sean McVay because he's done so many things over the last number of years.
19:00But we saw last year how much 13 personnel, meaning three tight ends, that they played with,
19:06particularly over the last half of the season.
19:08Is he going to come out and do that next Thursday night?
19:10Is he going to go back to 11 personnel?
19:13You never know.
19:14But, you know, I think if he plays with 13 personnel, three tight ends, you'll see Duggar on the field.
19:20Greg Cosell, all right.
19:21The big question that we love at the end is always fun.
19:24And Brock Purdy, Matt Stafford, who's better?
19:27Fun for who?
19:28For you.
19:28Fun for who?
19:29For you.
19:30Oh.
19:30And us.
19:31Oh, okay.
19:32Yeah.
19:32Who's better, Brock Purdy or Matt Stafford?
19:36You didn't really ask me that.
19:37Come on.
19:39Well, we were saving your lock of the week for next week ahead of the game.
19:43So we thought we'd go with this one.
19:46Well, you know what?
19:47After a lot of thought, I think I might go with Matthew Stafford on that one.
19:53Oh, come on.
19:54I'll get back to you on that.
19:56Yeah.
19:56Thanks for joining us, question mark.
19:58I mean, think about it, Greg.
20:01Next week at this time, we'll be talking to you 90 minutes before kick.
20:09No.
20:11What do you mean, no?
20:12Yeah, right.
20:13Well, I'll kick.
20:14Not the Niner kick, but the other kick.
20:16Oh, yeah, yeah.
20:18Yeah, the Seahawks.
20:20The Seahawks and the Patriots, right?
20:22Yeah.
20:23Wednesday night?
20:23The Seahawks, the third best team in the NFC West, you know.
20:28They're right, behind the 49ers and Rams, right?
20:32Well, Arizona.
20:33I mean, exactly, Greg.
20:37Exactly.
20:38Hey, thank you so much.
20:40Have a great week, and we're already looking forward to next Wednesday.
20:43I know.
20:44I can't wait until it really starts.
20:45Thanks, guys.
20:46Really appreciate it.
20:47Thank you, Greg.
20:47Greg Cosell, NFL Films.