00:00The Broncos are coming to town.
00:03This is an interesting one for the 49ers.
00:06I kind of don't know why the spread is 2.5.
00:08You brought that up earlier today.
00:10We can pick that apart a little bit.
00:13I find that to be a little head-scratching and concerning, quite frankly,
00:17because I don't know why the Niners aren't favored by a little bit more.
00:21I've got this more like a 3.5 or a 4, but whatever.
00:25Like, we'll dive into all of that with the Niners and Broncos playing this weekend
00:31and also the injury update.
00:35I think there's something going on with the Niners,
00:39and Lombardi sort of spoke about it with us yesterday.
00:42David Lombardi, SF Standard.
00:43He was on with us yesterday.
00:45Boy, okay, let me try this on because I'm literally just on the fly.
00:50This is hitting me.
00:52In August, remember when it felt like the Niners were super, super hurt?
00:57And I was like, I'm thrilled where the Niners are at injury-wise.
01:03And then Joe Shasky grabbed a flag and let him march into the streets
01:09about what a moronic statement that was.
01:12And I tried to explain it.
01:13I'm like, no, no, no.
01:14There's two things going on here.
01:16A, I think we're missing some of the positive injury news,
01:21i.e. George Kittle and Nick Bosa are ready to go for the start of the season.
01:25But B, remember when Christian McCaffrey for five days was a potential hold-in
01:32and the controversy all kind of started percolating,
01:37and it was Florio with Pro Football Talk that kind of ignited it
01:41because McCaffrey wasn't practicing.
01:43And everyone's like, here we go with the injuries.
01:46And then McCaffrey sat out for a week and a half, and then he came back.
01:50And everyone went, hey, what's going on?
01:52He's like, so that was the plan the whole time.
01:57That's it.
01:58There's nothing going on here.
01:59There's no hold-in.
02:00There isn't even an injury.
02:01And I'm starting to get this feeling like the 49ers are approaching their injuries differently,
02:08and they really are leaning into an under-promise, over-deliver,
02:12and they are leaning into not load management,
02:15but like let's really think big picture here and protect these guys.
02:21The idea that Cam Inman brings up that Nick Bosa might play next week, hold on.
02:29Did you think that that was even possible, that he would only miss two football games?
02:35When you watched Mike Evans grimacing last week, did you think it was possible
02:39that he would practice this Friday and play?
02:42And Green Law and Keon White and all of this.
02:45And so I'm wondering if our stress and our desire for the 49ers to make trades
02:53and bolster these positions, I wonder if they're not as injured as it feels like they are.
02:59Because the Niners are kind of playing this a certain way with an eye on maybe a later prize,
03:06similar to how the Warriors have done in the past.
03:08Well, if that is the case, then you would be more conservative about Mike Evans and Nick Bosa
03:13in terms of if they were borderline, then you probably wouldn't look to rush them back for Seattle.
03:19So I don't even know if that's the way I read it.
03:22If Mike Evans is good enough to play this weekend, then he plays.
03:25And if Nick Bosa can come back after the calf next week and play, well, then he plays.
03:31I don't think that you can really at this point load manage guys when you're 3-0
03:35and you've got 14 more games.
03:37If it's December and you're 11-2, well, maybe you can do things a little bit differently then
03:42because right now, if you have good players who can play, you play them.
03:47I agree with you.
03:48I think load management is not the term I would use.
03:52But I think the 49ers are getting really good at because they know the injury issue
04:01and they know how it sounds and they know what some of their players are dealing with.
04:06Let's take Bosa, for example.
04:08Nick Bosa's had three torn ACLs.
04:11The 49ers would be stupid to think, well, yeah, just show up and play 17 games.
04:16In other words, he's doing high knees.
04:18Something feels weird in his calf.
04:21If life were different, if Nick were 24 and he didn't have three torn ACLs,
04:27would he just play through it?
04:29Maybe.
04:30And maybe Nick Bosa actually last week felt pretty good.
04:38And maybe they knew right away, ah, let's take a week off.
04:42Let's maybe two.
04:44But, hey, Kyle, when you go to the microphone, say a few.
04:47Say a few weeks.
04:49And let everybody feel that and sit with that.
04:53And then now it has at least been brought up.
04:57Again, he's not in next week.
04:59But the idea has been brought up.
05:02And I don't think Cam Inman says that.
05:04He knows something.
05:06He's had a conversation with somebody or else he wouldn't have said that.
05:10He's down there every day talking to these people.
05:13Listen to Lombardi yesterday about the Niners' big-picture thinking.
05:17I think you have to look at this big picture with Nick Bosa.
05:21And that is the guy's coming off of his third ACL tear.
05:24He's playing at an extremely high level despite coming off of a third ACL tear.
05:29He's completely changed games in which he's been involved so far this year.
05:34And you have to take a long, hard look at it if you're the 49ers.
05:37And I think they did this heading into the season.
05:39I think they were realistic.
05:40I think that there was an expectation that he'd have to aggressively manage not only the knee,
05:45but stuff that could be connected to the knee.
05:47And they realized this is going to be a 20-game marathon if they go all the way to the
05:50Super Bowl.
05:51And he's got to be ready for the stretch run and for the playoffs.
05:54And, I mean, you're not going to win it all without Nick Bosa ready for that.
05:58So the second that something happened, like the calf, even if it's minor, even if it's small,
06:04they ought to be ready to shut him down for a period of time, in a definite period of time.
06:08So, do you see, that's kind of what I'm getting at, is David is not fully suggesting exactly what this
06:17is.
06:17But the thought is, hey, if Nick has any question about it, let's just, we're going to be cautious with
06:24this.
06:25I wouldn't call it load management.
06:27It's not that there isn't an injury.
06:30It's that I'm just reading the way the Niners are playing this.
06:34And, look, obviously there's a bunch of people on IR.
06:38I'm not saying there aren't real injuries.
06:39But let's talk about the guys at the top, the Boses, the Evans.
06:43I just, I'm getting the sense that it sounds, a lot of these injuries, situations,
06:49they sound worse than they are with the way the 49ers are playing it.
06:53Mike Evans, and I get an update on this in a second, but I mean, right now, he practiced today.
06:58It sounds like he's going to play.
07:00I didn't think on Monday that was possible.
07:01Did you?
07:02Not really.
07:03And I'm looking at Matt Barrows, and he says that he was in uniform on a side field, but not
07:08practicing.
07:08So that was the report from Matt Barrows from today.
07:12It doesn't necessarily mean that, you know, when the media had to leave, that he wasn't actually out there.
07:17But you go back to training camp, and you saw the way they were approaching all these injuries.
07:22They were a lot more conservative with guys early on, like Mike Evans, great example.
07:27He showed up on the injury list with three or four different ailments, and they were absolutely slow playing it.
07:33And the other piece of it is, Nick Bosa, he never went on the IR.
07:37And if it was really bad, like four to six weeks, then you would do that.
07:40If it was one, maybe two, maybe three weeks, you go ahead and try and see if you can make
07:45it through.
07:45The update from Nick Wagner.
07:48Mike Evans says he's going to give his best shot to try to play against the Broncos.
07:55This is questionable, but sounds like he has a plan to try to play with a built-in compression shirt
08:01with padding in it.
08:03Evans says he has had this injury before.
08:06Quote, it was brutal to play through, but it's something that I can do.
08:13So, I think we learned more about the Brandon Cooks call-up also, two-fold.
08:19A, yeah, maybe the Niners do go with six wide receivers this week because Evans is going to try to
08:24play,
08:25but maybe he's not going to be able to get through it.
08:27Also, they called up Cooks early to get him on the active roster because when it comes to game weekend,
08:32you can only call up two people from the practice squad right before the game,
08:37and they might need those two.
08:40Malik Turner is one of them.
08:42They might need those two spots this weekend for other people.
08:46So, that had something to do potentially with the early call-up on Brandon Cooks.
08:50And I also think that Brandon Cooks, and, you know, I was taking Kubiak's word at face value
08:56where he's come in and learned a lot in the first two weeks.
08:59And so, he's a veteran guy, and he's able to come in and do the things you actually need him
09:03to do as a wide receiver.
09:05But you're right about Mike Evans.
09:06You don't really know, and you probably won't until, I don't know, Sunday morning.
09:11Maybe he wakes up on Sunday, and he feels good to go with a compression shirt.
09:14Maybe he goes through warm-ups, and he can't go.
09:16Oh, by the way, Dante Pettis is hurt.
09:19Yeah, okay.
09:20Who's that?
09:21Dante Pettis.
09:22Oh, Dante Pettis, right?
09:24Dante Pettis, yeah.
09:24Because we're all banking on Dante Pettis to actually do things.
09:27No, but I think it's, like, notable in an eyebrow-raised sort of a way.
09:31Like, he showed up, and he practiced, and he got hurt.
09:34Okay.
09:35Hashtag substation, exactly.
