- 11 hours ago
Willard and Dibs react to George Kittle's game yesterday, his start to the season, and just how good of a career he's had.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00One guy we haven't really kind of focused on yet that I want to focus on.
00:03You ever watch Steph Curry play basketball and you're just like,
00:07this doesn't make any sense.
00:08With what he's able to do?
00:10Right.
00:10Like sometimes, for instance, the three-quarter of the court length shot
00:14that he seems to sort of almost be dialed in on and just flicks his wrist
00:20and the ball will fly out of it and go, you know, 60 feet in the air.
00:23The new one is his warm-up shot, and I don't know if you saw it from Hawaii
00:26where he drives in the key, he does a Eurostep, super slow-mo,
00:31throws the ball 71 feet in the air, and it bounces, and you wait for it,
00:35and it goes through, and he runs around and body bumps every single player on the floor.
00:40Cyborg.
00:40It's mesmerizing.
00:41Absolute cyborg.
00:42Not human, don't understand it, never will.
00:44That's why I love watching him play.
00:46Now let me give that label to someone on the 49ers.
00:50What George Kittle is doing right now doesn't make sense.
00:55He is now, he's not just the best tight end in 49er history,
01:00and I saw a lot of people start to talk about this yesterday.
01:04If this continues and he just returns to full form
01:07and he gives a few more years of what we're watching right now,
01:12George Kittle is squarely in the conversation for the best tight end who's ever lived.
01:18Squarely in the conversation, especially if you really dive deep into ball
01:23and realize that I already think next to Rob Gronkowski,
01:28George Kittle is the best both sides of the argument tight end of all time.
01:34In other words, Travis Kelsey's phenomenal as a receiver,
01:38but he's nowhere near the blocker that George Kittle and Rob Gronkowski either is or were.
01:45And that's where we're tracking.
01:47And the fact that this man had Achilles surgery in January
01:51and is already running like that.
01:54He hit almost 20 miles an hour when he took off with that ball yesterday.
01:59He looks every bit of himself and it doesn't make any sense.
02:04He is like a Steph Curry three-quarter court shot.
02:08I don't understand what we're looking at.
02:10I'm amazed by it.
02:12I didn't think it possible.
02:13I don't know who thought it was possible,
02:16but this is some real, real all-time stuff that we're watching right now with number 85.
02:24Well, he obviously had a good injury location to where it wasn't, you know, at the bottom.
02:30If it's at the top, then everyone says that you get better blood flow
02:32and you can come back quicker and you go about the rehab.
02:35And I heard George talking about it and where all the things he had to do
02:39and he was doing a lot of picking up of marbles.
02:41I guess that's what you do with your toes.
02:43You just, with your toes, you pick up a marble and you let it go.
02:46And you do that, I don't know, for hours on end, trying to strengthen that Achilles and that calf.
02:50And so he put in the work and I actually heard him talking about the big turning point for him,
02:55which was July 4th.
02:56He went out and ran routes for Brock Purdy.
02:58And he wasn't running at 100%, but he was running routes and he was out there
03:03and he was feeling like things were going better than what he thought he would have been like in that
03:08moment.
03:08And so that was early July and he goes out and he does that.
03:12And from there, that's, I think, when he says that he started to believe
03:16that he might be able to be ready for week one.
03:18But I'm with you, like six or seven months.
03:21Yeah, six months, less than six months, July 4th.
03:24Yeah, it's pretty remarkable, you know, and the surgery was probably mid-January.
03:28I don't know the exact date in front of me, but the fact that he's able to make it all
03:31the way back,
03:32go to Australia and play, and he was on a pitch count, as we say in baseball.
03:37And then from there, his pitch count has slowly been increased and increased.
03:41And yesterday was the one where such a perfect play call.
03:45And Shanahan doesn't really know that they're going to blitz,
03:48but I think Shanahan in that spot is thinking, okay, I think that they think that we're going to run
03:53the ball.
03:54And if they think that we're going to run the ball,
03:56they're going to crash down on the run with, I don't know, six or seven guys.
04:00So I think that if they think that we're going to run it, I think that we're going to pass
04:04it.
04:04And how about we run a little screen, and they crash down zero blitz.
04:09And Kittle, he even said it in the postgame, he was like,
04:11all I had to do was run a couple steps and turn around and wait for Brock to give me
04:16the ball.
04:16And one block from Brendel, and he was able to get out in front.
04:20Old man Brendel gets out and throws the one block.
04:23That's all they needed.
04:24Green grass.
04:24I don't want to get whimsical about this, but Kyle Shanahan right now trusts his players.
04:30He trusts your guy.
04:31Really trusts.
04:32First and foremost.
04:33Absolutely.
04:34Which is, you can see it in his play calling.
04:37And when you've got a group of people who trust one another,
04:41this is a football team, this is an office space, this is a house with your family,
04:47this is you and your spouse or your significant other.
04:50When you have unbridled, total trust, you can freaking move mountains.
05:00And that's what I'm seeing right now with this 49er offense.
05:04They have complete and total faith in one another.
05:10It is a family atmosphere.
05:12It's a lot of players, not all of them, but a lot of players who've been together for a long
05:17time
05:18with very strategic additions, some youth infused, but then also some like Hall of Fame know-how infused
05:25like Mike Evans who picks things up very quickly.
05:28You have a group right now that has total understanding of one another and faith in one another
05:36and then the ability to go about like the executive functioning of it all.
05:41And it's just like when you can do that, my God, no wonder you're going to win most of your
05:47games.
05:47You are going to win the majority of the time because not every team, most teams don't have that.
05:52You can see it when you watch them.
05:54When you can win a lot of games, when you do all those things, you have confidence in your players
05:59and you're willing to think outside the box, but you don't commit penalties and you don't turn the ball over.
06:04And that's the piece from yesterday where Debo, third quarter opening kickoff, coughs it up
06:09and Willis is just there.
06:10And you had the Kalon Black after the snap goes off Brendel's backside and Purdy's like running around.
06:16Like, am I supposed to get in?
06:18Black just grabs it and goes forward for two first down.
06:21So those little things were so pivotal.
06:23And then obviously the fumble on their punt, but just to what you're saying about the faith.
06:29So they, they throw it twice, third and one, Purdy sneaks it.
06:33McCaffrey goes for two timeout Denver because there's only 225 to go.
06:37We got to use our first timeout and we're going to force the Niners to run it.
06:41And then the very next play, they run the screen because Denver's thinking, all right, they're going to run it
06:46twice.
06:46We'll stop them.
06:47We'll use our timeouts.
06:48We'll get the ball back and we'll have the two minute warning.
06:51So they're thinking we got to stop this run.
06:53We got to sell out to stop the run.
06:55And Shanahan's thinking, let's run a screen and stuff.
06:57It's non-traditional handling of the two minute situation.
07:01And I'm addicted to it.
07:03Yeah.
07:03But you can't do it unless you trust your guys.
07:06And this is what I'm seeing right now.
07:08They keep coming out in these situations where you're supposed to run the ball and make these guys like use
07:14their timeouts.
07:15And it never works because they know you're going to run the ball.
07:17The Niners are coming out and they're throwing the ball.
07:19And they're flying down the field.
07:20And George Kittle keeps getting touchdowns in the final two minutes because of it.
07:23That's right.
07:23So yay fantasy.
07:25Like George Kittle.
07:26Even at that, I have Purdy and Kittle and Pinheiro.
07:29You still lost?
07:30Oh, yeah.
07:30I mean, I needed that to happen a couple more times.
07:33Yeah.
07:34It's funny because I closed the app and that happened.
07:36I'm watching the game.
07:37I'm like, oh, that deserves a refresh.
07:39Am I back in?
07:40Because I got four and I got the yards for Purdy.
07:42I got the yards for Kittle.
07:43I got the touchdown.
07:43It was like a 20-something point play.
07:45I would think at least.
07:46I'm still down by 18.
07:48Whatever.
07:49All right.
07:50Fantasy.
07:51Can I quit again?
07:53We got a long way to go.
07:54Yeah.
07:54We got a long way to go.
07:55You already paid me.
07:56Whatever.
07:56We got a long way to go.
07:58Regret that.
07:58Jesse?
07:59We got a long way to go.
08:02Okay?
08:02One in three, people.
08:04It's not over yet.
08:05I think I'm two and two.
08:06Nothing is over until we decide it is.
08:11A long way to go.
08:12I think I'm two and two.
08:13Well, I'm one in three.
08:14Whatever.
08:15Your team is way better than mine.
08:16Let's go to Jordan in Walnut Creek.
08:18Hi, Jordan.
08:18Are you one in three or two and two?
08:22Four and O.
08:22Yeah!
08:23Let's go, Jordan.
08:25Swagger.
08:25It's a flex.
08:27Yeah.
08:28A little teardrop on that one.
08:29No, but before I get into the George Kittle thing, the biggest hamstring to George Kittle's
08:37career, and I say this with the compartmentalization that Shanahan's the best coach in the league,
08:43but Kyle's the biggest limitation to George over his career.
08:47Like, George yards after catch, there's nobody better than him.
08:51Go back to 2019 against the Saints before the Super Bowl.
08:54Like, he's got eight guys beyond his back.
08:56No one's even close to him.
08:59It's the best pure tight end, like you said, with the blocking, the yards after catch, and
09:03all the receiving.
09:03But you were talking about, like, hey, pump the brakes on this year.
09:08This is nothing new with the Niners.
09:10It's really simple with us, like, and it's kind of nauseating to talk about at this point,
09:16but if Bo's is there, if Kittle's there, if Warner's there, if Brock's there, we're in
09:22the Super Bowl.
09:22Like, there's no one better than us, and it's just, that's just how it's been.
09:26We get to the final game, and when we're not, Brock has a torn UCL, like, against the
09:33Eagles, or we're playing with, you know, like 40% of our team.
09:37So, I don't like, I don't know what pump the brakes even means.
09:41This is business as usual, as it's been under Kyle, and with a reliable quarterback.
09:46So, yeah, this is, this is just, okay, how do we make sure when Bo's comes back, we get
09:52him for the big games, and the really important games down the stretch.
09:55So, yeah, it, this is a new, modern Bill Walsh ecosystem.
10:02So, yeah, it's exciting.
10:03Jordan, thanks so much, man.
10:04Appreciate the phone call.
10:06I mean, he's kind of right.
10:08Like, the, the, the one thing I would say about that, though, is even if those guys
10:12are healthy, coming into this year, we didn't really know, kind of box of chocolates, we
10:17didn't know what we were going to get.
10:18It's like, okay, George Kittle's here, but is he going to look like George Kittle?
10:22And I still have those questions right now about Nick Bosa, although when he played,
10:27he looked good.
10:28One, Debo, too, is the other one.
10:29Same with Debo, absolutely.
10:30And Dre.
10:31Were we sure that Debo is going to be old Debo, and he has been, and Dre Greenlaw, you're right.
10:35Like, it's almost as if he was a Niner last year.
10:39I don't even remember him being in Denver and being disappointed because he looks exactly
10:44like he was when he was here.
10:45I don't even remember him being in Denver.