Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00and to talk to someone who used to be a 49er and longtime quarterback throughout the league.
00:06Pleased to have him here on the River Islands guest line on Willard and Dibbs. Thank you so
00:10much, Brian Hoyer, for joining us. How you doing, man? I'm great. How are you guys? We're fantastic.
00:15I would love for you to share with our audience because I've saw some of your recent comments
00:20on just in terms of the way football is usually called, what are the difficulties as a quarterback
00:28in playing for Kyle Shanahan? Well, I think for me, I played for Kyle twice, once in Cleveland
00:34and then another time in San Francisco. And just calling the play the second time around was much
00:39easier because it was so different from what I had been accustomed to. And so I remember
00:43in Cleveland, you know, that first year trying to, one, I was coming back off of a torn ACL,
00:48but just trying to get the terminology, you know, under my belt, so to speak. And I remember,
00:53you know, when I came to play for Kyle out in San Francisco, you know, the second time around
00:58was much easier, but it is, it can be wordy. And then I think, you know, a lot of people have
01:02touched on it. I think a lot of people see the clip of John Gruden getting after Chris Sims all
01:06those years ago and, and think, oh man, you know, that's, that's a tough play call. And I, you know,
01:11similar system, obviously it's evolved over the years, but you know, any offense you play in,
01:16there's going to be, you gotta be, you gotta be able to tell people what to do. And they,
01:20you know, there's more than one way to skin a cat, so to speak, and you could do it in multiple
01:23different ways. And, you know, but it was something with repetition and time, you get to,
01:28you get to understand it. And I always give Kyle a hard time because I always ask him if I could
01:33wear a wristband with the plays. And he's like, man, I just, I have a hard time calling it that
01:37way because sometimes I'm not looking down at my call sheet to call the play. I call it from my
01:41head. And then, you know, the trade happens with Jimmy Garoppolo and a few weeks later,
01:45I'm sitting there watching and Jimmy's got a wristband on and I text Kyle like, what the hell,
01:49I couldn't use that, you know? But you know, in that situation, Jimmy had only been there for
01:53a few weeks, so I understand it. And, you know, sometimes you have to adapt.
01:58It's a fantastic vignette right there because, yeah, Jimmy G always had the play sheet on the
02:04wrist. You mentioned wordiness of the play call and you also have spoken about the rigidity
02:09of what Kyle wants. Is that really where Brock Purdy excels is he takes the play call and he
02:16knows exactly where Kyle wants him to throw it or the secondary option or the tertiary?
02:21Well, I think Kyle's had Brock from his infancy stage in the NFL. And then clearly,
02:26I mean, look, they drafted Brock with Jimmy on the roster with Trey Lance who they traded up.
02:31And so clearly Kyle saw something in that pre-draft process that he really liked about
02:36Brock Purdy in order to draft him with that last pick. And I think, you know, I saw some people
02:41on my comments on my Twitter, I guess it's called X now. They were trying to say that I was bashing
02:45Brock by what I said on Peter Schrager's podcast. And if anything, I was complimenting him because
02:50I don't think there's ever been a quarterback who's fit better with Kyle Shanahan than Brock
02:54Purdy. And I think that comes from him being there day one with Kyle and Kyle, you know,
02:59just sitting down with him and saying, Hey, on this play on CO bow, this is the read.
03:04And no matter what it is, this is what it's going to be. No matter what the coverage is,
03:07this is how I want you to read it. And so he's had him, you know, from his,
03:11the very first moment he stepped into rookie training camp and training him that way.
03:15And Brock just understands it better than any other person who's ever played for Kyle. And
03:19that's pretty clear. And, and I think, you know, they're just so symbiotic. And that's
03:24why I try to say, you know, when I say he's Kyle's avatar out there, Kyle is one of the,
03:30the premier offensive minds to ever coach football. And he sees it in a very unique way.
03:36Totally. I was pretty privileged enough to play for Kyle. I learned so much from him,
03:40but very different from Josh McDaniels, who I learned a ton from him and a bill O'Brien or
03:46a North Turner. And I think it takes a very special quarterback to understand that and see
03:51it through his eyes. And I think that's what you've seen with Brock Purdy. That's exactly how
03:56Kyle wants the game to be played. And yes, things happen and he's off schedule and he makes some
04:01great plays. But when, when I watched Brock and I watched those games, I'm like, man, I wish I
04:05could have played like that in that system because he does it exactly how Kyle's asking him to do.
04:10And, and he has full trust that Kyle's going to get the right play called at the right time.
04:14Brian Hoyer is with us here on Willard and dibs 95, seven, the game. This is fascinating stuff.
04:18And Brian, I wonder what you can share about this. Cause I know you weren't there, but,
04:23but Purdy was known as kind of a gun gunslinger mentality in college. And now he gets to the
04:2949ers and you're saying he's been molded perfectly. So your best guess on how Kyle Shanahan was able
04:38to sort of get Brock to change his own mold to, to, to now become this.
04:45Well, I think you still see it. You see, I mean, look, the NFL is not a perfect world and,
04:49and no matter how you draw up a perfect play, there's times where it breaks, breaks down.
04:53And you see that with Brock and you can have his athleticism escaping out of the pocket,
04:58making throws. And so I think, you know, as it's kind of a compliment really to Brock and the
05:03person that he is to come in and say, listen, I'm going to just soak it all in. I'm going to
05:07learn as much as I can. And if the play, you know, happens in the timing of the play and I go
05:12through my reads and, and I remember, you know, I'd never basically been in a system where you
05:17tied the reeds to your drops. And I remember doing these drills with Kyle and he's like,
05:21all right, on your first pitch, I want you to throw the curl on your second hitch. I want you
05:24to get down to the back end. And when I watch Brock play and the offensive line has given him
05:28time, he's a very much of a rhythm passer and playing in that rhythm. But also you've mentioned
05:33his gunslinger mentality. If things don't go correctly, it's not like he's a statue and
05:37there is going to just sit there and take a sack. Like he moves around, he can run the ball,
05:40he scrambles, make some good throws. So, like I said, I mean, clearly the guy, you know, is made
05:47of a great makeup because he was the last pick in the draft and, you know, last year he's in
05:52the Superbowl. So, you know, just one of those great stories and clearly he's determined to
05:57get better and better each year. And he's got a great coach leading them the way.
06:00How important is his pre-snap work to the Kyle Shanahan offense? Because you talk about how
06:05complicated the play calls are. And then when you get to the line of scrimmage, everything
06:08kind of shuts down. How important is it that he's able to kind of decipher what the coverage is
06:14going to be before the snap? Well, I think, you know, I just mentioned two different,
06:18you know, great offense coordinators, Kyle Shanahan, Josh McDaniels. And I would say,
06:22you know, Josh was very much about pre-post-snap reads and more so post-snap reads. And I would
06:27say Kyle was more, here's the play call, here's the pre-snap read, and this is not going to change
06:32post-snap. You're going to go left to right on this play or whatever it might be. And so
06:36two very different ways to look at it. And I think, you know, I remember Kyle always saying,
06:40like, the quarterback has so much to do. I want to take something off of this plate.
06:44And so, you know, in that system, it's basically these long play calls, but once the play's called,
06:50it's kind of get up there, let the line make the calls, snap the ball and run the play. Whereas,
06:56you know, when I played for a guy like Josh McDaniels, it's calling multiple plays in the
07:00huddle. You got to give a pre-snap look, a post-snap look, and things are changing a lot.
07:05So, you know, like I said, a ton of different ways to do it. And the reality is, no one's
07:10really reinventing the wheel. The plays are the plays, and then you kind of put your own spin on
07:14them. And I even look at, you know, when I watched that game the other night, Kyle's offense has
07:18evolved so much from where it was when I played with him in Cleveland to where it was when I
07:22played with him in San Francisco to where it is now. And he's really good at adapting to the
07:26playmakers that he has. So, you have a guy like Debo, Christian McCaffrey, you throw him in the
07:31backfield and hand him the ball off. And, you know, if you have the Swiss Army knife, one of
07:34my favorite teammates of all time that I play with in San Francisco in Kyle Juszczyk, and he came up
07:39with a big pass the other night. And he allowed them to do so many different things, and Kyle
07:45knows how to use them to his advantage.
07:47Brian Hoyer is with us here on Willard & Dibs. Brian, give it to us dummies in a way that we
07:53can understand. Because you said already that Kyle Shanahan sees football differently than
08:00anybody else. How would you expand on that to someone who may not understand football at the
08:07level that you do?
08:09Well, I think from my understanding and my experiences, I've never seen a guy who is a
08:15play caller that's watching things on the defense and making minute-by-minute, second-by-second
08:20adjustments. And I know a lot's been made about, you know, the West Coast run game and the wide
08:25zones and the booths and things like that. And, you know, I remember asking him, you know, how
08:31are you determining when to do that? And he goes, well, I'm watching the end. I'm watching these
08:34things in real time. And then that's kind of leading me to go to whatever the next play I want
08:39to go with is. If I see the linebackers are getting up in the line of scrimmage, I'm going to go to a
08:43play-action pass and things like that, as opposed to, you know, a lot of offensive coordinators have
08:47their call sheet and they kind of have, here's my second and five plays. Here's my third down
08:52plays. Here's my play-action passes. I think Kyle is so good at coming up with that game plan
08:58that when it comes to game day, a lot of times you see him calling those plays. He's not even
09:01looking down at a call sheet. He has those calls figured out. And I always joke, he would be in
09:06pregame, he'd lock himself in some kind of water closet and he'd go over the entire game plan.
09:11And you'd have to go find them in the back of, you know, some little spot in the back of the
09:16locker room and he'd be going over the game plan. And sure enough, you know, he knew it so well that
09:21he could call a lot of those plays without ever looking down at a sheet. It's incredible to watch
09:26as a novice, you know, Mark and I are radio hosts. We never played in the NFL, but I watch what he
09:31does with Kyle, not Kyle Shanahan, but Kyle Yuszczyk. Can you expand just on how he uses
09:37the fullback and why that's such an edge for Kyle Shanahan and the way he calls offense?
09:42Well, that, that position is kind of a dying breed other than Kyle, Kyle Yuszczyk, as you mentioned,
09:47and then a guy that I play with in a few different places, Yacob Johnson. I mean,
09:51there's not very many of those guys left. And the one thing that makes it so unique with
09:55Kyle Yuszczyk is, is he's probably the most athletic fullback that's probably ever played
10:01the game. And he can, he can do things that most fullbacks can't and Kyle understands that, but
10:06defenses also have to respect when he's out there that he could also be a lead blocker.
10:11And then the next thing you could do is you can send them down the sideline on wheel route,
10:14like they did against the jets the other night. So Kyle, I think has a great understanding of
10:19how to use guys with unique skillsets. I mean, obviously we've seen it with Debo, you know,
10:24over the progression of his career in the backfield out at wide receiver on reverses on
10:30all these things. And, and Kyle, you know, you can see the evolution of what his offensive scheme has
10:35has been. Like I mentioned from, you know, going back even to when he was in Washington with RG3
10:40and running some of those quarterback runs. And so he's very good at adapting to what his
10:46players do really well. So Brian, I'm sure you've answered this before at the risk of it being
10:51played out. I do want to hear your answer when someone says to you, Brock Purdy, system quarterback,
10:58what's your response? Well, I'm going to say something that's probably even more controversial.
11:03I think every quarterback is a system quarterback. It depends on what system you're in.
11:07You know, I played a long time with Tom Brady and he, that system developed around him. And to
11:12be honest with you, no other quarterbacks ever been able to run that system as well as he did.
11:16And guys like Matt Stafford have been in different systems. So I don't, when people say system
11:22quarterback, I go, well, what does that even mean? So to say Brock Purdy is a system quarterback,
11:26I'd say he's a successful quarterback because he's doing, he's running the system that the
11:31coach is asking him to run. Now are certain guys maybe not fit because of their, you know,
11:37is a guy like Jalen Hurts or Lamar Jackson or Josh Allen, you know, maybe they have different
11:44abilities and it goes to like what Kyle does with his skill players. I think good offensive
11:48coordinators see what is my quarterback do well, and I'm going to kind of fit it around that.
11:53So, you know, when, when I kind of laugh at that, when people say system quarterback, because
11:58first of all, the people who usually say that don't even know what the systems are.
12:01And so for, for people to say that's good, bad, and different, I really don't think they
12:06understand what they're talking about to begin with. Yeah. They disparage quarterbacks with
12:10the system label, but you're right. Any good quarterback is a system quarterback. But Mark,
12:14and I always debate about like what Kyle's favorite system would be. It feels like it's a 50,
12:2150 split with Brock Purdy. Would he be happier passing it more or running it more? What was
12:27your experience playing for him in terms of the run pass mix? I mean, Kyle loves the run game,
12:32or he's obsessed with the run game. I used to sit in those run game meetings for 45,
12:3550 minutes and have him as the head coach go over every single running play.
12:39And I remember thinking like, man, this offense, I don't think you really have to do anything in
12:42the run game. Now in other offenses, I got to make the mic point. I got to make an alert. I
12:46got to change, you know, tell everybody what the front is. But in the, in the 49ers offense,
12:50I didn't have, there was very little to do other than maybe switching from one play to another,
12:54but he had the entire offense sit in there and listen to those run game meetings. Cause I think
12:58he knew how important that was to his entire office. And you see that. And you, I remember
13:03him telling me, he learned a lot, you know, when he was in Atlanta, because he was, they'd be
13:07playing the Carolina Panthers and the Carolina Panthers run defense was tough. And he used to,
13:12he said, he used to abandon the run game a little too early, but then he realized, you know,
13:16in that scenario, you got to keep pushing it because even if you're only getting two,
13:20three-yard runs, sometimes those two, three-yard runs lead to 80-yard play action past touchdowns.
13:26And so you kind of, he said, you know, I'll give that up to get some of those explosive
13:30plays in the past game. So Brian, your perspective on, can this particular group,
13:37can they consistently win without Christian McCaffrey if he misses more time?
13:42Well, I mean, they showed it the other night and the Jets defense is no joke. I was talking about
13:45that on my Sirius XM radio show this morning with Solomon Wilcox. I mean, you, you expected the
13:50Jets defense to come in and be a top five defense and they kind of tore those guys apart. And,
13:55and it's not, you know, unusual for a Shanahan type system, you know, to kind of plug and play
14:00a running back, a guy that, you know, I didn't really know about before Monday night and he
14:04rushes for, what was it over 140 yards, Jordan Mason. So, you know, there's, that is kind of
14:10a testament to Kyle and who he is and what he's able to do. Obviously Christian, you know, offensive
14:15player of the year is, I mean, that probably was one of the most, you know, impressive trades of
14:21all time because I think Kyle had a vision for what Christian McCaffrey could do in his offense.
14:26And obviously there's a connection there with, with Christian's dad, Ed playing for Kyle's dad
14:31in Denver. So a little bit of a familiarity, but obviously we've seen what Christian McCaffrey
14:36is capable of in that offense. And so hopefully he gets back sooner than later.
14:40Just real quick, look at a Minnesota then a team that really snuffed out the run last year in the
14:44meeting between these two teams. What does Kyle do to try to counteract a Minnesota front that
14:49sometimes has nine people on the line of scrimmage? Yeah, they're an aggressive defense. They have a
14:54lot of good players. We actually spoke with Harris, yeah, Harrison Smith. I know Harrison
15:01Phillips this morning of the Vikings. He was on our show and he just signed a new contract and
15:06he's kind of that main guy in the, in the front disrupting the run. And, and Brian Flores,
15:10who's the defensive coordinator, a guy that I know well from our time in New England together
15:13is a very aggressive guy. And so this will be a battle for sure. I mean, the Vikings kind of
15:19laid the smack down on the Giants last week defensively for sure. So it's look, I mean,
15:24in the NFL, it's always a test. And I think the 49ers have an offense that's kind of clicking
15:29on all cylinders, which is always hard to do early in the season because everybody's kind
15:33of figuring each other out, but they have a lot of continuity. And I think it'll be a good matchup
15:37for him this weekend. Brian Hoyer with us on 95, seven, the game, if that's your real name,
15:43Hey, is your name actually Axel? Yeah, it is. I got outed by my buddy, Matt Slater a few years
15:49ago. My, my, my legal first name is Axel. And no, it's not because of Axel Rose or Axel Foley.
15:55My dad's actually from Germany and his name is Axel. So that's everyone wants to think it's like
16:02Axel Rose and I'm a big guns and Rose guy, which I enjoy. I enjoy the music, but that is not why
16:08I'm called that. Well, but, but, but, and so how did it end up that you went by Brian? Right.
16:13Well, I was first born. And so I think my dad wanted me to be a junior. My mom said, well,
16:17he's my first born too. And I want to name him Brian. So they compromised my name, you know,
16:22legally is Axel, but my, my middle name is Brian. So mom, what out? What a shock.
16:29I mean, Axel's a pretty bad-ass name now. I mean, now that you're an adult, but I mean,
16:34you know, I, no one ever called it, called me by it. And I actually thought about
16:39switching it at some point. And my dad was like, don't even, I mean, the ridicule that you might
16:44open yourself up to, because it is kind of a unique name and I like it. I mean, it's only,
16:49it was reserved for people who, who knew me really well. And then a few years ago, when I was
16:54making a start for the Patriots, um, Matt Slater, uh, all-time great out here in new England,
17:00media, then my speaker was out. All right. Then we'll let you leave us with this.
17:05Who's a bigger, bad-ass Axel Rose or Axel Foley. Oh, I love Axel. I love those Beverly Hills
17:11movies. So I'm going to go with him. Yep. There it is. Uh, we got producers in the other room
17:15looking at us like who's Axel Foley. It's so terrible. I know who's Axel Rose. I mean,
17:23if you ever want to go into like professional wrestling, Axel Hoyer, you could wreck some
17:28people now. That's pretty good. I think there's a new show with it on Netflix. I think I thought
17:33I saw that when I was scrolling the other day. Um, actually I almost just called you Axel. Hey,
17:39Brian. I only want to call him Axel. Thank you so much for coming on, man. That was a blast.
17:45No problem. Anytime.