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00:00our friend David Lombardi who joins us right now on the River Islands guest line and I almost said
00:05David Lombardi with the athletic but I better not say that. No no no. That's not the deal.
00:09Congratulations man on joining the San Francisco Standard. Yeah you still would have been correct
00:15with the athletic. Today I'm still with the athletic. Tomorrow is when it starts for the
00:20standard so you got me right at the right at the switch. Okay let's say David Lombardi with
00:26the stathletic. How about that? Let's just combine the two for for the afternoon but let's dive into
00:34what matters to everybody. Let's talk George Kittle. Is he in danger of missing this game?
00:39Yeah he didn't mean his practice today so if you don't practice on Thursday you're in danger of
00:43missing the game. They're just gonna see how it goes tomorrow and if it doesn't go well enough
00:48then he won't play on Sunday but I think he'll be listed as questionable so we probably won't
00:55find out until very late Saturday night or early Sunday morning. Don't think they're gonna push
01:00this all the way up until the game though but that's just where it's at right now. So what do
01:05they do if he doesn't play? We know that Eric Saubert will be in there but is there another
01:10tight end that they can plug in? Obviously you can't replace what George Kittle means to this
01:15offense but who would be the next man up at tight end? Well Jake Tonjes has really impressed them
01:20over the course of the last year. He was on the practice squad last season actually went to Cal
01:25and he's reworked his body while he's worked behind the scenes in the 49ers system and he
01:31really earned the tight end three roll this year because of the versatility that he showed
01:38in training camp. You know they can only carry one fullback on the 53-man roster so
01:43the backup to Kyle Juszczyk has to be a tight end and Kyle Juszczyk is tasked with making some
01:51really difficult blocks for the 49ers and Jake Tonjes was the best candidate for that backup
01:58fullback spot so he earned a spot as a tight end and I think it's a testament to all the work that
02:03he's put in physically for the 49ers. They also have Brayden Willis who's on the practice squad.
02:08He was on the 53 last year saw some significant playing time so they'll probably call him up
02:14if they need to do that but I think that the new name that people should pay attention to is Jake
02:19Tonjes. David, let's dive into this though and you know kind of get your opinion on what we may
02:28be looking. Let's do the hypothetical. We know there's no Christian. We know there's no Debo.
02:32What if there's no George? In your opinion, what kind of a 49er offense will we see in terms of
02:39effectiveness? Well so much of that is dependent on how well Brock Birdie and his protection fall
02:51in sync and then obviously how well Kyle Shanahan calls this game and how well receivers separate.
02:56It's theoretically you know what when you are missing a couple pieces you're obviously going
03:03to lose some explosiveness but you would still like to think that you could scheme guys open
03:08and that you can find ways to keep the line moving to some extent. That's what the 49ers are
03:15going to try to do. We have to remember that the Rams on the other side are also not at their
03:20healthiest right now. They're losing a lot of defensive backs and on the offensive side it's
03:26really ugly for the Rams along the offensive line but my main point is that's the NFL. It's you're
03:32rarely once in a blue moon going to have a game where every single starter is healthy and the
03:3849ers are a team coming off of 60 games over the past three seasons. We knew they weren't going to
03:44be fully healthy this year but we knew they were going to have to dig into their depth. That's why
03:48we made such a big deal about the draft and about the offseason saying they need to build quality
03:54depth at a controlled basis to fit in with a roster that is a little older but has a lot of
04:03star players but I think it was very clear that after running three straight marathons the fourth
04:08marathon this season for the 49ers was going to be one that was going to be tough to endure and
04:13that depth would be required to endure it and that is the challenge of the 49ers have in front of
04:19them now. We don't know exactly who's going to play. To be honest it shouldn't matter all too
04:24much for a Super Bowl caliber team that can run this marathon. One week there will be one star
04:30missing. Another week they'll probably another star missing. You've got to be able to keep the
04:34ship afloat throughout all of it and a big test in that regard should be coming on Sunday for the
04:3949ers. It should be a big test although the Rams have given up the second most points in football
04:44second only to the Carolina Panthers and you mentioned the depth and the younger players and
04:49I wonder what you make of Dominic Pooney after a couple of games where it looked like
04:54week one he was dominant and then last week had a little bit more of a struggle.
05:00Well I think that the 49ers played their first road game last week so it was the first time
05:05that Dominic Pooney and all those linemen working together had to deal with the noise issue on the
05:11road. Minnesota is a really tough place to play. Minnesota also just in general this was a much
05:17more elaborate defense I think than what the Jets were just so good coverage wise. We know
05:24that Robert Sala blitzes at some of the lowest rates in the league. I'm not saying it's a bad
05:29defense. I think that the Jets actually bring a great defense to the table but Brian Flores is
05:34bringing a whole lot more smoke and mirrors in your direction. Minnesota was that way in 2023
05:40and then they're definitely that way in 2024. So for a rookie offensive lineman in his first
05:47road game that probably was as difficult as the cerebral test gets in the NFL with with all the
05:53disguises and the aggressive blitzes that the Vikings were running up front and you know just
05:59as a whole I think in the NFL right now you're you're not feeling seeing nearly as much training
06:04and the preseason and in training camp you see offense around the league is very very down through
06:10two weeks. I think that's a big part of the reason why and then the parts of offenses that are
06:15struggling the most are offensive lines because in general I think over the last 15 years there's
06:21been a proliferation of extremely athletic defensive linemen at you know great degrees of
06:28depth across these teams not just the starters and that's outpaced how offensive lines have grown. So
06:34Dominic Pooney was kind of you know right at ground zero there of the probably the toughest
06:39position to play here in week two and then I think it's only going to be uphill for him
06:44in a good way moving forward. David Lombardi the athletic and soon to be the San Francisco
06:49standard with us here on Willard and Dibs 95-7 the game talking 49ers in the latest news that
06:54both George Kittle and Charverius Ward missed practice today add that in to all of the other
07:01injury news. I did see this and obviously David you know there there have been and will continue
07:06to be a lot of eyes on Brandon Aiyuk but for a lot of us we just look at the stats and we go hey
07:12that that's not that great. Kyle Shanahan was quoted this week as saying if you look at the
07:17way he ran his routes and the way he blocked he actually had a hell of a game. Would you help our
07:23listeners take a deep dive on how Brandon is actually playing so far this year? Well first Kyle
07:31Shanahan he's the CEO of sorts of the team and he's got to make sure that his players stay
07:37motivated and he knows each player better than we do so I think that what he says about each guy
07:44especially given the context of some of the criticism that we're hearing in the media for
07:49for somebody like Brandon Aiyuk so I think what Kyle Shanahan says is important because
07:53it's always going to be geared toward getting that player in the best headspace possible
07:58because this especially in an age of social media everything comes back and the player's
08:03going to be able to probably hear every single word that he's that his coach says.
08:08That being said it's a production game at the end of the day and Brandon Aiyuk is not being paid to
08:15run good routes or just to run good routes and just to do stuff right behind the scenes. He's
08:21being paid to put up numbers for the 49ers. He put up numbers last year he led the NFL in yards per
08:27completion. They obviously were to at least some degree disjointed in the game on Sunday
08:35offensively and where they were putting up some yards but they they weren't putting up the points
08:40and that all came under the backdrop of missing Christian McCaffrey and when you look at the
08:46efficiency numbers for the offense Brandon Aiyuk was a shadow of his efficiency of from last season
08:54so that's just the truth of the matter. It doesn't matter if he was getting open a ton they
08:58lost the football game and I think everybody in the 49ers building knows that Brandon Aiyuk is
09:04going to need to deliver more from a statistical standpoint especially if Devo Samuel and maybe
09:11even George Kennel is now out moving forward. Aiyuk was under probably a little bit more of a
09:17visible spotlight in week one because it seemed that he was targeted in higher profile situations
09:23and he didn't hold on to the nicest pass of the evening from Brock Birdie into the back corner of
09:28the end zone and I think Aiyuk himself has told us that he's not feeling himself yet right. He's
09:35that he was at a hundred percent obviously last year the efficiency was off the charts.
09:40He said that that week one experience is almost like an out-of-body experience. He had never
09:45felt that way in a game and he didn't like it and then after the Minnesota game he said he was about
09:5080 to 85 percent so I don't think there's any argument here from Brandon Aiyuk that he's not
09:56at 100 percent and I don't think that there's any argument from anybody in the 49ers building
10:01that they will need Brandon Aiyuk at 100 percent as this season progresses. That's why they did
10:05pay him as much money as they did. Dan hopefully that 100 percent gets closer to being achieved
10:10this Sunday against the Rams with likely three or two at least and maybe three other skill guys out.
10:17I want to ask you about Telenova Funga and what you thought he looked like at practice as he gets
10:23back to full participation coming off his devastating injury last year. He's such a great
10:29communicator. I think that immediately can help the 49ers on the back end where that's the biggest
10:35problem with this team right now is the third down defense. It's the worst in the league through two
10:41games. It's been a problem visibly against both the Jets and the Vikings. They gave up seven of
10:49twelve third downs including six third and longs against Minnesota and so much of that was just
10:57you could tell they weren't in sync on the back end. The rush and the coverage weren't tied
11:02together and it just so happens that Telenova Funga is one of the more vocal communicators
11:08on the team. He's playing a position safety that does ensure that everything is in line
11:13down the back end since he's got the whole defense in his sight in front of him and he's already
11:20registered a pick six of Matthew Stafford in his career. So it's a good guy to get back this week.
11:26He's been working at practice for a while now. First couple weeks on the scout team so he got
11:33some looks against George Kittle and then obviously Brock Purdy was the quarterback
11:37working against Telenova Funga. That gave the 49ers confidence that he was ready to
11:42take on actual first team duties. So he's been fully inserted into practice this week and we
11:47should see him on the field Sunday alongside Jair Brown. Those two have rarely worked together
11:53because remember Jair didn't take over as the 49ers starting safety last year until after
11:59Telenova got hurt. So I talked to Jair about it today. He said in the preseason against the
12:03Broncos last year when Jair was a rookie he had five snaps with Telenova I guess at the start of
12:09that game. So they'll have to get on the same page but I think they've done so much work together in
12:14the film room and in the meeting room that this is something that's going to boost the 49ers.
12:18David a couple quick things on Nick Bosa. First of all he's limited today so A. is there any
12:23concern? B. how do you feel so far about what they've put around him? They've reworked this
12:30defensive line to be more effective. What are your returns so far? Well again they've played 60 games
12:38over the past three years. This is the NFL. Guys are going to pop up on the injury report. Guys
12:43are going to be limited at practice. I'm telling you if fans start stressing out about every single
12:50one of these reports they're not going to make it through to the to the end of this. So it's going
12:55to be important to have an even keel about the injury report and you know I've already seen it
13:00on social media. Every single little detail is the end of the world and quite frankly it's not.
13:05There's a reason why the 49ers needed to insulate the depth and it's because stuff like this is
13:11going to become commonplace. It just is a reality of a marathon sport where guys are playing a lot
13:17of games so I don't think there's major concern about Nick Bosa right now. As far as insulating
13:23the the rest of the line well look at who they brought in on the other side. Leonard Floyd
13:27has not missed a single game in 110 games. He is one of the great iron men that's currently active
13:35in the NFL. There's a reason why the 49ers targeted that. That wasn't an accident. They
13:41knew that they were going to need to bring in players who were especially durable because of
13:46the the wear and tear on the roster as a whole. So I think that Floyd is somebody who should be
13:53able to give the 49ers a lot of quality snaps over the course of this season. He used to play
13:57against them frequently when he was with the Rams so he had to face his former team this weekend.
14:02They also brought in Yutur Gros Matos who last week had a nice pressure. I think it turned into
14:10an intentional grounding penalty actually against Sam Darnold. That was a good debut for Yutur Gros
14:15Matos and they also brought in new interior defensive lineman with Jordan Elliott on the
14:23inside for the 49ers coming from the Browns. He's a guy that they're looking at as a run stopper.
14:29Was a good run stopper for Cleveland last year and I'll tell you what the run stopping is going
14:33to need to be a whole lot better than it was against Minnesota. I thought they did well
14:37against the Jets. I don't think they were great against the Vikings. We'll see if Malik Collins
14:41and Jordan Elliott and that entire defensive line just like the O-line and just like the offense
14:46it all works together as a unit. They're going to have to be on the same page because I think
14:50the Rams only chance in this game is if they run the football a little bit with Kyron Williams.
14:55Their offensive line is so beleaguered right now and has been performing so poorly that without
15:01a run game it's really hard to see LA being able to move the ball better than last week and they
15:06didn't move the ball well at all last week against the Cardinals. All right David thank you for
15:11coming on and first day at the new gig tomorrow right so is this uh the day you have to like
15:16it's all awkward and you have to borrow someone else's key card to go to the bathroom and all
15:20that stuff? They gave me my key card so we're good okay and thankfully I'm at the Fort Anders facility
15:29most of these days and I think they already know me there um so so we'll be good that's the one
15:33great thing about this you change jobs but but you're doing the same thing you're still covering
15:38let's make sure you send your story to the uh the right editor and everything will be fine
15:43all right yeah sounds good that's I'm getting you know it's one of those things you talk to
15:48like rookies and in the building and they're like everything is new everything but I'm still
15:53playing football I'll be a rookie again tomorrow so hopefully the performance stays good hopefully
15:58it's not too long of a learning period tell Tim Kawakami to stop following you around from job to
16:02job it might be the other way around but yeah I'll let him know okay yeah just yeah thanks Dave
16:11and congratulations again yeah thank you guys I appreciate it