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00:00We want to talk about Debo Samuel some why do you think he's struggling so much?
00:04Well, it's a combination of things. Let me hear it one
00:07I do think that the league in general has caught up to the Shanahan scheme in many ways
00:13The plays that Debo would run that were so successful. They're not as successful anymore
00:19Many teams do what the Niners do many defenses now know?
00:23What the Niners do and what a lot of
00:25Offenses do with the jet sweep and the pre snap motion and all the rest of it
00:30So I do think that defenses in general have caught up to the Shanahan offense
00:36And the offense that really favors Debo the plays that Debo runs that he's been so good at the other piece of it is
00:43I do think that he now has he lost a step
00:47I don't know if he's lost a step, but he's not as dangerous with the football in
00:53Line of scrimmage play his kick returns when he gets a good long run up
00:58Yeah, he still can get to a top-end speed and he can still be a real threat in the kick return game
01:03But I don't see him getting the ball and getting that explosive burst off the line
01:08So whether or not that's him losing a step or not. I do think that there's a combination of the two
01:14I have a very just me personally
01:17I have a very hard time with the whole league has caught up to this and caught up to that like I hear that a
01:21lot
01:23Because by the way, if that's how you feel then the Niners should fire Kyle Shanahan
01:29That's what I think. Well, he needs to adjust. It doesn't mean you have to fire him
01:32He just needs to adjust and I don't think that he's adjusted very quickly this year
01:36Yeah
01:36The whole like I I find it just very very difficult to believe
01:40That Kyle Shanahan's call plays in this league for I don't even know how many years by the way
01:44Like if you if you bring in offensive coordinator jobs, how long has Kyle Shanahan been calling plays?
01:4915 years
01:50Okay, his dad called plays in this league for decades prior to that and they have largely come from the same
01:59concepts core concepts the entire time and when people say that it makes me feel like you're saying that all of a sudden in
02:072024 the whole league woke up and figured it out and I just don't understand how that's possible
02:13To me it makes much more sense to think that
02:17So much with the 49ers crumbled around them and you can say they didn't adjust well to that
02:22I think that's a fair statement, but there has to be more to it than just the defensive coordinators finally went
02:29Aha, I know how to beat Kyle Shanahan now after years and years and years of studying film and never being able to do
02:37Anything about it before now, is it sort of the way they're using him?
02:42Is it the lack of an opposite receiver who can get down?
02:45That's a big part of it
02:46Brandon Iuke is it the fact that he and
02:49Kristen McCaffrey with their pre snap motion are so effective when they're on the field together
02:54But Kristen largely hasn't been on the field. Is it like we could keep going on this?
03:00That's all part of it
03:01And is it also just
03:03even broader like go away from play-calling and take a look at the whole organization and
03:10everything that would physically and emotionally
03:14Zap them of their powers from all of the distractions
03:19Super Bowl hangover boy the death of three children within the room
03:25the the overwhelming injuries
03:28Even like
03:30Too much attention
03:32You know like Debo and George went on Netflix this offseason like the 49ers
03:37Had this humongous target on them and I would argue probably come off to the rest of the league like oh
03:44Y'all think you're that?
03:47Really? Okay. Watch this. So there is there's juice there. I don't know
03:53Exactly what it is. It's definitely not one thing
03:56It's all those things also not the only player who's underperforming
04:01Seemingly almost all of them are well kiddles not and Juwan Jennings isn't correct. Although Juwan like he's overperforming
04:08We didn't even know he could do these things
04:10but you look around the whole process has sort of just not worked and
04:17Greg Cosell said interesting stuff to us not only yesterday, but over the holiday while you and I were both gone
04:22He said something that boy we would have like alarms would have gone off if
04:27If he had said this in the middle of the conversation because I think this is a trigger point for a lot of people
04:33Product of the system right?
04:35Property. All right. So check this out. This was not yesterday. This was
04:41Thanksgiving holiday Grandy, who are you with you're with low low and our guy Hutch
04:46Okay. Yeah, so the three of them are in here talking to Greg Cosell and this comes up about
04:51Debo Samuel and was it your question mark? It was wasn't it? Yeah, as he stuck it to me. Yeah, he stuck it to Greg
04:57Randy Grandy comes in with a deep that Debo is not XYZ and Greg just smacked him on the head and
05:05Here's what he said
05:06Debo Samuel is not really relevant to the conversation as to what's going on with the 49ers
05:12Debo Samuel is a schemed player
05:14Debo Samuel is not a top five receiver in the league in terms of twitchiness route running ability
05:21Ability to separate he's a schemed player who has to be part of an offense Debo Samuel is not really relevant to the conversation
05:29What happened on Sunday was when you play with a backup quarterback and a quarterback that hasn't started a game since 2021
05:35You need two things to happen
05:37You need your offensive line to be dominant so your run game can be a factor and you need your defense to play at a
05:43Really high level neither one of those things happen
05:46This game had nothing to do with Debo Samuel, all right, I want to pick this apart from all kinds of different
05:51He's totally right. This is where I agree
05:54this is kind of what I'm saying when it comes to you know defenses have
05:59Figured out Shanahan because when you don't have IU and you don't have McCaffrey and you have Debo on the field
06:05You know that Debo could only do a certain number of things in the scheme
06:09He's not gonna go in the slot and run the full route tree
06:13He's not gonna go out wide like I you can run deep down the field
06:16Isn't that true when they are on the field though, too?
06:18But when they are on the field, there's the threat of the other things happening
06:22So now you have to honor McCaffrey you have to honor IU you have to honor
06:26Kittle and so Debo has a better chance against the defense when he's out there with Pierce all and Jennings and
06:34Jordan Mason then the defense doesn't have to honor Debo Samuel and you know
06:40The pre-snap motion and all the eye candy and all the rest of it. I see it a little bit differently
06:44Let's let's let's dive into this and eight eight eight nine five seven nine five seven if you want to jump in
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07:01Let me say this first the idea of a schemed player. I think will make a lot of people go see not that good
07:07Why are you paying him twenty some odd million dollars?
07:10I just feel in general we have got to get over this whole
07:15system quarterback
07:17product of the system
07:19Product of the scheme. I think all of these people are that I think that that's what football is
07:26I think that coaching staffs and executives know how they want to deploy certain things
07:32They can get tweaked and adjusted when you get a new toy like acquiring Christian McCaffrey
07:37Opens your playbuck up further, but it is not a criticism to say that Debo Samuel is a schemed up player
07:45That's actually to me a compliment. It means that Kyle Shanahan drafted somebody who he loved at the Senior Bowl
07:51He was correct in drafting him. He has deployed him correctly
07:55He has ended up having a good career, and I still think those can happen
07:59Well, I hear him say though is that he's not a guy who could just plug and play in 32 different office
08:05Absolutely, and that's okay. That's fine. That might be the case for Brock Purdy as well
08:09It might be the case for a lot of quarterbacks
08:11I think Jalen Hurts is one of those guys
08:13If Jalen Hurts does not have Saquon Barkley does not have tush push does not have all of these things is
08:20Jalen Hurts gonna work in every system probably not still a good quarterback because he's working really well with the Philadelphia Eagles this year
08:27but what I hear Greg say is
08:31Your offensive line and your defensive line are
08:35not performing as well this year and
08:37That zaps all of the other people of their powers
08:41And so I really hope that doesn't sound like an excuse because I know that bothers everybody
08:47To me, it's just the facts of football your lines have to perform
08:52They are the ones who set the table for everybody to sit down and eat
08:56About offensive line means your quarterbacks QB rating is going to go down a good offensive line means a mediocre quarterbacks
09:04QBR is going to go up and I that's to me what Debo is suffering from the offensive line is not
09:11performing as at
09:13as high of a level and and the defense this year has
09:18failed to
09:19Push through on the leads that they have been granted and it puts the offenses in positions that are not as comfortable or not as
09:27fruitful, so I just think the whole thing is a chain-link fence and
09:32I like the end analysis is I still am completely a Debo guy
09:38I think Debo is it has not lost a step and I think Debo Samuel is still part of this team's future
09:45That's 73rd in football and catches which tells you that he doesn't get targeted a lot
09:50Although he's been targeted about twice as many times as he has catches
09:54So he hasn't been able to connect on a lot of the throws that he does get big drop against Buffalo
09:59And I I heard the interview with Greg Cosell yesterday, and I think he tapped you on the head
10:04No, you can't look at anything in the Buffalo game and take anything from that ball game
10:08He took because I I did it on purpose because I brought up money. You brought money
10:13Yeah, you can't bring up money with Greg. No, I wanted to see what he would do
10:18If he's a schemed-up player, why the hell is he making almost 30 million dollars Greg?
10:23It's a bad investment is what it was. I disagree. Well, he's been great
10:27He's been great
10:28but what he is now is not as good as what he has been and I do think that he's lost a step and
10:34I look at a lot of the the offensive line play that you were referencing and as a run blocking offensive line
10:40They've actually been really good this year
10:41It's the pass blocking where they've struggled and I look at Debo when he's run the ball and they haven't had him as a running back
10:48Very often and when he's been back there, he hasn't been effective in the jet sweep
10:52He hasn't been effective and even the the few plays that you scheme up for him
10:57He hasn't done a lot and you mentioned the big running or the big catch in the run against Seattle. That's about it
11:04I mean as far as it's not about it
11:06I mean Debo's done some things and I'd also many like I don't really look at what is PFF tell me
11:12Oh, they're run blocking has been good. Here's the way I look at it
11:15It's not been as good as it was in the past
11:17But they've been able to run the ball with Jordan Mason with Garendo McCaffrey
11:23Not the red zone. Well, they're top five in the league in yards per carry. So again, that's that to me
11:28That's a it's a little bit of an empty number because that number gets
11:33It gets gussied up with what you're doing at your own 42-yard line
11:37Well, you mentioned the red zone and what has he done in the red zone Debo?
11:41He's nothing the whole team's done nothing in the red zone, right?
11:44But he's you know, he's a guy you're paying 28 million dollars a year to understood but I like this to me
11:49It's a bad investment. He's a schemed up specialty player and he's a guy who you know
11:54You reworked his deal and now you can't get out from underneath Debo's deal and now he's gonna be here
12:00That's okay because the schemes not changing
12:02He's a schemed up player in this scheme and how I didn't and he's not as effective as he has been in the past hasn't
12:09Been as effective as he has in the past just like almost everybody else. That's not true
12:15It is George Kittle's been more effective
12:17It's Jordan Mason more effective and you want Jennings has been more effective more effective because he's been on the field, right?
12:23Jordan Mason's not there's nothing to compare it to
12:25Hasn't affected him. He was leading the league in Russia. It has affected him
12:29He couldn't hurt a touchdown you get inside the ten and he couldn't get a yard
12:36That's where things tighten up
12:38It's no different than the way that I can Shanahan in the scheme as much as it is the players you call it
12:42Whatever it is. It's everything. It's just like the Warriors. You got no problem scoring in the first three quarters
12:47Why can you suddenly not score in the final five minutes tightens up? Yeah, same thing in the red zone
12:53So I'm not I'm not hearing here to tell you that Debo's performing wonderfully and you just can't see it
12:59That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that this isn't just about Debo. I don't even know if it's about Debo at all
13:05Here's what Kosel said when we followed up with him about the idea of him being a schemed-up player
13:10This is what he told me and Grandy just yesterday
13:13He's very important to the Niners because of their scheme because Samuel and of course McCaffrey's now done for the year
13:20But in normal circumstances if you think back to last year
13:23Think about the Niners offense when they had both guys and what they could do
13:28Formationally in terms of all their motions and shifts which they're among the highest percentage
13:33Movement before the snap team in the league all that stuff didn't happen against Green Bay because they were playing with a backup quarterback
13:39And I'm just being honest based on tape study Samuel is not Jamar Chase or Justin Jefferson or AJ Brown
13:46He's not at that level of as as a pure receiver. That's not who he is
13:51He fits into a scheme at a really high level so therefore he's important to the 49ers
13:58So think of it this way when teams think about the draft
14:01You know what they think about they don't think about it
14:04Probably the way a lot of people do in terms of making is this guy better than this guy or whatever
14:08They think it in terms of is this guy better than the players we have on our team
14:14And can he do better in our system with the players we have on our team?
14:18So Debo Samuel's really important to the Niners
14:21But he's not at that level of receiver as a pure receiver if you were doing it as an abstraction
14:27I buy this so in other words because what is he making this year was a 26 28 wasn't like that whatever
14:34Is Debo Samuel worth that on the open market? Maybe not. I don't think he's worth it here, okay
14:40I do yeah
14:41I do and and and the reason I think that is he hasn't played up to it this year
14:46The whole team hasn't played up to that this year however
14:50I think you got to look at contracts based on what you're attempting to do
14:54he if the Niners when they've been good he's he's been worth more than 26 million and
15:00And and the Niners both I think still can be good
15:04I don't know about this year, but I I think if if you do think this year's over
15:10And you are looking to next year can this scheme still?
15:15Highlight Debo Samuel at the importance level that he has had in the past
15:19I believe so and I think that they believe so which is why they restructured it
15:24I have no issue if you want to criticize that
15:27but to me if you just want to flatly look at money and
15:32And and importance to your scheme, and what wake makes more sense
15:36I think the Brandon contract is more offensive to me the Debo's I think they're both bad guy
15:42Then that's fine, I'm just saying I think Brandon is the much less unique less
15:48Schemed-up player therefore to me the much more replaceable player
15:52Yeah
15:52I see it completely the opposite way because
15:54Brandon's a guy who you can at least
15:56Trust to go out there and run every route and you could throw him the ball and he'll go out there and make plays for
16:01You down the field Debo is largely a two-trick pony and one of the tricks is who he's gonna be a running back watch out
16:08And you're not even using him that way this year
16:1127 carries and the other thing that you do is you throw him the ball behind the line of scrimmage and let him go out
16:17There and run people over he doesn't often run a deep route a deep in a nine route
16:23He runs five to ten yards the middle of the middle of the field. This is somebody who had a
16:30Go that doesn't matter three years ago. It does matter because it's 2024 okay, then
16:3638 catches, why are you pumping up? What Brandon can do are you kidding me?
16:41He's not even on right now when when healthy Brandon Iuke is a better receiver than Debo
16:46So I disagree the different receiver. He's a better receiver. He may be a better football player
16:52Receiver he is less. Oh Samuel is a one or two trick pony
16:55He's thrown the ball behind the line of scrimmage and hope he runs somebody over dude done saved two seasons in this
17:03History
17:05Mark he's done nothing this year, but you're pumping up Brandon because he's at an awesome
17:09I'm not pumping up branches. I'm like it. I'm saying that both contracts are bad contracts
17:13I'm saying that Brandon Iuke
17:15When healthy is a better receiver as far as I'm a quarterback and I want to throw the ball down the field to a guy
17:21Debo, that's just tradition. That's the I don't like the word better there. He's a different receiver. He's a more traditional
17:28Better I stand behind that's fine
17:29And I and I stand behind the fact that Debo Samuel through the last handful of years has been way more
17:34Important to this scheme than Brandon. Are you and I agree with you, but that is ancient history