• 2 days ago
Transcript
00:00Charverius Ward's comments in the locker room today
00:04absolutely hit me in the gut.
00:06And we've known for a while,
00:08they're probably not gonna be back with the Niners,
00:10but most of us thought that all year long
00:13for like football and financial reasons.
00:16They didn't play that great this year.
00:18And there are obvious reasons why
00:21this was a terrible year for him.
00:23And for those of you who don't know,
00:24Charverius and his wife lost their one-year-old daughter
00:28this year in the middle of the season.
00:30And so he'd been in and out of the lineup since then,
00:33and it's nothing but compassion for his situation.
00:36But what he said about it today
00:38was heart-wrenching and fascinating,
00:42where he acknowledged that he probably,
00:45while he'll remain open to it,
00:47he probably won't be back with the 49ers,
00:49but not for any reason other than location.
00:54Catch this quote.
00:57I'll be throwing up,
00:58waking up in the middle of the night, sweating.
01:02I got a lot of trauma in California.
01:04Every time I get on the plane to come back,
01:08it just brings up bad memories.
01:10I go home by myself every day
01:12because my girl doesn't want to come back to California
01:16because of what happened.
01:17It's hard being alone,
01:19and she's my strength right now, end quote.
01:22Ugh.
01:24So yeah, he's gone,
01:27and I don't even know what to say.
01:30Like, I just, that is so, so, so, so awful,
01:35and my heart goes out to him.
01:36I don't know what else to say.
01:37Well, you can just say that we as Sports Talk radio hosts,
01:42and we as fans don't often take enough time to step back
01:46and really give the grace to all of these men and women
01:50in pro sports and think about
01:52what they might particularly be going through,
01:54and he becomes a Niner in 2022,
01:57and his daughter was born in November,
01:59and so she lived out her short life here,
02:02and she died just shy of being two,
02:04and so for Charverius and his wife,
02:07I'm sure they associate the time here
02:10in many ways with that, with the tragedy,
02:12the joy of having a baby.
02:14As you know, you have three, and I have three myself,
02:16and you can't imagine an unspeakable end like this,
02:20and when it happens in a place where you're not from,
02:23you can associate that trauma with the place,
02:26and that place becomes inextricably linked to that trauma,
02:30and this is what the whole idea of PTSD is,
02:34post-traumatic stress disorder,
02:36where I can't imagine if you have that level of trauma
02:39in a place, how you can go back to that place
02:42and still try to live out a normal and healthy life,
02:45so I totally get that part of it.
02:47By the way, we actually have the audio
02:49of what Mooney Ward said at the locker room today.
02:52Here's the part we were just referencing.
02:54You know, I got a lot of trauma in California,
02:56you know what I'm saying?
02:57I had a lot of great times,
02:58but the worst thing that's ever happened to me
03:00that's probably gonna ever happen to me,
03:01not gonna worry about having it in California,
03:04you know what I'm saying?
03:05So, again, just break up bad memories,
03:07you know what I'm saying?
03:08Like, every time I get on a plane
03:09and come back to California, Santa Clara, San Jose,
03:11so here, it's just break up bad memories,
03:13you know what I'm saying?
03:14Every day, you know what I'm saying?
03:15I go home every night by myself,
03:17because, you know, my girl,
03:18she don't want to come back to California
03:19because of what happened, you know what I'm saying?
03:21So, it's hard being alone,
03:22and, you know, she's my strength right now.
03:24I need her, you know, so,
03:26her not being able to be around me
03:27if I'm in California would be tough,
03:29but, you know, like I said,
03:30stuff can change, you know, I can get stronger,
03:32and I'll probably get over that.
03:34Here's what Charverius said about
03:38what he was thinking before the season even started.
03:41Yeah, I think they went into this season thing
03:42and they wasn't gonna be able to afford me.
03:44Based off the way I played last year,
03:45you know, if I would've matched that last year,
03:47probably would've been in one of the highest paid corners
03:49in the game, but, I mean, obviously,
03:50this year didn't go my way or the team's way,
03:53but to see what the market talking about.
03:54If they can afford me, you know,
03:56it's a chance I can come back,
03:57but, you know, they may not be able to afford me,
03:59so, I mean, I just want to go to where I'm wanted
04:01and where I'm loved, you know what I'm saying?
04:02I feel like that's what I need right now, a lot of love.
04:04And I know the Niners love me, you know what I'm saying?
04:06But, in this business, you know,
04:07a lot of time, money talks, so,
04:10but I build great relationships, so,
04:13you know, we'll see.
04:14Honestly, I don't know where I'm gonna end up at.
04:15Ugh.
04:18Well, I mean, it's two different things there.
04:20One is, I mean, he feels the love for the Niners
04:23and that's great, but, ultimately,
04:25they probably can't afford him
04:27and you just gave Diamondo Lenor an $88 million deal,
04:30$17.7 million on the average annual value
04:34and Charvaris Ward is just a couple of slots behind him.
04:38So, if Mooney Ward wants to get a deal
04:40like Diamondo Lenor did,
04:43I don't know if the 49ers are gonna be able to pay
04:45that much for two corners
04:47when you're starting to look at other players
04:49you need to pay, whether it's Dre Greenlaw
04:51and you've got Hufanga, who's a free agent,
04:54and we know about Brock Purdy and all the rest of it.
04:55So, the financials is one piece of it,
04:58but I was just thinking about what he was mentioning
05:00with the trauma and the PTSD
05:02and congrats to the Ward family
05:04who did just welcome in a son, December 28th.
05:07So, he now has a nine-day-old
05:10and it sounds like his wife
05:13was not out here in California, right?
05:15It sounds like he was here alone
05:17and she was pregnant with their son somewhere else.
05:21So, he's dealing with the trauma
05:23of having lost his daughter in October
05:26and he's dealing with the stress of his wife
05:30having this baby, third trimester being somewhere else
05:33and he's trying to play.
05:35You're mourning your daughter, your son's on the way,
05:38you're here alone.
05:39I mean, the amount of heaviness
05:41that he had to carry this year is crazy.
05:43Like, to look at a situation like this
05:46and it's so heartbreaking,
05:47but I do think it's emblematic of something larger
05:50and I get it, we're all fans, we're media,
05:53we're just looking at football,
05:54we wanna have a good time,
05:56we want people to live up to their expectations
06:00and the hype and all of those things,
06:02but this is only one example
06:04and maybe it is the biggest example of it,
06:06but when I hear something like that,
06:10it makes me go, hey, do y'all see
06:12that maybe this is actually gonna be just fine next year?
06:16Like, is there any chance that the 49ers went six and 11
06:23more for circumstantial reasons than actual reasons?
06:28We're banning about with this all the time.
06:31Oh, you're making excuses or what have you.
06:35Like, when I see something like what I saw
06:38from the 49ers this year and people immediately go,
06:42this needs to change, that needs to change,
06:44that is, Kyle needs to do it different.
06:46Offense one, different, different, different, different.
06:50What about the possibility that the same people
06:53will just be better?
06:55They improve themselves, their situation improves,
07:00the circumstances improve.
07:02This is why a couple of weeks ago,
07:04I tried to bring back that sound from Giannis Attentacampo
07:08a couple of seasons ago when they got knocked out
07:11early in the playoffs and everybody was like,
07:13you know, there was that reporter that was like,
07:15oh, this is a season of failure
07:16and Giannis went into this long diatribe about like,
07:19no, we did what we did this year and we learned our lessons
07:24and now it's on us to be better and get better
07:29and make some small changes,
07:30but come back and try to do things differently.
07:34That's how I look at, for example, Brock Purdy.
07:38That's how I, like this swinging, grab a sharpie
07:43and make this declaration about the player after every game.
07:47Oh, now he's not the guy who can come back
07:50in the fourth quarter and then he does
07:52and you're like, okay, now he can
07:54and the Lions game was perfect.
07:56The first half, you're like, oh my God,
07:58you have four touchdowns in the first half,
08:00this guy's amazing, then he throws a pick.
08:02Oh, he's not the guy, like what about that?
08:06I really do think that this 49er season,
08:09this isn't an excuse, I just think it's more circumstantial
08:14than people are giving it credit for.
08:15I'll allow for that, I mean, it certainly is
08:17when you look at the circumstances of individual players
08:21and then you look at the overall collective
08:23and what they were and I said this back in August
08:26when we talked about what my biggest concern was
08:29and it came to pass, which is the depth of this team
08:33and you had Mooney Ward, your number one corner
08:36who wasn't able to play the majority of the year
08:38and Trent Williams couldn't play
08:39for his own personal tragedy and his injury
08:43and nobody thought that you'd get down to RB6
08:46by the last game but Patrick Taylor was your guy
08:49after Grendel got hurt and you lost Mason
08:51and you lost McCaffrey and you never had Mitchell
08:54and on and on it goes and you lost Iuke
08:56and you had all these other guys who had to step up
08:59and Devondre Campbell was a big free agent piece
09:03who turned out to not even be willing to play
09:06over the last three games and you had other injuries
09:09across the board, I'll allow for that,
09:10that's all part of football but I look at the collective
09:14of what you did and it wasn't good enough.
09:16So yeah, circumstantially and you can bring back
09:19everybody who you wanna bring back
09:21and I'm looking at the list now of free agents
09:23and the majority of these guys you probably won't miss
09:27and I'm looking at names like Pat O'Donnell the punter,
09:31Rock Yassine, John Feliciano, Isaac Yadim,
09:35Devondre Campbell, these are all free agents
09:37and so all those guys are off the board.
09:40When you look at who among your free agents
09:42you actually wanna bring back, whether it's Hufanga
09:45and Okawanu, they're guys, maybe Aaron Banks the guard
09:49if the price is right and Khalil Davis
09:51the interior defensive lineman,
09:53these are all smaller pieces but you need to get better.
09:58You need to get better like you used to be
09:59where you've got a good offensive line,
10:01a game wrecker other than Nick Bosa on the D line
10:05and then I can allow for what you're saying
10:07in terms of with a week's schedule next year,
10:10you still have a great head coach,
10:12you've got a construct that is a winning construct,
10:15you should bounce back but there are things
10:17that need fixing.
10:18Absolutely, I mean to me that's any season,
10:22even the ones that would end in a Super Bowl.
10:25I don't think the Chiefs go into the off season
10:27and they're like well, we're good,
10:28let's just come back again.
10:29No, they don't do that.
10:30You know, they'll come out of going to a Super Bowl
10:33and trade Tyreek Hill.
10:35Like they'll do that, like they'll make major moves.
10:38You have to try to get better every off season.
10:40I reject this idea that the 49ers are up a creek.
10:45I just don't think they are.
10:46I don't think so either.
10:47They're not up a creek, they're not in bad shape,
10:50they're not the window is closed,
10:52they're not any of those things.
10:54It's just the off season
10:57and you try to get better at what didn't go well last time
11:01and there are personnel moves to make,
11:03there are financial constructs to make,
11:05there are things where you need to better your own process
11:08and for me, the number one process
11:11is stop screwing up the summer.
11:13Stop being so damn dramatic about the summer
11:17and digging your heels in and trying to win every deal.
11:21Relax, realize that there's a cost to that
11:25in your locker room.
11:27Try to be drama free.
11:29Try to imagine to yourself what matters to you.
11:32If Brock Purdy matters to you, do what Brock said.
11:35Get it done, get it done fast
11:39and let everybody scream and yell
11:40about how he's not worth it
11:42and then get that over with in OTAs,
11:44come back ready to play football
11:46without everybody screaming
11:48about all of your off season exploits
11:51throughout the entire month of August.
11:53To me, if the Niners has a construct
11:55need to fix something, it's that.
11:57Stop being so dramatic all summer long.
12:02Just be quiet, get your crap done
12:05and get ready for the year.
12:07For me, it's more about get your crap together
12:09because for me, the summer is the summer
12:12and yes, they were distractions
12:15and the fact that Iuke wasn't ready when the year started
12:18and he had what, one good game or half a good game
12:21and Trent Williams was getting oxygen on the sidelines
12:24for the first two or three games
12:25because he wasn't ready, those are problems.
12:27I'm not gonna minimize that as a distraction
12:31and as a factor.
12:32For me, the bigger issue is that
12:34your team was not buttoned up this year.
12:36You had far too many penalties
12:38and you had missed assignments.
12:40I know you had younger players in your defensive secondary
12:43but your defense to me was very milquetoast.
12:47They were not very disruptive.
12:50You had Fred Warner and Nick Bosa.
12:53They're two guys who both had good years
12:55and I don't want to underestimate what Nick did.
12:57I thought he had a really good year
12:58especially without a lot of help
12:59but that might be the end of the list
13:01of defensive players who had good years.
13:04You had good contributions from some rookies.
13:07Yeah, he ended up missing a couple of the last few games
13:09because he was hurt but D'Amino Lenore was solid
13:12and I was looking at Mooney Ward to your point earlier
13:15about his pro football focused numbers.
13:18His first two years with the Niners, spectacular.
13:21This year was really, really poor.
13:23Really bad.
13:24Really bad and I hate saying that
13:26because of what he's been through
13:27but he did not produce even before the tragedy.
13:30Well, when you look at him as a football player,
13:32you gotta grade him and rate him based on his football
13:36and what he put on tape.
13:37So for me, it's more than just buttoning up the off season.
13:41It's tightening up what you do on the field
13:43because the penalties were out of control,
13:46the missed assignments, the blown assignments
13:48and the quarterback, I thought,
13:50was trying to do too much for whatever reason.
13:53He was trying to make throws
13:55that weren't necessarily the smart throw
13:58and I hope he is able to look at every snap this year
14:00and make the adjustments and get back
14:02to a little bit more of the Brock from last year.
14:05Super Bowl or try again.
14:07Oh, it's Super Bowl or bust now.
14:08I just wanna say that again out loud.
14:10Well, now there's no doubt it's Super Bowl or bust.
14:13Super Bowl or try again.
14:16The schedule you have,
14:17the teams that you face outside your division, 64 and 123.
14:23If you don't make a deep run next year,
14:26then you're gonna be talking about hot seat
14:29and big time changes.
14:31Deep run could mean anything.
14:33Deep run means that you've gotta win
14:35the sudden death football games in January.
14:38If they win the division and go 12 and five
14:41and somebody upsets them in a field goal game in January.
14:45No, this is Super Bowl.
14:46Unacceptable.
14:47I just wanna say it out loud.
14:48Well, I'm just letting you know that.
14:49Because there's no bust.
14:51There's no, like here we are.
14:53They not only didn't make the Super Bowl,
14:55they didn't make the playoffs,
14:56they didn't come close.
14:57Right.
14:57They won barely a third of their games.
14:59They were awful.
15:01There's no bust.
15:02Well, the bust is, you've got 31 free agents.
15:05No one's getting fired.
15:06People are getting fired.
15:07Who's, what, special teams coach?
15:08Who cares about that?
15:09That's not what we're talking about.
15:10Defense coordinator?
15:10Maybe, maybe not.
15:12The quarterback's still gonna get paid.
15:14You would assume.
15:15The coach and the general manager
15:16has already been confirmed.
15:18There wasn't even a thought in Jed's mind
15:21about doing anything but bringing them back.
15:23There's no Super Bowl or bust.
15:24What's another six and 11 year do for you?
15:27Good question.
15:28I don't know.
15:28Yeah.
15:29I don't know.
15:30I know what it does.
15:31But don't, you can't, you can't,
15:32you can't call Vicks, first of all,
15:33no, not necessarily, and second of all,
15:35but you can't use that because that's next year.
15:39The comment was at the beginning of this year.
15:41Yes.
15:42Super Bowl or bust.
15:43No.
15:45You're going to get busted up.
15:46No, no, no.
15:46Of your five starting offensive linemen,
15:48at least two will be gone, maybe three.
15:50So when you said Super Bowl or bust,
15:52you meant that if they don't make the Super Bowl,
15:55they're gonna bust it up.
15:55We're replacing Jake Brendel.
15:57No, what I said to you then is what I'm saying to you now.
16:00You're busting a lot of this team apart
16:03and we don't know what else they're gonna do come March.
16:05Any off season.
16:06Well, this is gonna be more dramatic.
16:08Like Javon Hargrave is probably not gonna be back.
16:11Dre Greenlaw, we don't know.
16:13They probably will re-sign him.
16:14Last year it was Eric Armstead.
16:16Like there's always gonna be a name or two
16:18that you move on from.
16:19That's the NFL off season.
16:20This is gonna be more than that.
16:21Okay.
16:22And if you're gonna shed a coordinator again,
16:25at least if I put the over-under on
16:27coordinators who lose their job.
16:30Well, how many, who gets that title?
16:32Just the DC and the OC?
16:34In the special teams.
16:35Okay.
16:36So you put the over-under at what?
16:37One and a half?
16:39Oh, over.
16:40One and a half?
16:41Under.
16:42Okay.
16:43And that to me.
16:44Are you gonna rework the special teams?
16:47And other than that.
16:48You're gonna replace a special teams coordinator
16:50and you're gonna bring back Nick Sorensen.
16:52I'm not telling you what I would do.
16:53I'm asking you for your prediction.
16:55What I think they're gonna do.
16:56Yes.
16:57I think that Kyle Shanahan, and he can't say this
16:59because the cavalry would come for him.
17:02I think that he believes that this is much more
17:04about personnel than coaching.
17:08Yeah.
17:08I do.
17:09That's what I think he thinks.
17:10And you can be mad at him for that.
17:12It's not about mad or not mad.
17:13I just disagree with that.
17:14No, I mean, and that's fine.
17:16That's fine.
17:17But again, outside of Nick Sorensen,
17:21you have a staff that is already very well accomplished
17:24in the league.
17:25Their process has been well proven
17:28and they had a bad year.
17:30And that does not mean you fire everyone and move on.
17:34It means you wait for it, try again.
17:39Right.
17:40Which is the definition of insanity.
17:41Well, no, it's not.
17:43If you fail at something and you just run it back.
17:46And you can say that their process wasn't bad.
17:49I didn't say run it back.
17:50I didn't say run it back.
17:51You're saying it's a coaching staff
17:53that's well proven and well established.
17:55Right, but each and every one of them can,
17:58that's kind of my core point.
17:59You can come back and be better.
18:02You can be better.
18:03Like any of you at work, you have a bad month,
18:06a bad quarter, a bad year.
18:08Like, what's your boss?
18:10I hope he's not gonna just be like, that's it, you're out.
18:13Like, no, let's try some different things here.
18:17You can also come back and be the same
18:19and you can also come back and be worse.
18:21You could, yes, that is allowed.
18:23Right, you go from last year with a defense
18:26that was for the most part the same,
18:28new pieces this year, you had a couple of rookies
18:30and we could look at personnel and say,
18:33maybe this defense was a little bit worse.
18:35You had Dre last year, you didn't this year.
18:37You had Devondre Campbell.
18:39You didn't have Armstead.
18:40You replaced him with Hargrave
18:41who played two or three games and then that was it.
18:44You had a much worse Ward.
18:46You had a safety position that was in flux the entire time.
18:49Didn't have Ufanga last year.
18:51Yeah, you had him part of the time this year.
18:53Right, right.
18:54Not part of the time.
18:55Jyer Brown had to have him.
18:56You had a better Lenore this year than last year.
18:58Correct, correct.
18:59And so, we can play tit for tat,
19:01but I look at a coordinator who had never done it
19:03and you come in and you give up almost more points
19:08than any other team in football.
19:09Yep, not a good year.
19:10And so, you can bring him back and you're allowed to.
19:13It's not my call.
19:14I personally wouldn't.
19:16I would look at a more experienced defensive coordinator
19:18to come in and redesign the scheme
19:22because what they do defensively,
19:24whether it's personnel or not, I don't think it works.
19:27It's interesting.
19:28I'd love to actually discuss that with you a little further.
19:30Maybe Ray Cosell can weigh in.
19:31Well, not today.
19:33Wednesday.
19:34But Mike in Santa Clara's gonna weigh in.
19:35What's up, Mike?
19:36Thanks for calling.
19:39Hey, guys.
19:39Happy New Year to both you and your families
19:41and the entire, the game squad.
19:43So, I just wanted to. Thank you, Mike, you too.
19:47Thank you, man.
19:48Just wanted to just kind of give an idea.
19:52The Niners have always been known for their defense.
19:55I would like to think of a move where,
20:00and just hear me out on this,
20:03to see where we could potentially trade for Miles Garrett
20:06to pair up with Nick Bosa.
20:09I just feel like,
20:11with the way that Hargrave was playing with our defense,
20:15I didn't think he was a great fit with the scheme
20:19that was with the team.
20:20I just feel like we could use something,
20:23and we've always been known for our front seven in this case,
20:26and our D-backs were always like,
20:30I'm not saying they were mediocre,
20:31but it wasn't the great,
20:33they were like average in that case.
20:35Now, we also did, in the end,
20:37have a pretty solid defensive backfield this year,
20:41but I also think that also came with the fact
20:43that the front seven wasn't really playing up to par.
20:47And so, for me, I'd like to see something
20:49where we can maybe trade Hargrave,
20:51work with the picks, especially with the 11th pick.
20:54I mean, hell, I'm even fine
20:56with throwing Deebo Samuel in there too, to the Browns,
20:59but I wouldn't mind seeing something
21:01where we can actually get another edge rusher,
21:03and it'll take the pressure off of Bosa.
21:05Bosa did have a pretty decent year,
21:07but he was also being double teamed.
21:08I can't even remember how many times
21:11I saw Bosa get double teamed
21:13and just pancake to the ground just because of that.
21:16Yeah, Mike, thanks for the call.
21:18Like, in theory, the idea of something better
21:22next to Nick Bosa on the defensive line,
21:24both interior and exterior, full agreement with you.
21:29And I know you're just throwing out a name.
21:31I don't know how realistic it is
21:32to get your hands on Myles Garrett.
21:34He makes 25 million a year.
21:36The potential out in his contract was last offseason.
21:39Therefore, he's got two more years
21:42with the Cleveland Browns.
21:43I have no idea if they're looking to move on from him
21:46or get rid of him.
21:47I don't know why they would want Hargrave or Samuel.
21:49All of that stuff gets very, very complex, but who knows?
21:54Maybe the Browns are looking to acquire picks.
21:57You know what I mean?
21:58Would you give the 11th pick up for Myles Garrett?
22:01How about that?
22:02Yeah, probably not.
22:03Probably not.
22:04Probably not?
22:05And I don't know how that fits into the financial structure
22:07of what the 49ers are putting together either.
22:09Yeah.
22:09Great player.
22:10Yeah, and I've just been looking at a lot of mocks
22:12this morning because it's now mock draft season
22:15if your team is out of it and the Niners pick an 11th
22:18and multiple mocks have them selecting Jalon Walker
22:22out of Florida, I'm sorry, Georgia, who is an edge rusher.
22:266'2", 245, a little bit light,
22:28but he's a guy who can get after it from the edge.
22:31So if you could get an elite tackle
22:34or get an elite edge rusher, which one would you go to?
22:38Of the two?
22:39Tackle of the future or a game wrecking edge?
22:43Is there a defensive tackle or offensive tackle?
22:45Yeah, defensive.
22:46Offensive tackle or edge rusher?
22:47I think tackle.
22:49You'd rather go offensive tackle than get an edge?
22:51No, no, no, defensive tackle.
22:52Oh, wow, okay.
22:53I'll have somebody stop the run.
22:54Yeah.
22:55The run.