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00:00from Brock Purdy to Debo Samuel, to Christian McCaffrey,
00:04to Trent Williams, to the defensive tackle market,
00:07to the openness and willingness to still talk
00:10about Javon Hargrave and others
00:12who are actually free agents, Talano, Hufanga, and beyond,
00:16but then circles back to the quarterback situation
00:18because obviously that's the linchpin
00:20around which everything is going to sort of orbit.
00:23So 888-957-9570 is the number on anything
00:30that kind of stands out to you.
00:32But to me, when you have a press conference like this
00:37and we know how these things work,
00:39John Lynch, Kyle Shanahan, or anyone's going to sit down
00:42with a small group of PR people with the 49ers
00:47and be like, okay, A, what are the things we want to address?
00:52B, what are the things I'm likely going to be asked?
00:55And then C, how do we want to answer those things?
00:58And then D, is there anything
01:00that's kind of out of left field that I should know about?
01:02That's kind of the discussion that happens before these.
01:05So this is a coordinated message.
01:07And to me, the message that the 49ers want to strike
01:10is we are not going to let our players push us around.
01:14That's the message that I got.
01:16A big part of it, and the things I wrote down were that,
01:20and also he said that they're the oldest team in football.
01:23And I don't know if that is absolutely the fact,
01:26but the idea that they're an old team
01:29and you look at how many guys they have in their early 30s,
01:31they got some mid 30s as well.
01:33You're the oldest team in football, which tells me,
01:36what I heard him say is we have to get younger.
01:39And Debo is a guy coming up on 30.
01:41And if you have a young receiver that you could draft
01:43in the third or fourth round, who's 22, well,
01:46you get younger and Pearsall is younger
01:49and Cowing is younger and Jawan Jennings is younger
01:52and Iuke is younger.
01:52So I was hearing that and thinking about that fact
01:56in terms of a lot of different positions.
01:58And the other one was Javon Hargrave,
02:00where they did what they did contractually,
02:03they let him go.
02:04And I think that the team is kind of hoping
02:06that they can get him back for a super,
02:09super discounted rate.
02:10But like he said, the D tackle market's
02:13going to be very competitive.
02:15And there aren't a lot of those really good,
02:17proven players out there.
02:19So that's another one where you're looking to get younger
02:22and by younger, it also means cheaper.
02:24Well, it's interesting because like the question
02:26I would throw out to everybody is how cutthroat
02:29do you want the 49ers to play this offseason?
02:31The interesting thing is last year,
02:34I would argue that most of us did not want
02:36the 49ers to be very cutthroat.
02:38Nobody wanted that.
02:39And the reason for that was because they were
02:41a breath away from winning the Super Bowl.
02:43And so when you're a breath away from winning
02:44the Super Bowl, the fan base's thought is,
02:47dude, we're right there, don't mess with it.
02:50Don't mess with it.
02:51So Brandon Iuke ends up in a perfect position
02:54where he's like, we're negotiating.
02:55And everyone's like, well, we can't lose Brandon Iuke.
02:57And the Niners are like, yeah, we kind of agree.
03:01We also think these negotiations are kind of BS,
03:04the way that Brandon's handling it.
03:06And then it becomes this whole thing.
03:08And then Trent jumps in.
03:09There was a little Kristen McCaffrey
03:11at the beginning as well.
03:12And all of a sudden, everybody's getting paid.
03:14And then the worst possible thing happens,
03:17which is just about everybody who got paid,
03:19they all got hurt.
03:21Some of them really, really bad
03:24to the point where they could never come back
03:25or they came back and then had to leave again
03:28in the case of Kristen McCaffrey.
03:30And so I think the Niners came out of last offseason
03:33very scarred by their experience.
03:36But what that sets up now is a very fine line
03:40that they need to walk.
03:41And that's what I would ask our 49er fan listeners.
03:44How cutthroat do you want them to play this offseason?
03:48Whether it is with Brock Purdy, Debo Samuel,
03:52or anybody who's on the way in, or Hargrave,
03:54anyone else who's on the way out, Drake Greenlaw, et cetera.
03:58Because now the fan base is in this mood
04:02where it's like, yeah, make moves, get Debo out of here.
04:06Let's go get younger.
04:08I want the 49ers to run their team.
04:12I want them to be in charge.
04:13I don't want them to lose all of their negotiations.
04:16This is me speaking as a fan.
04:18At the same time though, if that's your message
04:22and that's your effort, you are running a risk
04:24because now you're negotiating
04:26with the most important position in sports.
04:29And if that bleeds all summer long,
04:31well, you're gonna end up in a really bad spot again.
04:35Yeah, because you need your quarterback to be there
04:38with your young receivers.
04:39If Debo gets dealt with, if he gets traded
04:42or cut before March 21st, then okay,
04:45that's like 90, I would put that at a 98% certainty
04:50that that's the way it goes with Debo.
04:52And it's been a great run.
04:53Debo's had a lot of great moments and all the rest of it,
04:55but I do think that they're gonna move off of Debo.
04:57So assuming that, and you look at your receiver core,
05:01now you've got Juwan Jennings.
05:03You don't have Brandon Iyuk yet
05:05because he's not gonna be there for off-season workouts.
05:09You've got Cowing and Pearsall and not a lot else.
05:12And so do you want your quarterback to be there
05:15with two guys entering their second year
05:17and Juwan Jennings who's gonna have to step forward
05:20and really carry a big load early on?
05:22Absolutely.
05:23So for me, if you wanna go into the off-season,
05:26this is different than Brandon Iyuk.
05:28You wanted Brandon done before he got done,
05:31but with the quarterback,
05:32you need to have this thing done a lot sooner.
05:35That way he can feel whole
05:37and he can go out there with his receivers
05:38and they can start to get some continuity
05:41and some chemistry.
05:41No doubt.
05:42Well, and that's also, I think,
05:43why you're hearing John Lynch talk about
05:45we gotta get younger.
05:46There's two reasons behind that.
05:48One of it, and it's where the mind goes,
05:50I think, when he first says that,
05:51is, well, yeah, you gotta get younger
05:52because you got beat up by injuries
05:54and some of these players are,
05:57now they're on the downside, they're not producing as well.
06:00But the other reason to go younger is financial and power.
06:05Like, that's the other reason I think the 49ers
06:08would like to get younger,
06:09because younger is cheaper
06:11and younger is easier to control.
06:13Like, let's be real.
06:15The 49ers went to the Super Bowl
06:18and they came out of it with a loss
06:20and a bunch of players who thought
06:23they had the whole damn world in their hands.
06:25And a lot of them were right.
06:27You know, Nick Bosa did before they went to the Super Bowl,
06:29but they came out of the Super Bowl
06:31and they were the big talk.
06:33Like, they lost, but it was almost like they won,
06:36because the whole world's like,
06:37well, that's the best team.
06:38And now they're gonna run it back.
06:40Okay, let's run it back.
06:41Well, Christian's like, I'm gonna get mine.
06:43And Trent's like, I'm gonna get mine.
06:45And Brandon's over here with a big knee on side.
06:47I'm definitely gonna get mine.
06:49And the 49ers are looking at this going,
06:52okay, yeah, we wanna keep this together,
06:54but man, like, how are we supposed
06:57to keep everybody happy here?
06:59And I think that they made some poor decisions last year,
07:02because they did try to keep everybody happy
07:04and it didn't make everybody happy.
07:05And first and foremost, it ended up all blowing up
07:08in their face and leading to a 6-11 season.
07:10Yes, but I don't think that the contracts
07:13completely led to the 6-11.
07:15No, not on its own.
07:17Aiyuk came out slow.
07:19He was starting to actually play pretty well.
07:20He had one good game and he got hurt.
07:22I do think that he was trending in the right direction
07:25and then he tore up his ACL.
07:26McCaffrey was a guy who started slow because the calf,
07:30and then he got hurt.
07:31Trent had personal tragedy, as did Mooney Ward.
07:35Those are things that you can't really control.
07:37Greenlaw wasn't ready until it was probably too late.
07:40So there were things that were not contractually based
07:44that were problems, but to your point,
07:46I look at this year in the off season
07:47and you have the Debo thing to address
07:49and it looks like they're gonna move off of Debo.
07:51You got Brock Purdy and you definitely wanna sign him
07:55for how much and for how long and how soon,
07:58but there are other ones out there.
07:59And I'm looking at George Kittle, who's now 31 1⁄2
08:02and he's in the final year of his deal.
08:04So to your point about fans and hardball,
08:07how hard do you want the Niners to be
08:10with a player like George Kittle who,
08:12look, George Kittle's amazing.
08:14He's a top three, two, one tight end in football,
08:18but he is 31.
08:19So do you wanna give him a four-year deal?
08:22Because he's got one more year.
08:23Yeah, I don't think that.
08:24Do you wanna give him,
08:25but what do you wanna do with George Kittle?
08:26Extend him, extend him, but not four years.
08:29Right, but that is kind of what you're talking about
08:31with like, you know, hardball or, you know,
08:34what do you want the Niners to do with your favorite guy?
08:36I think, well, but maybe favorite guys
08:39isn't what we're talking about
08:40because you can extend George Kittle
08:43and probably do some things in other spots.
08:45Like I would much more, I would rather the 49ers,
08:48if you wanna play hardball,
08:49do it with the people who didn't play great last year.
08:52George Kittle's the last guy on my list.
08:54Right.
08:55He was phenomenal.
08:56Might've been their best player last year.
08:59So John Lynch did talk about it.
09:02We are very motivated, as is George,
09:04for him to retire as a 49er.
09:05Like Kittle is getting sort of near Draymondville,
09:11where it's like.
09:12100 million.
09:13Well, but he's getting near that spot where you're like,
09:16is he gonna finish his career here?
09:18Or like, is that not gonna work out?
09:20Like, what does he want?
09:22Like, is there value to keeping him
09:23even when he starts to go downhill a little bit?
09:26These questions are gonna start coming up.
09:28For me, George is still playing at a very high level.
09:31Heart and soul guy.
09:32Kind of the logo of the franchise right now.
09:34I think he's important for Brock Purdy.
09:37They seem to work really well together,
09:39both as far as a pass catcher and just emotionally.
09:43I think all that stuff's important.
09:45I'd like them to see,
09:46I'd like to see them extend George Kittle.
09:49Not for a long period of time, but extend him, yes.
09:52John Lynch also said, though,
09:53he goes, right now that's just a timing thing.
09:57Because as we said in the crossover,
09:59this team's got a big old to-do list.
10:01And extending George Kittle right now
10:03is not one of the top five things on the list.
10:05It's not.
10:06It's Debo, it's Brock, and then I think it's-
10:09Personnel, like acquisitions, right?
10:12Sure, free agency, and that all is gonna happen.
10:14And if you wanna look at their free agent list right now,
10:17and we've done this before,
10:18but there's a lot of guys, I think,
10:20that are question marks.
10:22Like Talanoa Hufanga is a player who's been great.
10:25He's also been a little bit less than great.
10:28Do you wanna give him an extension?
10:31And his average annual was not great.
10:33The value of his contract was only 3.7.
10:35I think that his number goes up,
10:37but how much do you wanna pay for Hufanga
10:39when you've drafted guys who maybe can replace him?
10:43Jordan Mason is a guy who you'd like to keep
10:46as your backup, but he's restricted.
10:49And I know that there's a whole thing
10:51about the tender and where you put it,
10:53and it's a lot of legalese mumbo jumbo.
10:56For me, the conversation is,
10:58do you want him or don't you want him?
11:00And the other one is Dre Greenlaw.
11:01And if another team wants to give Greenlaw
11:04six million a year, are you willing to match that,
11:08to keep Dre around?
11:09I do think that there are questions
11:11with those three players beyond it's Brock and Devo,
11:14and then it's what do you do in free agency,
11:16but also your own free agents.
11:18Aaron Banks is a free agent,
11:19a guy who's been pretty good for you at guard.
11:23And he's probably your third best offensive lineman.
11:26How much do you want to completely overhaul your O-line?
11:29So I do think that they have in-house decisions to make
11:32before they start going out there and looking for free agents.
11:35Let's go to the phones.
11:36Daniel in the city is with us here on Willard and Dibs.
11:38Hey, Daniel, what's up?
11:41Hey, gentlemen, appreciate you, listen every day.
11:44Thanks, man.
11:46Bottom line, I'm for a gentleman, just, right?
11:50I think there's a lot of listeners on the call,
11:52on the radio right now, who don't even,
11:54I've never seen the Niners win a Superbowl, right?
11:58And the reality is, is that after last year's game,
12:02when we lost, what really infuriated me
12:05and a lot of people was that the entire conversation
12:09was how we're going to re-sign Aiyuk,
12:11and how we're going to deal with this drama,
12:13this, this, and this.
12:14I never heard one person get up in the off-season
12:18and talk about how we're going to go back
12:19to the Superbowl and win, right?
12:21And I think a lot of us were anxious,
12:23we wanted to hang on to what we had,
12:25so we bent over backwards and put up
12:27with all the shenanigans, people holding out, holding out.
12:29And what did we get?
12:32We got a big payroll,
12:33we got a bunch of people that are out of shape,
12:36who ended up getting injured in the season,
12:38and so after all that, where were we?
12:40We were watching other people play in the playoffs, right?
12:43And I think the only silver lining
12:45to this whole situation is this,
12:47I think the fans are fed up.
12:49I was in the stadium when Debo got booed
12:51after he dropped that ball,
12:53complaining it wasn't even a target,
12:55and everything shifted that moment.
12:57So I'm just telling you right now, the leadership,
12:59by the way, I want to go back to the drama we had before
13:01with Jed York and his hands on the team
13:03and how that just blew up.
13:05As soon as they stopped that, the team got back on track.
13:08You need to get back on track,
13:10and we need to sit down with these players
13:11and their agents and say, you want to cut a deal?
13:13Let's go in the room and cut a deal.
13:15But you're going to be in pre,
13:16you're going to be in the preseason,
13:18you're going to practice, and you're going to show up.
13:20And if you don't like those terms,
13:22there's a bunch of other teams
13:23that'll take your shenanigans, right?
13:25And I think the fans will have their backs,
13:27if the fans are fed up
13:29with being put through all that shenanigans
13:31and then end up not even being able to go to a playoff.
13:33Yeah, Daniel, I think it was a great call.
13:35Thank you very much for listening and for checking in.
13:39I really do.
13:40I think that there's a vibe to that.
13:42I mean, the way we talk about it on the radio,
13:44it's probably not that firm.
13:45I don't think they speak to agents
13:46the way we speak to a child, but-
13:48Look, agent.
13:49This is what we're doing,
13:50and if you don't like it, you can go play for the Saints.
13:53I do think, though,
13:54there's something to what Daniel's saying.
13:56Again, the messaging I hear,
13:59we went 6-11 after a year, if not two,
14:03where we were out here just handing out money to everybody
14:06because we all just think you're the bee's knees
14:08and we think we can win it all.
14:09And then you go 6-11,
14:11and I think Lynch and Shanahan and Parag
14:14and others got together,
14:15and they're like, we need to take this team back.
14:18This is our team.
14:19This is our team.
14:20We run it, and we need to take it back.
14:23And so if that means that somebody
14:25who is right at the front of the boom box has to go,
14:29then somebody at the front of the boom box has to go
14:31because this didn't work.
14:32If you have to eat 30 million as a result,
14:35then you eat it, and that's the way it goes.
14:37And if you have to give your quarterback,
14:39if you have to battle your quarterback
14:40to get that number down to where you're more comfortable,
14:43you can do that because he's only making a million.
14:46If you offer him 55, he probably takes it.
14:50Probably.
14:51If you give him the Jordan love deal,
14:52and we can get into that on the other side.
14:53I think so.