Jadarian Price is Right? Previewing the NFC West

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0:19Welcome back to the Mina Kimes show featuring Lenny. Only NFL podcast. One of the hosts thinks Arroyo is the sound he makes when he tries to bark and I close his mouth with my hands. That's Lenny. I mean, it comes, uh, Elijah Royal plays for the Seattle Seahawks. What are we talking about today? Cause we're talking about the NFC West. That's Danny Kelly, my friend, one of the hosts of the ringer fantasy football podcast, which is knee deep in ranking hot NFL players right now. Oh yeah. You're like kidding. You guys are almost at the end, right? How far are you? We are. Well, let's see here. We're doing the sweet 16.

0:56We're doing the top 16. Um, and we just did the first four. We'll do the next four next week. And I hear that you already have some strong opinions, man, on how it's going. I've seen some, you sent some of the lists to our group chat. I'm in multiple group chats with you and you're roundly criticized. Yeah. You know, I might hop on to get to weigh in, give my 10 cents. Good. I do think like when we do, cause it's, it is ranking seasons generally. And ESPN has been putting out these, like the Jeremy Fowler surveys, executives around the league. the top tens and everybody goes nuts um which and it was also like everyone's like how could espn rank this it's it's literally a survey guys but um i always see criticism criticisms of the list it's like if you put one in you got to take one out so i just want to be clear if i come on and i'm critiquing your list i will be moved i there's no this guy should be higher only you got you got to knock someone down totally criticize the list um we are going to rank the nfc west at the end of this which is very difficult because the nfc west is a hellscape of a division uh i've been doing these power hours every monday and i think actually the niners fell in the last one but in the first one i think the sea it went like rams seahawks and the niners were like seventh or sixth is this you've been covering the seahawks for a very long time is this the strongest nfc west that you can remember i think so just because there's three team like usually in the nfc west i feel like there's always two really good teams then kind of an upstart and then one bad one but you know you could make the argument these are three out of the top like five nfc teams maybe even three of the top four nfc teams yeah definitely so yeah i mean i think it's it's it's one of the best and if you go by dvoa i mean especially considering how good the seahawks were last year and the rams um according to like the dvo dvoa rankings i bet this is probably the best NFC West we've seen in a very long time, if ever.

2:58I think also just because of the coaches, right? Like those, I had them at this, the top three coaches in the NFL. That's so crazy. For Mike LaFleur, who like, he could be great, but like, geez, dude, like. Yeah. Can you imagine coming into this division when you have, you know, two of the top, I think, offensive minds in this generation of coaches and then a guy in mike mcdonald who is i think considered or starting to get the reputation as sort of the sean mcveigh of defense like the guy who could um be the be the defensive schemer slash you know wunderkind genius who's going to kind of try to figure out how to stop some of these offenses and so um yeah it's it's a it's the hellscape of a, of a division for Lafleur to come into.

3:46I can't imagine doing that. But yeah, it's going to be tough sliding at first for him. I promise we're going to talk about the Cardinals Cardinals fans. Obviously the point of this season is different for you guys. Or Japanning. No, but like there, there, there's actually, there's a lot. I think I'm interested in some of the young players who, you know, like, can they get a young core on both sides of the ball? We'll get to that. But let's start with the reigning Superbowl champs, our account, the Seattle Seahawks. I thought it would be, I'm actually very interested in talking about the offense because the defense is largely running it back with a few player changes.

4:21And we'll get to that. That's where they kind of had the most losses in free agency. But this offense is, is a little bit of a mystery because you've got a first time play caller in the very cool name, Brian flurry. And I think it's really interesting, Danny. Like I've been trying to read interviews with him or about him or people talking about him to get kind of read the tea leaves. He has a really interesting resume coached defense at one point coach tight ends comes from San Francisco. So, you know, I think there's an assumption that the offense is going to look pretty similar to what we saw under Clint Kubiak.

5:01Right. But I, I've started, there's been little inklings coming out of Seattle that there might be some changes. So let's dive into it. Like what, what do you think of the hire? Do you have thoughts about it? Are you excited about it? Or, and also I think that the Clint Kubiak aspect of it, should there be changes? Because for as good as Kubiak was, and he earned a head coaching job. And I think as much as the Seahawks offense kind of felt like it was certainly early in the season punching above its weight it really finished in sort of the top 10 to 15 range last season in most metrics which was extremely good enough because of how good the defense was but there could be room for improvement yeah um well i think yeah just to start with flurry obviously i don't think we know that much about him obviously in terms of what he's going to be as a play caller the there's an element of trusting mike mcdonald here a little bit in terms of his decision to go with an outside hire specifically one from the 49ers you know their division rivals um where it sounded like they had some internal guys that they really liked and they decided to go with the external guy which you know could ruffle feathers in the building so they obviously it seems felt strong enough about this guy and he impressed them enough um whether it was i you know i think i've heard you know on the whiteboard he was really impressive and just like talking about how he sees offense um so i think from that point of view i'm kind I'm excited to see how he does and just the context of him coming from another team, I think makes me think they really are impressed with him.

6:41But yeah, but that being said, obviously, we don't know a ton about him. I think he's going to be in the Kubiak Shanahan style where it's going to be a lot of play action, try and create chunk plays down the field, lots of running, good balance, all that stuff. But at the end of the day, Kubiak, I think, proved himself pretty well for play sequencing yeah the way that he was able to create mismatches on the fly during games and find you know find out little vulnerabilities and defenses as the game went on I think that's the kind of thing you just can't know really until totally until he's calling actual plays so um I think overall I'm like you know optimistic about what he could be but it is kind of a bummer to lose Kuviak after one year especially with how he worked with Sam Darnold especially late down down the stretch in the season and so having to start from scratch with another play caller another coach another voice in the building that does create sort of it's just more variables in how they're going to kind of try and run this back I think it's kind of cool that Mike McDonald doesn't play it safe with a lot of his hires like he does some interesting stuff I mean even you know so Ryan Grubb was the first offensive coordinator last year that he hired from college and it did not work out for a litany of reasons um but he moved on from it right away yeah and from from him and i think this hire feels very different because this is an nfl guy versus a college guy so i think you know that kind of feels a little bit like mcdonald maybe learning his lesson or uh and and yet while it's an nfl guy like you said it's different offense different team i kind of like that too honestly you know what i mean i just kind of i just feel like he's always willing to kind of take swings with some of these hires um yeah so we'll see like you said you made a great point about uh kubiak had a great in-game feel for adjustments and you know found ways like if jackson smith's jig but i remember was getting like blanked in the first half he would find ways to get him involved in second half move him around put him in the backfield things like that uh make adjustments in the run game uh which was something they did also over the course of the season it was interesting going back and looking at some of the numbers because it all netted out to like i said about that 10 to 15 range in most metrics but there was a lot of interesting splits i mean the first half of the season they were unbelievable passing and fairly dismal running second in april play passing 29th in april play running and then that kind of switched um they didn't they were 11th running in the second half of the season They got to 21st passing.

9:14And a lot of that had to do with the way defenses played them because they were a team in the first half of the season that really benefited from defenses over-indexing to the run. They would put multiple tight ends on the field and get base defense and just shred it through the air. And then I think you saw in the second half of the year more defenses saying, actually, we don't respect your run game that much. We want to take with the pass. And this is what good play callers do. Seattle responded to that by getting better running the football into more avid looks. Yeah. So it was kind of an interesting tale of two seasons, Danny.

9:51And I think that's something I think I'd want to see them build on is kind of what we saw from the run game. And although I do, like I said, some of that did happen because of the way defenses played them. Yeah. And I think, you know, at the beginning of the year, just kind of basing it on memory, it felt like JSN was the guy in the offense at the beginning of the year. He was the focal point. He was the straw that stirred the drink in terms of everything they were doing. He was on an absolute tear at the beginning of the year. And those types of things. Anytime a guy is on pace to set records in terms of total volume.

10:22The target share was insane. He was on pace for a while to do a 2 ,000-yard season, I think. And then it ended up kind of petering out as the year went on. But that's kind of how you expect it to go because defenses start adapting. They start to know some of your tendencies and things like that. And I was very impressed with Kubiak. um Kubiak and this is something that like McShay does or McBay does all the time is um you know being able to do more than one thing like they they showed some ability to adapt and improve their run game in the second half of the year I think their offensive line came together as the year went on um Gray Zabel ended up being a really important cog in their offensive line you know they stayed a little bit more healthy I know that they were um some question marks on the interior offensive line but at the end of the day like their offensive line seemed to gel as the season went on.

11:10And then I think also, you know, um, Kenneth Walker, especially in the playoffs, particularly in the playoffs ended up kind of showing who he could really be explosive plays, um, you know, in creating the, the, the types of big plays they were looking for the run game all first half of the year, which they weren't getting quite as much, I think in the second half and particularly in the playoffs, they were way more explosive. Um, also what they were doing with tight ends, I thought was pretty interesting at, you know, like the Rams, the Rams get a lot of credit for the three tight end stuff but the zehawks had some very interesting stuff they were doing with two tight ends um and yeah i just think that's why kubiak got a head coaching job like he was very impressive to me and i you know when he started i was just like i don't know what to make of this like yeah you're basically coming out of new orleans yeah it was it was it could have gone in a lot of different ways and ultimately i thought he did a great job but um yeah now we'll get to see how that how it all evolves going forward with this new guy i want to focus for a second on the tight ends because uh you mentioned that it is what brian flurry's background is right and i kind of think i know it's a little bit of a broken record with every offense in the nfl multiple tight ends rams 13 or whatever but i kind of think for seattle that's a going to be a pretty big factor this season again they used tight ends at a pretty high rate last year but i think it could be even more this season even though Rashid Shahid was the guy they prioritized bringing back so you'd have you know uh Jason and Shahid as the two receivers uh if you're putting those tight ends and the two tight ends on the field but last year it was interesting going back and looking uh so they were extremely good out of 12 personnel better than 11 smaller sample size pretty even run pass balance one of the biggest differences between 12 and 11 for Seattle was Seattle was much better running when they had multiple tight ends on the field yeah um but they were in unbelievable passing when they when they were put two tight ends on the field again this is a pretty decent sample size and passed they faced base defenses 70 percent of the time and averaged 0.52 EPA by passing at 12.4 yards per play just absolutely shredding it um 12 yards per play all right and that was actually dramatically worse when they faced nickel but then they were good running the ball out of those multiple which is again this is like literally the point right right two times in the field face throat nickel run seattle was the poster child for that when you look at the numbers um but i also think it's because of the tight ends that they have to like aj barner uh was their traditional inline tight end who could also give you decent amount of mismatches in the passing game like you you know you remember pardon me him um catching the ball on posts and downfield crossers so often it felt like he was wide open yeah sometimes literally wide open because of all the attention paid to jsn but a royo who i made a joke about the beginning i think is is a sneaky one to watch you know high draft pick yeah he could be not to like do the rams comparison but the terrence ferguson right and the multiple tight end sets where he is almost as much of like a glorified receiver in that passing attack, Danny.

14:22Yeah, yeah. I mean, that is to me one of the big questions coming into this year is obviously, like you said, they didn't do a lot of changes on offense. They lost Kenneth Walker. That's kind of the big difference. And we'll see how the, you know, Jadarian Price works out in the run game and all that. But yes, I think Arroyo, who they really liked, I mean, they were comparing him. They were saying he could be like an X receiver, you know, when they draft him. You can't rely on necessarily what coaches and scouts are talking about necessarily during the draft process. They're all very excited about the picks and everything.

14:56But I remember at the time they were saying things like he can line up at the X receiver spot. They can put him on the line. He can beat coverage down the field. He's obviously a really good athlete, really explosive, create big plays. And I think that's the type of thing that you could see them try to exploit this next year, especially on play action. I think that that that Barner touchdown in the in the Super Bowl was they kind of had set that up over the course of the game. I think he had run like a similar like he basically had come across the field a couple different times like block in the run game.

15:31And so the Patriots eventually overplayed that and tried to get over the top of him. And then he kind of snuck back because he was coming over to block in those situations. and then later in the game he snuck out and was wide open down the field because they thought he was coming in to just like block for a run play um and that's the type of thing that you can do where you're dictating matchups you're getting base personnel on defense on the field because you come out with two or three tight ends on the field and he's the type of guy who can outrun yeah linebackers outrun these bigger run defense type players um and i think that's kind of how they see him fitting in and they can do that with barner too i think barner's a good enough athlete but Arroyo I think is you know pretty special in terms of his ability to create big plays run after catch I think that's why they really wanted him and why they spent that pretty premium pick on him he was hurt for most of the season so yeah right we didn't get to see that it was a small sample size uh and you know he um I feel like he's just one to watch you know Barner is the complete tight end but he's kind of the x factor in terms of winning downfield and maintaining the explosiveness of this offense yeah um you know it just obviously jsa said but like the thing is you saw this year went on so much attention is paid defensively to jsa it creates incredible opportunities for everyone else shaheed obviously was the guy they prioritized bringing back something i talked about last season was kind of the hidden ways and he affected the game not just special teams but also i think getting lighter boxes because of his ability to stretch the field so i'm excited about this offense i mean the line is the same like that's it's was the last time you and I saw Seahawks offensive line that was the same two years in a row it literally is the same and I know some people wanted them to upgrade from Bradford most people but uh they brought in competition they drafted uh Bo Stevens right we'll see what the deal is with that but I think you know I've mentioned this a lot having those two tackles healthy the entire season was like the secret sauce of the Seahawks Super Bowl run yeah absolutely that was a huge part of it um you know i think charles cross is underrated still for what he can do um and then i think just like it like i mentioned earlier grades able kind of just uh stabilizing things a little bit because it felt like over the last few years the seahawks offensive line is just you know they had just guys coming in and coming out everybody was like banged up it just they didn't have any continuity um they didn't have any stability and so now like you're seeing this continuity that hopefully everyone can stay at least relatively healthy um and that could make a massive difference and i'm excited to see you know what jadarian price can do because i don't know how quickly zach charbonnet is going to be back he tore his acl in the playoffs um i'm sorry i'm not smiling at um that it's obviously horrible and i will be back i'm smiling because um just like the fantasy conversation about jadarian price is going to be because it's like the first round draft pick wide open he should be a volume monster watch him and yet yeah i know with georgia lottie who's like i think georgia lottie's kind of good too i just who knows um i'm excited about price i think he's a great scheme it was you know whatever you think about the draft pick and the value sure great scheme fit based on what i saw on today i mean you you watched him a ton ahead of the draft what did you think of him i mean explosive is the first word that comes to mind like he just kept ripping off long runs and i think that's what they saw in him i think they're trying to recreate the value that kenneth walker does bring in his explosiveness as a runner um because like you know if you're the seahawks run the ball it's a utility that it gets the defense to respect the run i think in that it's like a mindset thing like the offensive lineman like blocking for the run it all kind of works together i think it's like a psychological thing and they do it not necessarily because it's more efficient clearly it's not as efficient as passing um but it is a utility thing where they just want to they need to do it they have it as their foundation and then they can build other things off of that and i think when you can get explosive plays in the run game that's huge that's massive because um it then it just you don't have to do as many you don't have to make as many big plays in the passing game um and they're safer technically like you're less likely to get a pick or or an errant pass and or a sack and so you know having that run game is going to be huge it will be interesting to see how they rotate.

19:49I think Helani, every time he's gotten in, he does interesting things. He's good. He was very productive in college, so I think there's something there for him, too. It's very important. This is a team that ran the ball a lot on early downs, and it, like you said, set up the entire offense, the commitment to it, getting base defense, getting those play-action looks. You know, and there were so... This is an offense... Sam Darnold I was um looking this up uh actually I was looking up a different quarterback and then I noticed and first down he was eighth in QBR on third down he was 26 which is the largest drop went from 61 to 37 which is the second largest drop off of any quarterback um and that's not all on him per se I'm just saying because I think that there's a lot of reasons why the Seahawks off passing offense was better on early downs but that's really important in this offense for this quarterback um and let's wrap there the quarterback like i what is your he's coming up now because it's qb ranking season um and you know i've seen him i think everywhere in that like 13 to 23 range to put it broadly the middle the middle class yeah yeah he's the like i i mean he's i think what he showed last year is that he he will give you competent quarterback play and then also elevate it to an extremely high level in some big moments yeah obviously um are you at all concerned about what you saw in the second half of last season or do you think the circumstances that we discussed are good enough that you're not worried i mean i think he was kind of uh he he has always been a bit of an enigma you know because he's so talented from a physical throwing standpoint he makes some of the most incredible throws he kind of reminds me in some ways of of like a drake of uh sorry um herbert in the sense that you know he can make some incredible throws and off platform falling away guy in his face like and still drop it in a bucket 30 yards down the field 40 yards down the field so the the physical talent has never been a question it's just been the decision making how turnovers seem to uh compound on each other a little bit with him and and he kind of gets into his head and um starts to to force things and and that kind of thing and so i think that was what i was really worried about for most of the season really and then in the playoffs no turnovers in the playoffs i think he had zero turnovers in the playoffs so i'm like i have nothing left to complain about for him obviously that's not going to like carry over into the nfl season completely he's going to make some turnovers but if he can continue to improve and not have negative plays compound on each other i think he is that uh he's he's very much in the goldilocks sort of area of quarterback where you know he's not necessarily an elite guy but he's very good and he can make the really hard plays when you need it you know what i mean like he can make he can make miracle plays happen when he needs to um he was actually very impressive a lot of times late in games when he when he needed to come up with a big play he could do it so um he he made me into a believer especially in the playoffs because i was a little worried he was one of the top turnover uh top quarterbacks with most turnovers last year um but at the end of the day he played really really well in the playoffs he did exactly what he needed to do so that was a huge um you know confidence boost for me i where i've come down is this if you can tell me that you're going to get the majority of the season from charles cross and abe lucas i think it'll be fine yeah however yeah if one of those two were to get hurt i might get a little bit worried yeah so i think which by the way that's true of a lot of quarterbacks so you A lot of quarterbacks need starting out.

23:48But I just think it was so important last year that those guys played for the most of the season. And we know with Darnold, too, the decisions that you described tend to compound under pressure. Which, again, is true of a lot of quarterbacks. But certain quarterbacks, it matters more, including another one who was the MVP who we're going to talk about. So I do think that that's probably the biggest factor for me. and so yeah I'm optimistic about this offense but I think I just want to acknowledge there's a lot of unknown with the new play caller and we'll see how that goes defense nothing unknown here this was either the best or second best defense in the NFL depending on how you slice it with Houston there are changes though right like this is the unit where they let guys walk boy mafe out you know part of their ed pretty decent part of their edge depth um Tariq Woolen the much the very divisive right if we let our dads do a podcast they'd say good riddance yeah totally uh and then um kobe bryant the starting safety otherwise this is pretty much the same group they brought back josh job on a reasonable deal uh and then they drafted a safety but clark to add to that group so you know i talked about the cx defense at length on my top 10 defenses pod obviously go listen to that cx fans if you want to listen to you know raving about the defense let me put it differently for you is there anything that concerns you i i guess maybe the second or third what i guess it would be like the third cornerback spot depending on how they rotate things what devin devin witherspoon kind of moves around he's he's a nickelback to he plays inside um i guess like what happens with the like the rest of the the cornerback group with witherspoon gone is kind of or not with witherspoon bond with week wall and on that would be maybe one concern i have but at the end of the day i just really trust mike mcdonnell i think he's earned our trust in terms of what the you know what he can do schematically to create pressure up front i'm not too worried about losing mafe um i still think they have a pretty deep group of pass rushers i think the way that they're able to generate pressure and keep quarterbacks on their heels and not really sure what they're seeing i think that's where um you can create an advantage in the back end where you don't your corners don't have to be so tight on every receiver and play perfectly you know what I mean and so I think I think that's kind of every team and every roster in the NFL has to like give up a little bit of something somewhere to to be strong elsewhere the CX are really strong on the defensive line in their front seven and I think you know I guess that that third corner spot opposite you know Witherspoon and job would be sort of like the one one weak spot or or at least shallow spot on there yeah so i guess their primary look will be witherspoon on the outside nicky minwari is kind of like the big nickel slash sam slash whatever the hell is you right um and you might see a little bit just more or less of a rotation right because last year you saw like job and roland they would play both of them seems like job's got the spot locked down i mean he was pretty damn good last year i can see why they kept him yeah very reliable in zone coverage good tackler he's got good size um yeah i i'm kind of with you where like as long as mike mcdonald's in not just from a play calling perspective but also from a talent evaluation perspective mcdonald's been really good at finding his guys like the prior i remember being told that um he was part of the decision to prioritize uh keeping leo williams on and getting him that big you know at which that was a trade people had mixed feelings about he came he was good but holy smokes i mean what he's become i mean we did we talked about the rankings he finished first amongst it that actually shocked me because i always think of him as this like perpetually underrated guy who gets double teamed a lot and creates opportunities for everyone else the league rates him number one i mean i don't know if i'd put him above jeff simmons personally but like he's an awesome player but yeah yeah um I just think McDonald's has been really, really good at, you know, Eman Worry.

27:53I'm interested in seeing how they use Bud Clark, who's a post guy who's rangy, can play the field, can get some interceptions. So, yeah, I think, you know, obviously injuries. I guess if there's one thing, maybe edge depth. It's a little older. They brought in Dante Keller Jr., who I think as a rotational guy makes total sense and has some familiarity with Aiden Dirt from Atlanta and Dallas. but you know they don't they still they didn't have a stud edge last year it didn't matter i don't see why it would matter this year either their studs are on the inside it's will leo and brian murphy are the right yeah i think um that's kind of like what what we saw with like demarcus lawrence coming in last year and everyone kind of thought he was on his last leg yeah i don't think anybody was like this rocks he's gonna yeah i remember at the time i was like oh that that's interesting you know he'll come in and i think the thought was he would be a really good run defender you know he is yeah he is and but he was also he was a huge bonus uh as a pass rusher as well i think i guess the one thing with with mafe leaving and and i just have the image in my brain of mafe screaming and off the edge he's just he was really explosive yeah and i guess that will be sort of what we miss what the seahawks miss is just that explosive right you know closes on the quarterback before he can even really decide what's happening type of player.

29:17But yeah, at the end of the day, you know, there's, there's other guys, young guys coming up glimpses of Riley Mills late in the season. I think he looked pretty interesting. Superbowl had a play. Yeah. He had a really great play in the Superbowl and he, he was injured almost the entire season. So they didn't, didn't get him into the rotation until really late. So, you know, I, like I said, I kind of just trust Mike McDonald's to kind of figure it out, use his stars to be the big impact players and even going back to his time in Baltimore this is kind of like the same deal he could just get really impact play from seemingly role players long time league role players would come in and be really good in his system they still have Nwosu, Derek Hall they still have some guys Derek Hall I think there's enough players to just keep throwing at it um and then like i said the build is very deliberate defensive tackles are where we're going to spend our money and our drafting my own murphy second who i thought was phenomenal last year um and i couldn't i wouldn't be surprised if he's like by the end of the season the guy on this defense that everybody's talking about he's so disruptive uh rushing the quarterback and i thought quite good against the run too so yeah surprisingly surprisingly good against the run is considering he's kind of like an undersized guy yeah known as an undersized guy he's just really strong really strong really good at using his leverage to work on double teams i'm optimistic about him so um tx defense still really good all right uh let's do the niners next sure more the niners i constantly oscillate between looking at this roster and thinking it's awesome and then and then noticing that every guy named either is coming off an injury or over 30 however i think like if you could guarantee me every single person on the niners offensive death chart was healthy i might actually pick them in a way like they're but it's just right um so there's some changes here uh we saw purdy backed by mac jones um but receiver wise they brought in mike evans uh and christian kirk drafted to john stripling you got ricky pierce salt uh running back room like kyle shanahan drafted the running back for some reason of course There's like a zillion of them.

31:36CMC backed by Jordan James, Isaac Garendo. Remember him? Brian Robinson Jr. Yep. Kalen Black, sure. Ushik's still there. Kittle's still there coming off the injury. Jake Tonjes at a tight end. And then the offensive line, pretty much the same. I think left guard, maybe Connor Colby will start, but otherwise mostly the same. All right.

31:59So let's just talk about, let's start with Mike Evans, the big, shiny, new tour. Right. And just kind of this right receiver group because it's awesome on paper, I think. Right? Like, I actually love when I name them, I'm like, I like how all these guys fit together. Yeah. Pearsall, when he's healthy, always looks really good. And he's such a nice pairing with Michael Evans, I think. You know, as somebody you can work inside, outside, but primarily the Z. Tough catches, great hands. It's just, you know, Evans coming up. Evans and Pearsall. And I mean, literally all three of the, they're all coming off injuries.

32:34I know this, it's funny. You mentioned the injury thing. I think that's like the story of their season last year was just everybody got hurt. Like they've just ran out of guys. And that's kind of something that seems to have happened to them the last couple of seasons. That's why the whole, you know, transfer station thing became a storyline. It's just like, why do they think? Electronics upstation. Right. Sorry. Substation. They had all the electricity running through their veins and hurting all their ligaments and things like that. Who knows if that's real, but it's probably not real. But I like to think it is real because it's funny.

33:08And then they went out and after having an all-time, well, not an all-time, but like a horrifically terrible injury, and they go out and sign Mike Evans, who is, you know, he's always got some hamstring injury. He also, I think, broke his collarbone last year. Christian Kirk, who's always been hurt. um those are like their two big additions to the offense um so they're kind of just like you know what we're gonna we're gonna go for it again even though injuries kind of was our issue last year and hopefully we'll have better luck this year um i mean i was mad when they got mike evans i think that's a great signing for them i think he still can play he's yeah gives them a vertical element he's obviously a long time proven producer veteran um gives them sort of like a a go-to guy that they really needed because they have they have guys that are exciting and have potential but just aren't necessarily super reliable or proven in big moments i think mike evans can can be that guy for them and then pierce like you said he compliments evans really well great route runner uh good hands i think he just needs to prove that he can stay healthy and then christian kirk is is just a reliable long time slot receiver he's he's produced big numbers in the past or at least decent numbers in the past um and and so yeah they have kind of the makings of an interesting offense here and and deshaun's dribbling even though he i would say he was probably overdrafted where he was as the first pick of the second round i think he's still you know he's a six foot three or six two guy who can run a four four three and he blocks his ass off he's the he was my favorite blocker to watch at receiver in this draft i mean he legitimately was pancaking guy like multiple pancakes on you don't see that very often and i feel like in college player tape is receivers pancaking defenders like pretty frequently and shriveling was doing that um so he he fits what they want from a you know toughness personality point of view obviously like you remember the stories of shanahan and brandon iuk butting heads about being in the right place and blocking and doing all the little things they get you on the field obviously maybe shanahan had a point here but yeah so I think you know they have they have good skill players on offense George Kittle I don't know when he's going to be back I would probably you know wager he won't be back for week one but he probably won't take him too much longer to get back on the field he tours Achilles in the playoffs so that usually doesn't line up with a week one start the next season I'm really struggling all these Achilles get like him and Daniel Jones are like we're fine I'm like what Well, there's like new technology and new ways of doing this surgery, which kind of can give you hope.

35:45And coupled with the fact that Kittle is sort of a known maniac in terms of just his intensity and how he works. So I guess I wouldn't put it past him to be back pretty early in the year. But you probably don't expect to have him realistically until the second half of the season at full go. And then Christian McCaffrey, of course, one of the most dynamic playmakers in the NFL, one of the most versatile players full stop in the NFL. Yeah. What he can do in the passing game. Can he stay healthy? I don't know. Not only just can he stay healthy, but like, is he going to hit a wall? Right. It was so much volume.

36:21He plays so much football and Shanahan keeps him on the field. And it's not, but him being on the field is so important because of his threat as a pass catcher of like what it does for everyone and everything. and you can see why he does it with him, even if it's not his intention. Shanahan's interesting, too, because this offense is interesting because even as good as it's been the entire time, the last three years, it's not been... 2023, they ran the ball well, but last year they were 15th in rushing DVOA, and they were 13th in 2024, 15th in 2022. So basically, outside of 2023, when they were sorry that the 2023 is the year I left out because they were like first in everything that year but otherwise 2022, 2024, 2025 this has been an exceptional passing game and an average run game some of that has to do though with the fact that they just face the most stacked boxes in football every year it was the case last year and so the passing game benefits from the run game and Shanahan will stick to that for that purpose, then it's smart.

37:29But I'm always like, what if defenses just really start to stop? Yeah, start or I just start to like stop stacking the box so much. You know what I mean? I don't know. Some of that is because of what Kyle does. I mean, a lot of it is because Kyle Juszczyk is on the field, right? So you're facing those necessarily. But assuming that it still continues this season to some extent, One would think all these pass casters, Mike Evans is going to get a lot of one-on-ones, same way Brandon Ayuk did, and would absolutely be well-positioned to have a rebound season and a big one. He's a good pairing with Brock Purdy.

38:05Brock Purdy's willing to throw the ball deep, throw the ball outside the numbers, make aggressive throws. And even if Evans, who's like, what, 33, has lost a step, I still think he's going to be really useful in this offense because of his hands and size, red zone. as well so yep i go back to what i say at the beginning if these guys are healthy yeah it's gonna be a kick-ass offense um even if they're still just okay running the ball yeah yeah i mean honestly i think i trust the offense i would just put it that way i trust i trust shannon it'll say every year whoever they have a quarterback last year we saw i think um i think pretty only played nine games in the regular season it's like and they still were really good when mac jones came I just trust Shanahan to figure it out, to create mismatches, to give his guys...

38:56They don't do it as much as they used to, but give his guys an opportunity to run after the catch. And he's just very good at... It's kind of like what we were talking about with Kubiak. He's very good at play sequencing, at getting defenses to bite on certain tendencies and then playing off of that and just creating little wrinkles that you can use to create mismatches when based on like the way that defenses are playing you he's just he's a great play caller um and you know so i just trust the offense on the other hand i don't really know what to make of the defense um you know i think they they're the one of those defenses that if they stay healthy they could be one of the tops in the league or they could be sort of middling like we saw last year when they lost a lot of their superstar players it's crazy i always look at ftn has that ftn um which by the way their almanac is out i always recommend people check that out every team great fantasy stuff in there too it's a really cool resource um you go to ftnfantasy.com i think you get it there but they do these adjusted games lost or it's like it's really useful frankly like the cardinals we'll get to were just wrecked the niners defense was 28th in adjusted games lost which seemed high to me i was like really like because the adjusted games lost also counts for the importance of the players and i was like y 'all lost fred warner nick bosa your first round draft pick.

40:17Michael, like this defense was savaged by injuries. Yeah. And you had Robert Salah just fighting for his life. Press the NFL, right? Now Raheem Morris is back. The guys I mentioned are sensibly back. Lorner was, I remember, threatening to return in the postseason, so he should be fine. Nick Bosa is back. Michael Williams is a little bit more questionable, I saw, in terms of his readiness early on. they also added a few players um they traded for osa idigizua who i want to talk about uh they brought back drag your old friend drae greenlaw nate hobbs interesting pickup you know a little bit of secondary depth there so yeah i think it obviously starts with the health of bosa and warner and if they're healthy and they look like themselves but they're also older players it's such a theme with this team like i'm like yeah i mean bose is not that old actually he's probably about 29 or something but he kind of feels older though he's 28 he'll be 29 during the season got it um but i mean i think maybe this is also like you know a little bit of what happened with his brother kind of like yeah here where he's like his body kind of just fell apart you worry about that a little bit um but but yeah i mean like you said it is uh the it's their strategy here is basically like, we're not going to read too much into what happened last year.

41:43And we're just going to bring in a bunch more guys that are injury have injury histories and hope for the best. But yeah, I mean, I really like some of the players on their defense. Like Alfred Collins was a guy that I really liked coming out of the draft. Just a huge, huge human being of a space eater in the inside and quicker than you think. And then a diggy Zua, you know, kind of like a penetrating defensive tackle. I think he could be a useful player for that. Osa is the one where I'm like, I'm pretty excited about this. I think it got a little bit slept on as far as, you know, that happened in a random offseason trades.

42:19We're going to go with the Rams and the crazy ones there, right, in a second. But I think it could be really impactful. I mean, this is something that you talked about. The penetrating three tech, I feel like they've been looking for ever since the departure of Buckner, who continues to be awesome. But last year, I look this up. Their leading pressure getter at defensive tackle was Jordan Elliott, who only had 16, which is lower than any other leading defensive tackle on any team. Yeah, that's negligible. Yeah, not great. Fewer than three Seahawks defensive tackles. Odigizuwa has consistently been like an advanced metrics darling.

43:03Like pass rush win always has him top 10. like he's always really really good and obviously you had to play with michael parsons um but i do think he could be especially if bosa comes back and looks good and williams who michael williams who's a good run defender but needs to take leave as a pass rusher uh brings anything they also drafted ramilla height right but i do think uh that odigazua trade is kind of the one that has the potential to move the needle on this defensive front yeah they just that's the type of player they need to to kind of like i think improve from what they did last year have more depth um but yeah he's the type of guy who wins quickly and can create disruption in the bat in the backfield and in in the pocket and get quarterbacks off their spot that type of stuff is just so important i can't believe that stat you said 16 was the most they got from an interior defender that is just it's just too many stagnant pockets like that's what that tells me is is you're just giving opposing quarterbacks too much comfort um and i think odigizua is the type of player who can kind of like reverse that and just make opposing quarterbacks uncomfortable that's a huge huge deal um you know especially playing like a guy like playing next to a guy like nick bosa where defenses are going to be totally keyed in on him double teaming chipping and having a guy who can win on the inside and mess things up is is massive so there's a smart play a smart move by them I think could be really impactful.

44:26Secondary is mostly the same. Up and down across the board, you know, up in Stout was kind of one of the, the was a rookie nickel, very tough, very like, you know, playmaking potential I think is there. I kind of like Renard better inside. Green and Lenard, like they're fine. I think Renard to Green took a bit of a step back, but I also think it's okay to like kind of also not write the year off but because the pressure was so non-existent it's kind of like how much can you really blame yeah corners and safeties you know what i mean because they're just constantly having to defend for long periods of time yeah it's hard and i think that's one of those things where context really matters it's i think this is also why by the way you see such wild swings and effectiveness from cornerbacks year in and year out that is one of the i think the highest variance positions in terms of oh this guy looked awesome in this defense in this scheme in this specific roster and how everything kind of fit together on that roster and then the next year he's like a free agent signing somewhere else and he just is awful it's just it's it's one of those positions it's like kicker almost where they're just it's just like so impossible to predict how i guess like the middle of the pack type players are going to be um but yes i think that you don't throw it out but it is a very important piece of context that the 49ers were just lacking pressure up front and you know the quarterbacks were just able to pick apart the defense a little bit more than than they should have been able to so um you know they they added some guys in free agency have some depth there i don't know if there's like a ton to say right now i think if they get more pressure this could be a good secondary i've always liked the the safeties that they drafted over the years mustafa's awesome jair brown is very good um or at least i'm basing kind of what I might call reports on these guys.

46:18I like these guys coming in, and I remember when the 49ers picked them, I'm like, ooh, I like that. So yeah, I think there's certainly potential here, but yeah, it all works together. The final thing, Raheem Morris coming back. You know, one thing I'll just be interested in seeing is this Niners defense during the Kosh Cannon era has been pretty simple. They play pretty straight up, a lot of quarters, four-man rush. Morris is... been with teams that have tried some other stuff most recently atlanta which was a pretty chaotic defense um lots of blitzing lots of coverage so i'll be interested in seeing if he mixes things up a little bit more uh this second time around in san francisco but we've heard that song before and it feels like it always ends up being pretty similar so yeah that's gonna be interesting when I think, uh, I think of Atlanta.

47:11I'm like, you know, ever since recent times, um, they just kind of like, don't have any pass rushers. So you kind of have to like, right. Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks kind of deal. Um, but yeah, obviously like the 49ers, I think a lot depends on how healthy their pass rushers are. But if Nick Bosa is back to where he was, if Romelo height comes in and makes like an impact early on, cause he's, you know, he's an undersized guy. Yeah. It's really small. He's like 240, 240 pounds. And I think he's a bit of a one-trick pony in terms of like he's a situational pass rusher, I'd say, you know, most likely.

47:49And he's really explosive, but he's an older guy. I think he's like 25, 26 years old. And so that's obviously, you know, a variable here. I think they can hope to get him as a situational pass rusher, just kind of mix things up on later downs, third downs. Life insurance is one of those things that's easy to put off because it doesn't feel urgent today. But it's not just another financial box to check. It's about having a plan in place so if life throws something unexpected at your family, they're not left dealing with the financial side without support. Ethos makes getting life insurance fast and easy.

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