Brock dominant, 49ers injuries, RB2 battle?, interior OL, backup TEs, key D position battles

Intro Montana looking looking throwing In The End Zone it Montana touchdown John Taylor young to the air young to Jerry Rice touchdown San Francisco young stumbles on the way back and fires up the middle pass is caught by [Music] Owens hello and welcome to the 49ers plus podcast I'm your host Al Morello and this is your source for the most objective 49ers discussion and Analysis plus timely and entertaining Sports and pop culture topics and today we're going to be discussing 49ers training camp updates including Brock proclaiming that he wants to be dominant this season training camp news we have holdouts holdin rookies and Veterans injured competitions at the interior offensive line maybe running back to as well update it's on tight ends Debo potentially is a kick returner and going over every position on the defensive line in terms of battles that we need to keep an eye on for training camp there is no plus content this week there will be next week but for now it's going to start and end with the ners so let's get right into it let's talk Brock ners so let's start with Brock had a sitdown interview with Mike silver formerly of uh Sports Illustrated and Brock proclaimed and said that this season he wants to be dominant not just himself as an N of one but the entire offense and if you've been listening to the podcast this is something that I've said a bunch about the defense that the defense should want to have this aggressive downhill mentality of pounding teams into the ground making them submit dictating what the offense is going to do the defense for as much as Robert Salah demo Ryan you know preached all gas and no breaks and and high energy and flying around make no mistake the Niners defense has been a Bend but don't break defense right cover three generally keep things in front of you force another team to make a mistake passing or getting to the quarterback sack strip sack fumble punt turnover whatever it may be but I I I can't say that the defense is an exert its will on you type of defense and it's unfair to compare them to you know the the 2013 Seahawks the 2000 Ravens the 85 Bears hell I would love to compare them to the Browns of last year that was a team that yeah did they give up some some big plays at times and of course they weren't dominant every single game but there were games where they were dominant and the Niners have enough pro bowlers and All Pro players at every level that they should have this mindset that Brock wants to have let's go with a couple of the quotes quote from Brock with as good of a team that we have I want to get to the point that we get to the third quarter there's a couple of drives that are crucial I'm on top of my stuff we convert on third downs and we score touchdowns and the lead just gets out of hand it's having that Tom Brady kind of feeling late in the game it always felt like Tom was just going to take over and not make it close I feel like I can get to Leadership that I love hearing this he's the leader of the team as a Shucks and humble and saying the right things as Brock has been the first two years in the league I think he realizes that as the trigger man he already is a pretty calm person based on what players are saying he's confident people's eyes are snapping to them to him in the Huddle and that happened very early on even starting with his first start against Tom Brady and the Buccaneers in the 2022 season but now he wants to ratchet that up a notch but it starts with it started the past two seasons with the work the productivity the coming out out of nowhere being ready for his opportunity and not faltering to the tune of undefeated through the regular season and playoffs up until Philadelphia where he got injured and the Niners didn't really stand a chance and then came back with an MVP caliber season in 2023 where he was still rehabbing through the Eagle game the eagle rematch so Brock wasn't I mean you could be 100% and still be rehabbing just you know in terms of a maintenance and keeping the strength going but if you want to say he was 90 95% for most of the season and then fully 100% when he was completely done rehabing that's fine but the respect is gained not just on how you carry yourself and the confidence you exude it's the NFL is a meritocracy they you can't players right they want the best person out there at every position again you can't be gu him they know the work that's being put in the productivity how they're playing on the field if if a player has a huge issue with a coach that's another thing but what Brock has shown is has garnered the respect of the team now if he becomes a more vocal leader like Brady or others you know you're getting on players for running the wrong route or dropping a pass or missing a block if you're an offensive linean I think Brock has earned that respect let's continue the quote I want to be dominant not just win games and feel like ah I want to be dominant with consistent decisions and feeling like we're the top dogs every day there were moments last year in games where I would just I don't know what it was in the situation but we'd be up and it's all right be smart with the ball let's just make sure we don't mess up I want to break through and get to the point of just being dominant for four quarters man that's my mindset all right now this I could break apart a little bit and saying yeah I would love to see and all of us as fans would love to see more blowouts right just foot on the throat that's not just a brock thing it's executing as an entire offense executing and having that same want to be dominant feel on the defense how many times do you see in a football game things that work for the first three quarters and 10 minutes for a defense they go away from it they start playing soft team comes back ties the game makes close wins the game whatever it is if if there's going to be any Brock dominant remnants of all gas no breaks or just this high energy attacking mentality then it needs to be from beginning from the first snap and first whistle to the final snap and the final whistle it's not saying there aren't times where you don't have to be where you can't be smart and you know third 25 doesn't mean it's like zero Blitz like Steve wils did in the Minnesota Monday night game right before the end of the first half you could be smart about it but what Brock says at the end of this quote I don't know what it was the situation we'd be up and it's all right be smart with the ball let's just make sure we don't mess up I want to break through and get to the point of being dominant for 4 quarters I I think you can have it both ways you can be dominant in a smart fashion if if your base execution is dominating a team is getting you first downs getting your points you know you're not going to score a touchdown every single Drive there's going to be a need for field goals right you're putting points on the board you're sustaining drives you're giving your defense a rest you're tiring out their defense but you're executing within the offense and not taking unnecessary risks then it's fine but he doesn't need to turn back into Brock pie from Iowa State who would make head scratching plays because he's trying to do too much I don't need and I don't think Kyle or any of the offensive staff or John Lynch or anybody associated with the 49ers need Brock Pere to do too much when the ners are already up big and give a team any sign of life to come back because he forced a pass that could have been a checkdown or Kyle you know could have dialed up a run and salted the game away I'm okay with salting the game away and win by 21 versus continue continuing to be aggressive and winning by 28 or or 31 momentum is a tricky thing it's not a tangible thing it's not like a wall or anything you have in your house you can't touch it and say that's momentum but when it happens you know when it happens during a game you can feel it especially if you're on the road the crowd getting into IT Crowd noise the pendulum swinging fast and hard in the other direction so I still think again I've used this phrase before there's the line of between being aggressive and Reckless Brock there's no need to be Reckless with the amount of Talent on this team if you're talking about putting a team away more so than maybe you guys have in the past I can get behind that and if you are still a fan of Kyle Shanahan throwing it what the first five plays in the second half including of the Super Bowl sorry including the first three plays right after you got an interception by Jer Brown on the chief side of the field up 103 pass pass pass punt when you have the offensive player of the year in the back field not handing the ball off and folks saying that the ners are a run first team I think that's a bit statistically incorrect they pass more than they run a run first team right by the books by the letter runs it 51% of the time and passes it 49% of the time the Niners don't do that they're still passing it more than they're running it but the Super Bowl I think was a good I think it's a good thing to look back on to understand where Brock was coming from but you can take both sides of this right times where the Niners got field goals they should have been touchdowns now those weren't Brock's fault the end of the first fourth quarter and in overtime he had no time well dialed up blitzes breakdowns on the offensive line he had no time he didn't do too much and throw a pick that could have ended the game sooner for San Francisco but you can also understand how maybe not being aggressive in certain situations could help preserve a victory listen unless I'm betting on the game and the ners are favored by 10 over some crap team or 14 and I take them then I want you to win by 15 or more but a win's a win blowouts are nice but let's not reverse vert to Iowa State Brock at times and doing things that are not only aggressive which is good they just can't be Reckless because that's obviously a bad and coming off of this quote Brock promptly throws three interceptions in today's first padded practice and of course you have Grant con and his con cronies who are keeping track of the completions for Brock and other quarterbacks and Reps and this that and the other thing listen get him out of your system figure out what you can get away with in training camp versus the regular season totally okay with that Brock through picks in last year's training camp to it's an okay time to make mistakes and like I've been saying for about a month and I will say for as long as I have this podcast in training camp and the first two to four weeks of the regular season the defense is going to be ahead of the offense cuz defense is more read and react where offense is more Rhythm and that comes with time now overall training camp news Brandon auk is in attendance holding in Trent Williams is not in attendance he is holding out so auk let's just touch upon real quick nothing new he's there he's taking place in with in meetings he's working out with strength and conditioning but and I I haven't been to training camp I'm not sure if he's doing any running or light jogging on the sideline anything cardio related but he's certainly not out there practicing any fans that are saying oh you're there iuk just uh just go out there and play I think Mark schare was uh on some sort of podcast or an interview saying oh you know you know grow a pair if you're going to show up you should be practicing no it's okay that he's holding in this is actually an encouraging sign right you're not going to put your foot out there and risk injury and risk the payday that's coming stupid stupid stupid so schare I know your nickname is stink that takes stunk it's encouraging that he's there if iuk wasn't there now there'd still be conversations being had between auk's agent and representation in the 49ers but the fact that he's there interfacing with Lynch and uh Shanahan players it's only a matter of time before get it gets a deal done if it was that sour if it was that unfixed ible he wouldn't have shown up now Trent Williams a different situation what 36 years old you know yeah getting in Camp getting in the work would help I mean it's not going to hurt right unless there's an injury and there's been a lot of injuries we're going to talk about that but he's Williams extension not he's not missing anything that he hasn't seen in his first 14 or 15 years in the league he could also hold in and show up and they could work out a deal in terms of giving Williams some guarantees moving forward he's on um he's under contract for this year and I believe two more years no guaranteed money remaining which really only matters for 2025 and 2026 because he's going to get paid his salary essentially in full this year even if he were to get injured in training camp and couldn't play this season his cap hit though is $31.5 million for 2024 and ex an extension restructuring let's call a restructure can cut that basically in half iuk getting an extension will cut his 14.5 million doll or 14.1 million doll number all the way down to about 4.5 million so just with these two players you're talking you can save between 20 and $25 million on this year's cap which will roll over to next year's cap plus the savings on Williams restructure for 2025 as well not just rollover but for the for his singular 2025 capit guys it's going to happen it's just more money out of Jed York's wallet or vault I don't know does he have a does he have a money bin like Scrooge McDuck um I don't know if he swims around in it but it would be pretty cool if he did um it's just more upfront money coming out of Jed York's wallet plus you know a bump up in Pay 36 he's obviously on the back nine of his career maybe the back three of his career so I don't know how much more additional money you want to give per year like with mcaffrey I think they gave him an an additional what $3 million a year you didn't need to the running back Market was never going to get that high you could have given him I hate to say it another $500,000 a year plus more guarantees and that would have been still fine because no one's still nobody's touching what his average annual value is not even close so to bump it up by essentially 20% another $3 million just didn't seem mcaffry is worth it but it didn't seem necessary maybe another million hey we're going to give you guarantees plus another million dollars for the next three seasons I think that would have been fine totally fair Williams and auk just a matter of Injuries time I would I'm guessing within the next two weeks they will both be signed and practicing now injuries this has been the ners boogaboo for the past several years and and they're I'm going to get the title wrong I apologize but one of their trainers um left to be um a head trainer or whatnot for an NBA team I want to say the Atlanta Hawks but I very well could be wrong on that soft tissue injuries like crazy let's start off with the rookies so Isaac gendo Ricky Piel and jasb cowing at receiver gendo at running back all have hamstring injuries T Martin seconde receiver also dealing with the hamstring injury now Ricky peol was activated from the non-f footb injury list uh today he was in pads practicing so he should be good he did have some hamstring issues at Arizona State but was relatively healthy at Florida uh coing and greno going to miss some time greno is going to be multiple weeks so there's the possibility that he does not play in the pre-season at all and if that happens that's really going to hurt his chances for making any sort of dent on the 53 in terms of of of moving up the depth Char I've said the last couple times I've talked about the depth chart he is running back four because of Mitchell and Mason behind him we're going to talk about them in a little bit so gendo unless he cannot come back at all if it's a severe tear or he just misses so much time and someone like a Cody shrer undrafted rookie out of Missouri looks so so good that they can't risk releasing him there's the possibility that shider makes the 53 as running back four and gendo gets red shirted put on season ending IR maybe starts on the pup list maybe starts on the pup list inactive for the first six weeks four to six weeks of the Season like camlu was Offensive Line but I think latou went on season ending IR right away either way there could be a situation where greno does not start the regular season on the roster the ners see how their four running backs shake out and if everything is going okay they just IR him keep him in bubble wrap for next season where he will you know fill a roster spot slot for Eli Mitchell who will be moving for now piol we mentioned hamstring coming back cowing so his hamstring led the ners to sign two rece well between cowing and iuk not being in the ners are going to need receivers at practice and their first uh preseason game which is happening what next week next Friday or Saturday um they sign Malik Turner and Frank Derby who's a former um teammate of both peol and auk at Arizona State so players that unless there's a rash of of injuries really have no chance of making the 53 could make the practice squad but we'll certainly be seeing time obviously in training camp and at least in the first pre-season game now veterans Spencer Buford on the offensive line has a broken hand as of this recording they're still determining whether or not he needs surgery it's going to be out about three weeks now what's the impact so the impact is the interior of the offensive line has competition right so now it's Feliciano against um Dominic puny for Right Guard but it's also Feliciano against Brendle for Center and I guess you could say maybe puny and bch are battling Aaron banks for the left guard spot I think when it's all said and done you're still going to have your same five starters Williams when he does get his money and he will Aaron Banks last year of his deal Jake Brendle I think Feliciano will be the Right Guard instead of putting a rookie in there unless they AB abolutely have to impy and colon mckivitz as the right tackle so competition on the interior of the offensive line and tackles it's interesting Chris hubard of the Tennessee formerly the Tennessee Titans now um backup right tackle in the 49ers was recommended to the 49ers by Daniel brunskill former offensive Center guard tackle utility lineman who is with the ners up until last year left for Tennessee played with hubard let the 49ers front office I'm not sure who he contacted know that hubber is someone that can do what's needed a 49ers offensive Competition lineman so competition competition for backup right tackle he he's not going to unsee Colton mckivitz Jaylen Moore the backup left tackle and here's how why you have to just love people that are are putting stock in training camp this early saw a quote from one of the 49ers nonent nonent creators saying that jayen Jaylen Moore is terrible I hope he doesn't make the team well he's been on the team the past three years when he's filled in for Trent Williams the past two seasons when Williams has missed time due to injury he's equ quited himself very well jayen Moore will be on the team if this money standoff with Trent Williams extends into the pre well Williams is going to St in the play in the preseason but into the first week or two of the season I'm very comfortable with jayen Moore as the left tackle the blocking on the o line has been spotty thus far that is going to get better again defense is always ahead of offense in the beginning middle portions and sometimes throughout training camp and that is okay Spencer Beford let's get back to him I didn't have him making the 53 and I think this really puts him at a disadvantage to win at for me at this point I don't think he was ever going to win the Right Guard spot but to win a backup spot what is in his favor though is his guard tackle flexibility he played mainly tackle at University Texas San Antonio if he can get back by mid August say August 14th August 17th he can still have two to three weeks of say 3ish weeks of practice before the season starts s to even show that that flexibility between guard and Tackle is helpful to the team but I did not have him make him the 53 before the injury and now I think it's a really uphill battle for him obviously green law starting out on the pup list Drake Jackson Kyle Shanahan defensive end let us know that he Jackson is not gonna he's gonna be out for Camp he's not taking part in mini camp at all this is surprising news so he had surgery I should have written this down October or November it was well before the end of the season tore his patellar tendon so now let's just say he had it in November November December January February March April May June July it's been nine months counting on my fingers like a child month 10 would be August and you know that is an ACL is injury um more so you know in a lot of ways for stability and building up the strength back in the quads Drake Jackson so if you want to look at this in a silver line now some people are going to say oh Drake Jackson's been crap he's a bust three sacks week one against Pittsburgh didn't do anything else I hear you all of that's correct except for the bust part I don't think he's found his Niche yet on the 49er Roster he played heavier at USC they asked him to play lighter as strictly as a DN which meant that he was he could not move in inside the way ardan key did and others that have been um in the defensive end mold so his recovery though I'm going to look at it this way if he is going to be out for Camp there's a good chance that Ste he starts on the pup list like a Beford might like an Isaac greno might and someone like an Austin Bryant who has starting experience in this league same size as Jackson about 10 10 15 lbs lighter if he's your dn4 or dn5 is there really a drop off and if you can put Drake Jackson on pup for the first four to six weeks and they open the practice window see where he's at if you have an injury at D end around that time you can ins slot Jackson as a depth piece versus Jackson sort of being healthy enough to be on the roster Austin Bryant does he make it to the practice squad as one of the six veterans I don't think there's any real good situation or scenario for players to get injured and not begin the season with the team but for Isaac gendo if Cody shrer or Patrick Taylor shows out that they could be running back for and he is not ready as the season approaches same with Drake Jackson giving them that extra month on pup you know players are going to get injured on every team it's just a matter of what position that if there's an injury at running back or an injury at defensive end you have someone on the Shelf rehabbing healthy no wear and tear on their bodies for the first month plus of the Season that you can RB2 battle activate and tal H funga just quickly could potentially return in one to two weeks Jacob cow going back the receiver rookie receiver at Arizona I mentioned hamstring he's about a week week and a half away from returning so let's go back to running backs and Kyle Shanahan hinted that there could actually be a competition for running back two between Eli Mitchell and Jordan Mason now Mitchell is Kyle Shanahan's preferred semian Crush back that he trusts behind Christian mcaffry remember it was Eli Mitchell who scored basically the game clenching touch down against the Lions in the NFC championship game they get the ners up by 10 with with what less than three and a half minutes remaining but Mitchell has missed 18 games the past two years and if your best ability is availability that's not good enough Jordan Mason's 5.6 yards per carry interestingly enough is the highest on the team he runs with his like his hair is on fire he runs hard not the fastest physical just needed more refinement and past protection and the Playbook but here's couple quotes I wanted to share with you guys first from Kyle shanan quote I'd say nothing it's nothing against Eli there's been no fall off in Eli at all but Mason runs at a very high level I see both of those guys that if Christian's not in there not going I mean we always expect no matter who we've had in the past that number two number three sometimes our fourth guy comes in and if they're number is called we expect them to run like a starting back it's just how many reps did they get at it how long did they last at things like that Mason when he's had his number called he's performed and he has frankly outperformed Mason just it's not only statistically in yards per carry but the eye test also right it just seems there's more juice there's more power more decisiveness hitting the hole the past two years than Eli Mitchell offensive line coach and and Run game coordinator Chris Forester added quote Mitch um sorry Mason has become a better Ball Carrier he was just such a hard running strong physical tough guy that he sheer willed himself into yards now he's understanding The Playbook better not to say he's Christian mcaffrey Jr but the nuances of the Playbook hope I'm sure there's nuances in past protection if the line slides if a tight end or or fullback does or doesn't pick somebody up who would be Mason's responsibility in pass protection I love the fact that he is getting more into the Playbook and that there is a competition I think though to have your number two running back also play special teams not that that's going to wear him down on pun returns or kick returns or Hell Mitchell Mitchell or Mason maybe one of the kick returners based on the new kickoff rule iron sharpens IR no one should shy away from competition and that's I think a good thing now it's going to be who is running back for and the early favorite Cody Sher could really make an impact and raise some eyebrows with Isaac greno uh on the shelf for a couple weeks now going back to the uh o line an o line competition so that Banks Brendle Feliciano competition that I talked about it's going obviously against puny and Ben B but Nick zille getting more snaps at Center so zille play tackle at forom really a guard in the pros but they're trying to get you know more Center usage out of him and obviously berford being hurt the interesting wild card here is sixth round pick jarck Kingston out of USC has been working exclusively at right tackle so he's competing with the aforementioned Chris hubard for that right tackle spot now Kingston can play guard and has played some left tackle as well so vers versatility is going to be super important but obviously production how strong you are at the point of of attack how well you're actually blocking not missing assignments we saw that being a big thing in the Super Bowl the ners have a lot of options they might have more options this year than they've had the past two years on the line it's just a matter of the youth puny and Kingston being rookies you have hubard at has a veteran coming in um bch in his second year with the team are the options especially the young options going to come up to speed quick enough if called upon to step in for one of the five starters who I think Will Remain the five starters on the o line now tight end per reports uh Eric saber free agent and Braden Willis second-year player have been looking good sober making some catches Logan Thomas hasn't been targeted a ton so far Braden Willis obvious is actually playing some backup fullback so this is going to all but guarantee Braden Willis makes the team something happens to us Che you have someone that can fill in that capacity maybe seven 60 to 70 75% of what Kyle yek can do now Logan Thomas again now that the pads are even though you know 32 33 a couple years older than KD good receiving tight end can he block well enough to really win the de facto running uh tight end to saber a better blocker Thomas a better receiver that's an interesting competition and letou we just haven't heard a lot and we'll see throughout training camp and pre-season games if he is meant to be on the roster kick returns mentioned Debo potentially as a kick returner he'd be all for that he wants to do whatever he can to help the team out do I expect it every kick return no some yeah team's down Kyle looking to give a spark Debo going over to Kyle hey put me in I want I want to see what I can do the way that the practi have been going though they've been putting um returners back in pairs so Mason and Mitchell are a pair two running backs Ronnie Bell and uh Pat Uh Trent Taylor receivers Patrick Taylor and Danny gray and uh Shader and Tariq Owens to undrafted rookies getting some some look we'll see with the new kickoff rule how that's going to look but I can Envision Debo being that returner from time to time I I would imagine once a game I I can see that I can see that but they definitely need to figure out who else can be back there to return kicks now let's let's go over some defensive position battles even though we are into the second week of training camp with the pads on DN let's go through the defensive positions DN number one is obviously Nick Bosa the DN two uh battle and there is a slight battle between Floyd and UTI gross MOS just in terms of who you know it is is Floyd Leonard Floyd going to be the starting DN when the Niners come on defense you know every first snap of every drive or would gr Matos be that because he could set the edge a little bit better and Floyd more of a passing Downs type D end I'm not going to say he's only going to be third Downs or second and Longs I could definitely see Floyd playing on some first downs also but I think there is some examination that's going to go on there now Robert Beal is not competing with Drake Jackson so he's going to be your default DN number four and it's going to bring someone like an Austin Bryant who really has the possibility of if the ners carry five DNS and I think they will because someone like Gatos can move inside to D tackle and they're going to want to put him there as part of their NASCAR package to get their you know four best pass rushers on the field Brian can fill that dn5 role I I I like him I think more than a lot of people do uh hard for him to have won a a position on the 53 the past couple years but Drake Jackson's injury opens the door and again when you're getting to dn4 dn5 these are good depth pieces that need to help out on special teams as well but if your DN four or five is Austin Bryant man you could do a lot worse now D tackle hard Graves D tackle one Malle Collins and Jordan Elliott that battle for D tackle two and three Collins a bit heavier for whatever that's worth older vet 30 years old Jordan Elliot a little bit younger but played well on that dline for Cleveland the past couple years it's just a matter of you know who's going to be more of that run stuff or if if Hargrave is really going to be the penetrator on that D line then who can really maybe command a double team hold the anchor hold the point of attack and really give the dline a a little bit more uh push or strength in terms of bottling up the run then after that at D tackle four you have Kevin given who I think is going to make the team because he's just guaranteed a little over $2 million t y Mill uh Evan Anderson Kia Davis and shackle Brown could be battling for d d tackle four or D tackle five should the Niners go five D tackles and four DNS or five D tackles and five DNS if they carry 10 total defensive lineman which I don't think they're going to there's going to be some pretty good pretty deep DEC and D tackles the ners are going to have to release and hopefully one if not two of them end up on the practice squad maybe an Anderson or a shackle Brown um players that the Niners like they tried to get shackle Brown last year as an undrafted free agent went to Tennessee Evan Anderson out of FAU got $200,000 guaranteed it's still pocket change when you compare to a $250 million or more salary cap uh but it just shows what the niners think of these players now at linebacker it's obviously Dre Greenlaw it's probably going to be dandre Campbell but the early Returns on D Winters have been promising could Winters really battle Campbell for linebacker too sure that's why it's training camp right and what we've seen from greno from Drake Jackson injuries open the door for opportunities there haven't been injuries yet at linebacker but that is I think more of a legit battle at linebacker 2 than people want to admit and then at for linebackers 3 four and five it's Demetrius Flanigan fowls jayen Graham Curtis Robinson Turner and Tatum bethon the seventh round rookie from Florida State the Niners I think should only keep five linebackers so I think someone like Ezekiel Turner Tatum bethon could end up on the practice squad or Curtis Robinson I don't think there's a need for six even with special teams um I think you can find other position play other play players at other positions um that fill more than just a depth special teams CBs role instead of a linebacker six now cornerbacks competition everywhere except for charvarius Ward spot right like on the outside you're G to have Isaac yam Daryl lutter Rocky sin and Renardo green competing and if you want to throw do uh deor Lenor in there I I think that's totally fine I still think his best position is slot so yadam L lutter Yin and green competing for the outside cornerback two spot and then whoever wins that I think there's good depth behind him and travarus wward the slot is going to be between Lenor green Yin and wac every you Lenor yin and wack are all 510 5'11 Renardo green is 6 foot but a rookie wmac third year in the system Rocky is a veteran he's been around and of course Lenor had a good season and he's going into his fourth year with the club the ners have dep this year knock on wood that there's no injuries in training camp I've said it before I'm going to keep saying it until it's not true and it's probably not going to be true unless they start looking like crap the first uh month of the regular season the best looking cornerback room in the deepest quarterback room since Kyle Shanahan has been here players like I still believe Ambry Thomas is going to be gone Chase Lucas going to be gone um they already cut um keeman Hall to bring in one of the new uh receivers these players are needed their Camp fodder um I just can't see Ambry Thomas really turning it around and having a player like lutter or even someone like wac because W's under contract for one more season um I think Ambry Thomas has had three years to show what he can do and the consistency just hasn't been there safety it's Malik Mustafa versus George odm for safety three Mustafa has been all over the field the first four or five practices of training camp obviously a very good tackler at Wake Forest if he can show more you know side to side center field ability would go along way towards the safety3 competition and George odm had an interception today on a deflected pass um the four safeties like you know obviously if Huff's going to be Huang is going to be healthy Jer Brown Malik Mustafa and George Odum shaky secondary based on bouncing back from an injury based on youth Brown's still young Mustafa is a rookie and odm is a backup at a special team player I think behind maybe offensive line although I think that group can gel and perform better than they did last year safeties can as well but when you look at that position group I think all when you look at in total all four the the depth rounding out that group makes me a little uncertain especially when you have the likes of Eric Harris and Tyler Hawkins and Jaylen Mahoney also on the roster but these are players that are battling for a practice squad position so that's going to conclude the 49ers podcast for today there might be another podcast this week I'm recording this on a Monday night just depending on what happens in training camp if there's an iuk signing or Williams or anything noteworthy that happens the next four days there could be a podcast on Friday Saturday uh we shall see but wanted to go through obviously any of the pertinent news the defensive uh position group battles and excited to read more about training camp and see who are the standouts although like I always say let's take that with a grain of salt let's just quickly touch on there's no plus content the extension for Tua the extension for Jordan love you're going 53 55 million two has shown more than Jord Jord Love Jordan love has this is all based on what 11 or 12 good games in his what three four year career however long he's been with Green Bay but that's the market guys that's the market and Brock p is going to get more than that after this season and quickly from ComicCon Marvel Cinematic Universe Robert Downey J Jr returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Dr Doom as Victor Von Doom it was announced Avengers doomsday coming out May 2026 followed by Avengers secret War May 2027 a lot of chatter on message boards if this is going to confuse people I don't think it will they're going to show his face you don't cast someone like Robert dowy Jr and keep him behind the mask all movie is there the possibility that this is an alternate Earth Dr Doom that started out as a stark maybe Stark's father didn't be didn't have the last name Stark and it was Von Doom and Robert dowy Jr's character is born so he is Victor Von Doom but it's probably going to be someone from another reality the general audience I think will easily understand this I think it's the Nerds and the super nerds they're going to have a hard time wrapping their head around well how can one actor play two different characters in Marvel how about Chris Evans being Johnny Storm and Captain America granted 20th Century Fox and uh the Marvel Cinematic Universe but still and the last thing that I'm going to say before we sign off is with Avengers doomsday coming out in May 2026 that was one of the dates slotted for one of the three upcoming Star Wars movies episode 10 The Ray movie Mandalorian and grou or um dawn of the Jedi which is probably going to be the last one there is no way that Marvel Disney and Lucas film is going to have Avengers Doomsday release the same month as a Star Wars movie in fact Toy Story five releases a couple weeks I don't know if it's before or after Avengers doomsday does um in May I I don't know the exact number day that it's going to release or I didn't write it down so Star Wars going to get pushed maybe maybe it's December 26 December 27 and may 2028 Star Wars can't get it together although the TV stuff at least to me has been going pretty well good to see Robert Downey Jr back I'm not confused nerds will be off their rockers but it's just going to keep pushing I think Star Wars movies back especially movies The Ray movie and Dawn of the Jedi where there still are no scripts done and now that will conclude the 49ers podcast with a little sprinkle of plus content until we speak again no matter what you are doing stay happy stay healthy stay safe and we'll talk soon take care