2024 San Francisco 49ers Preview | Brock Purdy | Christian McCaffrey | Brandon Aiyuk | Deebo Samuel

welcome back to our ftn NFL team preview series I'm your host Mike Randle follow me on X Randall Rand and today we go out to the Bay Area there is no team more successful than the San Francisco 49ers that's why we need an expert that's why we need cam Inman on X at camman 49ers NFL reporter for Bay Area News Group cam thank you so much for joining us right off the bat we're going to go wide receivers you have plenty you have talent there's Rumblings of Brandon iuk here Debo Samuel Ricky peol was selected sort out the wide receiver room to start here for a team that is obviously a Super Bowl Contender every year well and also you have Joan Jennings a guy they extended so you brought and then you bring in Ricky Piel with your first round draft pick uh you have dvo in hand and I'm still like the Brandon auk situation it could be resolved quickly it could drag on through Camp it could drag on through the year um I've always just kind of been of the belief that the 49ers they extend and reward their homegrown guys um they've done that annually and there's usually one big ticket item that they pay for each year and it's kind of been earmarked that it's going to be Brandon iuk and you know a lot of those deals get done around Camp time uh the price tag has gone up this offseason the thing is brand auk's G over thousand yard each the last two years and Brock pie obviously has a great connection with him he's a Young quarterback you don't want to get rid of your great connection um and then that brings us to Debo Samuel who has a great connection with Kyle Shanahan and and Kyle shanan knows how to use Debo Debo knows how to uh find space and run through Defenders uh once he gets the ball in his hands um and so everybody kind of gets worried about well if you extend auk what's gonna happen to Debo like in 2025 fine deal with that 2025 we're talking about 2024 here and now I fully expect auk to be on the team Debo to be on the team um it's going to be a great one-w punch there also with George KD as a Target uh Joan Jennings you know they extended him so it showed the belief that they really love Jan jennings's physicality and what he brings to their offense but now you bring in Ricky piol as a first round draft pick and he looked phenomenal in the spring it's a pathing camp essentially where there's no contact so I really have uh triy to reserve my judgment until we're actually in regular season action um but the guy's got great hands good really good routes um has been received very well by um his teammates including Brock pie and dvo um and so they have a really good wide receiver core so much so that they could open it up even more so after Brock set the franchise record last year with 4,280 yards in only the first 16 games before sitting out the regular season finale so there is your all-encompassing wide receiver survey that makes total sense and listen lot of weapons here for the fantasy Community let's go to the running backs CMC death taxes extended best running back in the game period my question is behind him Elijah Mitchell of course explosive but we always wonder about the injuries Jordan Mason they drafted some players here talk about how you're seeing the running back room if CMC were to miss time how do you think that's going to go I remember last year talking about maybe taking some snaps off for him get him keep him fresh for the playoffs here how dides that depth chart sort out there in the running back room yeah Chris mcaffrey is a running back one running back onea is not on the roster because they don't want a onea they want all mcaffrey all the time um obviously he got his contract extension he is having a heck of a year just got named Madden cover booy uh he's getting married to Miss Universe got his contact extended holy moly what a year right um and he's healthy I mean he he battled through some injuries last season and route to like the 49ers first rushing title in I think 75 years-ish um and so he um is set up for another great run and uh he there were durability issues right coming in with his time with the 49ers he has played through a lot of that um and so much so that you wonder do you draft him Elijah Mitchell what do you do with Jordan Mason uh they used a fourth round pick on Isaac Reno this kid that's really fast he's the fastest running back in the draft um and then you also have to factor in I think the thing I always look for for in terms of the backup running back situation is which guy yes who could be the number two right now they like Elijah Mitchell a lot because he's healthy right can you rely on that I don't know they do um but then the number three running back that's really a debate because Jordan Ma's done well the last couple years as an undrafted guy but they just spent a fourth round pick on the fastest running back in the draft in Isaac Reno and then you factor in this new kickoff return rule yes and that to me is where I would put Isaac gendo I mean he hasn't look great on the practice field as a running back but they're again you reserve judgment because they're not allowed to have contact you can't really see what running back does until you're in contact games right preseason camp whatever um but that's a guy that to take a on because he's so darn fast and uh the ners are you know they will they will look hard into that to see if this guy is what it takes but they also have a history of drafting third round running backs that don't pan out and you just kind of go okay well then it's just all mcaffry it's mcaffrey or bust almost again you know I laugh cam everybody says Kyle Shanahan you know a couple years ago always wants to share running back duties yeah until you have Christian mcaffrey and then it's pretty easy what you have to do right absolutely yeah well in the Shanahan credit they always une Earth guys right and it's like in that Shanahan system over the last 30 years there's a guy that can come out of nowhere um and do really well Matt breida did his first year with the with the Niners or second year with the Niners so um they had an undrafted or the the undrafted guy they got this year is Cody Sher out of Missouri um way smaller guy U but stockier and he runs pretty well so who knows maybe he takes out Isaac gendo if gendo flops in Camp so oh listen great stuff cam last question then we'll get you out of here talk about the schedule and the defense and how things set up I did an article for ftn Fantasy San Francisco with a very easy start weeks one to five uh they have the Patriots the Cardinals in week four and five the match up with the Jets is at home but then at the end of the season here uh they have a difficult schedule they travel to Buffalo week 13 Miami week 16 and then end the stretch with the lions at home from weeks 13 to 17 only home matchups do have the Bears and Rams to keep reasonable but challenging endend of the season schedule here just talk about defense how the team's coming together with that strength the schedule here obviously giving their success going to be one of the more challenging ones overall yeah and that's what you get as a first place team right you get you're GNA face some tough teams um those east coast and far trips come later in the year right you got Green Bay to start off Thanksgiving week and then you finish like like the following Sunday after Thanksgiving year in Buffalo so those are two back-to-back long road trips Miami later in the year uh before you get to theine Lions game which is the big Marquee matchup and then you also have the chiefs coming into the Levi Stadium in the Super Bowl rematch so um but the way it's sets up now there's a couple things one it gives them a chance to get rolling right this team once they get a great start of a season they can roll into a Super Bowl really well um and then there's usually The Gauntlet they have like a week nine by for the third straight year for some reason but so it works well for them um there's another Quirk to the schedule is for the opponents they play are coming off a buys and that would say oh that's unfair the ners are playing all these teams off rest well guess what last year they played four teams off a Buy and they still made the Super Bowl um and so there's really not major complaints about the schedule it's more of a um are they you know you worry about the Super Bowl hangover stuff right still what I the vibe I get around because a lot of these guys have been through the Super Bowl hangover before the core guys back in 2020 um is there's not a sense of En that they know how they have to get work to get back up there so I think that's a good thing to see and the fact that you have a quarterback in place that's done really really well and he's still surrounded by gobs of talent holy smokes it's a matter of can that defense uh withstand all the charges that are going to be coming you have a new coordinator nick senson uh you have Nick Bosa who's got another new guy across the side from him and Leonard Floyd um are they going to be the great pass rushing tanm that they've been long searching for um and then you have Fred Warner in the middle and he's gonna be with that Drake greenw probably the first month of the season um and so that's an issue as well and then the secondary is kind of a little bit suspect rebuilt not a lot of financial commitment back there right now but charvarius wward is coming off like the best season of his career so it's still a Super Bowl caliber roster it's all a matter of once they get there can they actually close it out um and so that's how I close it out yeah no one closes out better folks than cam Inman on X at cam Inman 49ers reporter Bay Area News Group cam thank you so much for a few minutes here San Francisco they find franchise quarterbacks with the last pick of the draft looks like they're going to be really successful again very excited for a season and I appreciate a few minutes here look forward to catching up with you later in the summer NFL just around the corner here all right thanks Mike and I got a book coming out on the 49ers in a couple months so go buy it it's called the franchise San Francisco 49ers oh that's a must buy 100% thanks so much Cam all right thanks Mike