49ers 53-man Roster Projection: From Brock Purdy to Ambry Thomas to Cody Schrader

all right block three of 49ers training camp has wrapped up they've got a players day off tomorrow which is Monday then block four and guess what we can say that it's gameweek now pregame uh preseason game week not actual regularly season game week you're gonna have to wait about a month for that 49ers Jets on Monday Night Football I think they're already advertising for it on ESPN and ABC but it is game week as far as preseason week one 49ers and the Titans Go so we can check out a 53 man roster projection right now because I wouldn't say that things are fully rounding in the form but we have good hints of what the 49ers might do at this point 10 practices in and the preseason games coming up and a lot of the bubble spots they're going to be highly impacted by what happens on the actual field when live tackling is a thing and that's something that the 49ers don't have during the course of their training camp practices you don't tackle fully to the ground that practice so positions like running back linebacker the types of positions that you can evaluate much more thoroughly with the live tackling actually happening look out for those positions when the 49ers and the Titans take the field in Nashville next Saturday so with that being said it's time for the 53 man roster projection we're going to go through every single player and as we go through every single player we're going to look at how that position group might be constructed once the 49ers cut this roster down to 53 active players and obviously build a 16-man practice squad a lot of what you should be watching both camp and these preseason games for you need to view it through the lens of building this roster there's limited space obviously but I think there's more space relatively than there was not too long ago because of the practice squad rules because of the fact that you can have a guy as a yo-yo especially early in the season and you have to remember remember that some veterans they're they they might not make that first 53 man roster but the 49ers can bring him back after week one so that their contract is not fully guaranteed for the season there are different maneuverings that can happen there's also been a significant rules change regarding the roster this year that might allow the 49ers to keep more players that they like in the building and that is the injured reserve rule you can put two players on IR before the 53-man cutdown and have them designated to return for the season they have to miss at least four games but it used to be that a player that you put on injured reserve without making the 53 man roster his season was done that's no longer the case and I think the 49ers can take advantage of that rule and I think they will take advantage of that rule when the cutdown happens because they do have so many eligible players to make that 53 the problem and it's a problem you like to have with a really load it roster comes at the cut down and teams not only you know respect the 49ers roster for how many good players they have but they just like the 49ers system so we've seen it every season teams are praying they're like vultures they're ready to to grab players that the 49ers cut it was Ill Manning the offensive lineman last year and I'm sure given the buzz coming from the 49ers and how deep their roster is guys that they cut expose the waivers or even just release and uh they're able to sign elsewhere other teams going to be interested in them that's been a year in year out occurrence for the 49ers so anyway we're going to start at the bottom here we're going to start with the defensive back position we'll work our way up to Brock pie Brandon auk and that offense but I sometimes like going in reverse order I think it's a good time to do that here starting with the cornerback position I think that you've got the general framework of who the for Anders view as their top corners in practice down charvarius Ward and diomer Lenor top two but Isaac yam is somebody who they really like at that outside cornerback position and what they're going to do is this scheme under Nick Sorenson now but with Brandon Staley obviously putting some of his fingerprints on it the 49ers have gone back to the basics but they also have brought in a guy who's loved cornerback versatility in Brandon Staley he had Jaylen Ramsey playing outside and playing in the slot moving back and forth as that star position for the Rams back in 2020 so given the structure that the 49ers are playing with there is a tremendous amount of of importance on the slot cornerback position and you have to put one of your quicker players there you have to put one of your best DBS there there was an issue last year and this was even when the 49ers are running Steve wils a defensive coordinator but wils was trying to imprint his his own defense with what the 49ers were already running and one of the big problems there was Isaiah Oliver more of a Steve wils guy came in and he couldn't cover well enough to what the 49ers need it within the structure of their existing scheme at the Nickelback position they didn't have enough change of Direction and short area quickness from Isaiah Oliver who was built and they later moved him to safety later in that season he was just a little bit too big didn't pack the the C the change of direction that they needed at nickel so this season with nickel obviously being a big- Time emphasis I mean some of the best receivers in the game are playing in the slot not outside more than 60% of the time one of those guys is in the 49ers Z division in Cooper cup so you've got to have a good inside cornerback and I think the 49ers are dedicating premium resources to it this year every single indication that we've seen from training camp has pointed toward deamer Lenor being at that nickel position but you're not always going to be in nickel right the 49ers also need to defend the run better than they defended it last year and if you want to defend the run better you've got to be good in base so what are they GNA do in Bas well diomer Lenor calls himself the hyena he's obviously a really Scrappy guy really physical guy I think he's his shoulders have broadened since he's entered the NFL he's excellent against the run so he's definitely your quarterback too outside of charvarius Ward who had the lowest Miss tackle rate in football two years ago amongst all Corners so we know charvarius Ward can crack down against the run but you take yam off the field yam is a little bit more slight of frame compared to Ward and Lenor so in base packages which you're going to run about 30% of the time it's going to be Ward and Lenor on the outside okay then the question is who makes this roster as far as depth I really like what I've seen out of reonardo green the second round pick out of Florida State so far i' call it a dog fight because reonardo green loves to call himself a dog we know Jawan Jennings is a dog twice they've been at each other's throats not fighting but dog fighting I guess going at each other in coverage and one time Jawan Jennings won the other time Renardo green got the best of him and we've seen reonardo make some physical pass breakups already and that's exactly what he was doing throughout his time at Florida State he was playing some of the best receivers in the country including Ricky piol when Florida State played Florida and he did very well against Ricky piol he also did really well twice against LSU Malik neighbors and Brian Thomas Jr So based on the production in college and and Renardo green LED uh the ACC in in pass breakups we figured this guy might be polished enough to deliver right away and to me it seems that he's competing with some of the stronger guys on the 49ers roster that's Jawan Jennings immediately my one concern and it's still a concern until you can prove it in an actual game with Renardo green was I thought maybe he was going to need to put on a little bit of muscle a great example is diam Lenor who's gotten stronger over his time with the 49ers he's very very Barrel chested now big strong shoulders Lenor is not going to get pushed around and you know you need that because you're playing inside you're playing at that Nickelback position so you're going to be part of The Fray much more often it's almost like a glorified linebacker spot when you're playing nickel especially against the Run there's just bound to be a whole lot more traffic a whole lot more blocking that you have to get around or fight through so with Renardo green the 49ers want him to be just as versatile as diomer Lenor because Deo is gonna command a lot of money either the 49ers can pay him early which you know Deo might not want to do he might want to bet on himself this year and he can hit unrestricted free agency next off season he's going to command a lot of money is one of the better cornerbacks in this game so how do the 49ers build a succession plan just in case they can't resign deom Lenor or charvarius Ward I think they probably resign at least one of those guys but you've always have to have capable cornerbacks in the pipeline and they need to be capable of replicating the job that is currently being done on the front line so they started working reonardo green over the spring at at slot cornerback and then they moved him ins outside and he's been doing a little bit of both for the 49ers and I think that he's been as as impressive as he can be this early in his career does that mean they want to thrust him into action right away no but it does mean that he's going to be on the 53 man roster as a second round pick you've got some insurance in rocken who for the first time all camp today was starting to get some first team reps Rocky aen is an accomplished Corner in this league so they've got a veteran here he played for the Ravens last year has been around the NFL they have a veteran who's very physical we've seen some good coverage from him we've seen him lose some physical battles as well he lost a physical battle today to Ronnie Bell who we'll get to when we talk about the receivers but when you talk about cornerback depth the fact that you've got rock Yen somebody who could give you quality snaps in a pinch just sitting there waiting in the wings it's not bad for the 49ers and I do think that especially given some of the first team reps that we've seen from him he is on the inside track to make the 53 man roster darell lutter Jr has got a pick to his name lutter listen he's got really long arms he's he's built for the the Press man coverage the 49ers want to run I think that they would have played him much sooner when they were thinner at the cornerback position last year if not for the bone bruise that he suffered um when was it I think it was I think that put him on pup at the start of the season so it must have happened at OTAs and he wasn't activated off of pup until about Midway through the season obviously lutter did play unfortunately he was the player who who had the punt go off of his leg in the Super Bowl so he saw some special teams action down the stretch last year but as far as playing cornerback and you think about again you you think about contingency plans especially for the future and positions possibly opening up in 2025 and you look at the fact that Ward yadam and Lenor are all on the final years of their respective contracts darell lutter Jr is a player you want to continue to develop and he might even be ready to contribute a little bit now based on some of the work that we've seen from him on the second team so at this point you're probably wondering okay I've got five or six cornerbacks if I'm counting to Nickel back Lenor H how are the 49ers gonna deal with Ambry Thomas with Samuel wack with Chase Lucas they've already cut a corner in Kon hall because I think it was very apparent with how deep this room was that that just wasn't a clear path for him to make the roster of the practice squad so how are they going to deal with Ambry somebody who's been a hero for them who intercepted that pass against Matthew Stafford covering Odell Beckham Jr in week 18 against the Rams how they going to deal with Samuel wac somebody who was a fast rising Prospect just a couple years ago what about Chase Lucas somebody who was a really good Gunner for the Detroit Lions last year who is competing for that nickel spot but it just looks like there's limited room for the 49ers on this roster well I'll tell you what I think that the rules will work in the 49ers favor here because I think they're going to be able to take an extra player as you could see in my roster calculator on the left side of this 53 man projection which is the left side of this line currently have 56 projected but as we speak right now Drake Jackson is almost certainly gonna start the season on pup so that's actually only 55 he's not going to count toward that total Dre green law is almost certainly gonna count the season on pup so that's 54 and then as I said you're going to have two injured reserve spots that you designate as eligible to return for the season so that can open up two more potential spots for the 49ers now I don't know who's going to be hurt yet I mean but injuries do happen it's just an unfortunate part of the game and we're still about a month away from the roster cutdown so assuming that there are two injuries to players between now and the cutdown that are going to affect the 49ers from weeks one to four or at least for week one and two and you want to use one of those injured reserve slots on that player and you could designate him to return that's going to open up two more roster spots so they can take advantage of that new rule and then I see it as a battle between Ambry Thomas Samuel wack and Chase Lucas for one more spot hell if they want to take two more corners if it's that valuable to them then maybe two of those guys make it but just the way that I see it is the 49ers gonna have to get creative to keep guys in the building and so they can't get poached by other teams that might be one of the mechanisms that San Francisco uses of course you can also cut and then resign somebody that you think won't get poached by another team to the practice squad so we'll see how it all shakes out all right now we're gonna move to the safety Market the Titans just signed quandre Diggs to deal worth only five million this year so that safety Market is not very active Justin Simmons is still out there for uh reference will the 49ers sign anybody to add to it maybe at the cutdown they could think of it I think that Malik Mustafa who you see sh here in green has been impressive enough for the 49ers early in this season to say hey maybe they try to work this guy in like taleno hu funga got worked in in 2021 as a third safety kind of a creative box type of player that hey he had that interception on day one where he showed he could cover too dos I think went for I think it was Danny gray on the play and Malik Mustafa came over from center field and was able to pick the pass off so he runs a 449 he is built like a ball of muscle he's a shorter player they call him a mini linebacker but he's physically developed it's and I think he's a really good tackler I think Malik Mustafa is somebody that you can watch this game on Saturday in Tennessee and you'll probably see him tackling well based on what I saw on his tape in college and I would put him in the category of the players that like we really need to see in a preseason game to see the full effect of what they can do on the field because live tackling has not been a thing yet but Malik Mustafa but Malik Mustafa can obviously deliver that live tackling for the 49ers that was my fault I accidentally xed out of the screen hopefully I didn't lose too many of you I do have to reshare the screen though so we're good to go all right there you go we're back to the roster we're still talking about the 49ers safety position so who's starting at safety well taleno huanga they're expecting him to potentially be back around mid August he's still on pup he's recovering from the ACL but he doesn't have any crutches anymore doesn't have a brace he's in the final stretches of his rehab we saw tanoa on the sideline over the past couple days assuming everything goes on schedule Tano huanga is going to be back the 49 is going to evaluate him before or right around the time of the joint practices against the Saints and those are on August 15th and August 16th okay so you have tooa you you assume that that he works into it over the course of the back half of August maybe he doesn't start right away in September but you've got a quality body in the safety room at least in an Ideal World for the 49ers I know you can never take an ACL recovery for granted although it's a much higher success rate now than it was in the past as far as guys getting back up to speed Achilles injuries have been more tricky and unfortunately that's what Dre green law is dealing with so assume that huanga is not a week one starter just assume that that this takes longer I'm not saying that it will assume that the 49ers have to do what they're doing right now in practice Jer Brown has been an absolute Ball Hawk second-year player several interceptions already in college Jer Brown led the entire nation in interceptions of players that were eligible to enter the 2023 NFL draft at Penn State so he had a nose for the football in college he's got a knows for the football now he intercepted Patrick Mahomes in the Super Bowl I remember when they first thrust Jer Brown into action where they were desperate at the end of that game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last year and they needed him to hold on for deer life and and Baker Mayfield went right at Jer Brown in the red zone and he was there ready for the assignment ready for the challenge and he got the job done I think that what we saw last year in that working Duty from Jer Brown really established trust from the 49ers end and what we're seeing this training camp has been a continuation of that so right now they're fine with Jer Brown and George odm being their top two safeties now odm is obviously a placeholder for when taleno huanga does come back but odm hasn't been bad either the key is to have a high floor at that safety position especially since the rest of the defense is so damn good you've got a really good defensive line we'll get to them in a second you've got really good linebackers you've got really good Corners so you just got to make sure the safeties are not blowing coverages and screwing it up I think there's a lot of trust in somebody like George Odum for that very reason I think that that he hasn't blown coverages during Camp the 49ers can trust him as a veteran presence he is where he needs to be it's not like they can't trust Malik Mustafa but he's a rookie and you generally want to work rookies in more slowly they did that with Tano huanga in 2021 working him in as the third safety down the stretch of the season and they did that last year actually with Jer Brown working him in behind tohan Gibson and then you know his opportunity did come when taleno huanga T his ACL so I would expect the 49ers to go veterans first until taloa comes back and again that might be week one it might not we'll see and then work Malik Mustafa and later historically this team has carried only four safeties on its 53 man roster which is why there's not a logical spot to add another one unless taleno huanga suffers a setback or if somebody else gets hurt so I think that the drafting of Mustafa plus the verification that he can indeed play and we've seen a lot of good stuff from Malik Mustafa on the field actually has encouraged the 49ers to not be as interested in the safety Market as they were before remember when they hosted Julian Blackman who resigned with the Colts they hosted raan Jenkins who signed with the Seahawks they were really interested in adding a veteran safety at that time I guess at their at their price obviously that was something that didn't happen but that was before they drafted Malik Mustafa out of Wake Forest so it's everything needs to be viewed in context right and the the context of this is that the 49ers may have their four safeties now I do think that it's Health dependent though and too hufanga while he's still on pup you cannot assume anything until he comes off of it I would expect an update there though in about 10 or 11 days as far as the guys on the outside looking Taylor Hawkins and Eric Harris have been on the practice squad before I think those are two potentially trusted names to be on the practice squad again is there room for jayen Mahoney the undrafted rookie out of Vanderbilt we'll see that's the type of guy that's gonna have to make some Flash plays when he has a chance in in the preseason he's gonna have to show that he's a gamer we haven't seen a flash play from him yet during training camp but guys are going to get the opportunity you're not invited into this building on the 90 man roster unless the the the club believes that that you have a chance of making it otherwise they'd be burning a roster spot so don't count Jaylen Mahoney out yet but have that as one of the guys that you watch I mean he went to Vanderbilt that's in Nashville he gets to play his first NFL preseason game back there not in Vanderbilt Stadium but in the Titan Stadium and we'll see if Jaylen Mahoney can show out on Saturday all right that's your defensive backfield I think the corners are definitely the deepest that the 49ers have had under Shanahan and Lynch and the safeties well to me that's a little bit more of a we'll see thing just because there is that tenuous situation of too hua's recovery but I think the 49ers have Mustafa having them feel a whole lot better than they were feeling a few months ago when they didn't have Malik Mustafa I think that they see some real real upside with him the other day he came in on a blitz it was just like a missile they had this defensive package called the panther package in Wake Forest and so it Mustafa who's at the safety position and diamer Lenor who's at Nickelback and cornerback these are two guys that I think really fit with some of the some of the the quirky curveballs that Brandon auk uh that Brandon auk little slip there that um Brandon Staley might throw into this defense talking about a lot of Brandon's today Brandon Staley in the past has really really advocated for flexible positional roles for his defensive backs so you go to the the Rams in 2020 the star position with Jaylen Ramsey playing both outside and inside cornerback and that obviously helped the Rams be a very good defense that year and then he went to the Chargers where obviously Staley was the head coach so but he still had his fingerprints on some of what that defense did especially the secondary and Derwin James was brought down from the safety position to cover people a lot I wouldn't be surprised if obviously we're already seeing it with diomer Lenor but to break Malik Mustafa into the NFL I wouldn't be surprised if a 49ers found some creative usages for him because at Wake Forest especially on third Downs they ran the panther package and in the panther package Malik Mustafa he was even a down defensive lineman on some snaps like he'd put his hand in the dirt and he would rush so he was a really good pass rusher he's coming in from outside linebacker coming in from the stack and obviously playing center field safety as well and and he was able to kind of vacillate between those two at an effective enough level to where offenses didn't know which way was going to go is Malik Mustafa going to come into the box or is he going to go back in cover he disguised it well was a very good player on tape at Wake Forest and you know if he can Port any of that skill set to the NFL uh Brandon Staley is the type of coach that has shown that he can use those type of skill sets within his defense all right so I went really in depth into the secondary why don't we go to the linebacker position I highlighted it there by the way if you guys want to follow along I will put this on the YouTube link so I'll put it in the comment section on YouTube if you're watching on Twitter or you're gonna have to go to the YouTube to get the link because I can't post a link to this on Twitter but there you go I I think I have tweeted it at some point um but there you go it's it's in the YouTube section somebody else has put it up there oh the copy and paste wizard interesting that's funny this is the link I don't know if you can click on it if you're on Twitter but go to YouTube and you'll be able to click on it in the chat there so the linebacker position as you can see obviously Fred Warner he's a total stud best linebacker in the league there's a lot of question about the number two spot because Dre Greenlaw is almost certainly gonna start the season on pup that's where he still is we've seen him out of practice signs are good but it's an Achilles injury that was suffered in the very last possible game of the previous season so that's not good for his potential availability early in 2024 dandre Campbell is who the 49ers brought in from the Packers free agent to be the stop Gap at that linebacker 2 position but this football team would really really like to see some of its youngsters step up and they've got a lot of options they've got D Winters who has really really impressed them over the spring and today he finally got some first team snaps at that third linebacker spot so not not in the Campbell spot but in the third linebacker spot and they've got Jaylen Graham who also saw some first team reps today they also have Ezekiel Turner on the football team but Turner is more of a special team's Ace he actually blocked a punt from Mitch wisnowski when he played from Arizona for in 2020 that was the season opener at Levi Stadium so I don't think that aiel Turner is a particularly strong candidate for the 49ers to try to grab one of the top three linebacker spots but I do think that D Winters and Jaylen Graham are this the veteran safe play if you don't feel comfortable with Winters and Graham out there is Demetrius Flanagan Foles who's been with the 49ers for a long time a bunch of one-year contracts he's like the Ross dwell of the defense although Ross dwell is obviously no longer around he's with the Atlanta Falcons now but Flanigan FES missed practice today we don't know why yet that meant that it was Warner and one it was DeAndre Campbell and linebacker two and then it was Winters and Jaylen Graham splitting time toward the end there linebacker three now obviously that's base Downs because you take generally take the third linebacker off the field in nickel Tatum bethon the seventh round pick out of Florida state is also an option and Curtis Robinson who's been uh a veteran that's been really good with with the the practice squad and being shuttled back and forth and and special teams he's also still around I think based on what I've seen that this is my projection right here because remember green law won't count against one of the 53 man spots if he starts on pup so you got Warner one Campbell two Winters three Graham four Flanigan fos five and they've carried five much of the time in the past they might be able to carry six now if they don't carry six it's because they don't find the requisite value there of a roster spot for somebody like aiel Turner and they they try to go with him on the practice squad although that's gonna be tough because he's been an accomplished veteran on special teams but I think that you carry Winters and Graham at this point I think they've actually shown enough they flashed enough in their second year to give the 49ers a very very good feeling about them bethon is tough for me the seventh round pick out of Florida State because I don't think he's great in coverage and that was his issue in Florida State I mean the guy hits the guy's got instincts he sniffs out screens to me he's a real gamer you'll put on the tape he always got the job done for Florida State but in one-on ones I think we've seen some of the coverage liability the tighter hips I think that we've seen that uh on display I would really really like to see him where he could hit people and Tackle people to the ground which is why these preseason games I think are such a big deal for for Tatum bethon and um you know not just him but but the rest of the linebackers too because it's a tackling position and you can't really show your full skills in practice so but bethon who's a guy that you know I talked to his defensive coordinator at Clems uh Florida State Adam Fuller who he said that I had a like rank him back Adam Fuller would talk about Tatum bethon is just going out trying to decapitate people he's he's he wasn't saying that he was a dirty player he was just saying that this is a very very eager player in many ways like Dre Greenlaw somebody's might incur a few Flags just because that's how he plays he's he's the enforcer type at the linebacker position so if that's his strength yet his weakness is coverage well in Camp where he can't fully tackle and fully hit people but he can only cover he's obviously going to look a little bit worse right so and you have to gauge things by how guys are going to play on game day so I'm actually really excited for Tatum bethon and his opportunity to shake up this linebacker picture but I think that's going to have to end up happening uh in preseason games we have somebody saying that he'll end up on the practice squad I think that's a real possibility seventh round pick you could probably get him through to the practice squad but we'll see how he looks in these preseason games coming up all right moving on to the defensive line the one thing about the dline is that it is overhauled they weren't good against the run last year especially the interior guys like Armstead and guys like Javon kinlaw scored much better as pass rushers than run Stoppers which might have been ironic to many people to to me there was some irony there right they drafted Javan kinlaw and everybody said all right he's a monolith against the run this is great but he's going to have to develop as a pass rush or Eric Armstead one of the best defenders in the league on the inside against the run when they moved him fulltime to defensive tackle halfway through 2021 that's when the 49ers run defense surged from number 20 to number one but Eric was also playing next to DJ Jones back then and DJ Jones was gobbling up a lot of double teams also Eric Armstead was healthier back then and some of the injuries I think finally started compromising his ability to play that Stout run defense so some of the injuries plus no DJ Jones all of a sudden Eric Armstead became a much better pass rusher from the inside than a run stopper and Javon kinlaw he developed into a pass rusher maybe the knee situation also hurt Javon kinlaw as a run stopper but the regardless of how the 49ers got to that point and some of it might have been on Steve wils too obviously for I I think deprioritizing the run defense the way that in a way that the 49ers had not been accustomed to regardless of how you got to the end point point was not pretty the 49ers had been the number one run defense in the league in 2021 they'd been top two top three in 2022 and then all of a sudden they're number 26 by EPA per play against the run in 2023 you can't fall from number one to number 26 it just doesn't work especially for a team that is pass rush oriented you have to stop the run so you can have some fun and the 49ers couldn't have a lot of fun especially in the NFC championship game over the course of the first half or even for a lot of the game against the Packers when they're giving up four five yards a carry and this traced back all the way to the Browns game the first game they lost what week six in Cleveland Cleveland didn't have competent quarterback play at all but they were able to run against the 49ers and they were able to control game Flow against the 49ers anyway it was a big issue that the 49ers needed to overhaul so they didn't retain kinlaw they obviously cut Eric Armstead both of those guys are on the East Coast now and you see a whole lot of teal on here teal means new veteran free agent so they've got Malik Collins to replace Eric Armstead they picked up Jordan Elliott from the Browns to replace Javon kinlaw that's the tandem that they're working with on the inside is Elliott going to be better against the Run than kinlaw well he was number six in Run Stop win rate amongst defensive tackles last year that's ESPN's measurement how often does he beat running blocks the metrics disagree on Jordan Elliott PFF doesn't like him ESPN loved him he was at the end of the day even though he started many games for the Browns he's a rotational lineman for the 49ers the rotation goes eight lineman deep you have your front four and you have your second four maybe in some some games you'll go with a ninan rotation but typically they go with an eight-man rotation so you have two starting defensive ends two starting defensive tackles and then two backups at each position so I firmly anticipate Jordan Elliott who by the way had a great great practice the other day on Saturday he was in the back field a lot he a wide body I fully anticipate him being that number two defensive tackle where Javon kinlaw was last year then you look at Malik Collins okay where's he gonna be well I think he's the starter 99 is he as good of a player as Eric Armstead in his prime no but I think that when you look at availability that's what the 49ers were they were doing a cost benefit analysis Armstead was going to cost them how much did he make from I think he made 14 million a year from from Jacksonville so the pay cut that Armstead was willing to take was was obviously way above what the 49ers were willing to pay him for the availability issues he had missed he had missed 13 games over two seasons so what the the the 49ers did is they said okay we'll trade the seventh round pick for Malik Collins he'll cost us I think he's costing eight or nine million this year that's under the budget that we had for Armstead it will free up a little bit of money to make other Maneuvers and they think they can get better run defense out of a more lower to the ground Stout player like Malik Collins is that going to end up being the case well my argument would be that it can't get much worse than last year as far as run defense I mean number 26 in EPA per run is really really tough I mean that that's it's going to be hard to beat anybody in the playoffs and 26 against the run and it was really hard to beat the Packers it was really hard to beat the Lions and obviously they didn't beat the Chiefs and and run defense was an issue in all three of those games so I I see it as what you had last year you could move only move up from that and that's why the 49ers have rehauled the defensive line especially the interior I haven't gotten to the edge yet but they obviously have two new players there and Ur gr MTO one of those two edges he can also give the 49ers flexibility inside by the way those of you watching on Twitter make sure you go ahead and check out the YouTube channel I can actually share links over on YouTube so subscribe over there and subscribe to the podcast Lombardi Lounge it's on Apple podcasts Spotify and and obviously it's on YouTube as well but I could share the links and do all the live stuff much more easily on YouTube so why don't you go ahead and check that out all right anyway back to the roster as we go through this defensive line I mentioned y rmos he played for Carolina before I have him here listed as the second defensive tackle in the rotation but he's a lot like Arden key Charles am menu maybe a better comp I think he's a little bit heavier than Arden key but the 49ers view utour is somebody who can play defensive end but also in pass rushing situations can move in to defensive tackle in run situations you want bigger defensive tackles in pass rushing situations you want want you obviously want more athletic defensive tackles so say that they want Malik Collins in there on base downs but then in pass rushing Downs you obviously are not going to take Javon Hargrave off the field he's a total pass rushing stud he's one of the best in the game so what about a front of Bosa yur gr Matos Javon Hargrave and Leonard Floyd as your NASCAR package and that'd be a real NASCAR package considering the fact that Leonard Floyd is built like a wide receiver I mean they've got a speed rusher now opposite Nick Bosa for the first time since D Ford and unfortunately for them D Ford was injury prome but Leonard Floyd has not missed a game in 108 chances he's not injury-prone Leonard Floyd is like the bionic man he's limped off the field a couple times this training camp and he's been back on like the next play every time that you think he's out now Leonard Floyd is back in there which to me is remarkable for a guy who probably weighs 240 pounds dripping wet again he's built more like a wide out and he's playing with all these big 300 PB linemen he's in The Fray but he knows how to contort his body he obviously has a ton of speed he's ran around Colton mckivitz a few times he's done a good job when he's lined up on the other side against Jaylen Moore I mean this is a guy who has 39 and a half sacks over the past four seasons and I think also has played the Run decently well it is going to be an intriguing overhaul to say the least of this 49ers defensive line so I think Bosa etour gr mat harra and Floyd is their pass rushing package I think that Collins will come off the field and I think that you've got guys like Collins and Elliott in there in the middle to to stuff the Run are they DJ Jones caliber players maybe not dj Jones was really good it earned him 10 million a year from the Broncos but the combination of both Collins and Elliot should give the 49ers more of a presence inside against the Run than they had before now this is where we get to the roster bubble and this is how where we get to the players who are trying to make the team but obviously have not yet proven it and still have a lot to earn and and they could showcase it during the preseason games they need a second defensive end in this rotation if it's going to be a true eight-man I have Robert Beal Jr in that spot right now they got Sam o over here who's missed a couple practices hurt undisclosed injury they've got Alex Barrett who's been Mr practice squad for years for this team they've got Austin Bryant who was a practice squad guy last year they also have Drake Jackson but he's on pup and to me there's no close end in sight to that he underwent surgery in January and posted a picture of the cast on and that's really the last that we've heard from Drake Jackson Kyle Shanahan said that he doesn't expect him back before the end of training camp or the cutdown so Drake Jackson you could stash him on pup for now he's not going to take up a roster spot to me that leaves Robert Beal Jr who I think the 49ers really like for a reason that you might not be thinking of as the second rotational defensive end Robert Beal Jr ran a sub four5 40 at 250 plus pounds at Georgia listen to that again he ran under 45 at over 250 pounds so you're thinking about the new kickoff rule right and the new kick return and kickoff rule coverage and return You're Gonna Want guys that are both big strong and fast you want all three of those characteristics regardless of whether or not Robert Beal Jr is a polished pass rusher he matches all the CR criteria that you're going to want on special teams which is going to be more of a running play but it's going to be a running play in space so it's going to be really important to have a guy who has the physical tools to compete in space it's not going to get swallowed up by blockers but also not going to be too slow for return men to me a guy that runs a sub four five and now he's put on a little bit of weight I think he's around 260 now to better play the run on defense to me that sounds like a a really intriguing piece for your special team so I've got Robert Beal Jr in there as the 49ers defensive end behind Bosa he's still got something to prove but when I look at the other options especially since Drake Jackson isn't one of them it seems like the best one to me then you have to decide who your ninth lineman on this team is and maybe they carry 10 they have carried 10 in the past but nine I think is the typical number is it going to be an edge guy is it going to be an interior guy I think that the rest of these Edge guys are all stashable on the practice squad so it's probably going to be an interior guy so many people ask me about Kalia Davis we talk about DJ Jones that's the only player the fort Anders ever ever comped to DJ Jones with his explosiveness so these preseason games are really important for Kalia I think it's a battle between Kalia and Shaquelle Brown over here by the way Shaquelle is gonna get a chance to play against his his initial team the Titans the Titans cut him and the 49ers play at Tennessee on Saturday big strong guy who tried his way out and made made it to the 40 Anders through that Avenue you look at him and you look at Clea Davis and yeah Evan Anderson is a big stocky body they gave him a lot of guaranteed money for an undrafted free agent $280,000 but as a rookie I'm probably leaning more toward the practice squad with him but Shaquelle he's had a year in the league I get it he was hurt but we'll see if it's he or Kalia Davis that's able to grab that roster spot because I know there's limited roster spots along that 53 man roster Migel Ty Migel was on the practice squad last year and I can see him being that practice squad yo-yo again for the 49ers there's a decent floor with t y McGill it's not a crazy ceiling but he's a vet you're going to keep him in the building and it's going to give you some just a you could breathe a sigh of relief at the defensive tackle position you know that the Bottom's not going to fall out of the room if you have a couple injuries because t y McGill can be called up and and and he can contribute in that way all right we have just finished the defense that's really good should I look at some questions I'm gonna take a look I just want to drink a little bit of water here been talking for 41 minutes straight oh that's good there's nothing better than a nice drink of water when you are thirsty so that's what I'm up to right now you know what I could show you guys this will be fun we can show you a couple things from practice today and or we can show you this which I have to send to my computer right now want to put in a a little plug for the best breakfast sandwich in San Francisco so they call this sucker right here and I swear to God this is what they call this is the Lombardi special at jumpstart coffee at 24th and Guerrero the Lombardi special has egg bacon American cheese and avocado on a croissant and ask Peter Peter's there almost every day for the Lombardi special and no it's not a $40 sandwich it'll cost you about 10 really good price for San Francisco that's our food recommendation jumpstart coffee 24th in Guerrero that is our halftime food break in between the defense and the offense just tuned in can you start over no okay guys if you want to watch the replay of this you can watch it on YouTube you could watch it on the Lombardi Lounge podcast sorry I can't start over I know you're joking I hope you are you could look at the breakfast sandwich all over again but check this out on Apple podcast Spotify YouTube all those good spots but sorry I cannot start over I have to go to the offense now we got 3,650 people waiting for me to start talking about the 49ers offense so we're going to move on to the offensive line as you can tell we're going to finish with the quarterback position I think people like the the sandwich which is good all right o line Trent Williams I should probably shade him and whatever color we shade hold outs or holdin in what what color should we shade those in uh let's shade them in like this blue there and we could shade Brandon iuk since he's not practicing in this this shade of blue okay it's a lot of different color codes now looks like a game of Tetris but we'll make it work so but you know Trent Williams that I've done videos and I've written articles about how we can expect the 49ers to pay him they can find a win-win at this point there's nobody freaking out about Trent Williams I think that a soft deadline for the 49ers just so he could start building a little bit of a callus he is 36 years old might be toward the middle of this month if uh he's not there in time for the Saints practices on the 15th and 16 16 uh then then we'll start talking about this with a little bit more urgency but this is a 53 man roster projection so for the time being we're not going to dedicate all too much energy into contract details we're not going to dedicate time into speculation we're going to talk about how guys are actually performing at training camp and unfortunately for the 49ers Trent Williams has not had a chance to perform yet well he's had a chance but he hasn't because he is holding out as as we speak so we move on Jaylen Moore has been his backup Jaylen Moore I think has been decent in pass protection I think the the bigger 49ers issues have come in pass protection on the right side with mckivitz and along the interior where there's been a lot of injury issues I could take Feliciano off of injury shading at this point he's back but he's shuffling between different positions he's giving the 49ers some depth at Center he's you know obviously started at Right Guard for the team last year he could also play left guard for San Francisco Feliciano is what I think to be the ideal sixth lineman for this team what's really interesting is what's happening at Right Guard while Spencer berford has a broken hand and is out for a couple more weeks and that is the rookie Dominic puny I think it's been four or five straight practices as the first teamer now one can argue that it's by necessity which it is I mean Feliciano's been out and Dominic puny now he's back but but you just want to keep that continuity in there with uh with uh Spencer berford also out Dominic puny is a natural air apparent for that job but even if you know it's just by necessity we do have to comment on how well Dominic puny has carried himself we knew that he was a good pass protector probably a better pass protector than run Blocker in college at Kansas two thumbs up there I don't think that he's been overpowered at all at the NFL level I think he's been beaten I've seen him lose some one-on-ones but I also saw him against the red hot Jordan Elliott the other day who's one of the 49's widest defensive tackles and I saw him anchoring one-on ones I say red hot for Jordan Elliott that was the practice where he might have had two sacks so Dominic puny is promising to begin will he start will he not start we'll see where Spencer berford is when he comes back but that position can be upgraded Right Guard can be upgraded for the 49ers and I will say with regard to Spencer berford he started as a rookie in 2022 so up until then we were always like ah well unless it's a first round pick like Mike mlinci in 2018 the 49ers really want to start a rookie up front well by 2022 it was clear that they did want to start a rookie up there they they would rather have started Spencer berford and let Daniel brunskill that year be their sixth offensive lineman than vice versa so they they're not afraid to go to the rookie if that rookie has given them enough reason to believe that he can be the guy at that position I think puny right now is d by day giving the 49ers more and more belief that he can be the guy at the right guard position now it's August 4th we still have a way to go but just to keep that in mind as you take a look at this offensive line depth chart mckivitz he's hoping for a seconde jump for the 49ers and the 49ers are hoping for one twoo Chris fer was talking about mckivitz the other day he said yeah you know he's he's a really good run blocker not as good as Mike mcglinch who was an elite run blocker uh but it's obviously better than his pass protection and I don't think it takes a a genius detective to see that out on the field for Anders had one of the top run offenses in the League last year a lot of that obviously is thanks to Christian mcaffrey but they also had pass protection ranked in the 20s so they need mckivitz to be better he ranked down there near the bottom of all tackles with Mike mlinci of all people last season so you want the kits to be better for for many reasons one of them is so you don't have to give tight end help all the time blocking of course you're just still going to give tight end pass protection help and you should giving Brock p a clean pocket should be of very high importance but you want to give the offense a little bit of expandability downfield that he didn't have last year if you do see improvement from Colton mckivitz as far as swing tackle goes that's a battle between Jaylen Moore and Chris hubard speaking of brunskill he actually recommended hubard because hubard played with brunskill in Tennessee last season my thing about swing tackle it's really interesting because to me we've only seen Mo deliver at left tackle and we've only seen hubard deliver at right tackle are the 49ers in a position well here sorry hubard and Parker are I forgot to mention Brandon Parker Parker's also in this battle so you got Moore you've got hubard and you've got Brandon Parker Moore has been limited to left tackle hubard has been limited to right tackle Parker I think can play a little bit of both former third round pickup of the Raiders how many can you afford to stash on this roster can you afford the stash 10 offensive linemen this is where I think I'm a little too heavy on offensive line I think that in the past we've seen as few as eight we've seen as many as nine but we've never seen 10 I've got 10 guys right now on the inside of the 53 man roster projection I think I'm gonna have to get rid of somebody I think Feliciano is definitely a player that they want there I think that obviously puny he's in the second string right now but I think he's definitely somebody they want there I zel's gotten some first team reps at center to me he's trending toward being on the team so maybe it's it's hubard if Jaylen Moore can beat out hubard but then what do you do with Parker and do you feel good about Moore also being a potential backup tackle on the right side or is that somewhere that you put Dominick poney in case you need a backup right tackle that's tough because he's a rookie I just feel I get it good quality offensive linemen are in short supply around the league right now that's the struggle that the 49ers are dealing with every single practice I'm coming off the field and I'm saying boy it seemed to me that Leonard Floyd want won too many reps against that defensive line even on day against that offensive line even on days where the offense has done better Brock Pie has had to deal with harassment from Leonard Floyd I expect Nick Bosa to get to the quarterback on every single snap but when it's Floyd and everybody else collapsing the pocket and making pry run a little bit more than I think is is healthy for the the sustenance of the 49ers offense you really you really think that that they might need one more piece there now the one piece could be Trent Williams right it it's possible that everybody improved over last year but we're just not firmly seeing it yet because your first ballot Hall of Famer Trent Williams is not back yet I think there's a lot of Hope writing on that notion I think that one could argue that Trent Williams is uh one of the most important players on the 49ers team You could argue he's the best player in all football um but the bottom line is he's not there right now and I'm not getting a firm read on where the 49ers are as an offensive line because of that I haven't even mentioned Ben B yet who is in a battle I think with Nick zel to be a swing interior lineman veteran they poached him off of Jacksonville's practice squad bar dislocated his knee with the Jaguars two years ago so last year with the 49ers he was still building up strength we've seen him take some First Team Action for San Francisco over the course of this training camp so does that mean that he's impressing them enough and maybe even more than Nick zakel again like I think the preseason games are going to be very insightful in this regard because we're going to get probably a much firmer look at the pecking order and with limited spots it it's damn complicated you've also got Drake Nan who's the undrafted rookie Center but Nan he's been a third team guy okay so new Jen's probably going to be a practice squad player but I think that they really want to stock up that Center position because I haven't even mentioned Jake Brendle missing every fourth practice or so with the KNE tendonitis John Feliciano's had a spell a little bit of Frank Jake brindle during some of these practices so at Center so so there's a possibility that John Feliciano has to start at Center so and he said he's going to retire after this year or at least he strongly hinted at it on Instagram when he resigned so if you're the 49ers you want to have guys developing in the pipeline at Center that's why they brought in Drake Nan and Bryson Mays they had a wave Bryon ma they brought in Pat elfline because they needed more veteran depth immediately because of some of these injuries up front but to me it's it's just interesting because you have a simultaneous Log Jam but it's not the best kind of Log Jam because you don't have a whole lot of proven depth along this offensive line outside of John Feliciano I get it Chris hubard has been proven depth but he's also 33 years old and he's dealt with a lot of injuries recently hasn't lasted a full season recently so jury's still out on whether or not this offensive line is going to be up to the task one thing I can say is that Trent Williams is needed that's why consider Trent Williams to have quite a bit of Leverage if he says okay I'm retiring at at age 36 the 49ers would be in a world of trouble I'm not saying he's gonna do that but I'm saying that's why Trent Williams has the upper hand in these negotiations if you watched his NFL top 100 players profile NFL films you'd come away thinking that that he's the best player in football that's what the consensus seems to be from guys around the league I guess they voted on it and he wasn't number one but they also you know it's it's tougher if you're an offensive lineman to get those votes but some of the guys in their interviews said you know this is the best player in football either way he's the best tackle in football and he's currently not at 4 downers practice and I think this offensive line can really use him will they take 10 no will they take nine maybe will they take eight maybe we'll see where those numbers lie along the offensive line all right water time for me we're moving to tight end check in with Mike here tight end position I think is three quarters of the way there as far as who the 49ers are going to take on their 53 man who would have known that talking for 54 minutes would be this tiring I'm a little I mean it's the dog days of August right now I'm working hard through this training camp and tomorrow even though it's a day off of the play it's not a day off for us we're going in and talking to the assistant coaches all right tight end position let's open this up we work our way through the 53 man roster projection so I said that this is three quarters of the way sorted and by the way um if you're if you want to ask ask some questions and I'm going to I'm going to answer some question questions in a little bit to to wrap up this show we're already almost done as you can see with the roster and you're watching on Twitter go to YouTube and you can actually leave questions on on the YouTube and uh that's how I'm GNA answer the podcast question so go to the YouTube watch on there I'll answer questions through that and we move on to tight end so we could wrap this sucker up uh counting to four because I think they're going to take four KD one right here Eric sober two that to me has been I don't want to say a surprise but it's been it's been a little bit of a revelation okay Eric sober it's a really trusted blocker he been around the league since George KD in 2017 and that kind of staying power is impressive Which Way whichever way you look at it and it really looks like he's the the 49ers option there at that second tight end spot vacated by Charlie Warner who's now with Atlanta I think Braden Willis has been good this Camp so I put Braden Willis as my tight end three the four spot to me is probably between Logan Thomas who's currently out with a hamstring injury and cam latu who is I mean he's got the body he's got the I think he's got the blocking ability and he definitely has the body to grow into the blocking ability but we've seen we still seen a couple drops from him not as bad as last camp but when we didn't see a drop the other day we saw the ball get knocked away Malik Mustafa I think got him it was a catch and the ball got knocked away fumble returned for a touchdown there's got to be a semblance of reliability that cam latu shows and he's going to have a chance through these preseason games to show that Logan Thomas caught 55 passes for Washington last year so you know that he has it from the receiving end but he hasn't blocked the way that the 49ers asked their tight ends the block so it's been a big time point of emphasis to get Logan Thomas aboard blocking the way they need him to block what will he develop in time to to be a guy that can trust on the 53 will he need to be a practice squad player can they even stash him on the Squad since he did catch 55 passes last year I mean these are all questions that we don't know the answers to but we do know that the 49ers have three tight ends who have I think really really impressed so far and they normally carry four as far as Mason Pine goes well he's a raw player I think the practice squad is perfect for somebody like Mason Pine maybe they carry two of these tight ends on the practice squad maybe Jake tongus who was on the practice squad last year he's gotten stronger maybe he can stick on there as well shout out to the the Cal Golden Bears I know that I'm um betraying Stanford by saying that but Jake Went to went to Cal and I know we probably have a lot of Cal followers welcome to the ACC all right now we get to the position that everybody's been waiting for the receiver position one of the reasons I did this show was so we could actually talk about something substantive instead of rumors rumors rumors rumors all these couched opinions you know and you know there hasn't been anything substantive about Brandon iuk so I could put that out there we've just seen speculation which is fine uh some people do a good job putting their speculation out there and making sure that uh it's it's viewed as speculation but I think a lot of people do a poor job reading that speculation and they think that it's reported as fact where we we haven't had anything that's not speculative uh released on Brandon auk in a little bit so I didn't want to go into speculation with this show I wanted to back and I wanted to actually analyze the 49ers roster for the time being we've got Brandon auk taking up that X receiver spot Chris Conley behind him we've actually seen Chris Conley on the field in this Camp Conley is built and he performs like a prototypical x that's what the 49ers need if Brandon auk is not on the field so you know with auk he could block I get it he's got good rapport with Brock pie Conley can block he's got good rapport with Brock p nobody's saying that he's as special of a player as Brandon auk obviously not but he has had a good training camp and he's used some of his veteran guile to really be in the right place at the right time don't forget the work that Chris connley did as a gunner in the Super Bowl Downing those punts I think that Conley is on a good track to make this 53 man roster regardless of whether or not this gets resolved with Brandon auk you got Debo Samuel he missed his first day of practice vet day today he's been excellent excellent looks like he's in the best shape of his life Jaan Jennings I mean he's just a vacuum he catches everything that's thrown to him Jaan Jennings after signing the contract is looking really good I can't wait to see Jacob cowing again dealing with the hamstring injury he should be back any day now Speedster who had a couple nice plays nice catches and runs on the first couple days of training camp but unfortunately uh suffered the hamstring injury so we haven't seen Jacob cowing since then but if he comes back and continues to deliver you would have to think he's one of those 49ers who makes the 53 man roster and then when it comes to Ricky peera I think he's so far everything the 49ers thought he'd be so far in training camp and I was watching him the other day I think it was his second Camp practice piol was separating really well everything that wasn't going to him could have gone to him and he would have been open let's put it that way we're watching play after plays like damn Rick's getting open on the backside he obviously wasn't in the throwing progression or wasn't high up on that day but he's climbed that progression over time he made two more catches today I thought that his muscled up catch against Deo Lenor today was extremely impressive I mean when Ricky piol was drafted a lot of people said oh okay he's 190 pounds he might not be strong enough to play that outside uh receiver position at the NFL level maybe he's a slot guy and I said well no he's tall though he's 6'2 so at 6'2 you're not looking for a slot guy at 62 and you know even though he's only 190 it seemed to me that he had some played with some real strength at ASU and then after that at Florida so when he was able to outm muscle Dio Lenor for the football today to me that was impressive uh I think that he's been a willing participant in the Run game Brock py made a good point though he said you just have to let this play out you have to let guys naturally become part of that offensive ecosystem you just don't throw them out there and expect them to be Target Target Target every single snap it could take two weeks which is why it's ultimately important for Brandon auk to rejoin the team before the the start of the Season you can't just have auk show up on Wednesday or Thursday before they play the New York Jets and expect them to be in lock step with Brock pury the guys are working on the timing right now piol is working on the timing working on the trust right now which is why you're also excited about Jacob C returning now go deeper into this room you have Trent Taylor who's been having a hell of a camp I special teams is going to determine so much of this because you have Ronnie Bell who made two contested catches today I think Ronnie Bell's quietly had himself a good camp quietly Danny gray has been much better than he was last season he he's on outside looking in of this projection too uh you've got Tariq Owens who I think is very raw you're looking at the practice squad in all likelihood for T son Tay Martin's been out and you've got Malik Turnell and Ronald Derby those are two players that are have been replacement for for the hamstring injuries but when you look at the spot six or spot seven how many are going to make the 53 I I see it as a potential battle at the very back of that room between Taylor and Ronnie Bell and maybe Chris connley but gosh Chris connley with the work he's done at The X has been so impressive that I almost want to take him off that list I think Chris connley is not a practice squad yoyo anymore but Trent Taylor I mean shanan hinted he he could be headed for that kind of treatment and then you look at somebody like Ronnie Bell it's entirely possible that that Ronnie Bell is is given that kind of practice squad treatment if they feel they can keep him in the building if he doesn't get claimed elsewhere I think that special teams and punt returning in particular is going to be such a pivotal piece of this puzzle how comfortable are the 49ers going to be with you returning punts because you've got to have a high floor there I don't care about ceiling I care about floor I think they're comfortable with Trent Taylor which is why he's on the inside of this picture I don't think they're comfortable yet with Ronnie Bell but he's got a chance to to build more comfort and show that over the course of the preseason over the course of these games right so barring injuries and assuming Brandon auk and everything gets resolved and he's in the building you know they could take seven receivers but it's probably going to be six and you're probably G to make a decision at the back of the room based on special team's comfort and we'll just have to see see how it plays out let's go to running back those of you who want to ask questions go over to YouTube That's I'm not going to check them until I'm done but you can be ready to ask over there running back I sense the Finish Line This is great mcaffrey and then you have 2 a and 2 B I think Jordan Mason has pulled up into that two spot now alongside Elijah Mitchell Mason can catch the ball he bought the jugs machine for three grand he's impressed in that facet of the game you've got to love what Jordan Mason has done catching the football he dropped his first one today but a whole lot more catches than drops so far in training camp so mcaffrey Mitchell Mason all definitely good enough to make the team they have typically carried four running backs and one fullback in Kyle yek so who's the fourth gonna be well Isaac gendo is out with a hamstring injury can he potentially be one of the roster exceptions the 49ers use can he potentially be an IR guy they stash on IR but then designate to return within four games and then stuff works itself out when other guys get hurt maybe he has a more serious hamstring injury than the other players who we've covered or does Cody shraer make the team or can you stash Cody Schrader the undrafted free agent out of Missouri on the practice squad as of right now I've got gendo who's a higher pick a fourth round pick making the team but that's all TBD on his health and I've got Trader as a tentative practice squad projection got Patrick Taylor Jr could also be a tentative practice squad projection we see but I really need to see these preseason games I'll go back to what I said at the top you don't tackle live to the ground in the training camp but you do tackle live to the ground in the preseason there's perhaps no bigger running back evaluation opportunity in a game versus practice than there is in preseason games versus practice that is when running backs are evaluated and Cody Shrader ran like a bull in college he led the SEC in rushing for Missouri and I think that his ability to just out tough people break tackles let's see him try to Port that to the NFL level let's see him try it against the Titans on Saturday I think that could answer some big questions for the 49ers finally quarterback Brock birdie is starting breaking news there's your quarterback update that you're waiting for Brock birdie is gonna beat out Trey Lance he's gonna beat out Sam darnold for the QB position oh wait neither of those two guys are on the team anymore Sam darnold is going to start in all likelihood for Minnesota I think Trey is still third string for the the Cowboys but uh the the fact that there was any question about Brock py starting if he was healthy enough last year looks like retroactively the the biggest joke of of all time given the fact that he was an MVP finalist that he led the league in every single quarterback efficiency metric qbr passer rating adjusting that yards per attt I mean it was a monstrous season for Brock birie we'll see where he takes it next but he's looked good so far in training camp he's pushed some limits I know he's thrown a few interceptions but as we know he did last year too and he ended up as an MVP finalist so it's time to start treating Brock pie like the talent that he is and that is an established quarterback who gets the benefit of the doubt during training camp so then the question is who's Brock Bird's backup and I think it's definitely hard to argue that the backup quarterback position is going to be better this season than it was last season you had a stud for a backup quarterback in Sam darnold last year you don't have that necessarily anymore this year maybe Josh dobs grows into the system I know he delivered some good football for Arizona and Minnesota last year but it wasn't consistently good football and you've got Brandon Allen who is your number three and you've got Tanner morai who is your rookie who's starting to get more reps so we'll see with Tanner Mory he might have the strongest arm out of all four of these guys he could really spin it but I haven't seen any separation between dos and Allen quite yet I think they've both had good days they both had bad days and morai is at the very start of his opportunity so quarterback battle very much backup quarterback battle very much to be determined I think that's going to be some of the most compelling viewing of the preseason now the way Shanahan is looking at it it's very different than everybody on the outside looking at it he might have more of an idea than us because he's seeing where all these plays are supposed to go he's has way more insight than what we have as far as quarterbacks executing the system so that being said maybe Shanahan is further along in this I'm not going to pretend to know more than I do though and that's what I've seen standing on the practice field on the sideline for all 10 sessions so far all right it's 49ers Q&A time so if you have some questions hop on over to the YouTube ask them over there and I will happily answer them I want to see how many of you are over there actually and give you a couple seconds to to head on over and go from there yeah we got like 500 of you over there so um maybe that room grows a little bit and uh answer these questions I am about to open up a big can of worms and that is the Q&A section so it'll be good in fact maybe we could even you know I I might even end this this simal cast right now ah Maybe not maybe we'll keep it going on Twitter again I I'll repeat it since a lot of you are new to this drill head over to YouTube if you want to have a chance to have your question answered and here we go how's Kingston looking any chance think yes there's a chance but probably practice squad he missed a couple days the other day um he's been playing mainly at guard and he's been playing some right tackle as well this is the sixth round pick out of USC so I would say likely practice squad for somebody like Jared Kingston that being said preseason a chance to move up that pecking order I'm scrolling back up through some of these questions who has been the backup for Kyle yek how is juice aging I think Braden Willis might end up being that backup juice is aging really well by the way I mean I thought that last year he put some of his best football on tape he's still blocking at a lethal level he executes some of the most difficult blocks in football that's to cross the formation take on defensive ends that are much larger than him but some of his work as a receiver down the stretch in the playoffs last year was really good you guys remember that off schedu play Early first half against the Lions he made a great catch there lunging catch downfield generated some separation then in the second half I mean he two straight games of clutch fourth quarter toet tap catches NFC Championship game in the Super Bowl so Kyle yek doing well and maybe Braden Willis is the player who is uh behind him in that tight end position Phil has a question not football related but the best places to go see or eat at on a honeymoon in San Francisco oh that's not bad it's not bad at all well congratulations if you just got married and I would say go to Restaurant Row in in Russian Hill that's Hyde Street there's a place called frotti on Hyde and Vallejo that could be really good but you should just check out that whole block I think you would like you could go to Union Larder which is this old auto body shop that's turned into a nice little wine bar with good good appetizers there's a tiny little wine bar across the street I always forget it name I think it's called bacus bakus wine bar and you should just check out that that's like the quintessential San Francisco restaurant row if you want your romantic cable car line street it's at the top of Russian Hill that's what I would recommend all right back to football if I had to pick a qb2 then right this day who would I pick I would pick here there's an interesting rules thing I would pick Josh dos why because your emergency third quarterback can come from the practice squad this year he doesn't have to take up a roster spot that's another rule that should give the 49ers theoretically an extra player to work with at the 53 man cutdown so if it's today you could take dos and you could keep Allen in the room in the building if you did that I think morai still has some more time to to prove himself and and pry did it in the games in 2022 in the preseason games so I think that morai is gonna have to do that as well Greg Smith how's Dominic puny looking I think he looks like a vet and I think it's a big compliment I think he carries himself really well the one anecdote I can give you about Dominic puny is that he was drafted in early May late April he came to rookie mini camp less than two weeks later he requested voluntarily all of Chris fer teaching install tapes from the spring before he was drafted and he watched every single minute of them hours of install stuff watched every single minute so rookies don't usually do that he he didn't have to it wasn't assigned to him he decided to do it in between the time he was drafted and the time that he showed up at rookie mini camp so he he acted like a vet and if you act like a vet that's the first step toward playing like a vet will he play like a vet well stay tuned to find out he's starting at Right Guard right now at these practices for the 49ers can I tell you how I ranked the linebacker core as of now well I think I talked about it when I got through that position so make sure you guys watch the replay when you get to it but the linebacker core obviously Warner dandre Campbell and then I think that it's Demetrius Flanigan FS is your safe option at linebacker 3 I'm not counting greenlock because he's on pup but Winters and Graham are knocking on that door for linebacker three and it would be a positive for the 49ers if one of their seconde guys could deliver there and then I think you've got Tatum bethon Ezekiel Turner and Curtis Robinson but with Robinson and Turner those are more special teams players for the 49ers the auk situation we I talked about it we have no firm update there's a whole lot of speculation online read whatever you're reading really closely and try to parse the sentences as if they're speculation or if they're actually reporting the 49ers are interested in trading iuk no there's a lot of speculation which is okay but we don't have to react to every single rumor it's is not necessary we could say okay the status quo is here and there are levels of likelihood to different options we don't rule anything out so we no we don't rule out a trade because a good front office would never rule anything out if you could get good value for Brandon auk and maybe even make your team better I don't know if that's very likely but if you can do that and you keep that option on the table the 49ers I gave an example earlier they have no stone unturn this front office in 2021 the morning that they drafted Trey Lance they called Green Bay about Aaron Rodgers they didn't call Green Bay about Aaron Rogers because they thought they were gonna get him they called Green Bay about Aaron Rogers because it was worth the phone call so you don't say no to any offers in the NFL right like you don't accept offer but you listen to it and if they get a good enough offer that makes them better well yeah of course you look at the football team the only Untouchable guy that the 49ers have had come up for one of these contracts has been Nick Bosa the only player that they've deemed completely Untouchable but the situation with auk and the 49ers is the same as it was yesterday the day before day before that the offseason before and it's the 49ers have leverage auk is under contract they have the ability to wait to see if auk meets them at at their at their terms because he's under contract and they want to win now so they're not in the business of giving him up and getting worse this season so if somebody can you know find a way to satisfy the 49ers parameters making the team better now without Brandon iuk on it if some trade partner can do that I'm sure the 49ers will be all years but we have to gauge things by likelihood and use logic when we discuss this so yes I took the question how's the auk situation going that's how it's going it's I think it's it's irresponsible to to go out and say that one thing is g to happen for sure when even the 49ers are in a position where they're leaving their options open and as Dave said and hey I talked for an hour and 16 minutes without talking about it if we all stopped talking about it it would be so much better yes that's true and then Eric gome says logic over feelings yes that's the point of the show we're going logic over feelings how's Cody shrer looking really good but I want to see him break some live tackles that's the next step Mark says the Niners are a cash-rich team let's let them get their finances in order and their a-listers and special talent will return tough job I'm sure I mean they have the most star players most a-listers out of any team in the NFL and it is a hard-capped league and you could fidget a bit with it we get it there's flow control but you have to be a cashr team to do that got to pay out signing bonuses that uh you know are able to be pro-rated against the cap but when you look at star players per is a star obviously they haven't had a pay him yet mcaffry is a star Brandon auka is a star Debo Samuel's a star George KD's a star Trent Williams is a star Nick Bosa is a star Fred Warner's a star charvarius Ward's a star Kyle eek's a star forgot about him don't want to forget about Kyle it's a lot of star players it's an All-Star team it's hard to fit all of this under the salary cap I do think it's possible but it's probably going to take a little bending from Brandon auk's side to make it work which is why the 49ers are exerting their leverage as we speak if coach cerak invited you to hit the sleds if it meant a five minute one-on-one interview would you do it well I think I could get a interview with with ceric even if I didn't hit the sleds but I would just want to hit the sleds for the hell of hitting the sleds for the sake of content right um it wouldn't have to be tied to an interview I think that'd be fun I've uh I'm ready to I've taken the month off of swimming I'm ready to get back in the water and I've I've been weightlifting a little bit to to prepare for the return we've got to get the uh Alcatraz uh swim lined up again those of you who are new to the channel new to watching the podcast we're doing a live stream of a swim from Alcatraz back to the city but only if the fort Anders win the Super Bowl those are the rules because I have to do it without a wet suit and I'm GNA have to do it in February so I'm not like too excited to to to to do this unless it's a special occasion but anyway um maybe hitting the sleds would get me ready for for something like that zakel versus B who gets in at Center that's it's such a good question it's not only who gets in its center it's who shows they can play a better guard position zakel I think he's come a long way I mean he was very raw early on and we saw that from zel in high school in the Cleveland area we saw it from him in college at forom he started off really struggling in both of those spots but then he turned it on and he started off struggling with the 49ers is he turning it on now well the game action in the preseason is really going to show us a lot I think B is strengthening too the further he gets from that dislocated knee backstroke or breaststroke uh backstroke but neither really freestyle or butterfly it's going to be what I'm trying to go for yeah Mike's going to be filming the alcatra mission live but there are certain very strict conditions for that let's let's keep that clear those of you who are on now go to Apple podcast or Spotify make sure you subscribe to the Lombardi Lounge you can leave your five-star review there would be much appreciated that is now up on the podcast so go check that out wherever you do consume your podcast and if you want me to answer a couple questions head over to YouTube because that's where the Live question capability is is gendo's injury potentially putting him at risk to lose a spot the shider I don't think greno is going to lose his spot in the building I think that if he's hurt enough and is still hurt at the time of the cutdown they could use one of those IR return designations on him which they can do this year you can put a guy on IR designate him to return two guys up to two guys can be tagged with that designation so I think that's a last resort injury for gendo um I think they like him but I think he needs to learn how to keep that hamstring healthy it was an issue twice in college and the 49ers would like it to no longer be an issue here at the NFL level hell yes it's the best 49ers podcast that's why you should go check it out I mean we got almost 5,000 people watching simultaneously right now I think those are record numbers especially with no breaking news we're just doing a roster projection got 5,000 of you so I mean let me give uh jump start coffee because the Lombardi special deserves some some Limelight let's give him some love here jump start coffee 24th in Guerrero I I try to support the community as much as possible I like to go to the mom and pop shops I'm trying to help San Francisco through this this rough stretch that a lot of businesses are having you should definitely check out jumpstart coffee on 24th in Guerrero check out the M stop I was there earlier and I should play the M stop video here we could play we'll play the M stop video to close this thing out M stop is a is a great place to go the mstop is like public transit oriented which I think is super NE mun oriented let's see if I have that we hit 5,000 concurrent viewers that's awesome thank you to everybody so check this out this is the m stop Engleside bboa Park look they've got Joe Montana and Jerry Rice on the actual street car that was Barry Bonds back there as well this was the turkey sandwich that s made me now it's very San Francisco themed with the sports but you've also got the old mun transfers I'm sure you City natives will love that and on top of everything you've got the tri tip grilling outside every single day fresh and it's absolutely breathtaking to witness that's s he's a big Niners fan by the way I think he wants to make sandwiches for the 49ers this year this is one of my favorite spots to check out in San Francisco right by bboa Park the BART station right off of 280 so this tray was extremely hot when s was taking it off but he did a good job he held it for the camera just long enough it's a chicken pesto topped with a turkey pepper jack cheese it's all the traditional sandwich fixings with avocado and then we top it with our in-house sauce there it is and Dutch crunch you know you it's really hard to find anywhere outside the Bay Area there is a place in Nashville but it was a San Francisco sandwich guy who opened it with Dutch crunch it's really really hard to find and here is s telling us about his mural obviously I had to get the mun on there just just given our theme so we have a Barry Bonds here knocking a sandwich out of the park uh we go further down I left these open for any you Allstars want to come by get your face right here right next to Mr Jerry there's a seat there of course Joe Montana um Captain you know um and I had to get Stephen there I I you know I just thought it was I'm not the biggest basketball guy but I mean got to love the Warriors got to love what step's done for us the whole team um and then the story behind the parrots I don't know if you know there's a bunch of uh wild parrots in San Francisco there was a lady who lived in uh Twin Peaks and she had a whole bunch of parrots and so before she died she actually asked that when she dies all the parrots just get set free and so I think they said there was like 50 or 60 pars that got set out of her house and so that's why they're here in San Francisco that just kind of became a part of us you got to keep the fog in there you know um love the mural though I feel like it represents the shop represents the city um and there's plenty of space to just fill in Steve Young I love you you're going on there uh you new guys come on we need that that that whole bus needs to be filled up with new generation guys it's been a while come on rooting for you guys go ners this is our year yeah all right there you go that is s from the M stop pretty cool he wants to put Steve Young on his mural and he wants to put some of the current 49ers that's how we connect the community to what's What's Happening Here on the football field I think that's a good wrap for Sunday night thanks for answering your questions that was some Camp analysis it was also for Honor 53 man roster projection by the way San shout out San Francisco Fire Department Station number 13 for the Hat bunch of cool guys over there that's the one that they have Brock Bird's jersey number 13 signed now that's an interesting Side Story too they got Cody Ross's 13 from the giant sign from the World Series parade back in 2011 now now all they needs to happen is Brock py needs to swing by San Francisco Fire Department Station 13 hope you enjoyed the show if you did check out the Lombardi Lounge podcast leave your review and obviously go and check out the YouTube leave your subscription there everything would be appreciated see you guys I'm off to get a burrito I'm tired bye