1st & 10: 49ers vs. Raiders Preseason Finale Preview

Intro [Music] hello and welcome to the 49ers first and 10 podcast 10 minutes of the most uptate 49ers news first thing in the morning I'm your host bana McDonald and joining me is team reporter Lindsay polarz faithful it's game day Lindsay what's it like out in Vegas right now uh it's a Vegas lot hotter than was when we left the bay area yesterday it very much feels like Peak summer I know the Bay Area gives us kind of a mix of whether it wants to be summer or a little bit overcast yeah it's a it's fullon desert heat right now um but we've got a lot of time before game kickoff um it's 7 o'clock tonight um so everybody get ready this is the preseason finale and then after that like we are very much inching closer to regular season football which is what I know a lot of people including myself are very much looking forward to yes but you know the preseason is fun it's a time where the teams could really experiment try new things and just see what they've got before leading into the regular season so I'm curious with the preseason finale happening tonight what are some of the 49ers goals for tonight's contest what are they looking for out of this last time before the regular season begins What are the 49ers looking for you're exactly right Bri um you know I think this is the last last opportunity last live game Reps for a lot of the players on the roster that are hoping to make a case for themselves to make that 53 man roster tonight's the night right you're going to get the opportunity to be under the bright lights show what you've got show what you've learned show what you've been working on um depending on how much time you've been spent you had in the 49er system during training camp and the pre-season um like you mentioned for the 49ers it's a chance to experiment how different groups of players work in different lineups um and then also it's just a great time for veterans who may play tonight based on what we heard from head coach Kyle Shanahan to get some reps just to ramp up to the regular season very unlikely that we'll see all of the starters out there taking a substantial amount of reps but I think the working plan um and that all depends on how Kyle Shanahan felt the practices went this week is to get the starters out there for some reps um that was his plan going into the Saints game last weekend and we still saw a number of Veteran expected starters not sued up that could very well be the case today um so we'll definitely be updating you on who actually suits up takes the field um and puts in a little work today um it's always a very strategic uh decision from the coaching staff on how to maneuver that yeah so with the chance of some starters playing in this game similar to last week when then also these rookie players and younger players like you said are trying to make the team Lindsay who's on your radar who are some players the faithful need to be keeping their eye on in tonight's game this isn't a Who to keep an eye on specific player but I would keep an eye on the 49ers punt returner position because a couple players have already had their opportunity to log some significant reps during the preseason we saw wide receiver Trent Taylor be tested at the punt returner position against the Titans and then it was rookie fourth round pick Jacob coing against the Saints um over the course of training camp we saw Ronnie Bell take a number of practice reps at punt returner position I'm interested to see who gets that third and final outing of substantial reps at the punt returner spot um because I know that that is that is a position to keep an eye on and a position that hasn't been decided up to this point um I think another interesting spot to look at um is Right Guard uh we've seen Dominic puny the rookie third round pick make back-to-back starts in the preseason so I think for him it's more about just stacking the game stacking the success he has yet to surrender a sack during his preseason outings he's played I believe 65 snaps at that position so just continuing to see him grow and develop obviously he's very very early in his pro career um I think an obvious one as well take a look at the quarterback position behind Brock pie right you've got three players um obviously the backup position looks like it's going to be between Joshua dos and Brandon Allen but again Tanner morai did get a quarter of work in the last preseason game uh we didn't get any details as to how that workload is going to be split up tonight but again it could be another opportunity for all three of those players to shine see what they can do within the 49ers system um and so plenty more to come there I mean you could really virtually go to almost any position group um and say that there's you know one or two spots up for grabs um so definitely there there's a lot of position battles just for generally to make that 53 man roster yeah speaking of positions to focus on with positional battles comes roster decisions and those decisions are coming up pretty soon for the 49ers so I'm curious how much will this final preseason game influence those decisions Final preseason game you know I think it it does very much matter right there's like I mentioned a number of positions that are still up for grabs maybe the depth chart there is still being decided this is going to be a huge factor in that because again this is just a ramping up towards the regular season so third and final preseason game gives you an opportunity to show how you can perform in live game action right you can you know definitely take away things that are happening in practice things that the players are doing well but it's that happens against your own team you know um you're very familiar with each other very familiar what's going to happen on the other side of the ball this is against um you know a team that doesn't have your full Playbook um so I definitely think that these are valuable reps um and yeah I I do believe that this is going to play a factor in some of the decisions that are Co coming next week for that 53 man roster yeah it's really interesting to talk about these positional battles but honestly I feel like the biggest one of the off season has been that backup quarterback competition and how that's been shaping up over the preseason so we've got two games in the bag one more to go tonight Lindsay what have been your key takeaways from the performance of the quarterbacks throughout this entire preseason slate yeah so I would say that it's well we definitely seen a lot of workload from the quarterbacks behind Brock pie you also have to keep in mind that for the Titans game you really didn't have a ton of starters out there and then it was a little bit of a mixed bag of starters during that second Saints game I'm curious to see the pieces around these quarterbacks um but I think generally we've seen a lot of good things from Josh dos I think that second game against the Saints um was a pretty good good outing for him he led three scoring drives um and we saw his we saw backto back flips into the end zone for a touchdown for him um he seems to be settling into the 49ers offense pretty well um for Brandon Allen again would have had a one of his drives end in a field goal unfortunately the kick didn't work out but again just seeing how these players can continue to just integrate themselves in the 49ers offense um obviously Brock py gets a bulk of the Reps during training camp practices but these are super valuable and you know you got to do what you can with what you get in these games and then again we saw Tanner morai get an entire quarter of work um and who knows what will happen tonight if he does get that same amount of workload then he'll have you know his fair share of reps to see what he can put out there with the 49ers offense um but you know for Brandon Allen this is his second year in this you know he knows knows the Playbook has mentioned how he feels more comfortable in it um we haven't had an opportunity to speak for Tanner Mor speak to Tanner morai um but again he looked like he was confident out there um and definitely didn't like hesitate uh to rip the ball so I think all good things from all three of those guys I think it's just getting that that depth chart behind him uh decided and we'll definitely see more tonight yeah yeah it'll be definitely interesting to watch you know which backup quarterback gets the most playing time in tonight's contest and how that will influence the team's decision leading into the regular season but here's head coach Kyle Shanahan on that backup quarterback competition last year You' uh you declared your your backup quarterback before the last preseason game where do you stand now with that uh kind of like what you guys see they're pretty tight so I'm definitely not declaring it now uh hopefully they'll they'll play out more in these two practices and hopefully a little bit more in the game all right faithful that will do it for today tune in to tonight's preseason finale against the Las Vegas Raiders kickoff is at 700 p.m. tonight so you can watch the game on kpix5 NFL Network and the official 49ers app so subscribe for more 49ers updates and turn on the notifications for any breaking news move the chains episodes thanks for tuning in [Music]