The Herd with Colin Cowherd - The Richard Sherman Podcast - 49ers-Chargers reaction, Brock Purdy, McCaffrey rumors & defense concerns | Richard Sherman & David Lombardi

Episode Date: August 23, 2026

Richard Sherman and David Lombardi discuss the San Francisco 49ers' preseason, including Brock Purdy's connection with De'Zhaun Stribling, Jacob Cowing’s performance vs. the Los Angeles Chargers, Christian McCaffrey’s hold-in rumors, and rookie Kaelon Black’s potential role.They also discuss Nick Bosa and Fred Warner leading the Niners’ defense; Osa Odighizuwa’s interior pass rush; Jaden Dugger and Upton Stout in training camp; Raheem Morris' scheme; offensive-line issues at left guard and center; and Week 1's matchup against Matthew Stafford, Puka Nacua, Davante Adams, and the Rams in Australia.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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and see what they have to offer us. Everyone has a good time and no one gets mad at their publicists for letting them do our show. We've had a lot of great guests like Sarah Sherman, Adam Scott, Danny McBride, Ben Stillard, and a lot of other big shots that wouldn't be where they are without Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back to the Richard Sherman podcast. And today we have an incredible guest, a good friend of mine, and a guy who covers the San Francisco 49ers as good as anyone. David Lombardi of the San Francisco Standard. Appreciate you joining me.

So up, Shirm. How's it going? Another day in paradise, baby. You know, I'm down in your neck of the woods, at least where you grew up. I'm down in the L.A. area. 49ers played the Chargers yesterday. and it's nice and hot here every day. But back to the bay for the finished training camp now.

Man, man, that was a great showing by the San Francisco 49ers last night. It looked like a really fun game to be at. I mean, at least for the preseason, because the preseason you always kind of wonder how these games are going to go, how much effort. You know, young guys are going to play as hard as they can because it's their first NFL action. But, you know, this game, I'm sure Cal is going to turn on the tape and be

and enjoy watching it. Well, they dominated them on both lines of scrimmage, which makes any coach happy. And you know, you just want to get out of these games where you do play your starters or at least you're starting quarterback healthy. That's exactly what happened. You know what I thought that first drive,

Kyle likes 12 plays for his QB1. He got exactly 12 plays. And if there was anything that I think he wanted to see, it was purdy with good chemistry with Dejohn stribling. And he found him three times. And I talked to Brock in the locker room after. And he said, you know, his hands, Dejan's hands are just so strong.

I think about that on third downs, even if he's not open, I know if I put the ball in his general vicinity, he's going to pluck it out of the air, and he's like a vacuum cleaner. It was awesome to see. You know, normally you've got to scheme rookies open. They've got to build a little bit of confidence. He's making those vet catches from the get-go.

And it was, what, seven catches in week one, a few more yesterday, and that's all Kyle needed to see from his starters. And, you know, you get caught up, in the past and the players that have been there. And obviously, you know, Joanne Jennings War 15. And you look at some of those catches. And then you hear people start saying third and Dazan. And you're like, hey, let the rookie eat and let him figure it out.

But to come in and be this prepared to play, you know, for a guy that a lot of people, I mean, especially initially when they picked him, were on the fence about. if only, you know, if not critical of this pick. And so, you know, you see a lot of people kind of kind of turn it around now and being like, oh, yeah, I had him as a sleeper. I had him as a sleeper in my draft. You know, I was talking about him because I watched him play in the SEC. Sure.

And I was like, who's this number one? Yeah, right. I mean, it's ridiculous that so many people came out. I'd never heard of this guy because he wasn't on their mock draft. But maybe you need to make a better mock draft because he's 6-3. He runs a 4-3. He only dropped one pass all of last year at Ole Miss. He may be the best blocking wide receiver in this draft class.

And you know what they love Sherm is that he played in so many different systems in college? So it was Wazoo to Oklahoma State to Ole Miss. And they all asked him to do different things. So he, you know, everybody was saying, well, he doesn't run intermediate routes. That was his Ole Miss tape. If you actually did your homework and watched the Oklahoma State tape, he was carving up the middle of the field. And he did that yesterday with,

with Mac Jones on that post over the middle on third down. So he's as close to a complete receiver as you could have gotten in this draft class. And he's got a chance, I think they'd be the best in this draft class. We'll see how it plays out. But the 49ers knew what they were doing. And I just think that it's hard to evaluate so many players. So people who make these mock drafts, you know, they act like they've covered it all. But there's going to be blind spots.

And the 49ers might have found a public blind spot here. And I just love. because there were, I think it was Des Bryant on Twitter, who talked about him rounding his route when he was running. I think it might have been drift or a dig or something. And it's literally how Kyle has taught it. Yeah, exactly. The whole time.

It's literally, it's what Kyle teaches. It's outside foot up, you know, bang, bang, bang, roll into it, catch it on a run. And then there was a perfect example of it in the game. Mack Jones hits him in stride in a very small window. He catches it and gets going up to field. And I don't know why. If I didn't know if I had the TV muted and I didn't know what year this was,

I would have thought that was Joanne Jennings. And I'm sorry. That's just what it looked like to me. He looks like he's going to be a big part of this offense. But another receiver that really put on the show last night was Jacob Cowling. And I know you have been at practice and you've watched it. And obviously he's been a little beat up and his health has been a major concern. What did you think about what he did last night?

and his prospects of making this team. Well, I think it's an awesome story, and I just found this out last night talking to him in the locker room. He was out all of last year with the hamstring issue. I wasn't sure exactly what was causing that to be a season-long injury. He tore his hamstring four times last year.

So he went to hell and back. I mean, it just kept on aggravating it. It got to the point last season where they just had to really shut him down and he couldn't really do anything because they just had to let. They were trying to get him back for the year and obviously didn't worry.

work. And so he, his performance yesterday, that punt returned, the 83 yarder, there was a lot of meaning to that. And there was a day of practice about four or five days ago where he got banged up again. And it was like, oh, no, here we go again. He's slow to get up. And this guy just can't shake injuries. But he found a way to get back out there. And he made one of the best catches of all training camp from Mack Jones. Just climb the ladder. Not a tall guy, five, nine, but over the middle, climbed the ladder, made the catch. And I asked him about it. I said, you know, I watched that practice. I don't like to make too much out of practice. But to me, it seemed that that had some importance to you beyond just a normal session. He said, yeah, I have some heart. And last year was

really tough. And, you know, just bouncing back from that little minor injury at practice showed me that I can do this. And then yesterday, he took that punt to the house. Yeah, 83 yards to the house. And he looked really good. He looked really good. You know, I think he had an underthrown ball or something early in the game and, you know, you know, guys make plays and stuff like that happens. But the way he responded and you can see the excitement from the team, speaking of practice, you know, good old AI, you know, we're talking about practice. I saw online on Twitter, you, you know, you kind of kind of giving it to some of these fans because people were up in arms, you know, which is the digital media age we're in and people getting way more access to training camp

than I've ever heard of before. I didn't understand that. Well, that's something that still I'm getting used to. I'll say that. But you hear fans up in arms, you know, because the charges, receivers talking about, oh, yeah, we lost count of how many touchdowns we had and all this other crap. And you get in the game and they don't touch paint. Well, I lost count of how many sacks Osa de Guzuel would have had, but he could only touch Justin Herbert on the shoulder pad, right? As a defender, I'm sure you hated that and trying to cover people. I still remember, Sherm, 2018, your first year with the Niners, you know, there were some people who wanted to post a one-on-one with no pass rush, and you got burned on one of the one-on-ones. And they're like, oh, look, he's going to be cooked this year. You're coming off your Achilles, right? And you ended up being all pro in 2018. It's like some of this stuff is not like,

It's practice. It's not real football. You don't have the pass rush. The quarterback doesn't have something to worry about timing-wise. There's no safety to help the corners, right? I'm sure safety helping you in that one-on-one rep would have helped. So I still remember fighting this battle like 10 years ago telling people, guys, why don't we wait to the game?

Why don't you use actual game tape from prior years to set an expectation? But everybody is freaks out. And I thought the four-handers defense, they only had three plays. yesterday against Herbert and the starters, but they look completely different than they did in practice. Maybe it's because they actually were able to put on a pass rush yesterday and actually hit the quarterback. Yeah, I mean, and then you're when you get, when you're at full strength for a full game, you know, I mean, it takes, you know, for a Fred Warner and a Nick Bosa, it's going to take a second to get into the field of the game and impact the game. You know what I mean?

the way defense is played. Like you oppose your will over time. And, you know, so I don't think there's any concern. I did like some of the things I saw from Jair Brown yesterday. You know, you know, he's been kind of up and down from what I hear during this training camp, but he put some good things on tape yesterday just being decisive, going, getting downhill, trusting his instincts, playing with confidence. And, you know, some of the other young linebackers, some of the other young D-Lyman, I think I saw Ramello Hype. make an inside stunt in the run game and made a really good play in the backfield early on in that game. What are you hearing about Ramello Hyde and in the new young defensive linemen?

Because I obviously saw you think D.N. continues to be a concern in the depth at defensive end has obviously been a concern in the past and been an issue in the past rush was abysmal last year. So do you think they've improved? Do you think Ramello Hyde is going to be? the guy, the 49ers think he is? Well, I think they're still very Nicboza dependent, but when you pay a guy 34 million a year, I know it's not the top of the market anymore, but whenever you pay a guy

that much, you're going to be dependent on that player. The good news is they anticipate that he's going to be back and healthy. He looked great, by the way, when I saw him out at practice for the first week or two coming off the ACL. He's dealing with a little bit of post-acel tendinitis now. But you need BOSA. You need Fred Warner. Those are the two guys

they didn't have last year. That led to disaster on defense. And then, you know, Heights's going to be a supplementary piece on the other side. I've really liked them. You know, this must be interesting to you since you're so familiar with what they had run for essentially all of Kyle Shanahan's tenure up until this year. Rahim Morris has definitely added things to this defense. They're going to be running those, those five-man fronts a lot more often, so a lot more three-four base kind of stuff. Ramello Heights is a light edge rusher. He's even lighter than D. Ford, who executed a lot of

coverage drops in college. So this is all part of a defense that has a lot more adaptability, a lot more wrinkles than it did in the past. Then we'll see Ramello Hyde doing a little bit of everything for the 49ers. But they needed that bookend of Bosa. And you know what they've truly, truly missed, especially last year, was an interior rush. And that's where Ossa Degazua comes. And I think he's an awesome player to watch. It was cool just to see him in a very short amount of time yesterday. Just pushed the pocket up in the middle. And that's going to help. guys like Ramello and it's going to help guys like Nick Bosa on the edge. Yeah, I felt like they've been chasing that interior rush for a really long time since

the Forrest Buccner left, Eric Armstead, you know, they went after Javon Hargrave and that didn't go as they expected it to. You know, so it looks like they may have found some young guys who can get it done. Obviously, also Diggy Zua is an established guy in this League and it's played well for the Dallas Cowboys. But, you know, again, it's to be seen. Chris Casaric does a great job with those guys, getting maximizing them and getting the most out of everything they have to offer. But what's your biggest takeaway from training camp in these two preseason games that

they had that 49ers fans should be aware of going forward? Well, health is going to be well for this team. It feels like that's the story. every year for the 49ers, but I think on an overarching takeaway, assuming they're generally healthy, this team is going to go as far as its defense can take it because I see this offense being a top shelf unit. So, you know, we always think about balance with these teams. So if they can be a top three offense, okay, you're set there, but can that defense be above average? Can it be in the top half of the league? Because if they can do that, and last year

they were in the 20s after all those injuries, they didn't really have a chance. They were a team that was scrappy and they somehow overcame a lot of the diversity to win those 13 games, but we knew that they weren't going to take it all the way because they were just too porous on defense and not explosive enough to make up for it on offense without any of those wide receivers. I think they solved on paper the explosiveness issues when they added Mike Evans, when they added Dejohn-stribling. I think they're going to be able to run the ball to set up the pass. I think they're going to be chunk plays this year. I think Brock Purdy is is an unbelievable quarterback, but again, you have to have a two-sided team. And if that defense can be in the

top half of the league, they've got a shot to go all the way this year. If they're a top 10 defense, they're going to be one of the favorites. I don't know if they're going to be at that level, but they do get Fred Warner and Nick Bosa back this year. And then it's going to be about these young guys, Sherm. It's going to be about how they fill in speed wise, how they fill in, you know, hunger because the run defense hasn't been good for two years, and I think it really all starts there. And then how is Rahim Morris going to mesh with a lot of this new talent that they have? I'm looking forward to seeing how this defense is going to be in the secondary. You know, they're still very young.

You know, it's, it just, it was too inconsistent last year. They need to produce more turnovers. They need to create more turnovers. They played a lot of young guys last year. And obviously there's been some criticism of the back end, the safeties, and the concern there. I thought they would bring in some, you know, a veteran of some kind to just, you know, kind of liven up the competition. And, you know, I think they tried to do that with Ashton Davis. But I just thought they'd bring in more of an established vet like they did with Tashon Gibson a couple years ago.

And, you know, it turned out really well. You know, he ended up playing the best football of his career for San Francisco 49ers. Not that Jair and I can't do it. And Malik Mustafa and, you know, those guys can't get it done, Siegel. But if they get it done, fantastic. But if they struggle, you have no, like, that's it. You know, that's what you got to ride with. And so that's my only concern there is if, you know, you, I'm sure they're looking under every stone

and knocking on every door and making the phone calls to see what they can do just in, you know, and just in case scenario. But what have you seen from the safety throughout training camp? Do you feel good about that group? Do you feel confident about them going into the season? Well, here's what the 49ers believe. They think that the fact that their pass rush was so terrible last year, only 20 sacks. That was the least in the league.

They thought that that is what hurt the safeties the most. We'll see if they're right. But another wrinkle to this is that I think. I think Rahim Morris, and you could probably speak to this better than me, just being a former player, a guy in the defensive backfield who knows some of the schematic stuff. But I think that he's going to be really adaptable on the back end. And I think he's going to be using Upton Stout, who I love. I want to hear what you think about Upton Stout.

But I think we'll see him a little bit at safety. I think he's going to be a Swiss, he's playing that star position. I know Jalen Ramsey played that for Rahim Morris in L.A., but he's going to use Upton Stout, out in that star position, but probably differently to tailor to his skill set. And I just think that you're going to have adaptability between safeties and the nickelback, maybe even a little bit between the corners. I think Rahim's going to be really creative. And you could tell me if I'm on to something here,

but I think that's going to be one of the ways that the 49ers try to pick up some of the slack on the back end. Yeah, I think that's just the evolution of the league where it's at defensively. If you look at the Super Bowl last year between San Francisco and New England, I mean, in Seattle and New England, you could see the safeties and nickels pretty much interchangeably. And that's the way they were disguising coverage. You know, if a slot receiver motion to the other side, sometimes the safety and the nickel would rock and roll like two safeties used to and leave the box safety in the box. And he rocks back into the safety position. So it disguised and then they play man coverage.

So it gives you a zone indicator and then you play man coverage. And it's just another evolution to what teams are doing to muddy the picture for these quarterbacks. And I think New England was doing a really good job defensively last year, maximizing their talent. And obviously, Mike McDonald and Seattle have been, you know, on the top of their games and played fantastic football. So I think, you know, just like Kyle and Sean McVeigh and all those guys, you know, people tried to steal what they've been doing and tried to, you know, because they're so efficient, so effective. what they're doing. So other teams, you know, it's a copycat league, and you're going to do what works. You're going to whatever the flavor is.

And I think right now having a versatile nickel safety and guys who can, safeties that can cover and man to man and go down and play in a nickel type role and nickels that can get back into safety just makes the defense a lot more versatile and aggressive and difficult to prepare for because the picture is never really what you think it is. Yeah. And I think that's exactly what they're doing in the defensive backfield. And somebody like up and stout, he's such a fascinating player to me because he's not tall, but I think he almost uses the fact that he's only five nine to his advantage, as weird as that sounds, because he could fit through smaller crevices there on the inside. He's just a pain against the run. And, you know,

bigger guards and linemen are going to have a really tough time tracking and blocking this guy. And then, of course, he can cover. And, and I think he's really, smart as well. I actually visited his college at Western Kentucky after the 49ers drafted him to talk to his coach and a lot of the staff there. And just the way that they glowed about this guy, you could tell that this was before he played a snap for the 49ers, but you could tell they might have unearthed something really good in that third round. And that, you know, if you watched the tape last year, they played in Seattle to begin the season and they played in Seattle at the very end of the season. Upton Stout was the liability on defense in week. one because he was the rookie and obviously the Seahawks were going after him, a couple costly penalties. I thought he might have been the best player on the field for the 49ers defensively by the time the season ended. That was point A to point B in 2025. And now you've got this guy anchoring the secondary with Lenore and obviously Renardo Green, who heard of his hamstring, unfortunately.

But they signed Jack Jones and they have more depth now at corner than they did. So for some of the shortcomings that they're worried about at safety, they do have more veteran depth at the cornerback position. which should be valuable. Definitely valuable. And now I want to move on to the offensive side. There's been rumors, you know, the hold in, everybody speculating. No, is Christian McCaffrey's back really tight, or is he concerned about Jemir Gibbs' contract

and Bejohn Robinson and all these guys getting these major deals? But it seems like Kyle Shanahan went out of his way to dispel that rumor. But you never know. you know, in previous years when Christian McCaffrey's getting protected during the preseason, people understood. They were like, oh, offensive player at a year, they're taking care of him. They wanted to get through the season. This year, it's like, they're protected Christian McCaffrey, hold in. Don't get logical with me, man. You not bring logic to a fight on X, for sure. I mean, they're bubble wrapping Christian McCaffrey. And is their chance that they sweeten his deal

in a very minor way? Sure, but he's not even on the lame duck year of his contract yet. And he already got paid out an $11 million option bonus in March. So you would think that the time to try to renegotiate that if he wanted it in a serious way would have been earlier. I think the 40-hundred want to see how this season plays out. And then he's going to be entering the final year of his contract in 2027. If he has a good year and they want to keep this going, obviously they're going to rip that up and give him a new deal next off-season.

But that's a bridge they're not going to cross this off-season. But you bubble wrap Christian McCaffrey. you bubble wrap Trent Williams to a certain extent. He didn't play in any of these preseason games. Obviously, Nick Bosa is dealing with some of the tendonitis right now. So the goal, it's not just week one. It's the fact that you have to play games through all of September, all of October, all of November, all of December, January.

You hope that you're back here in L.A. and so far in February, right? So, you know, nobody has ever won a Super Bowl. Bowl in August, but they've certainly lost Super Bowls in August, right, with some of these injuries. So, I mean, I think it's logical, but everything these days is a scandal, right? So I guess that's just part for the course here in 2006. Yeah, we're in an age where it has to be some negative connotation associated with why players out instead of just the same reason he was out last all season, I mean, last preseason, and the preseason before that, it's just, so what what you do with him?

But staying in the running back room, we talked off camera about Kalon Black, and you feel really good about his prospects. You said you were watching his past protection, and that's a big thing for Kyle Shanahan. If you can trust him in pass protection, you can trust him with the football, and you can trust him out there. Obviously, Christian McCaffrey is going to take a lot of plays off, which we've seen over the years.

I think last year, Robinson learned that Christian McCaffrey does not come out. the game very often. But what have you seen from Kalon Black and what do you think his prospects are to play this season? Well, let me tell you a story from last season. There's a game against the Falcons. It was on Sunday night and the 49ers were driving to seal the game and Christian was in the middle of his 413 touch season, wasn't coming off the field. They hit third and 12 in the red zone. Mack is the quarterback in this game. And Kyle had called a play to convert the third and 12 for Christian, and he was supposed to line up as a slot receiver. Except that when the 49ers broke the huddle or got close to breaking the huddle,

Kyle Shanahan looked up from his play sheet, and he noticed that Christian McCaffrey was standing right next to him on the sideline. He was gassed, winded. And he goes, are you hurt? And Christian said, no, I'm just tired. And he's like, well, this next place for you and only you can run this play. I don't trust any of the other running backs. If you're not hurt, get your ass back out there. And Christian McCaffrey has to sprint back on the field. We all know what happened next. Even though he was tired, he ran the route, he converted the first down,

caught a 13-yarder on 3rd and 12, and then that set up the touchdown that sealed the game. You don't want to keep on doing that to Christian McCaffrey. You might be able to get away with it a few times, but you have to find a way to be able to be comfortable with somebody else in those spots. And up until now, they just haven't had it. a back versatile enough to make Kyle Shanahan breathe easily enough in that situation. I really think that Kalon might be that guy. I really do. And that's why they drafted him in the

third round and that's why they're so excited about him. Yeah, I mean, you saw flashes of it last night. Obviously, you're not going to see a ton in the preseason. Kyle isn't going to really dial up the run game and the way he is during the season. But you saw flashes, you know, he's the downhill runner. You saw it on the short yarders play. You saw his burst. on the one play that he got, you know, a little bit of room where, you know, he kind of ran into the pile and then broke out for, I think, seven or eight yards. So I think he's going to do well. Obviously, Mike Evans has been talked about a ton this offseason and throughout training

camp. He's going to be a fantastic addition. The place where I was most concerned at the end of last season and still this whole offseason and still now was the offensive line. And I'm still concerned. and the concerns are coming to roost, especially with the left guard position. You know, nobody knows, nobody knows who's going to play left guard. And I'm not incredibly confident at the center position.

What are you feeling like because you're more dialed in, you're at practice every day, you're so connected to the team. Obviously, Kyle feels really good, that the team feels really good about this offensive line. You know, I just keep going to that Seattle Seahawks game where they cannot move. cannot move Byron Murphy and their double team and he's splitting the double and tackling the running back in the backfield. And you didn't, we didn't rectify, do anything to rectify that. And so I think that's where my biggest concern is you have potentially Aaron Donald coming back into the division. And that interior offensive line did not improve enough for you to, to feel confident in those games going against the same guys who manhandled these men last season.

Yeah, left guard, to me, Kyle had a scary quote, if you're a 49ers fan the other day, said something along the lines of neither of the three guys competing. And I think there were actually four guys competing, but Austin Pleasant Scott heard. But he said neither of the guys competing has done enough to make us, you know, feel completely good about this. So something along those lines, basically saying that, you know, we were really hoping that somebody would grab this job. Nobody has. and now, you know, at this point, we're close to the season. They might platoon that position.

They did last year. They had down the stretch, it was Ben Barch and Spencer Burford until Barch got hurt. Neither of those two guys are on the team. They tried Connor Colby out there early due to some other injuries at the start of the year. He wasn't very good. And I think there was like this wishful thinking from the 49ers this off season that Colby would be a completely different player this year. and they were talking about, you know, how great he looked in the weight room and all this and all that in offseason. I never bought it because I need to see it on the field, you know, and when the guy struggled last year,

Trent Williams had to cover a lot of his mistakes at left tackle. So I never bought it. And then, lo and behold, about a week and a half, two weeks ago, they moved Connor Colby off the first team. And you saw them go to Robert Jones, the veteran, who's had some past protection issues over the course of his career. So I'm not sure, Sherm. I really am not sure at that left guard position. That is the one big, big weakness on this offense. And the only saving grace there, if there are major struggles once the season starts,

is that that guy plays next to 71, plays next to Trent Williams. And he can erase some mistakes. And, you know, one more saving grace is that Brock Purdy was the hardest quarterback to sack in the league last year. Best pressure to sack ratio. So, I mean, interior pressure is hard to get away from. but if there's somebody that is capable of getting rid of the football, he's got a quick couple steps to get away from it to moves really well. It is your quarterback purdy.

But I agree with you. You've got to block Byron Murphy. You may have to block Aaron Donald. There's a lot of really good three techs in this league to where it's hard to not have a good left guard. It's impossible to win without a good interior offensive line in this league. And I think that's my biggest concern for this team. and not even just in the past game. Like I think, like you said,

Brock can avoid it and do all that, make his magic, but you shouldn't have to depend on that magic, just get a better left guard and maybe look at the center, you know. But I think it's hard to feel confident in the run game. And people were like, oh, Christian McCaffrey took a step back last season

and he's also stepping all this stuff. They can't block them. Like they're not blocking. There's no whole stuff for him to find. Like he's done a great job of being masterful at finding things that that aren't there and creating issues. But sometimes you cannot create when you're doubling up to a guy that you can't move. There's not going to be, even when you're running outside zone and you're running all these things that have all this movement, if you can't move a guy with a double team, it's done.

It's dead. That's ground zero, right? Right there in the middle. That's ground zero. Yeah. The whole thing collapses. I thought they would do a better job of addressing that because they watched the same tape I watched.

And you can say what you want about, oh, man, these guys are the perfect guys fit for these schemes, but you have to be able to win your division. And in your division are monsters. There's real monsters in this division. So I don't know. I don't know. I'm going to wait and see you, I guess.

I guess we have to, right? Carver Will, as the rookie, they drafted, they didn't use a high draft pick. They used a fourth rounder on him. He might be the favorite now. He started the game against the Chargers at left guard. So, you know, maybe he ends up surprising people in his first year. They've had first year starting guards before.

So we'll see. And one other thing I would add is that Dominic Poonie, I don't think he played last year 100%. And he could knock on wood that he stays healthy this year. But right guard, he was so good as a rookie in 2024, especially early on. I don't think he matched that level of play after he hurt his knee in the preseason against the Raiders. So that's something to keep in mind as well. But I mean, I agree with you that there is a lot seemingly writing on an unproven player and Carver Willis or whoever else wins that competition at left guard.

And we'll see how they handle it. Okay. And my next question is, who's been the biggest surprise at the 49th training camp? Oh, that's a good question. Jaden Dugger. Yeah, I can't believe we haven't talked about this guy yet. He's got a seven-foot wingspan. I have done my research.

I have yet to find, and maybe you have a couple ideas, but I've yet to find a stack linebacker, not an outside linebacker, but he's playing inside linebacker in NFL history with a seven-foot wing span. It's longer than Alden Smith's. And the reason why... Really? Yes, his wing span.

His wingspan is longer than Alden Smith to about an inch longer. It's insane. Like this has led me down to a rabbit hole. And the reason why you don't see inside linebackers with this long of a wingspan is because normally you'd put that guy at edge rusher. And he did play edge rusher for a season in college,

but he also played linebacker. And then he played safety before that. So, I mean, this is like the new kind of, the new age defender, right? That could play everything basically on the back end. Probably can't play corner. but has been able to cover from safety in college. And I think Rahim Morris is going to deploy him in a bunch of different ways.

There was a practice where he lined up with Chris Casaric and the edge rushers to work on that part of his game. Mostly he's been with your former teammate with KJ. Wright and Johnny Holland and the linebackers. I think that KJ looks at him and is like, well, I was a six four linebacker. This is awesome. This is like me in younger form. And I get to coach him up, right?

So it's fascinating with that wingspan. We've seen it now. You know, the very first play tackle that he made in the first preseason game, he tracked the Cam Ward to the sideline. He just saw those long arms and those long strides. He was really rough. You put on the tape. His linebacker tape, I don't think, was good in college.

But the 49ers had a vision, and I think that he has blossomed much more quickly than I expected. And maybe it's just, you know, maybe it just fits what they're running. so perfectly, but I think he's going to play, and I think he's going to play a lot. Let's talk about this division. Obviously, it's the toughest division in football, and it's only getting better. You know, this all season seems like an arms race in NFC West with the Rams getting McDuffie and Watson and obviously the big dog and Miles Garrett potentially bringing back

Aaron Donald. I think he had a workout the other day is just trying to figure it out. Obviously, there's some financial and contract deals that they need to figure out. And then in Seattle, they're just steady staying in the course. They kept the players in-house

that they need to keep. Devin Witherspoon just signed a big deal. Obviously, JSN signed his big deal. So those guys aren't going anywhere. The defensive line that's been incredibly formidable is still formidable. They drafted Judgerian Price. He's had an outstanding training camp.

This game in Australia is going to have a lot, a lot riding on it. You know, for usually you don't say that earlier in the season. Like a first game, you know, even last year. Last year, the first game, you know, people are like, oh, you know, we'll figure it out. And the league is doing a great job of now making everything meaningful because last year was San Francisco 49ers in Seattle, game one. And it was a very tight and hard fought game. And then at the end of the season, I was like, you guys are diabolical for that. Like first game and last game.

Last game was for the division. I mean, you couldn't have scripted it any better. NFL on Netflix is back and better than ever. Week one of the upcoming NFL season features the division rivals, Los Angeles Rams, and the San Francisco 49ers going head to head in the league's first ever regular season game. in Australia, airing on Netflix live from Melbourne Cricket Ground, Thursday, September 10th, at 8.30 p.m. Eastern Time. Heading into the holiday season, Netflix will add the NFL's first ever Thanksgiving Eve game on November 25th to its plate, featuring the Green Bay Packers visiting

the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium. Continuing the Christmas Day tradition, Netflix again has two games on December 25th. Packers visit the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field at 1 p.m. Eastern Time, followed by the Buffalo Bills against the Denver Broncos from Empower Field at Mile High at 4.30 p.m. Eastern Time. Then in week 18, with playoff stakes on the line, catch the final game of the regular season live on Netflix. Watch week one of the NFL on Netflix, starting with the Los Angeles Rams versus the San Francisco 49ers, live only on Netflix, Thursday, September 10th at 8.35 p.m. Eastern time.

What are you feeling in your gut for this Rams game in Australia? Obviously, the Rams have been the talk of the offseason because of, you know, rightfully so, all the things that they've done, all the money they've spent on their defense, Matthew Stafford coming off an MVP season, Pooka Nakua, Steel, an all-pro, Devante Adams looks really good. If you turn on X at any time, you'll see a Devante Adams highlight. Kyron Williams in the run game has been good. Their offensive line was really good last year.

They feel really good about them themselves. But they split last year, even with all that, and they split. And Kendrick Bourne and Mack Jones and that team went into LA and found a way to win. So sometimes it just feels like, I don't know, like Kyle has Sean's number in some of these games, you know, regardless of who's the more talented team, who's the better team, cows seems to find a way majority of the time. What I'll say about Australia is, you know, the higher stakes that you mentioned, it's as simple as I don't think you want to fly 15 hours somewhere and lose,

because then you have to get on a plane and fly 15 hours back. So I just feel there's going to be, there's going to be some real hunger to win that, even if it is just a week one game. But last year, yeah, down at SOFI, that was what, week five, 40-9ers came in with a skeleton crew. nobody thought they had a chance and somehow they pulled it out. Just goes to show you this NFC West, these are tough, tough teams.

And even if they're not at full strength, like the 49ers last year, they went into Philly and won with a skeleton crew. And obviously the Seahawks were an all-time great defense last year. I mean, they were really good. So the 49ers weren't able to pull that off again when they didn't have any guys at the end. But what they did to the Rams in week five was really eye-opening and they should be a lot healthier. Knock on wood again, but for week one against the Rams this year. You know, the way I look at it is it's the big picture. 49ers have what I think is going to be a really good

offense with Purdy. The Rams, we will see how quickly they settle in defensively. They have a lot of shiny new pieces, but there were big issues on that side of the ball last year. Is that going to be something where they're awesome right out of the gate or is that going to be something that takes until October or November to turn into a true top five unit. We don't know the answers to these questions yet. Other side of the ball, Stafford did it at a high level last year. We'll see if they could sustain that here for 2006. And I think that's the big test for the 49ers defense right out of bed, right?

Warner and Bosa, when they had those two guys last year, I mean, Bosa walked off that Seattle game. He forced the fumble against Sam Darnold. in week one. He's the closer that they missed over the majority of last season. So having those two guys back is big, but I still have a lot of questions about that side of the ball.

The reason why week one is so exciting, Shirm, is because we just don't know the answer to a lot of this stuff. But you can see the ingredients there, but how's it all going to cook? How is it all going to play out when it's out on the field? And you see the differences in style

and coaching style and philosophy. Kyle Shanahan and... San Francisco 49ers are coming in, I think, a week early. That's going to be crazy to me. And then Sean McVeigh and the Rams are coming in the day before. Like it's just the normal travel day. Have you ever been on a 15-hour flight? What's the longest flight you've been on?

I've been on a few 14s. 14s. How did your body feel after, like, 24 hours after that flight? Not like I could play a football game. Not like I would want to play a football game. So I think that the Rams, I'm very, skeptical of their strategy because they're obviously dipping into this sport science stuff, but I think they're only focused on the time change. And they're saying, we're just going

to stay on Pacific time and that's going to be too hard advantage. I think they're forgetting the obvious that when you're on a 14, 15 hour flight, your body doesn't feel the same right away. I, that's maybe I'll be wrong, but I think that the 40-9ers are going to have a leg up there because they're, you know, they're flying in on September 4th, a whole full week before the game. So their body will have. a chance to recover. I don't know if the Rams will, but like, I think the Rams are banking on, they've done it a few times and they've had success. But not, not this long. But it's been to like London. Yeah, yeah. Like London, I think that's a, they might have even flown from the East Coast.

I'm not sure. Don't quote me on that. But either way, the most that is is 10 or 11. That's like, when you're on one of those long flights, I don't care if you're on a lay flat or whatever, you look up at 10 hours and you're like, I still have five to go. It's like a whole cross country on top of that. I'm skeptical. Let's just put it that way. I'm very skeptical. But, and, you know, again, it will be, that will be criticized regardless of the outcome. If the ram somehow win, people will say, it's a myth. And all the travel issues are a myth. You can fly in the day before and win. The NFL would love that because they're like, all right, see, like we could put a division in, you know, out in Asia. We can put a division in Europe.

and all you have to do is fly in two hours before the game and you're fine. I'm sure the NFL would love that, but. Be careful. You're going to start a controversy. You're going to start the conspiracy theorists. See, they set it up. They wanted them to win so that they can prove it. Well, I mean, that's another crazy thing.

I think it's coming. I think at some point we're going to see a full division in Europe. I think Goodell even said as much the other day. So wild times we live in. Very wild times. Very wild times. But that's, that's all I. got for you, brother. We're going to, we're going to check you in during the season. I think this

was very fun. I hope you enjoyed it. I look forward to continuing these conversations. I think this is going to be a fun year for the NFC West and the San Francisco 49ers. I'm excited. Hell yeah. Thanks a lot and have a good one. I'm Hoda Kotbby, host of the podcast Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb. You know, I'm always searching for inspiration and useful tools to maximize joy. Like when my friend Henry Winkley, are offered advice to aspiring actors and really anybody hoping to stand out. You're not hired just to fill time and space.

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