The Kevin Sheehan Show - 49ers Talk Aiyuk

Episode Date: July 26, 2026

Kevin opened with the Nats' 5-3 win over Arizona. ESPN's Jeremy Fowler joined Kevin to talk about the ESPN "Top 10" list that Jeremy spearheaded along with his thoughts on the Commanders entering 2026. Kevin finished up with a reaction to the Kyle Shanahan accident and to what John Lynch said about Brandon Aiyuk earlier today.   For all your football betting needs: DCRELOAD at MyBookie for a 50% Deposit Match   So if you are looking to make Mother’s Day perfect, or just want to impress your friends and family with an epic meal next time you host, go to www.GOLDBELLY.com and get free shipping and 20% off your first order with promo code sheehan.   Air conditioning stops at your waistband. Stay fresh all day with TUSHY. For a limited time, our listeners get 10% off their first bidet order when you use code Sheehan at checkout. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheon Show. He is Kevin. ESPN's Jeremy Fowler will join me on the show. The show is presenting sponsors, always, Window Nation, 86690 Nation, windonation.com if you need new windows.

It's early Sunday afternoon, and I'm recording this opening segment to the show. The next segment that you'll hear with Jeremy. Jeremy Fowler, we actually recorded that late Friday. And I'm putting it out today because sometimes if you wait too long, it can become dated. I did talk to him before the Kyle Shanahan accident news broke and before John Lynch had something to say about Brandon Iyuk at 49ers training camp yesterday. I will weigh in on that and the Kyle Shanahan accident in the final segment. of today's show, but you'll hear Jeremy Fowler in the next segment. This from P. Jones 19 to open the show, P. Jones 19 writes, Kevin, you and Tom talking

gnats all of the sudden, after nothing for most of the season, is laugh out loud. You made your bed with Brandon Ayuk, now lie in it. Thank you for that P. Jones 19. If you're being serious, it's kind of a ridiculous take. But, It does bring up something that I've talked about for a few years now, and that is trying to describe D.C. as a sports town now. And I've described it in the last few years as very bandwagony. Now, I don't think it's unique. I think there are a lot of places like D.C.

that are very one team drives all of the conversation, and everybody else has to win and win big. get any attention. There are some cities, New York, Boston, Philly, Chicago maybe, Detroit maybe, L.A. maybe. But for the most part, D.C. is with the other major sports markets in that one team dominates the conversation. In most of those cases, it's the NFL team. By the way, I would prefer to talk more Nats during the spring and summer and then into the fall. And we would have been doing more Nats conversation. We haven't ignored it.

We address the Nats, you know, when it's appropriate to do so. And sometimes when it's not really appropriate to do so. But the reason for less nationals talk in the last five years is because they've averaged 96 losses per season, P. Jones 19. So it's not an easy ask in a town that is very one, team focused, our football team, with everybody else, sort of a distant, you know, second, third, fourth, fifth, however you want to rank them and very bandwagony. You know, the Nats and the Wizards and the Capitals, even the Capitals, which does have,

the Capitals do have, excuse me, a very passionate following, but it's not a mass following. And for it to become mass appeal, they've got to win, and they've got to win. and they've got to win big, and then the bandwagon loads up. But I would much prefer to do more Nats. I actually really like baseball. I watched some of the game late yesterday. Man, has C.J. Abrams been on a roll? In the last eight games, C.J. Abrams, through Saturday nights win,

to even up the series against Arizona, and it would be great to get the game this afternoon to win a third straight series coming out of the All-Star break. But through yesterday's game in the last eight games, C.J. Abrams has 16 hits, five home runs, 12 RBIs. I mean, he is on a heater. I think he's hitting 363 in the month of July. He's got a bunch of homers. And man, C.J. Abrams, James Wood, legitimate, legitimate, All-Star players. and we'll see whether or not the Nats make any deals. There are rumblings of a deal potentially early this week. The trade deadline is August 3rd.

We'll see what happens. By the way, yesterday Foster Griffin's streak of eight straight games of one earned run or less came to an end. He gave up three earned runs, but pitched well. Pitch six and two thirds. Then the bullpen actually held up for that big win. win, which put the Nats back into a two games back of Arizona for that third wildcard spot position. And I think really this is a big week coming up, you know, as they approach the trade deadline in order to avoid, you know, a major sell-off. You heard Blake Boutera

the other day after the win over Colorado say that that was an extremely important win and that he kind of feels and it feels to all of them that they're in this playoff race. And maybe, maybe the front office won't be aggressive selling off parts. Like, I don't want to see Garcia get dealt. I don't want to see any of their big offensive weapons get dealt personally, unless it's for excellent pitching in return. But they're going to have to sort of, you know, thread the needle, you know, where the future is still what they're trying to create, you know, a something for with some of the assets they have. But they don't give up on this season, which because of what they've been offensively, and because they've got two solid starting pitchers, they've got a chance to get into a wild card spot and perhaps be a difficult team to deal with in a short series. But look, I've been into it recently. We'll talk more about it, certainly as they hopefully stay in contention.

I've got a Hall of Fame voter in Tommy on my show twice a week. So we always address baseball to a certain extent. But it would be awesome to have some big games in August, September. And who knows? Maybe October. All right. Let's get to my conversation with Jeremy Fowler the other day from ESPN. We'll do that after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey guys, an admission, I love Goldbelly. I've been telling you about Goldbelly for three years now. If you're a food guy and you haven't been to goldbelly.com, you are missing out. Goldbelly offers the most iconic famous foods from restaurants all across the country.

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they'll deliver it direct to your home from Joe's in Miami. This can be for just you. This can be for entertaining. This can be for game day. This can be for a gift. If you're looking for that perfect gift or you want to impress your friends and family with an epic meal the next time you host, go to goldbelly.com and get 20% off your first order using promo code Sheehan. That's goldbelly.com code Sheehan for 20% off your first order. This segment of the show is brought to you by Window Nation.

For the remainder of the month, Wind Donations offering 50% off of everything. Any window style that they carry, you're going to pay half price on as long as you get an estimate scheduled by July 31st. And that's where it starts. A fast free in-home estimate. It takes an hour or less.

They'll schedule it for you when it's convenient for you. You'll actually find out which windows in your home need to be replaced versus those that don't. And if you decide to move forward with Wind Donation, you're going to pay half price on everything you purchase. Add to that, you don't have to pay anything for two years if you choose to finance the purchase. No money down, no monthly payments, and no interest charged for two full years. 86690 Nation or head to Windonation.com. All right, joining me right now is ESPN's Jeremy Fowler. You guys know Jeremy.

He's one of the best NFL reporters out there. He is a senior NFL reporter for ESPN. You can follow him on X at J. Fowler ESPN. And I wanted Jeremy on the show because we've talked a lot about his annual top 10 list for each of the position groups in the NFL. It's Jeremy's project. he spearheads this thing. It includes 70 or so front office execs, GMs, head coaches, scouts that vote on the best players

for each of these position groups. And I actually wanted to start with something specific about the way you lay out these lists because it's not necessarily clear. I think it's clear to me, and I just wanted to confirm that after the top 10, you then have honorable mention and also receiving votes.

And I've assumed since the Honorable Mensions and the others receiving votes, Jeremy, are not listed in alphabetical order, that they are listed as they received votes. So as an example, Jaden Daniels was the second quarterback on the Honorable Mention list. I know that he ended up tying for 10th with Caleb Williams and Sam Darnold, but he was listed as the second Honorable Mention quarterback,

So I've assumed in looking at your lists over the years that that means that he's the 12th best quarterback in the NFL. You've got your top 10, and then he's the second listed on the honorable mention list. Is that how they're laid out? Yes, that's exactly the way I lay it out. I basically keep it as a consistent ranking after the top 10. So yeah, Jane Daniels was 12, 10 through 13, Sam Darnold, Daniels, Jordan, Love, and Caleb Williams were a variation of a tie. Like it was all very, very close, so I had to kind of split them at that point.

Right. And then even when you get to others receiving votes, they're listed, again, not alphabetically, so I assumed based on the votes they got. Yes, typically. There are rare cases, like wide receiver I did the other day. I had forgotten to add Crystal Lave. So they added them to the end of the list. He probably should have been higher on that list.

But yeah, typically it is in order. I try to stack it that way. can. And there are a lot of players that get like one vote. It's a nine or a ten. So that can be, I just kind of list him as I see fit at that point. Especially with quarterback. That was a hard top 20 ranking. Yeah. That's interesting that you just mentioned Alave because I actually, I don't know if it was on this podcast or my radio show.

But in recent years, Jeremy, there's been a lot of debate among Skins fans as to where Terry McCloran ranks among the receivers in the league. And I have recently said that, you know, there are a couple of guys, Drake London and Chris Alave in particular, that, you know, I think they're right there with Terry, if not better than Terry. And when your list came out, Alave was the last one on the others receiving votes list, which surprised me because I thought he'd be a little bit higher. So where would he have been had you put him?

in the correct spot. And I'm just curious, would have, would a lobby have been in front of Terry or behind him on that list of others receiving votes? Let me look here. I'll tell you. So, yeah. Yeah, I can tell you here. Let me look at my voting. I believe. Hold on. Bear with me. I got to find it. It's okay. Now I'm curious. Ask me another question. I'll get back to you on this because I'll find it. I'm curious myself. Yeah. Let me let me just stick with kind of the overall. concept. I love it. I love that it comes from people within the league. When you do this,

like for this year's rankings, what was the biggest pushback you got on any of the top tens or anything that followed? Well, the biggest pushback I get typically is on the snubs or just a disagreement fundamentally on the rankings. I got a lot of pushback on Jordan Love, and deservedly so. He probably worked his way into a top 10 quarterback discussion at this point. There'd be some sneaky ones that you get killed for, like not having

Cam Hayward, the long-time great Steelers, defensive tackle in the top 13. He was 14th, I believe, 14th to 15th. They got a lot pushback on that because he was an all-pro again, but he's 36, going on 37. So age is a big factor in the

voting. I didn't get much pushback at all from Washington fans. I was a little surprised because they only had one top 10 player and a couple close calls that's not really all that close. It's just sort of a roster in transition, but I think it's a better roster and they have good depth. It just didn't really show up into voting. And so I think commander fans know that. They're like, well, there's not a whole lot we can complain about, especially with Jane Dale's missing the time that he did last year. Yeah, I think that we all understand the roster is not, you know, Philadelphia's roster or Houston's roster or the

the Rams roster, et cetera. And I think the quarterback thing is kind of where we thought it would come in because out of sight is out of mind, right? Even with people within the league, when you only play in four out of 17 games start to finish, it's there's some recency bias to this, don't you think? Yeah. Oh, for sure. And I found your McLauran note.

So he was one, two, three, four, five, six. He was 18th. He was 18th. Alave was 18th or McLaurin was? McLaurin was 18th. Alave would have been tied with him. So they had the same average. They got the same votes that equaled the same number.

So 18 or 19, definitely not 20. Those two would be tied for 18th. Tied for 17th. I got a tie for 17th. UK Metcalf, Terry McLaurin, Chris Alave for 17th. What do you think the toughest position? group for people to vote on is? It's usually wide receiver.

So it depends on the year. Typically, like, wide receiver last year was the hardest one, and Terry was in the middle of that discussion. Yeah. Because I had a, you always have the log jam at the 10th spot, and it goes in waves.

Like the voting, when I look at my ballot, it's broken into tiers typically. And that year in particular, you had the 9th and 10th spot. It was essentially a tie between Mike Evans, Terry McLaurin, Pooka Nakua, Brian Thomas, Jr.

And that was a tough one. That one I literally spent a week trying to figure out two receiver spots. And it was stressful, and I'm taking it to head coaches. There was one head coach in particular that I greatly respected head carry number one out of that group of four. There were others that were like, you have to have Kuka in there.

It's crazy. He's not in there. I think it ended up being McLaurin. No, it was Mike Evans, and Terry, I want to say Terry's in the top ten last year. I have to look back. But it was really close among those four. And, yeah, it's just kind of how it goes sometimes.

Terry's been anywhere from like 9 to 18, you know, that's kind of been his range, which, when you consider the depth of receiver that's pretty good. The receiver's typically the toughest one. This year was not tough. It was actually pretty clear. The top ten was clear there wasn't like a log jam. When you get log jams, it's very tough. Last year, lineback.

was really, really hard. This year, it was really, really clear. So it just depends on the year. But receivers are the toughest one because of the great depth of the position. Yeah, there's no doubt. We've seen this in the last five, six, seven years. Just incredible talent at that position coming in. What was the runaway number one in any position group?

The easiest number one vote getter. Was it Miles Garrett? Yeah, it was Miles. he was the only player to receive every first place. Yeah. Which is pretty uncommon, honestly. You know, he was just so indeniable last year. He's just, he's one of the best athletes we've ever seen in the position.

Well, really any position, I think, it's pretty clear to say. You could argue the best athlete on the planet in the NFL game in the modern era. That's not a stretch. He just goes, he looks different out there, moves different. And when he put together the tag numbers that he did, it's just hard to deny. Fred Warner always dominates the voting. typically Patrick Mahomes had, you know, but it sort of slipped the last few years. But even this year, he still led the quarterbacks in first-post votes.

So, you know, it all depends. And sometimes it's surprising. You know, Kyle Hamilton, his safety, he did the best, even though, like, Derwin James, a lot of people thought he should have been number one. So, you know, Patrick Chirtean always dominate. Some of the same names that have been dominating for a few years now, and they haven't really lost their grip, you know. Leonard Williams, the defensive tackle was the big surprise.

He was the top defensive tackle, but like coaches in particular, he's the best player in the field, and he should be number one. So it just kind of became clear. Yeah. I think the only thing, like, in looking at the edge rushers, again, and I'm remembering what I said about that list, I think that was the biggest surprise for me more than any other, is that T.J. Watt was seventh.

I mean, I'm surprised that he's not ahead of DeNeil Hunter for sure, and even Crosby. It's certainly not Will Anderson, Jr. I think Will Anderson Jr. is the closest thing to Miles Garrett that we have right now. But I was surprised that T.J. Watt was seventh. He was second last year. Yeah, I am too. Sometimes it's a perfect storm with these where it's like if a guy has a down year,

which he had partly due to the injury, but partly because he didn't have his normal stack numbers, then it's like, oh, well, he's 31. By the way, I forgot his age, only 31, and he's not as explosive, and hey, they would trade him, and then it's just like a snowball. Wait a minute, this guy was a premier player number one or two at the position through a half decade. You know, so what changed? And so it's kind of like, I think sometimes it's a perfect storm of that when you're age,

when you add age, injury, lack of production, that's the perfect storm. That's the triple crown. You know, Cooper Cup was number two, I think number two or three, wide receiver a couple years ago. And you have, we have that trifecta of age, lack of production and injuries. That's what happens. You fall out, you know, so teams look for that. These voters value age more than most fans would, but they also cherry picket, depending on who they like. Like, some people get the benefit of the doubt.

Jaden Daniels did not, despite age. He didn't get the benefit of the doubt, I think, because there was a free. can see bias that he would get injured in the NFL. And he did. So it's almost like, and I told you so, even though if you're picking best quarterbacks of how they play the position, he is a top 10 player. I don't think there's any doubt about that, the way he plays the position. Yeah, I agree with that. The interesting thing about the injury thing, you're right. There was preconceived fear of injury, and yet he played in all 20 games as a rookie. He played in 52 of 54 as a college player in two spots. But last year, you know, sort of confirmed for a lot of people, yeah,

this guy is going to be a guy that gets hurt a lot. You know, the interesting thing about that, Jeremy, is Joe Burrow gets hurt a lot. Lamar Jackson gets hurt a lot. Patrick Mahomes got hurt a a lot. I didn't get hurt a lot, but last year got hurt. It's harder to find the quarterbacks that stay healthy for 17 games year in and year out. You know, the Josh Allen run that he's on, essentially. It's almost that that is not the norm. Yeah, and it's increasingly so. I mean, I bet if we look at the data,

we'd probably see 30% of the starting quarterbacks missed either minor amount of time or significant time, you know. Joe Burrow, that's one where voters cherry-picked, you know, they love Joe Burrow, they love the way he plays, they feel like he's the closest thing to Tom Brady. So despite the injury, they'll overlook it a little bit.

You know, even though they didn't put him top three, they made him fourth, and he got some first place, just because they love the way he plays, you know. Where Lamar Jackson gets hurt, and people hold that against him. Oh, yeah, not durable. Look, he's a runner. Look what happens. Right.

He's a dual threat. He's not going to last. Like, you get some of those biases that do come into play. Yeah, but it's a tough position because the D-Lignment is so good. The quality of offensive blinds have dipped a little bit. And I think most scouts would tell you that over the last decade. There's talent, but these guys are running different systems, running easier offenses, more spread concepts,

getting the play from the sideline on a big card versus out of the huddle, like the nuances of O-line player are tougher for NFL coaches to rectify when they get these players when they come in. So all those factors are resulting in correct getting hurt, plus you've got, you know, guys that need to run a little bit. You need to need more mobile than ever to play the position a lot of ways, and that results in injury. We saw that with Mahalms getting hurt throwing on the run,

with defenders crashing down. So it's a tough situation, you know. That's why backup quarterback gets paid well now because you have to have a good one. Last question on this list. Do you have just a gut feel on this time next year, a player that's not really prominent on any of these lists that you think will be? Ooh, I have many. Let's see. I'll have to think about that one.

I'll give you a few. So, Marry Lasseter, Houston, Texas corner. Right. Harold Fanon, Cleveland's tight end. Let's see. Linebacker. Edgar Cooper was number nine. I think it'll be a lot higher.

Man, there's some tough ones. You put me on the spot. That's all right. That's all right. Those are good ones. The league neighbors was out of the top top. Right. Yeah.

So if he's healthy, he's a superstar. Agreed. You know, Jared Burst. I think we'll have a big year in Cleveland. You know, Latoo in Indianapolis, young people like that doesn't get a lot of recognition, but I think he will. Yeah. Yeah, there are many. Byron Murphy and Seattle, D-Tackle is a monster.

He'll be a top ten player next year. So, yeah, there's certainly a lot. I don't think in terms of Washington, who I'd like, they were young on the radar. Yeah. Yeah, I think there will have a bit of a bounce out here. Yeah, I mean, I think Jaden would be the one that would take the big leap if he played. plays 17 games. I'll give you one actually from their roster. Two of them. I think Chigga Conquo could make the tight end list this time next year. And I think Nick Cross could be somewhere on

the safeties list, maybe not top 10, but somewhere like honorable mention, something like that. Yeah, Cross has a lot of ability. I was kind of surprised he didn't get a bigger contract, to be honest. I got a nice deal. Yeah. So yeah, he's a player. You know, he's physical. He's got good speed. I like Colin Martin too. I know he didn't have maybe as good of a year as he did the year before, but he flashed. All right. Let me move to Brandon Ayyuk as the topic, because he's been a major topic here for several weeks now. And you've, you know, had a lot of things to say about it, and I've played a lot of the stuff that you've said over the last few weeks about him. So where do we stand today on Brandon Ayuk and Washington, first?

and then anybody else in the NFL second. I don't know if there is any real update here. I don't know that there's a real outlook. I don't know about much of anything other than he wants to play in Washington. I would just be shocked if GM Adam Peters made that time at this point. I think if he can somehow get out of his contract in San Francisco and get released, which really requires things to just show up. If he shows up when they report to camp,

the 49ers aren't going to want to have him around. So they'll cut them. It just, it's all things pretty clear. And he won't do that. So here we are. But if he can get out of that deal, maybe at some point, I'm still leaving a little wiggle room that he can sort of rebrand himself, you know, sort of repurpose his image a little bit here,

do some PR training, and then maybe somebody signs him for the vet minimum. I've resorted to that. I still, I don't know, man. I have a tough time thinking he's going to get signed this cycle. if it is, it won't be for any real money. But the whispers of him not playing again seem very real. I think people are just curious what kind of person he is at this point. They just don't know.

They don't know if it's healthy either. You know, so maybe you bring him in for a workout slash physical somewhere. So we'll see. I think of Washington signs and they're going to need some time to pass. But this is the guy who insulted Jayden Daniel's mother. I just, I don't see this happening. I would just be shocked at the commander. So we've talked a lot about Jeremy just,

you know, Ayuk's insistence that he's going to be a Washington player, his desire to become a Washington player, incorporating, you know, our starting quarterback, Jaden Daniels into a lot of his videos on social media. I'm curious as to why, if you don't think that he's going to end up in Washington, if that would be a surprise to you at this point, why? Why? hasn't Adam Peters or somebody within that organization leaked to, you know, you or Schaefter or Rappaport or somebody that they're not going to be interested in IUC if and when he becomes available just to, you know, solidify it in everybody's mind so that the conversation stops? I know that they can't say they are interested in him because that's tampering. but do you have a theory as to why we haven't found out from them that they're not interested if they aren't? Yeah, you know, really when I checked on Washington's receiver outlook back in June, I was told like, hey, we're dust in our hands of this until we can't.

So maybe we're getting closer here to getting a resolution on that. We're getting some just a little bit of clarity, which would be good. some organizations are going to say we're never going to close the door on anything even if they don't expect to sign a player and they don't have to say anything they don't have to make any sort of declaration it kind of helps them to keep their plans

in the dark a little bit because there are other receivers that could sign and they want to keep a little mystery perhaps you know for market purposes so I still think Keenan Allen to be a viable option we'll see or if on Diggs you know Diggs You know, Diggs wants to be there. I think that's pretty clear.

He feels like he's good for young quarterback. He feels like since he's not rehabbing an ACL anymore, he'll be even more productive, so we'll see. I really think Washington could use a speed guy to compliment the others, and, you know, Tyree Kill's not close to playing right now, but he will be ready at some point. Maybe that's mid-season. Maybe somebody like that makes sense.

I don't know. It's tough. You have a fairly young roster. You don't want to just get 30-year-old retreads, you know? So they have a lot of way over there. I do think in the next week, some of their plans will become crystallized because they have to. Is there a market for Stefan Diggs? Well, yes, I'm told there are teams interested, but a lot of times, especially this time of year for older players.

Right, they wait. Teams are interested to a point. You know, they don't want to give somebody $10 million a year if they don't have to. Now, if there's an injury at the position, and we just saw Nick Ford in the past Russian Carolina, at Arizona, TereGio yesterday, first day. Those things can happen. That creates leverage a little bit to players that are looking to be signed somewhere because then a starter is needed.

So if you're first on the line at that position of free agency, you could get some extra money. So it's wise for some of these guys to wait and you don't have to go through a full training camp. You know, like a lot of these guys don't want to do that. I probably wouldn't want to do that about 32 and have been playing 10 years and could wait two weeks, you know. So there's a lot of factors in play. I think if he wanted a job and simply wanted to be, job at the right fit he could probably find right now. But the money's involved and there are other factors. Two more, Jeremy, and I really appreciate the time. The first is this. Dan Quinn's

situation here in Washington. How would you describe it heading into 2026? You know, what kind of seat is he on? I don't think he's on the hottest of hot seats right now and I think he does have good will in that building and last year was a weird year with a lot of injuries. That said, a lot of coaches have a hard time surviving two consecutive bad year. So if this year to really go south, I wouldn't take any off the table, you know. But I do know he's well liked there, and, you know,

he did in a phenomenal job year one. Last year, you know, they actually were able to move the ball a little bit despite some issues and do some things. I mean, you know, the defense fell flat. Terrible, yeah. Some of that is the age of the roster, you know, so we'll see. I think part of it's just what the product looks like, what it looks

what it feels like when the players walk into the building, I think is important. So, you know, Dan Quinn's big on culture, so if he can keep the culture up, you know, it could result sneaking out a few extra wins that will help his cause. So I don't think he's on the hot. I wouldn't put him number one on the hot feet list, you know, but certainly any coach coming off a bad year, you've got to at least consider the possibility. That's just the way the NFL business works right now.

All right. Last one is just on Washington's upcoming season. What are you expecting? Yeah, that's tough. I will say, I'm going to be there at camp here in a few weeks, and I'm curious to see myself. That will help me gauge it a little bit. I like the additions they made.

They could use probably one more weapon on offense. You mentioned the figs, signing. I like that one. If Jaden Daniels gives you even 80% of what he did as a rookie, I think things are looking up, you know. I don't have them as a contender for, like, the top seed in the NFC right now and that that. I also think it's a really good division this year.

NFC. East is pretty well loaded. but if they made a push for it, that wouldn't surprise me. I probably have them right in the middle right now, somewhere in that sweet spot, you know. You'd take eight or nine wails over under. Could be one direction or the other, you know, on that. So I was saying vacillating. I know that doesn't give you a lot.

No, that's fine. I need to see more. I expect them to be improved, for sure. Jeremy, thanks for doing this. Really appreciate it. Sounds good, man. Appreciate you having me. Jeremy Fowler, everybody from ESPN.

I recorded that yesterday, Friday, July 24th. I will finish up this show with thoughts on all of the news that came out of the Bay Area this morning, the Kyle Shanahan accident, and then what John Lynch, the general manager, said about Brandon Ayuk. That's next after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey, guys, I want to welcome a new sponsor to the podcast. the name of the product is Tushy, as in yes, that Tushy, your backside. And many of you should listen closely because I think this is something that will really help you. You know, it's 2026. America just celebrated.

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All of the futures betting opportunities, all of the prop bets. Preseason lines are up if you're into that. we get our first preseason game a week from this coming Thursday night, the Hall of Fame game, Panthers and Cardinals. The Cardinals, by the way, they're over under win total at my bookie is three and a half the lowest for any NFL team since 2017. The Jets had a three and a half win total number in 2017. They went five and 11.

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to Kyle Shanahan. If you didn't see it, I will share it with you right now. 11 days ago, July 14th, he was involved in a serious car accident. His vehicle collided with an SUV near his northern California home. He broke his nose. He broke three ribs. He broke his hand. He needed more than 40 stitches in his face, and he suffered a severe concussion in the crash. With the 49ers opening camp and him not being there, we got the news this morning. John Lynch, the general manager, did say he is recovering well, but he's in concussion protocol, essentially, and he's not going to be back until the doctors say that it's healthy for him to come back. Assistant head coach Chris Forster,

who he's been with the Shanahan's forever. He's assuming the head coaching duties in Kyle's absence. But I wish him and the family the best, and I'm sure he'll be back. And again, they say that he's doing well and recovering well, but it was a severe concussion. And the concussion symptoms, John Lynch, said are still there.

Meantime, John Lynch was asked about Brandon Ayyuk as he held a training camp practice today. And here's what he said. He said, quote, Brandon is on a left squad designation. As such, he's not on our 90-man roster. And personally, and we as an organization, are going to focus on the players that are here. And so I don't have anything to say on that, anything to add to that. We wish him well. We wish his family well.

There were a few follow-up questions on that. And essentially, he said, appreciate the questions, but all we're focused on is the 90 players that are on our roster. He is on the left team list, which he's been on for a while now. and until he applies for reinstatement and then shows up for 49ers camp, it's going to remain that way. And certainly John Lynch didn't give any indication that Ayuk is going to just be released by the team. Because as he said, he's technically not even on the roster right now. There was a follow-up question or two on this.

There was a question about him. talking about playing in Washington and is there any chance the 49ers aren't doing anything about IUC because they play Washington in week six and they don't want to face him and he just said again appreciate the question but he's on the left squad list

and we're focused on the players that are here. They're not doing anything with this guy. He's going to have to do something to, you know, affect an outcome that's desirable for him, or at least the one that he has said for many weeks now, is the desirable outcome for him. All right.