talk to me about where you had this team going do you have them going to the Super Bowl again uh where you see their playoff run ending and ultimately what could get in the way of San Francisco not getting over the hump and bringing another Lombardi trophy to the they they are certainly in the Inner Circle of contenders if you were making a top five or six teams that that could win a Super Bowl and and it's been like this for five or six years now uh the 49 the 49ers are in that group right and I think again having them win the division they could very well be the one seed by the end of it it wouldn't shock me like you mentioned they have a chance to have the best record in football uh Jim Wyman and I ranked them as the best roster in football at least if if as long as Williams and iuk came in there and now they are they're back nobody got traded nobody got cut nothing like that so you've got a stacked team you've got a Young quarterback who's really really good can do things on the move can do things from the pocket you got so many weapons the one concern for me actually with them and it's not not as much as some other teams but but in the trenches and and this is why they needed to sign Trent Williams so badly they ranked 24th in pass blocking grade last year and the other four spots at times were just it's just not great they're they're much they're a much better run blocking team they led the league in run blocking grade but pass protection to me is going to be the key for this team Brock Brock pie was under pressure in the Super Bowl and roughly half his dropbacks it was really the difference in the game nobody's going to function like that Patrick Mahomes doesn't even function like that half half the time in a big spot is just not good a a and they need to be able to block premier pass rushing teams we saw them struggle you know even when they played the Rams they may have still beat them but they had no answer for a guy like Aaron Donald they had no answer for a guy like Chris Jones right so it's in those big moments when they're playing teams with really good pass rush especially interior pass rush that I that I worry about them so I I could see them going all the way I could see them winning the whole thing I have them just being knocked out in the divisional round I think I have Philadelphia actually going out to San Francisco and upsetting them um because as we already know we both picked the Lions to win the Super Bowl um right I you know absolutely I could see any of those three teams coming out of the NFC and just picking the games I mean look picking games five months ahead of time isn't going to be perfect but I feel a lot more comfortable about them with iuk and Williams in there I think especially the iuk situation um you talk about one where he's their best pure receiver and for as many good players as they have I'm going to highlight him as my offensive MVP because he was second in the league in receiving grade last year he's their best pure route Runner I know they've got other weapons they've got KD they've got Debo they've got mcaffrey he's their best pure route runner in a classic sense he's their best wide receiver like Debo Samuel is the weapon he can get in the back field he goes in motion he does all the wild stuff he does all the stuff after the catch but if you just look at it as a pure wide receiver auk is their best one and he's so versatile Trevor last year he tied for first and deep receiving grade he tied for first in intermediate receiving grade and he was third in short receiving grade he was the only only player in the top 10 of all three of those categories last season and he was first in two of them and third in another so I I just think what he does in his route running and and just he's the guy actually I would trust more than anyone on the outside on this team to just win a one-on-one battle in man coverage I it's that he just I think if they were to lose him I don't think they would make the Super Bowl and now I think it you sit there and you go okay they kept auk they resigned Trent Williams that's not an issue anymore they might have to get him loose he's going to play the Jets on just one week of practice but Trent Williams is Trent Williams best the best offensive lineman maybe of this generation honestly I'm going to highlight auk as my offensive MVP I think without him they wouldn't have a chance now that they resign him they certainly have a chance again and the what he does on the outside is so so valuable to them yeah I think that you highlighted that very well Brandon iuk is very important to this team and I think that there are some numbers that really just help quantify how good this guy is you talk about what he is as a route Runner and especially as a deep threat you mentioned I think a lot of people think of the you know the Deep threat targets the Deep threat catches that he was able to have last year but it's more than that as well like if you talk about a guy who's running a lot of deep routes Well normally just because the further you throw the ball the more things can go wrong it's more difficult to do that and so normally if the average depth of Target goes up you know sometimes the qbr goes down a little bit sometimes the completion percentage to those wide receivers is going down a little bit that was not the case with Brandon iuk Brandon iuk for wide receivers and I'll even throw tight ends on the team so basically I'm just trying to take out dump dump off passes to the running backs if you just look at the receivers like the wide receivers in the tight ends Brandon iuk had the highest average up the target of anybody on the 49ers last year yet he had the highest completion percentage when when targeted as well the highest QB um I think he had the highest open Target percentage so this dude is not just winning deep like he's winning deep efficiently and so he is a monster part of what this offense wants to do and you know there's been some criticism over the past that you know Brock py isn't somebody to really push the ball down the field he certainly was last year with Brandon iuk and so getting him back massive massive piece of the puzzle I agree with you I'm going to shout out Christian mcaffry as my MVP uh I know Sac religious at PFF I'm calling a running back in MVP but when you look at the rest of the team you already highlighted the offensive line I think the offensive line is something that needs to play better no matter what but what Christian mcaffry is to this offense is as valuable as you can possibly be from the running back position we have a metric at pffff wins above replacement if you're a baseball guy out there you you understand that uh this has kind of been around the game for a long time we have that as well here for the game of football mcaffrey 0.25 wins above average last year was the most of any running back in the league by 05 so this dude was so much more valuable in everything that he did every time he touched the ball they use him in so many different ways but the threat of what mcaffrey can be as a receiver and a runner out of the back field makes the 49ers so multiple it creates so much potential hesitation with linebackers and with the defense at large that to me if you were to lose him yes we've seen the Shanahan system be able to make other running backs effective on the ground you know we saw that with Elijah Mitchell maybe that could be a thing with Isaac gendo like we've seen this before with other running backs when mcaffrey wasn't there when he goes down you can hand the ball off to somebody and they can still have a healthy yards uh per carry average and still be good in the Run game but what mcaffrey is then out of the back field as a receiver I think is what truly makes him different and what truly separates the 49ers when it comes to that sort of threat and that sort of a player so I'll go with mcaffrey as my MVP because there's even though shanan system is very running back friendly there is still only one Christian mcaffrey and what he brings to the table but what about defensive MVP who you got so I I know the debates of their best players are are going to be between like Fred Warner and Nick Bosa and javar hog Graves great and travarus Wards great on the outside but I'm going to focus here on kind of a glue guy a and a guy that got hurt in the middle of last season and it really impacted their defense down the stretch look at the safety position in talanoa huanga and I think we know huanga is kind of that same thing safety at you playmaking safety out of USC and kind of gets the the Troy paalu light comps and he makes plays on the ball and he makes stops in the Run game he had a career-high run defense grade last year but the impact on on with him on this team in that secondary I think really showed last year after he got hurt okay so he tore his ACL in week 11 and missed the rest of the year from weeks 1 through 11 the 49ers had the highest graded defense in the NFL and their safeties had the fourth highest grade uh in the NFL overall okay from week 12 all the way through the Super Bowl which is a pretty good sample of him being out that overall grade for their defense dropped to 14th and that overall grade for the safety position dropped to 26 okay tan Gibson struggled Jer Brown was a rookie trying to figure it out on the fly right huanga it's just certain times you have a glue guy right like I think about I almost think about like the Golden State Warriors right when they had Steph Curry and Kevin Durant and all those guys and they were like oh Andre ugod is the guy that holds this whole team together and everyone's like oh okay even though you have all these huanga is kind of like that for this 49ers defense I love it yeah just flies around he makes plays on the ball he gets guys in position on the back end he just does all of the intangible things on top of sometimes he can make just spectac we've seen him make one-handed interceptions and and forcing fumbles and making huge tackles and things like that when he went out there was just something something was missing and and it just it didn't look the same especially in run defense to me I I think what he brings for them in run support was really really important cuz this isn't they have Javon Hargrave inside but this in the inside especially on the defensive line is not the best run defending team like Javon Hargrave is known for the pass rush they don't have a ton of depth at defensive tackle Warner and Dre Greenlaw when he's healthy and that's another concern for me with this too is Dre Greenlaw is going to be out for some amount of time after tearing his Achilles in the Super Bowl now you got DeAndre Campbell which is about as good a third linebacker as you could have guy an impact starter who can step in there for a green law in the meantime and then eventually have all three of them but huanga there's just there's just something about him that that's it's it's almost like that and and the impact sometimes it's impact as an individual and we can go over war and we can go over grades and all those things and sometimes it's just the impact a guy has on a team and I don't know that anybody has more impact on and off the field than who fonga does for this team well I can tell you a player that does it's my defensive MVP and it's Fred Warner I mean this is I think the obvious answer but I I totally Echo everything that you're saying with honga because the defense was different when he was not out there now I think that honga is a tone Setter for this defense in the traditional sense of the phrase where when we think of tone setting we think of effort the play speed the physicality right we think of that when we say the word tone setting uh or the words tone setting with Fred Warner I think that Fred Warner also sets the tone for the middle of this defense in a different way how he approaches the game mentally not the Fred Warner isn't fast and physical he absolutely is but the way that he operates in in Space the way that he can understand where the flow where the ball is going where it currently is how the offense is looking to attack a certain defense that is almost tone setting in and of itself because his presence is then forcing everyone else to go okay well now I got to think about it like this so when you have those two types of tone setting players it makes for an incredible defense but you know bringing back the winds above repacement metric Fred Warner's wind above replacement of 0.37 was the most of any linebacker last season so yeah that was the case for so many different players that we've seen for so many times throughout the San Francisco 49ers when we look at a winds above replacement metric a bunch of 49ers have been close to the very top of the list or at the very top of the list what Warner does his range and coverage his intelligence and coverage his recognition the pre-nap communication the post Snap movements everything that he does from the middle linebacker position is the centerpiece for how the rest of the defense goes it helps when you got a great defensive line in front of you but it allows like Fred Warner's presence allows telenova huanga to be as free as he is to be be a impact player over the middle like we've seen him be uh so many times especially over the last year before he got hurt so I think that honga is a great call out but I had to mention Fred waren there's no way I couldn't what about a breakout player for this team it's a stacked starting lineup but do you have a breakout player for them yeah I'm going to look on defense and and there's a lot of guys we're familiar with but one new guy opposite travarius Ward at the other cornerback spot is Isaac yadam coming in from the Saints and it it looks like they're moving dador Lenor into the slot he played on the outside last year move him into the slot and then you have the safeties working the back end and in the slot some too but yam had a really good year with the Saints last year a career-high 80.4 coverage grade and 11 pass breakups and he didn't play a full full-time role because they had a really good corner do 20 and Marshon Latimore and Paulson adbo in front of him but anytime he got in there last year and that's not an easy defense to operate in as a corner Dennis Allen blitzes a lot goes press man a lot he challenges his Corners to make a lot of plays and anytime yam had to step in for either of those two guys on the outside he did a great job I think he could really lock down this spot this CB2 spot that sometimes is kind of a question mark for the Niners obviously travarus Ward's really good what maybe last year I believe he was in the top 10 of overall great among corners but that other spot I think they're still trying to figure out some depth and figure out who can play there more consistently especially in their defense when you have just such hard set responsibilities to play a lot of Zone coverage so if he can go in there and adjust it just gives them another great player on the back end of their defense yeah uh our producer Ryan appropriately just put in our uh in our in our chat referencing and I I should have called this out when you brought up the igal point the Max Kellerman rant where he's like to save the universe if I need one three-pointer from anybody give me aigal and I I just that's I'm I'm saying that but you it's the version of you saying that but you're going if I need one safety to make a hit H over the middle give me H give me huanga this is your this is your Max Kellerman of course it could only be the Bay Area too it had to be the 49ers I couldn't do this I couldn't do this with Winfield or baits or any other safety it had to be the bay the Bay Area had to be the Niners It could only be huanga so my breakout player I'm gonna go with Jer Brown who is a really again going back to the safety level really strong strong safety uh you know full pun intended I guess player for this team who was able to step in and get some more reps when huango went down now he wasn't the same sort of impact player because he wasn't playing with as much speed and confidence as hongo was playing with because he's been in the league longer but I think that Jer Brown showed hey I can be a physical tone Setter as well and him honestly a safety room of uh talova huanga Jer Brown and then the other rookie that they drafted Malik Mustafa from Wake Forest I mean th this is you're striking fear as much with with the new rules you know in 2024 this isn't 2014 this isn't 2004 you can't absolutely obliterate wide receivers going over the middle anymore but for as much fear as you can strike into these wide receivers hearts and Minds when they're going over the middle they got three safeties to be able to do it so I do think that huanga is a massive part of this team but I do also think that Jer Brown got some really valuable experience to be a rotational safety for them to keep that tone setting mentality whether they want to put three safeties on the field whether they really want to crowd the box or or maybe even if someone suffers another injury which of course we hope that does not happen but I think that brown is in for another step forward this year because I was impressed with how he played last year but let's go to their rookie class this year who is your breakout rookie for this team it's a guy that really has to be the breakout rookie with the with the issues I mentioned on the offensive line and that and that's Dominic puny out of Kansas he just his versatility his pass protection skills are so so big and I believe he's projected to start at Right Guard right now you know he played guard and Tackle at at Kansas really good pass Blocker in both and they had a very diverse Run game that that really um it it allowed them to get on the edges a lot so I think he's he really has a good understanding of how to open up holes and and it's just it's the pass protection for me I I mean he just they need better pass protection from the other four guys not named Trent Williams on this team and puni could be a really really big part of that whether he stays at guard whether he kicks out the right tack at some point wherever he's playing he has to be a big part of this effort for this offense yeah I I agree with you completely I think that he is going to be their best rookie this year and they need him to be you talked about this unit getting to be a lot better as a pass protecting unit on the inside well puny had a 90.4 pass blocking grade at Kansas last season now that was with him at offensive tackle the year prior at Kansas he's played on the interior and didn't earn as good of grades but that was also his first year as a full-time starter along the the offensive line so I think that a lot of that context is important when you're think thinking about him as the starting Right Guard now for the San Francisco 49ers but 70.5 overall blocking grade this preseason on 89 snap so they got him a good amount of work and he was able to hold his own so they to your point at the very beginning when you sort of prefaced your thoughts on the 49ers this is an area of an already stacked team that sort of needs to get a little bit better a little bit more consistent or at least raise their floor when you talk about going up against some of the better teams in the NF I have the 49ers I forgot to say this at the top making the NFC championship game I think it's going to be 49ers versus Lions again but this time I have the Lions coming out as the Victorious team [Music]