I'm not sure there
should be a fan base with more angst
right now than San Francisco 40 niner fans. Because it's not just that you
have to get to the super bowl, you have to win it. And it's not just that
you have to win it. It's that like I can
see it's like Indiana Jones where the doors
closing and you're reaching back for the hat. Like I can see the door
closing on your hand right now as you're
reaching back. Like as we're recording
this, Brandon aiyuk is still not at practice. Trent Williams is probably
waiting for Brandon aiyuk situation to get sorted out. The vibes don't feel
great in the bay, and that's for a
season where you already know what it's going to
take to meet the expectations. So I do think that's a
really interesting place. I don't think there
is a single team in the league where
losing the super bowl would be seen as a failure. Even the chiefs like, of course,
you want to win the super bowl, but even the chiefs
have several trophies to keep them warm at night
if that's what happens. The niners, it really
it really feels like now or never with this
group of players to me. Or am I being too dramatic? No, I mean it would be
Buffalo bills esque, right? In terms of like going to all
of them and losing all of them and the sting that that
leaves on a franchise. And listen, we know
the 49 ers, right. Plenty of history there, plenty
of trophies in their cupboard as well. But you would be looking at
ultimately one of the most talented rosters
over a run of years we've seen in quite some time. That would have fallen short. It would have been it
would be a failure. And I understand, like
we've heard plenty of guys, you know, think of
the giannis quote all the time where he talks
about a season being a failure and that binary presented. But man, I bet if you got
an honest answer from a lot of the people in
that organization, they would say the same thing. Like, yeah, the friends
we made along the way, the relationships, all that
stuff matters in sports a lot more than we want
to give it credit for. But in terms of potential
and what you should have been able to do, yeah,
losing the super bowl would be an abject
disaster for this team because we know everything
changes next year. And it's not to say it changes
for the worse necessarily, but it changes a lot in a way. You've got to show us you're
going to be able to weather. Yeah, the bills are such a great
parallel because yeah, I mean, we still view them as a team
that you have to take seriously. But we just talked
about how it's going to be harder for them. You lose pieces, veterans leave. Financial decisions
have to be made. It felt like it was
never going to come. But we're looking at it right
now where the 49 ers are having to start making these choices. We don't know for sure
right now that Brandon aiyuk is going to play for this
team in 2024, which is insane. By the way. I would have bet my life
that we would have the answer to this Brandon aiyuk thing
by roster cut down day and it just hasn't materialized. On top of that, like we know
purdy is going to be in line for a huge contract next year. We know that some
of these players are very veteran players. I just this, you know, hitting
on so many cheap quarterbacks has allowed them to
build this avengers team. And I just feel
like you're going to start losing infinity
stones here starting in 2025. And that's why that's why this
just feels so urgent to me and why I wanted
to talk about it. Think about Brandon
aiyuk too, man. The guy, like, started
off in shani's doghouse, worked his way out and became
like the highest level Shanahan receiver that we had
seen in San Francisco does all the things he likes. Active blocker exists
outside of the system only to now work his way. Even if he comes back, I'd
imagine firmly in the I mean, we all turned into dap analysts
when he was at practice that one day walking around going up
to John lynch and Shanahan and doing all that. Was that a good bye handshake
or a like congratulations handshake? Well, see, honestly, it was
warmer reception from Kyle than it was from John. The John handshake,
the dap there was. Yeah don't really want
to talk to you right now. The Kyle dap was the very least. Man Like, it'd be nice
to see you back out here, but, yeah, anything is on
the table for all of them. It's just amazing how that
arc has kind of gotten back to the beginning where all of
a sudden the guy that became everything they wanted him to
that struggled out of the gate now is the one that
can't get paid, which I was writing about
this earlier this week, too, is up until I would say
as recently as may, I was like, people aren't talking
about Brandon aiyuk enough. Like, why don't we
respect Brandon aiyuk? Why don't people recognize
him as a huge piece of this? And here we are getting close
to September and I'm just like, I don't know how
much more I can talk about Brandon aiyuk
I know it's and it's kind of obscured, though. You talked about
the clock ticking, like we talk about this in terms
of the Brock purdy contract all the time. Christian McCaffrey
is getting towards 30 and starting the season off with
a bit of a calf tweak right now. George kittle is 30 years
old and plays an incredibly physical brand of football. Trent Williams is 36. Like forget the
contract situation. That's a guy also like
all of the these guys have been so good for so long. You know Fred Warner
on the other side. Nick bosa, these players
deserve is a loaded word. It's a made up fairy tale word. But man, it'd be awesome to see
a group that's this incredible and has this many
uniquely gifted players be able to get this
before all of a sudden they start to get into the
back half of their careers? The crazy thing is they
could get aiyuk into camp, they could get
Trent's deal done, and they could start six and
zero and it wouldn't lessen. I mean, it's totally plausible. It wouldn't lessen my anxiety,
though, because, again, that's how high the stakes
are, where if you're not holding the trophy,
I don't see how this was a successful season. It's a testament to what
a team they have built. But man, it gives
me anxiety thinking about navigating all of that. Best of luck to the 49 ers.