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00:00Nobody should ever worry about the receiving core.
00:03That's why.
00:04About their receiving core or any receiving core?
00:07How does a receiving core have to do with winning a championship?
00:10Well, it's nice to have one.
00:12I mean, you know, it depends on how you want to go about doing it.
00:16Nice to have a luxury car, too, but you don't need one to get to work.
00:20Well, you've got to have guys who can make plays.
00:22And even Kansas City.
00:24You know, and I think that's probably where you're going.
00:26Well, I mean, not just Kansas City.
00:28Like, I mean, why did the Eagles win the Super Bowl last year?
00:33Like, what happened?
00:34Saquon Barkley.
00:35Okay.
00:35They ran it.
00:36And what did they do on defense?
00:38They rushed the passer.
00:40You rushed the passer and you run the damn ball.
00:44Or you have something else that's special that you can sort of offer the defense.
00:51But, you know, who won the Super Bowl last year?
00:53The Eagles.
00:54Who won the Super Bowl the year before that?
00:56The Chiefs.
00:56Who won the Super Bowl the year before that?
00:58The Chiefs.
01:00And they did all of that post-Tyreek Hill.
01:02And go ahead.
01:04Who was the dynasty before that?
01:08And who were his wide receivers throughout the 15 years where Tom Brady ran this league?
01:15Whatever.
01:16A couple of little guys.
01:16Yeah, but they didn't win that year.
01:19Yeah, you're right.
01:20They didn't win that year.
01:20Unfeated.
01:21Yeah.
01:21So, I mean, I know.
01:23They were really good.
01:24And so, I'm not here to make the case that I don't like wide receivers or you don't want good ones on your team.
01:31But the Niner receiving core right now, as it looks this year, to me, has every look.
01:38Yes, you can win the Super Bowl with that core.
01:40Of course you can.
01:42Of course you can.
01:42I mean, you're allowed to.
01:43Yes, if you protect the passer and Christian McCaffrey stays healthy and you rush the passer on defense, you will be very, very good.
01:51You will be a fantastic football team with a shot at the end.
01:54Especially if you have George Kittle.
01:55And I do include him in the receiving core when he's out there as a receiving tight end.
02:00But thinking about the 2019 season when the Niners went to the Super Bowl and they have Emmanuel Sanders as their top wide receiver.
02:09And get him until halfway through the year.
02:10Exactly.
02:11So, it's not mandatory that you have great weapons out there, great receivers.
02:16But it's nice to have an extra dimension, especially when you fall behind in games.
02:21Because the Niners don't usually come from behind like ever.
02:25Brock Purdy has one win in his career when the Niners trail going into the fourth quarter.
02:31Right.
02:31One.
02:32And that's not good.
02:33And if you have Patrick Mahomes, you have a better chance of coming back.
02:38Or Josh Allen, because they're better quarterbacks and they are more pass-happy.
02:43And the 49ers are not a team that goes out and throws it very often to where they're used to lightening up and coming from behind.
02:50Well, Warren Sharp just put this out and it's pretty interesting.
02:56Last five years in the NFL, okay?
02:59Last five years, he put together the record of all quarterbacks in the NFL when they're trailing going into the fourth quarter.
03:09Okay?
03:10Who do you think is the best at it?
03:12Who do you think is the best?
03:13Probably Mahomes.
03:14Last five years trailing going into the fourth quarter and what's their record?
03:18Only one has a winning record.
03:21Right.
03:22I would say it's Mahomes.
03:23You're right.
03:23I would guess.
03:24It's Patrick Mahomes and actually the number is stunning.
03:27He is 14-7.
03:29Wow.
03:3014-7.
03:31Trailing going into the fourth quarter.
03:33Right.
03:33So there's a bunch of stunning numbers that come from that.
03:35First of all, they've only been trailing going into the fourth quarter 21 times in five years.
03:40Yeah.
03:41Okay?
03:42And he's won two-thirds of those games.
03:44Number two is Lamar Jackson at 7-10.
03:51We can keep going down.
03:52Then it's Jalen Hurts, who has eight wins.
03:55Tua has seven.
03:56Matthew Stafford and Kirk Cousins, both 9-29.
04:00Everybody's records are really bad, but gets you down to Brock Purdy, who's 1-10.
04:05Now, I don't know if this includes the playoffs or not, because that Lions game is standing out to me.
04:09Yeah, probably not.
04:10I don't think that playoffs are included in this, and maybe they should be, because I'm pretty sure they were trailing in both of those games a couple of years ago, Packers and Lions, going into the fourth quarter.
04:20And he won both of them.
04:21So maybe that kind of, I don't know what that does for the stat, if he's done it twice in the playoffs, but only once in the regular season has Brock Purdy been trailing going into the fourth quarter and then won the game.
04:31Yeah, and I think that that was last year, because I did...
04:34Was it?
04:35Well, I did a dive on halftime deficits in the Niners, and just looking at last year, they trailed against Minnesota at the half, they lost.
04:43They trailed against Kansas City, they lost.
04:45They trailed at the half against Dallas.
04:48They scored on their opening drive.
04:49They won that game.
04:50Tampa, I have it down here on my list that they were down 17-13 early in the fourth.
04:55So maybe it wasn't entering the fourth.
04:58The Buccaneers might have gotten an early score in that fourth, so that may not be counted in the Warren Sharp testimonial.
05:07The game against the Buccaneers, the 49ers led going into the fourth quarter by a score of 13-10.
05:18Yeah, so Tampa scores early in the fourth.
05:19Yes, yes.
05:20And that's where, you know, I just did a list of when they were trailing at or in the second half.
05:27And last year, the Niners were 2-9 when they were trailing either at halftime or at some point in the second half.
05:36As mentioned, they were trailing Dallas.
05:38They got the opening kick of the third quarter and scored, didn't trail again.
05:43And Tampa, they were down early in the fourth, and the Niners went on to win that game.
05:47And they scored 10 points to Tampa's three the rest of the way after they fell behind.
05:52I think the game we're looking for was that New Year's Day game in Vegas against the Raiders.
05:57Yeah.
05:57The score was, let's see, yeah, 24-21.
06:05Raiders led, entering the fourth quarter.
06:07And the 49ers win in overtime 37-34.
06:10That is the only time in the regular season he has trailed at the start of the fourth quarter and won the game.
06:15Man, and that was in his rookie year, right?
06:17Rookie year.
06:17Yep.
06:18Yep, yep, yep, yep.
06:19I just was looking at it because I was wondering about the Shanahan effect.
06:24In 2023, when the Niners went 12-5, 12 of those games, they never trailed in the second half.
06:32And obviously, they went 12-0 in those games.
06:34So in all 12 of the victories, they never were in a spot where they had to come from behind in the second half.
06:41And so I'm not surprised by the Warren Sharp stat that you just read out because the Niners aren't built to come from behind.
06:50Let's go out to the Boxer and Gerson work injury attorney's text line where we have this very, very important note coming from someone in the 8-3-1 area code.
06:58Are you ready for this?
06:59This is a tree shaker now.
07:02It says, sorry, I'm just packing up here.
07:07Should be there in 10 to 15.
07:09I'll skip food.
07:11Uh, okay.
07:13Perhaps sent to the wrong person?
07:16Uh, all right.
07:17We don't get a whole lot of those here.
07:19Right.
07:20Where somebody, I mean, there's a lot of the whole, like, you know, you send, and I hate that, by the way.
07:25Boy, your heart will fall into your stomach when you send the wrong text to the wrong person.
07:29Oh, yeah.
07:30Especially depending on what it says.
07:32I did that to my son one time, and it was not good.
07:36Did you mean to send one to Christy?
07:38Yes, but it wasn't because, it's not where your mind's going.
07:41No, it wasn't that.
07:42Daddy's coming.
07:43No, it was talking about how he was messing up.
07:46Oh.
07:46Yeah.
07:47You better be careful.
07:49Yep.
07:49And he's like, hey, looks like you sent this to the wrong person.
07:54I mean, oh, he was mad.
07:56He was mad.
07:57But anyway, um, I hate that, but it has happened now here to us at 95.7 The Game.
08:04And, um, we're just going to have to deal with that.
08:07Yep.
08:07We're going to take this one on the chin, but one of our listeners is packing up right
08:11now, should be there in about 10 to 15, and, uh, and unfortunately is about to do something
08:18that I would never do, and that is skip food.
08:21Right.
08:21So whoever you are, I really suggest that you change your mind because you're going to run
08:27out of gas and you're going to, you're going to get moody.
08:31Um, don't skip the food.
08:33Don't ever skip food.
08:38Don't do it.
08:38Makes no sense.
08:39I mean, that long drive home on Monday that I did from Southern California.
08:43Right.
08:43Ooh, I got an angry 11-year-old at the end, but it was my fault.
08:48We skipped the food.
08:49I tried to buy him lunch and then push all the way through to get home for dinner.
08:53And at about 8.30, I had a puddle in the seat next to me.
08:58Absolute puddle.
08:59He's sad.
08:59Oh, he's, he's a mess.
09:01Hangry.
09:01He's like completely irrational about everything.
09:05And I'm just looking at him and I'm like, I got some pretzels.
09:07He eats some pretzels for crying out loud.
09:10But dude.
09:10Not from you.
09:12I could have seen the amount of food he ate when we got home.
09:15It was wild.
09:16Anyway, um, 888-957-9570.
09:19Let's go to Doug in Berkeley.
09:20Hi, Doug.
09:21Thank you for calling.
09:23Wow.
09:24Wow.
09:24Thanks for taking my call.
09:25Yeah, man.
09:26Great to hear you guys.
09:28Um, I want to preface my remarks by saying, and I'm not going to be long, but I want to
09:33preface my remarks by saying, I've watched and played sports since I was a kid.
09:38I'm no longer a kid.
09:39And you've watched more sports and played more than I have.
09:43Okay.
09:44So I want to preface my remarks by that.
09:46You were saying, you guys were saying earlier that, you know, don't tell me about injuries.
09:51You can't predict injuries.
09:52Everybody's, you know, every team has.
09:54So back in 2023, late in the season, I called in to you guys and I said, if Shanahan keeps
10:05using McCaffrey this way, he's going to get hurt.
10:08He's not going to be the same player at the end of the season.
10:10And the call was in the last quarter of the season.
10:14Mark, you said to me, you don't know that you don't know that.
10:19And I responded because logically, I don't know that, but I would submit that watching
10:26as much sports as I have and watching as much sports as you have and having McCaffrey, who
10:31had a history of injury, you knew that he wasn't going to be the same player at the end
10:38of the season that he was during the whole season.
10:40And then the next season happened and he basically missed the whole season.
10:44My point in saying this is if injuries happen, but if Shanahan doesn't learn from history and
10:53if he, if he uses up, uses up McCaffrey, the same way he did in 2023, you can predict it.
11:01Well, here would be my question for you, Doug, because first of all, if your statement was
11:06he's not going to be the same player at the end of the season, I think you could argue that he
11:10still was. He just wasn't the same player the next season and he got hurt. But here's what I
11:15think is the actual question that NFL coaches ask themselves. Toward the end of 2023, the
11:22Niners are going for a Super Bowl. If I had asked you, Doug, I'll put you in charge of Christian
11:29McCaffrey's usage. And I said, look, the Niners have a shot. They're going to be the one seed.
11:35They got a shot to win the whole banana. But you're going to have to lean on Christian a
11:39little bit to get that done. And if and when you do, you might lose him to a certain degree
11:46the following year. Would you still go for it? Or would you take your foot off the gas?
11:53Here's my answer to that question. Okay. I wouldn't have used him up. And I keep saying used up.
12:02I wouldn't have used him as much during the season. I would have dialed it back just a
12:07hair because we were rolling. He was a big part of it. And if you say to me, if you if you say to
12:13me, he was the same player in the Super Bowl that he was during the season. We can't talk if he wasn't
12:20and you know it and I know. Well, but that's one game, Doug. I mean, I yeah, he didn't have a great
12:25game. He fumbled. You know, like, yeah, I mean, we can agree on that. I have a hard time
12:32taking any one football game, though, and deciding that that means that a player is out of gas because
12:39he had done some very good things in the playoffs. You know,
12:42I don't disagree with that. But come on, you he he was his usage rate during this season
12:51had to be and I don't have the statistics in front of me, but it had to be among the highest
12:56that you've ever seen. And he has a history of of being injured.
13:01OK, and and I believe he was hurt at the end. I can't prove this, but he missed the whole next
13:08season. OK, essentially. All right. I mean, you you've watched sports forever. You if you
13:16me. Oh, yeah, you can use McCaffrey like this, even though he's been injured a few times in
13:21the past in his history. He's going to be fine. I don't do. I don't know. I wouldn't. I wouldn't
13:27say that, Doug. Thanks. You bring up some really thought provoking stuff. Here's what I think
13:31is so fascinating about this thing. Doug, appreciate it. We can sit here and agree on
13:36all of these things. OK, imagine two parents. OK, they can agree that one of their kids has
13:44this problem. Whatever. Doesn't matter what the problem is. X. Here's the problem. All
13:49right. How do we deal with it? And then have two completely different opinions about how
13:53to go about helping that problem. And I think that that's exactly what we're talking about
13:58here with McCaffrey. I can sit here and nod my head and agree with Doug that maybe 2023
14:03did contribute to the problems in 2024. Maybe Christian wasn't quite his self when they got
14:11to February and ended up in the Super Bowl. But I still think there's a healthy conversation
14:17with, OK, what do you do about that? Because I think it's very difficult to ask a football
14:23coach whose entire livelihood is based on winning these games. It's very difficult to say to that
14:30person, hey, I know he's your best player, but I think you need to take your foot off the gas because
14:36something bad could happen next year. Yeah. When the Super Bowl is sitting there staring at you.
14:43That's a drug, man. That's a drug. And you're going to lean in and you're going to inject that
14:48thing into your arm. And you're going to go to the player and say, yeah, you know what,
14:53we're going to have to probably ease you off because we're afraid in February when we make
14:59the Super Bowl that you're not going to be as good as we need you to be. And what's the player
15:02going to say? He's going to say, pound salt and give me the ball. And if you want to look at
15:06the injury he sustained last year, I don't think that had anything to do with the usage of the
15:12previous year. I mean, I have no idea. I just was watching the video and it was a non-contact
15:17where he plants his foot and the PCL just gave out. So was that because he was run so hard
15:24nine months earlier? Well, you're talking about the second injury. I think Doug is referring to
15:29the first injury, the tendinitis that knocked him out in the offseason. Well, he never played
15:36and you basically babied it because you were afraid that something might happen
15:40with his Achilles and nothing happened with his Achilles. It was his knee that went out.
15:45And I don't know if the two are related. I'm no Dr. Nirav Pandya and I can't, you know,
15:50tie the two things together. I do know this. He looked pretty good when he played those four
15:55games before he got hurt. Well, I'd also, and here's the other thing that I hear a lot
15:59of people say, and again, I can, I can sit here and nod my head and agree with you, but then maybe
16:05have a different perspective on the backend. Okay. Christian McCaffrey, Doug said this
16:10about three times, especially when you're dealing with a player who has a history of
16:14this. All right. Name the veteran running back in the NFL who has no history of injury.
16:20There are not many. Are there any? Derek Henry comes to mind, but I wonder if he didn't have
16:26a season. Has he never been hurt? I'll look, but it just seems like that guy's always out
16:31there and he's always toting it, you know, 20, 25 times, but he is definitely a physical
16:37anomaly in 2021. He played eight games. So that seems to me like that was a year where
16:43maybe he got hurt. And maybe he's done better than most. I think it's a fair example, but
16:48let's bounce around and talk about him. You know, has Aaron Jones ever been hurt? Hell
16:52yeah. Aaron Jones has been hurt. Isaiah Pacheco missed a good portion of last year. Um, who's
17:00my guy in Seattle, Kenneth Walker, who missed off and on throughout the second half of the
17:06season last year? Um, Connor in, in Arizona, um, you know, I think has largely been healthy,
17:13but definitely has suffered things in and out. Yeah. Derek Henry, uh, broken bone in his
17:19foot. He had a Jones fracture cost him half a year. Okay. You know what I mean? Like, let's
17:24let's, let's, let's, let's keep bouncing around. How about Barkley? Saquon Barkley, any problems
17:30with Saquon Barkley and his health in the, in the history? Uh, maybe a couple like I just,
17:37and so that's my perspective. I'm not right necessarily, but that's my perspective is I
17:46actually think you're kind of running a fool's errand. If you think that you can get your hands
17:52on an NFL running back and protect him, I think it's a fool's errand. You can't know
17:58you cannot protect him. So I don't think it's crazy talk. If you're an NFL coach to then take
18:04that information and go bleep it, bleep it. Let's put them out there and let's squeeze the orange
18:10and let's get everything we can out of him because there's a damn clock on this. No matter who you are,
18:15you're going to go down. Yeah. No matter how you go about using him, just if you want to go,
18:20all right, no more than 12 or 15 carries in a game, it doesn't mean that on carry one in week
18:26seven, something bad isn't going to happen. Like it did in Buffalo where McCaffrey just takes a toss
18:32and he's about to run toward the edge and find a hole and he takes four steps and his PCL explodes
18:39and he just goes to the ground. And you know, if that would have been, if that's carry number 23
18:44in a game, everyone's going to be outraged. If it's carry number six in a game, yeah, it's just a bad
18:50break. Like what's the real difference? This is a football player and bad things happen to football
18:54players. And I'm not suggesting, okay, let's ride 400 touches for Christian this year. I'm not
19:00suggesting that at all. You see across the NFL, a lot of teams, they do want to spread it out a
19:05little bit. So I'm on board with that, but that is largely about the idea of like, I hope there's
19:10not burnout within the season. But if the idea is, boy, let's protect this guy from injury,
19:16man, I just, I just don't think you can. And let me give you the other side. Now this is largely a
19:22fantasy football thing, but I think it applies here. If you've got an uber talented running back
19:28who you think can get you big chunk plays and help you win games and you don't put him in as much as
19:37your fan base thinks you should, you will drive people crazy. And I give you Bajon Robinson or
19:45Bajon or whatever the hell he wants to be called. This guy in a two-year career, I think it's been
19:52defined by people screaming, why don't you put him in more? And the Falcons may well be saying,
19:59well, we're trying not to overrun the guy. And he hasn't been hurt very much in two years. Great.
20:08How many playoff games has he taken you to? Well, none, Bob, but, but you know, like, but he's
20:14healthy. Great. What's your goal? Like, what are we doing here? Is your goal to get to the end of
20:21eight years and be like, look, Bajon only missed four games in eight years. Well, did you win? No,
20:28we didn't win any football games. We never went to the playoffs, but look, look at our healthy
20:33running back. I think a lot of coaches are fair in responding to that by going, dude, dude, we got
20:40to ride this thing. We got to ride the horse. We got to hope we got to get lucky. We got to see if
20:45we can get to the end. I don't think that's crazy. I get that it bothers you, but I don't think it's
20:50crazy. Well, it's funny. You say that about Bajon Robinson, Bajon last year, he had 304 carries on the
20:57year, which, you know, the year before, it's a lot. That's a ton. The year before was 214.
21:02That was the frustrating one. That was the one that was his rookie year. And I just was looking
21:06at the, the list of all time carries leaders in a single season. And I can't find Christian
21:13McCaffrey on here. He's not. Well, he's always had a lot of touches in the passing. Right. But
21:18they only list the guys who have had 300 or more carries in a season. And the active leader
21:24is Derrick Henry. I was going to say. He had 378. Yeah. And that was in 2020. Because
21:30he doesn't catch the ball a lot. So his touches are almost exclusively right. Yeah. Derrick
21:34Henry had 349. Saquon last year, 345. So rock me this. Did you, Saquon last year had 345
21:42carries? Correct. Derrick Henry had how many? In 2020, he had 378. So that's more carries
21:50than even touches that Christian had in 2023. Right. More carries than Christian had carries
21:58and catches combined. Right. And I don't hear anybody screaming and yelling. You're going
22:04to kill Saquon. Why? They won the Super Bowl. They won the Super Bowl. And if you want to
22:10predict this year that Saquon's going to get hurt. Okay. Predict it. And then you can victory
22:15lap when an NFL running back gets hurt and say, see, you knew. Yeah. And I'll be like,
22:20yeah, he's an NFL running back. Yeah. So pretty good chance he's going to get hurt. There is
22:24a good chance. And it also can be predictive when you have a guy go that hard and play that
22:31much. Jonathan Taylor had 332 carries. He had 1,800 yards. He led the league. And then the
22:38next year he missed six games. The year after that, he missed seven games. And so there is
22:44a little bit of a slippery slope that you go down. It's catch 22. And that's the thing
22:47about Saquon Barkley, a guy who's now 28 years old coming off of a year with that usage.
22:53You're asking for trouble. Absolutely. I think it's an interesting point, by the way. Christian
22:56McCaffrey is quote old, but Saquon Barkley is the number one pick in your fantasy draft.
23:01Christian is one year older and had a bajillion fewer touches last year. Yep. So you tell me
23:06which one you want to bet on this year.
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