2024 Off-Season

[CrimsonCrew]

Waiting to trade for a top tackle is a terrible idea. Other than Trent, which was a pretty unique case given his anger at the team, what top tackles have been traded recently? And what would the actual going rate be? Again, the Trent trade was an aberration. Do we trade a first-round pick and pick up a huge contract? That seems contrary to every sort of team-building we've been pursuing lately.

Look, I appreciate that it's really hard to find good OTs. But if this is their plan, they deserve the disaster they're courting. And even if that's the plan, they should be actively looking for a succession plan at both spots instead of just burying their heads in the sand and ignoring it.

Incidentally, when Staley retired, they were crazy to pass on Tristan Wirfs and take Kinlaw (I was very vocal about that at the time). They basically lucked into one of the greatest veteran player trades in league history. But the takeaway should not have been that they can replicate that.

[CrimsonCrew]

Niners waived DL Spencer Waege. Bottom of the roster move, but it's a somewhat curious one. Waege made the practice squad last year, and we didn't add a whole lot at DL in the draft or UDFA (one undrafted player). Waege has some of that inside-outside versatility Armstead had. Just odd that he's the guy you waive on the eve of rookie mini camp and OTAs. Though maybe they had seen enough of him.

[vvoland]

Waiting to trade for a top tackle is a terrible idea. Other than Trent, which was a pretty unique case given his anger at the team, what top tackles have been traded recently? And what would the actual going rate be? Again, the Trent trade was an aberration. Do we trade a first-round pick and pick up a huge contract? That seems contrary to every sort of team-building we've been pursuing lately.

Look, I appreciate that it's really hard to find good OTs. But if this is their plan, they deserve the disaster they're courting. And even if that's the plan, they should be actively looking for a succession plan at both spots instead of just burying their heads in the sand and ignoring it.

Incidentally, when Staley retired, they were crazy to pass on Tristan Wirfs and take Kinlaw (I was very vocal about that at the time). They basically lucked into one of the greatest veteran player trades in league history. But the takeaway should not have been that they can replicate that.

Not saying it's a good idea, just saying they may be less willing to gamble on that position in the draft vs gambling on it in FA or via trade. I agree that Trent was the exception that proves the rule but I would suspect that's their thinking. Any idea if Puni can play at RT, just heard the head scout for PFF talk him up.

[CrimsonCrew]

Waiting to trade for a top tackle is a terrible idea. Other than Trent, which was a pretty unique case given his anger at the team, what top tackles have been traded recently? And what would the actual going rate be? Again, the Trent trade was an aberration. Do we trade a first-round pick and pick up a huge contract? That seems contrary to every sort of team-building we've been pursuing lately.

Look, I appreciate that it's really hard to find good OTs. But if this is their plan, they deserve the disaster they're courting. And even if that's the plan, they should be actively looking for a succession plan at both spots instead of just burying their heads in the sand and ignoring it.

Incidentally, when Staley retired, they were crazy to pass on Tristan Wirfs and take Kinlaw (I was very vocal about that at the time). They basically lucked into one of the greatest veteran player trades in league history. But the takeaway should not have been that they can replicate that.

Not saying it's a good idea, just saying they may be less willing to gamble on that position in the draft vs gambling on it in FA or via trade. I agree that Trent was the exception that proves the rule but I would suspect that's their thinking. Any idea if Puni can play at RT, just heard the head scout for PFF talk him up.

Listening to Locked On 49ers? I haven't gotten to that part yet.

I think he theoretically could, but probably not his best spot. That said, you could maybe say the same about McKivitz, and Puni is heavier and had better testing numbers (same 40, but markedly better in the jumps and agility).

It's hard to find a really good OT, so I don't want to be too critical. And although I would have taken Suamataia, I'm not irate that they didn't. Just...try something. Bring in SOMEONE to compete. Please don't just hand Jaylon Moore the backup job, to say nothing of handing McKivitz the starting spot.

[vvoland]

Waiting to trade for a top tackle is a terrible idea. Other than Trent, which was a pretty unique case given his anger at the team, what top tackles have been traded recently? And what would the actual going rate be? Again, the Trent trade was an aberration. Do we trade a first-round pick and pick up a huge contract? That seems contrary to every sort of team-building we've been pursuing lately.

Look, I appreciate that it's really hard to find good OTs. But if this is their plan, they deserve the disaster they're courting. And even if that's the plan, they should be actively looking for a succession plan at both spots instead of just burying their heads in the sand and ignoring it.

Incidentally, when Staley retired, they were crazy to pass on Tristan Wirfs and take Kinlaw (I was very vocal about that at the time). They basically lucked into one of the greatest veteran player trades in league history. But the takeaway should not have been that they can replicate that.

Not saying it's a good idea, just saying they may be less willing to gamble on that position in the draft vs gambling on it in FA or via trade. I agree that Trent was the exception that proves the rule but I would suspect that's their thinking. Any idea if Puni can play at RT, just heard the head scout for PFF talk him up.

Listening to Locked On 49ers? I haven't gotten to that part yet.


I think he theoretically could, but probably not his best spot. That said, you could maybe say the same about McKivitz, and Puni is heavier and had better testing numbers (same 40, but markedly better in the jumps and agility).

It's hard to find a really good OT, so I don't want to be too critical. And although I would have taken Suamataia, I'm not irate that they didn't. Just...try something. Bring in SOMEONE to compete. Please don't just hand Jaylon Moore the backup job, to say nothing of handing McKivitz the starting spot.

I am. Like both that podcast and the gold standard ones. More just fans talking but i appreciate the passion and detail from non-team-affiliated people.

[clyde21]

i wouldn't be surprised if they see Puni as fully capable of playing RT

[CrimsonCrew]

Lombardi's update on rookie mini camp.

49ers rookie minicamp practice is in the books. Some observations:

-Dominick Puni is very well built. Carries 313 pounds impressively. One brother was a WR and the other an OL; you can tell he's athletic. Very good interview too. Did combo block work at practice with other O-linemen. UDFA C Drake Nugent is on the shorter end (6-1) but didn't look out of place

-Ricky Pearsall is a smooth operator. He and Jacob Cowing did punt return work

-QB Tanner Mordecai was crisper in the short game than I was expecting. That'll be the key for his roster chances, still way too early to gauge anything beyond that though

-RB Isaac Guerendo has burst. Dropped a pass coming out of the backfield. But Cowing bobbled a couple punts — it's rookie minicamp, nothing to be alarmed about

-TE Mason Pline is well-built. Key will be developing him as a blocker but he has the body for it. Brian Fleury was already coaching him up hard

All in all, a nice introduction to the rookies on a warm day. We'll see what the 49ers think of the tryouts. OTAs are next

[CrimsonCrew]

Grant Cohn with a bit more scathing review. Kind of two extremes with these two guys. Apparently Pearsall was targeted four times, didn't catch any and dropped two (though at least one was tough to bring in). He did say Renardo Green looked great and Puni looked the part but just did OL drills (they only did 7-on-7).

[Jikkle]

Grant Cohn with a bit more scathing review. Kind of two extremes with these two guys. Apparently Pearsall was targeted four times, didn't catch any and dropped two (though at least one was tough to bring in). He did say Renardo Green looked great and Puni looked the part but just did OL drills (they only did 7-on-7).

I kinda laughed to myself because I knew Cohn was going to be negative about Pearsall.

I'm not a Cohn hater as most fans tend to be because despite having his share of times when he's been wrong he has had times when he's been right and fans just didn't want to hear it.

I just think he's guilty of being a contrarian for the sake of being a contrarian too often.

[Jikkle]

Grant Cohn with a bit more scathing review. Kind of two extremes with these two guys. Apparently Pearsall was targeted four times, didn't catch any and dropped two (though at least one was tough to bring in). He did say Renardo Green looked great and Puni looked the part but just did OL drills (they only did 7-on-7).

And it's honestly why I stopped following practice reports especially training camp reports so closely because everything just gets so blown out of proportion and while some stuff that's concerning in TC is a problem during the season a lot of the drama becomes a non-issue during the season.

Let's say Pearsall did have a bad day of practice so what? Now if he strings together a lot of bad days of practice you might raise a measure of concern but there is very little to be gleamed good or bad from these kinds of practices.

Like I've said before if they had twitter in the 80's with in depth practice reports people would probably be freaking out over Montana, Rice, Craig, and etc.

[Harry Palmer]

Cohn is mainly a polemicist, but he does use pretty solid journalistic methods and absolutely has the guts to face the guys he criticizes. Every team has ‘negative’ local writers…partly because fan bases are, by definition, lacking in objectivity so what is perceived as negative might often not be…but many of them rarely show up as often as Cohn does. Moreover he invests a lot of time into helping younger/new content creators, and I respect that. But I take his takes with a regular dose of salt because he is fairly openly courting controversy.

[Jikkle]

i wouldn't be surprised if they see Puni as fully capable of playing RT

I'm pretty sure they said during one of the draft pressers they intend for him to play the interior.

I'd be happy if Puni is a noticeable upgrade at any spot of the offensive line. If he's a good pass blocker like the scouting reports say he is I'd actually rather him in the interior because at least if your RT sucks you can do things like have a TE help him and it's easier for the QB to manage outside pressure than inside.

[Pattersonca65]

Waiting to trade for a top tackle is a terrible idea. Other than Trent, which was a pretty unique case given his anger at the team, what top tackles have been traded recently? And what would the actual going rate be? Again, the Trent trade was an aberration. Do we trade a first-round pick and pick up a huge contract? That seems contrary to every sort of team-building we've been pursuing lately.

Look, I appreciate that it's really hard to find good OTs. But if this is their plan, they deserve the disaster they're courting. And even if that's the plan, they should be actively looking for a succession plan at both spots instead of just burying their heads in the sand and ignoring it.

Incidentally, when Staley retired, they were crazy to pass on Tristan Wirfs and take Kinlaw (I was very vocal about that at the time). They basically lucked into one of the greatest veteran player trades in league history. But the takeaway should not have been that they can replicate that.

Agreed. Offensive tackle is a premium position in the NFL that teams pay alot for. Teams generally don't give up quality OTs because they are hard to replace. The draft is the best place to find an OT, especially given the 49ers cap crunch.

[Pattersonca65]

Grant Cohn with a bit more scathing review. Kind of two extremes with these two guys. Apparently Pearsall was targeted four times, didn't catch any and dropped two (though at least one was tough to bring in). He did say Renardo Green looked great and Puni looked the part but just did OL drills (they only did 7-on-7).

And it's honestly why I stopped following practice reports especially training camp reports so closely because everything just gets so blown out of proportion and while some stuff that's concerning in TC is a problem during the season a lot of the drama becomes a non-issue during the season.

Let's say Pearsall did have a bad day of practice so what? Now if he strings together a lot of bad days of practice you might raise a measure of concern but there is very little to be gleamed good or bad from these kinds of practices.

Like I've said before if they had twitter in the 80's with in depth practice reports people would probably be freaking out over Montana, Rice, Craig, and etc.

This x 1,000. Such a small sample size and this is freakin Minicamp. I've seen " minicamp stars " flame out by the regular season and stars struggle in camp.

[CrimsonCrew]

Yeah, not much to be made of the practice reports. Just sharing because it's the only news out there at the moment. And the Cohn vs. Lombardi thing is pretty funny. One is a total fan-boy and the other is as negative as they come. The truth is usually somewhere in between.

Lombardi actually had a response directly to Cohn reviewing what Pearsall did well. Sounds like Pearsall was running good routes and getting open, the ball just didn't get to him. Definitely nothing to worry about right now. Just watching the clips from warm-ups and drills, you can see that he has good suddenness to his movements. I think he has a good chance to be a really nice player for us.

[CrimsonCrew]

Kurtenbach was talking up a couple less-heralded guys, including Drake Nugent. Likened him to Jason Kelce, which is very high praise indeed. We'll see. Nugent has tons of experience, and his arms are actually a decent length for a center (33"), but he's quite short at 6'1 1/2". And Kelce had absolutely elite movement skills (98th percentile or higher among IOL for the 40, SS, and 3C). Nugent's agility numbers are very good, but not truly special. Uphill battle for him, but the more guys we have competing for a spot as a future center, the better. Problem for Nugent is that he's competing against guys like Kingston and even Puni, who can play guard. Nugent is probably a pure center.

[CrimsonCrew]

i wouldn't be surprised if they see Puni as fully capable of playing RT

I'm pretty sure they said during one of the draft pressers they intend for him to play the interior.

I'd be happy if Puni is a noticeable upgrade at any spot of the offensive line. If he's a good pass blocker like the scouting reports say he is I'd actually rather him in the interior because at least if your RT sucks you can do things like have a TE help him and it's easier for the QB to manage outside pressure than inside.

They started McKivitz inside, too, I think. This is kind of their thing. Bring in these versatile guys, make sure they can play inside, and if they can (or occasionally if they can't), then try them outside. It's a bit unusual. Normally teams would try guys outside first. But I don't think there's necessarily a right or a wrong way to do it. That said, it's often asking a lot of these shorter-armed, less athletic (for tackles) players to be your starting tackle. Would be nice to add a guy who looks the part on paper at some point....

[CrimsonCrew]

In a somewhat odd twist, PFF rated the Niners as having the best TE room in the league. Might have the single best TE in Kittle, but behind him it's awfully grim. Hard to believe no one has a starter close to Kittle with a higher caliber of backup (which is to say any backup who wouldn't look out of place on an NFL field).

[Pattersonca65]

Jared Goff just got a 4 year, $212 million deal. $178 million guaranteed. Yikes. That is over $50 million per year. What is this going to do for Purdy if he continues to play well?

[Scoots1994]

Grant Cohn with a bit more scathing review. Kind of two extremes with these two guys. Apparently Pearsall was targeted four times, didn't catch any and dropped two (though at least one was tough to bring in). He did say Renardo Green looked great and Puni looked the part but just did OL drills (they only did 7-on-7).

Don't ever read Grant Cohn. You will be smarter for it.