Speaker 1: Joining us on the UMA guest Line.
Speaker 2: Matt Mayoko does a great job covering the Niners for
Speaker 2: NBC Sports Bay Area, and he's with on the UMA
Speaker 2: Guest Line to talk a little bit about the Niners.
Speaker 1: Eight days into training camp. Matt, how are you.
Speaker 3: I'm doing great, enjoying this Friday. Don't have to get
Speaker 3: in my car and drive to Santa Clara. So uh,
Speaker 3: we'll be back at it on on Saturday and Sunday
Speaker 3: when the traffic's a little bit lighter. But no, everything's
Speaker 3: everything's going well. We're both enjoying camp, are we.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it's always It's always enjoyable.
Speaker 2: Now you are the pro who has the big camp hat.
Speaker 1: I did buy a big camp hat. I just haven't
Speaker 1: been able to really. It's like I can't. I don't.
Speaker 2: I feel like I can't wear it. I you know,
Speaker 2: I'm wearing baseball hats. I've got other hats because I
Speaker 2: just don't. I can't wear I bought like a World
Speaker 2: Cup sombrero, and it's just I don't know. I feel
Speaker 2: like it's gonna be too big of a statement to
Speaker 2: wear it out there. So I've kind of I have it,
Speaker 2: but I haven't actually busted it out.
Speaker 1: Yet.
Speaker 3: I even saw you wearing a backwards hat the other day. Yes,
Speaker 3: I was, yeah, I mean you look like you know,
Speaker 3: you got the baggy shorts. He got the backwards hat.
Speaker 3: You're you're appealing to the young crowd. Craig, there you.
Speaker 1: Go, Thank you, thank you? Yes.
Speaker 2: Uh So, then I don't get you know, people donating
Speaker 2: to my channel saying calling me unk.
Speaker 1: I'm getting a lot of a lot of unk lately.
Speaker 2: You know what I want to ask you about Raheem Morris,
Speaker 2: because Jade Dugger, the rookie from Louisiana, is a very
Speaker 2: unique prospect. He was he's very young, he's the youngest
Speaker 2: guy on the team. He's long, he's rangey, thirty five
Speaker 2: inch arms. But he was running with the first team
Speaker 2: defense this week and that kind of surprised me. Obviously
Speaker 2: it's a very positive sign. But then we kind of
Speaker 2: heard from Drake Greenlaw, the Fever linebacker. He mentioned the
Speaker 2: Fever linebacker, and then Raheem's talking about, you know, kind
Speaker 2: of that hybrid player who's a kind of a star player,
Speaker 2: or he used the word a spinner outside edge of
Speaker 2: fender who can cover the slot receiver and tackle the
Speaker 2: running back and rush the pastor And I feel like
Speaker 2: this is kind of a new frontier here.
Speaker 1: What are you axpecting?
Speaker 2: Do you think Jaden Dugger is kind of a one
Speaker 2: of one or does he fit into a category with
Speaker 2: guys like Nick Martin and Larry Wirth. I mean, it
Speaker 2: is interesting. It's a whole new kind of wrinkle.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think he's completely different than those guys. And
Speaker 3: you know, I do want to get Raheem at some
Speaker 3: point to explain and maybe the next time he's up there,
Speaker 3: you know, kind of explain maybe the job descriptions of
Speaker 3: those different titles. But the way I see it is,
Speaker 3: you know, they're certainly doing whether it's experimenting or whether
Speaker 3: it's this is what we're doing. I think it'll be
Speaker 3: a little bit of both here in training camp and
Speaker 3: certainly in the joint practices and everything else. But I
Speaker 3: think Jaden Dugger's background makes him uniquely qualified for what
Speaker 3: the forty nine ers are looking for they deploy more
Speaker 3: of those five man fronts. You know, he's got the size,
Speaker 3: he's got the length, he's got the athleticism, he's got
Speaker 3: the versatility. He played safety at Georgetown, he played edge
Speaker 3: at Louisiana Lafayette. Then he played stack linebacker Louisiana Lafayette,
Speaker 3: so he's done a little bit of everything. And when
Speaker 3: you have a five man line and if they're only
Speaker 3: defensive lineman, there's going to be some shortcomings because quite
Speaker 3: obviously on passing situations, not all five guys are going
Speaker 3: to be rushing on the same play, So there will
Speaker 3: be times when that happens, but there will be a
Speaker 3: lot of dropping and trying to create confusion for the
Speaker 3: offensive line and for the quarterback. And so Douger gives
Speaker 3: them a guy that is, you know, would be I
Speaker 3: think by definition their best cover guy dropping into coverage,
Speaker 3: but he also has the pass rush skills to do
Speaker 3: that as well as playing the run and everything else.
Speaker 3: So I think for what the forty nine ers are
Speaker 3: looking at, I think that makes a lot more sense
Speaker 3: than saying, have Luke Gifford as the third linebacker or
Speaker 3: you know the linebacker slash d n that hybrid guy
Speaker 3: who's you know, lines up on the at the line
Speaker 3: of screamage. So I do think that early on, even
Speaker 3: when they drafted him, he kind of thought like, Okay,
Speaker 3: how exactly does he fit? And now as we watch
Speaker 3: practice two weeks into practice, now we can see like, okay,
Speaker 3: that makes a lot of sense why they would take
Speaker 3: him and how they can find a way to get
Speaker 3: him on the field right away.
Speaker 2: Matt, I've seen reports of twenty guy the ninety man
Speaker 2: camp roster dinged up. Some of these guys are it's
Speaker 2: more precautionary. I think that if there was a game,
Speaker 2: they probably would be playing.
Speaker 1: But still it's a lot of injured guys.
Speaker 2: Chris Fister was asked the question the other day at
Speaker 2: the presser, Hey, are the joint practices with the Titans,
Speaker 2: you know in Jeopardy? And he made it seem like absolutely,
Speaker 2: not that it's like a full go, But then the
Speaker 2: way he kind of stated it, it almost sounded like,
Speaker 2: you know, maybe like he's obviously it's not his call directly,
Speaker 2: but he is kind of the messenger at this point.
Speaker 2: Do you do you think that the Tennessee joint practice
Speaker 2: is is it up in the air, Do you think
Speaker 2: it's a slam dunk that it's gonna happen, or do
Speaker 2: you think first or kind.
Speaker 3: Of I don't know, I would think that they're gonna happen.
Speaker 3: It's gonna happen. Uh, but we'll see. I mean, I'm
Speaker 3: gonna stake my you know, my claim on that one.
Speaker 3: But you know, for the Titans, they would want to know.
Speaker 3: I mean, if if we were to happen, I think
Speaker 3: they would have or if it wasn't gonna happen, I
Speaker 3: would think that they would have already canceled it because
Speaker 3: the Titans aren't going to be coming out here. What
Speaker 3: would that be three days early for a preseason game,
Speaker 3: So you know, they have to kind of figure out
Speaker 3: what they're going to do. If you know, they're not
Speaker 3: going to fly out on a Monday to practice on
Speaker 3: Tuesday in Santa Clara and then the game's on Thursday,
Speaker 3: so that's when the practice is scheduled to happen. The
Speaker 3: joint practice would be on Tuesday.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: I guess I'm less alarmed by the actual reality of
Speaker 3: the injuries during training camp than just putting out the
Speaker 3: list every day. Of these are the guys who aren't practicing.
Speaker 3: I mean, the one, the one injury that's the big one,
Speaker 3: and I think it's far and away the biggest one.
Speaker 3: And I don't even know if there's a number two
Speaker 3: injury that would be a reason for concern. It's Ricky Piersoll.
Speaker 3: Why because he's out for the season. He's not going
Speaker 3: to play this season. But every other injury. Maybe next
Speaker 3: on the list would probably be Vederian Low, the swing tackle,
Speaker 3: who got injured on the very first day of practice
Speaker 3: and has a high inkle spring, so that's usually a
Speaker 3: four to six week injury. But I don't know that
Speaker 3: any of the other injuries. Maybe Jacob Cowing with the
Speaker 3: hip flexer, I don't know. I mean, I don't know
Speaker 3: that any of these are at all concerning as it
Speaker 3: relates to impacting the regular season. You know, the adductor
Speaker 3: injury of Kylon Black, it depends on how serious that is.
Speaker 3: Kean White has the same injury, at least described the
Speaker 3: same way, the adductor, which is basically growing. But I
Speaker 3: really see him out there. I already see him out
Speaker 3: there working. I don't think the Mike Evans thing is
Speaker 3: any big deal. I don't think Christian Kirk at this
Speaker 3: point is a big deal because it looks like he's
Speaker 3: running pretty well. Stribbling is already back. So you know
Speaker 3: the one that I thought, oh, that could be a
Speaker 3: bad one was Grayson Halton. You know, a bone bruise
Speaker 3: of the knee. We've seen that turn into something bad,
Speaker 3: but he's already back and making an impact felt. So
Speaker 3: I don't see the injury situation. I know, you know,
Speaker 3: people love to talk about it because of where that
Speaker 3: practice facility is located and everything else in the history,
Speaker 3: but I don't at this point. Again, I mean, things
Speaker 3: can change, but at this point, I don't see the
Speaker 3: forty nine ers being that adversely impacted from by injuries
Speaker 3: other than pearsall. I mean, I look around the league
Speaker 3: and I see, you know, Jayalen Walker with the Falcons
Speaker 3: out for the year, Nick Scorton out for the year,
Speaker 3: the other the draft pick for the Panthers as well,
Speaker 3: Chris Brasel out for the year. So and the New
Speaker 3: York Giants lost their seventeen games starting nose tackle out
Speaker 3: for the year. So I don't see. To me, the
Speaker 3: bigger concern is when's Kittle coming back. When's mikeel Williams
Speaker 3: coming back off the pup list from injuries last year?
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I think you're right, and we don't know
Speaker 2: the answer to those questions quite yet. Robert Jones suddenly,
Speaker 2: out of nowhere went from the backup to Connor Colby
Speaker 2: at left guard to the starter at left guard, with
Speaker 2: Colby running with the twos and threes and running some
Speaker 2: reps at right guard. Do you think this is a
Speaker 2: momentary thing? I mean, Barrows had written a piece that
Speaker 2: Colby had commandeered this job, and it's almost like the
Speaker 2: niners said, hey, hey, no, he has it, you know
Speaker 2: we Jones has got to say some say here too.
Speaker 2: It's like, literally, after that story hit the press, it's
Speaker 2: like Jones was inserted as the starter at left guard.
Speaker 2: Do you think Jones is going to be the starter
Speaker 2: at left guard or do you think it's he's the
Speaker 2: starter for the moment?
Speaker 3: I would I would think it's still Connor Colby. But
Speaker 3: that was interesting I did early in training camp. I
Speaker 3: asked Chris Furster, you know, is it possible that there's
Speaker 3: no competition? You know, is it possible because open competition
Speaker 3: implies that one guy's running with the ones one day,
Speaker 3: the next day or maybe even later in the same practice,
Speaker 3: the other guy's running with the ones, and they have
Speaker 3: a competition. And it appeared to me that if cole
Speaker 3: Be Kolbe was just going to stay in that job
Speaker 3: as long as he gave the forty nine ers, no
Speaker 3: reason to replace him first also said that, well, yeah,
Speaker 3: we'll end up going with the best guy, but if
Speaker 3: the best guy is Connor Colby from start to finish,
Speaker 3: then then what you said is true. There won't be
Speaker 3: any kind of back and forth. Let's have this guy
Speaker 3: work with the one. So it was a little bit surprising,
Speaker 3: and to me, it's an indication that whatever they're they're
Speaker 3: looking at behind the scenes, film study, everything else, player
Speaker 3: evaluation looks to me like it means that it's not
Speaker 3: a fait a company that Connor Colby is the starter.
Speaker 3: I don't know that Robert Jones had a great day
Speaker 3: of practice yesterday when he was running with the ones,
Speaker 3: so I would still kind of expect Colby to be that.
Speaker 3: But I think it's also probably a reason for concern
Speaker 3: that they felt the need to put somebody else in there,
Speaker 3: because ideally you'd want your five guarding guys to just
Speaker 3: line up day one and be that way, no deviations
Speaker 3: at all through the end of the season, and that
Speaker 3: certainly wasn't the case. So certainly be watching on practice
Speaker 3: during practice on Saturday to see who's out there with
Speaker 3: the ones.
Speaker 2: Two quick hitters will Pauling, Junior berg and Jordan Watkins.
Speaker 2: All these guys to me look like they're outshining Jacob Cowing.
Speaker 2: Bergins really surprised me. But I while Pat Pauling is
Speaker 2: coming on, he looks very solid catching punts. Watkins looks bigger, stronger, faster.
Speaker 2: Do you see the same thing I'm seeing that It
Speaker 2: seems like Cowing is falling behind these other receivers.
Speaker 3: Well, I would say falling behind the other receivers, but
Speaker 3: his ticket is not as a receiver. I mean, what's
Speaker 3: the same way that that Sky Moore, you know, was
Speaker 3: a factor for the forty hours last year. He was
Speaker 3: a factor without ever really stepping on the field and
Speaker 3: playing offense. So Pauling is interesting. He would be kind
Speaker 3: of a guy that could come out of the out
Speaker 3: of the shadows and win that job. To meet Jordan
Speaker 3: Walkins seems a little less comfortable handling punts. That's the key.
Speaker 3: Whoever is the most sure handed, the most reliable, the
Speaker 3: most comfortable handling punts is going to be one of
Speaker 3: the receivers on the team and one of the guys
Speaker 3: who's going to have a uniform on game days. So
Speaker 3: I still think it's it's Cowing. However, this hip flexer
Speaker 3: that we just talked about, if that keeps him out
Speaker 3: a period of time, then that does open the door
Speaker 3: for somebody else. But I would agree, as far as
Speaker 3: you know plays being made as a wide receiver Cowing,
Speaker 3: it hasn't been able to you know, last year he
Speaker 3: had a lot of momentum going into camp and got injured.
Speaker 3: This year, you know, the ford AMers expected him to
Speaker 3: kind of step in where he left off last year
Speaker 3: before he missed the entire season, and I don't know
Speaker 3: that that's happened, so that there is is definitely a
Speaker 3: lot of gray area when it comes to how that
Speaker 3: wide receiver depth chart will look and how the punt
Speaker 3: return aspect will really impact their final decision, because it
Speaker 3: certainly looks like Deebo Samuel is going to be the
Speaker 3: kickoff returner, but now who's going to be the punt returner.
Speaker 2: Matt Mioko with us on the Yuma Guest Line, covers
Speaker 2: the Niners for NBC Sports Bay Area and does an
Speaker 2: amazing job. Mattie will let you go, but today I'd
Speaker 2: be remiss if I didn't ask you one about our friend,
Speaker 2: our fallen friend, the Great late Great Dwight Clark. Today
Speaker 2: is August seventh. Today is my twenty seventh wedding anniversary,
Speaker 2: but it is also Dwight Clark Day. And you know,
Speaker 2: I grew up as a kid in this city. You know,
Speaker 2: I was eleven when he scored that touchdown in the
Speaker 2: corner of the end zone, and he was my idol.
Speaker 2: And then he became a friend of mine and we
Speaker 2: had a chance to go golf a few times and
Speaker 2: do some events, and I miss him terribly. I thought
Speaker 2: he was one of my favorite Niners, and then when
Speaker 2: I got to know him, he became.
Speaker 1: My favorite Niner.
Speaker 2: You got to spend a lot, a lot of time
Speaker 2: with him and did a lot of great things with
Speaker 2: d C before he passed, and got a chance to
Speaker 2: visit with him. Just your recollections, Dwight Clark before we
Speaker 2: let you go.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I remember watching the Catch on my
Speaker 3: couch in the U in northern California and little community Richfield,
Speaker 3: where we could only get two channels at the time,
Speaker 3: And to get to know him as you did. The
Speaker 3: private thing that strikes me is it was the most
Speaker 3: important play in forty nine Ers history and one of
Speaker 3: the most impactful plays in NFL history and for it
Speaker 3: to happen to the organization, for him to be the
Speaker 3: author of that play, he always joked, you know, to
Speaker 3: Joe Montana, they called it the catch, not the throw.
Speaker 3: For it for it to be him. He was the
Speaker 3: perfect person for that because of how he embraced it
Speaker 3: and how he made every fan who came up to
Speaker 3: him feel special, and when they would ask him about
Speaker 3: the play or whatever, he acted like it was always
Speaker 3: the first time anybody had ever come up to him
Speaker 3: and asked about that. And so I remember one time, going, man,
Speaker 3: does it ever? I'm sure we were someplace and two
Speaker 3: or three people came up to him separately and they
Speaker 3: walked away, and I said, does that ever get tiring
Speaker 3: for you to talk about that? And he just stopped
Speaker 3: dead in his tracks and he looked at me and
Speaker 3: he goes, would you ever get tired about talking about
Speaker 3: that play? And I'm like, you're absolutely not. I wouldn't
Speaker 3: get tired, and he goes, exactly. So he really embraced it,
Speaker 3: and he was the perfect guy to be the man
Speaker 3: who made the play that changed the organization.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what a kind soul he was, And man, I
Speaker 2: miss him. I miss him a lot. Maddy, great stuff man,
Speaker 2: you always doing an incredible stuff, incredible job. We love
Speaker 2: your segments on The Leader. Thanks for jumping on.
Speaker 3: All right, Urug, thanks so much. I'll see tomorrow