Speaker 1: How's going.
Speaker 2: You probably know and can appreciate Kyle Has a few
Speaker 2: times this season, said Christian McCaffrey's mentality is out of
Speaker 2: like a walk on or undrafted guy, like still trying
Speaker 2: to prove himself and hey, coach, you know, I'm sorry,
Speaker 2: or head coach, did you see that?
Speaker 3: Or you know.
Speaker 2: Obviously elite players have special qualities, but that seems.
Speaker 1: Pretty rare to not.
Speaker 2: Seemingly ever kind of feel like you've arrived or he's
Speaker 2: up even a little. Is that unique in your experience?
Speaker 1: It is unique?
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's he's uh, he's a very unique guy. But
Speaker 3: I say this, it's not He's also very confident, very
Speaker 3: very confident in his ability and very much has a
Speaker 3: chip on his shoulder to show everybody that he, you know,
Speaker 3: how good he is.
Speaker 1: But his work ethic is one of it's never good enough.
Speaker 1: You know. It's really cool.
Speaker 3: It's really cool to see a guy that's you know,
Speaker 3: really shooting for perfection, you know, and he's not afraid
Speaker 3: to say that he's fallen short. But he's always progressing,
Speaker 3: always working, you know, So that's it's really really impressive
Speaker 3: to watch how hard he works, how diligent he is,
Speaker 3: I mean, there's so many little things that he does
Speaker 3: on Deebo. The last screen pass touchdown, it we ran
Speaker 3: Christian's on the back side and he fakes like a
Speaker 3: flare screen and that backside linebacker who almost caught deebos
Speaker 3: Debo's coming up to score. There was a guy that
Speaker 3: was right there. They had to doubt run. I think
Speaker 3: he's got run on either way. If if Christian dogs
Speaker 3: at just a little bit. If Christian doesn't, I mean,
Speaker 3: how much time was looked in the game, and how
Speaker 3: many how many plays had Christian played? He took on
Speaker 3: there with his hands in the air like he was
Speaker 3: catching the screen and pulled that linebacker out of there.
Speaker 1: That's why we scored.
Speaker 3: I mean, the guys did a nice job blocking it,
Speaker 3: but ultimately the game the play went in because Christian,
Speaker 3: every little thing he looks at, it is what he
Speaker 3: can do better.
Speaker 1: And that is rare. That's really rare. And that's why
Speaker 1: he's a great player.
Speaker 3: I was talking about, he's the best player he's ever
Speaker 3: been around without the ball in his hands.
Speaker 4: When you think about what he does with the ball
Speaker 4: in his hands, that's pretty Is that.
Speaker 3: Just one example, that's one example exactly one example, there
Speaker 3: was a day, Uh, it was really funny. Kyle pointed
Speaker 3: it out, and he does it all over the field.
Speaker 1: I don't I don't watch him. Locked him more on
Speaker 1: the on the guys up front most days. But he
Speaker 1: was I don't know what the play was.
Speaker 3: I can't picture, but he was releasing on the backside
Speaker 3: to block somebody. Actually it was a it was a
Speaker 3: run player something that we had a drawer or I
Speaker 3: don't know what the play was. He didn't block somebody
Speaker 3: and when he when he was running out to block him,
Speaker 3: he set up and started to act like he was
Speaker 3: going to run a route so the guy would look
Speaker 3: to cover to Matt and then he went and blocked him.
Speaker 3: You know, it's just every little thing he can look
Speaker 3: to gain an advantage or looked what he can do
Speaker 3: without the ball in his hands.
Speaker 1: He does.
Speaker 3: It's outstandings kept him pretty quiet.
Speaker 1: He's enormously talented. Well, I think the guys did a
Speaker 1: really good job. I think the game went well for us.
Speaker 3: You know, we started off and obviously had a couple
Speaker 3: of series there that weren't as good. Uh. And Jalen's
Speaker 3: very very talented and good player, and he did have
Speaker 3: some good plays in there. You know, our guys just
Speaker 3: we managed to you know, convert on some third downs,
Speaker 3: keephim on the field, work our plan and do things
Speaker 3: we'd talk about doing. And and Aaron did a nice job.
Speaker 3: And wherever they put him, the guy's really battled in
Speaker 3: did a good job against them.
Speaker 4: A couple of times it popped out that Burford was
Speaker 4: finishing play way down the field, even on the Devoat touchdown.
Speaker 1: Your referred to like on one last block on that
Speaker 1: is there.
Speaker 4: I don't know if it's been something he's been doing
Speaker 4: all year, or is there a point of emphasis of
Speaker 4: like a finish more years at an area that he's
Speaker 4: grown in.
Speaker 1: I guess he's grown in that area. I mean he
Speaker 1: he always did. But there was a.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I said it last year. There's always a couple
Speaker 3: of times that happens with guys. It's like you're getting
Speaker 3: to the point of contact, you're getting the point of
Speaker 3: doing your assignment, and you're just not quite finishing. You're
Speaker 3: just not quite getting on a guy and staying on him.
Speaker 3: And I said, you know, truly, an old coach, Dannis
Speaker 3: Screen of mine, used to say, he said, you know,
Speaker 3: blocking the guys no more he said, Chris, you can
Speaker 3: talk all this stuff about being alignment and techniques and
Speaker 3: all they said, but when the ball carrier gets there,
Speaker 3: are you on your guy and.
Speaker 1: He doesn't make the tackle. That's why I tell my guys.
Speaker 3: So I get all this, but guys, your guy made
Speaker 3: the tackle or your guy got in on the tackle.
Speaker 3: So that's not good enough. So whatever we have to
Speaker 3: do to make sure your guy that you were responsible
Speaker 3: for isn't hitting the guy at the end of the play.
Speaker 3: And that I think eventually rings true with guys realized, oh,
Speaker 3: I got to keep doing this blocking him for a
Speaker 3: little bit, then let him go and let them run
Speaker 3: a run and.
Speaker 1: Maybe he gets in on the tackle later. Isn't acceptable.
Speaker 3: And everything we do in our offense comes from Kyle
Speaker 3: that everybody's expected to finish. Everybody's expected our plays last,
Speaker 3: because the wide zone it just it's it's longer. You're
Speaker 3: starting the left hash and the ball goes out to
Speaker 3: the numbers and then it runs downfield and everybody's got
Speaker 3: to block their guys all that far and it ends
Speaker 3: up being just a little bit longer. That we have
Speaker 3: to maintain our contact and our blocks, and it's the
Speaker 3: process for young guys coming in to learn that.
Speaker 1: This year.
Speaker 3: I don't know that's you guys always say, I don't
Speaker 3: sorry they guys. The guys played okay, they did a
Speaker 3: good job. I mean, this group of guys, I don't
Speaker 3: ever want to bat I'm not bad mouthing.
Speaker 1: I know you guys know that. I'm I love this group. Man.
Speaker 3: They really worked hard, forced every single day. But we're
Speaker 3: working progress still. There was a lot of good things
Speaker 3: in that game. We managed the crowd. Uh, we were
Speaker 3: able to the two tackles, did a really nice shopping
Speaker 3: those guys, you know, and the interior plays. They had
Speaker 3: some beasts in there, and and and they were a
Speaker 3: challenge and uh, you know, Brock did a good job
Speaker 3: with getting the ball out. Kyle did a good job
Speaker 3: getting the play calls. It all works together when we
Speaker 3: look good nine times out of tennis because everything else
Speaker 3: around us is going well.
Speaker 1: But the guys did. The guys were serious minded. They
Speaker 1: they wanted to go and do it.
Speaker 3: I was I was honest with him, I told him,
Speaker 3: and I didn't say it when if I look back
Speaker 3: at that championship game from a year ago, I was nervous.
Speaker 1: Weren't gonna block him as well. You know, I didn't
Speaker 1: know I was gonna play it.
Speaker 3: We never got a chance to see because the game
Speaker 3: went a different direction obviously with the injury to Brock.
Speaker 1: But man, I I don't know. And then we went
Speaker 1: in there and the guys did a good job.
Speaker 3: Now that's one game, and if we happened to you know,
Speaker 3: who knows what happens if we see him againn't see
Speaker 3: him again.
Speaker 1: It's the guys did a nice job. But I wouldn't.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't. I'm not gonna crown anybody yet.
Speaker 4: Was saying that the last time you guys played Seattle Banks,
Speaker 4: he was really banged up going to that game, played
Speaker 4: through it. He felt like it was a really kind
Speaker 4: of a turning point game for Aaron because he was
Speaker 4: able to tough it out and still perform. Just in
Speaker 4: what ways have you seen him him grow in terms of,
Speaker 4: you know, putting.
Speaker 3: It on the line and in those times Aaron last
Speaker 3: year did agree. I mean, he came through everything last
Speaker 3: year and had a really nice season last year and
Speaker 3: came out as one of our better linemen. And the
Speaker 3: energy that he plays with one game day, the enthusiasm,
Speaker 3: the effort he plays with outstanding and he continues to
Speaker 3: work on his craft to get better at it.
Speaker 1: That was big for him because you.
Speaker 3: Know a lot of times guys get there's a there's
Speaker 3: injury and hurt right, and then I'll just file flat
Speaker 3: tell you the story. He and I are talking about
Speaker 3: when he's coming out of getting ready to play the
Speaker 3: game and he's like, we went out, we were working
Speaker 3: during the week and I'm like, he goes, you know,
Speaker 3: I don't he did up.
Speaker 1: We were in the stadium, it was a short week,
Speaker 1: and we had.
Speaker 3: A guy's a couple of guys stay out and push
Speaker 3: on him to see how if he was ready, if
Speaker 3: his toe was able to if he was able to anchor,
Speaker 3: and he goes. He calls me that night and he goes, yeah,
Speaker 3: I just don't think I can play. I can't anchor,
Speaker 3: you know. And I said, okay, let's talk about how
Speaker 3: many times in a game you're going to be one
Speaker 3: on one by yourself needing to anchor where Jake won't
Speaker 3: be there, Trent won't be there, or we're running the
Speaker 3: ball where the anchor really doesn't matter, and all these
Speaker 3: things that I said, we're talking about five to ten
Speaker 3: percent of the game.
Speaker 1: So I'm not telling you to play hurt, which I wasn't,
Speaker 1: I said.
Speaker 3: But and that's a point where, like Trent said, I
Speaker 3: can play at seventy five or eight percent, Well for Aaron,
Speaker 3: that's like ninety or ninety five percent because there's five
Speaker 3: or ten percent of that game that he might struggle with.
Speaker 3: But it was good to get out there and start
Speaker 3: playing and get over that hump. And that's part of
Speaker 3: a process for young guy. The dish for the injury
Speaker 3: and hurt is two different things that nobody's asking. I said, Aaron,
Speaker 3: I'm not asking you. If you don't feel comfortable play again,
Speaker 3: don't play this game. And at the trains, but he'd
Speaker 3: been cleared medically, but there were some parts of his
Speaker 3: game that weren't quite he didn't feel comfortable with. But
Speaker 3: that's part of the process you learned and say I
Speaker 3: can play this way. I've told you guys story before
Speaker 3: about Jonathan Ogden. He's like, this guy can play at
Speaker 3: this percentage, this guy I can't. And Trent, to his credit,
Speaker 3: Trent in the Cleveland game, he was that whatever percentage
Speaker 3: he was. If it wasn't Miles Garrett, he probably would
Speaker 3: have looked a lot, but he went out there and
Speaker 3: really didn't look great for the majority of the game,
Speaker 3: but knew he had to tough it out in those instances. Well,
Speaker 3: that's a guy that's done this enough to say he's
Speaker 3: not putting himself at risk. He's not gonna hurt himself anymore,
Speaker 3: knowing he's not one hundred percent, but he can do
Speaker 3: most things well enough that we could have success. And
Speaker 3: then then it's my job. Trent in the championship game
Speaker 3: a couple of years ago against the Rams, probably shouldn't
Speaker 3: have been out there, and it was his first championship game.
Speaker 3: It was really hard for me to say, Trent, you know,
Speaker 3: and everybody was like, but we gotta let the guy.
Speaker 3: He's a warrior, let's art up, toughen out. He's done
Speaker 3: it before. But he really couldn't perform at a level
Speaker 3: that was acceptable. And he's even set a cult and
Speaker 3: probably should have played more in that game. And that's
Speaker 3: the that's every that's a that's a trade off, And
Speaker 3: it's not, like I said, none of us are trying
Speaker 3: to It's a long answer, but I want to make
Speaker 3: sure it's very clear none of us are asking how
Speaker 3: to play hurt. None of us are, but the one
Speaker 3: hundred percent this league is everybody gets hurt, and everybody
Speaker 3: has to play through bumps and bruises and you have
Speaker 3: to figure that out. And that's what's happened with Aaron.
Speaker 3: That's part of one of the many things that he's
Speaker 3: grown in that process.
Speaker 1: Thanks, guys, appreciate it.