What to expect from Trent and Aiyuk
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00:00Skills and Vallejo is on the line. Skills. Appreciate your
00:03call. What's good? Hey, what's up, Willard? No problem. What's
00:08up, Dibs? How you doing? I wanted to just cuz I called in
00:11Saturday to try to make this point. Got a little sidetracked.
00:13So, at this point, it's been brought up already or you guys
00:16kinda covered it already. My bad. But I'm just, you know,
00:19even with the Jets pass rush not at full strength tonight,
00:22I'm just a little concerned about what kind of not overall
00:26shape but kinda football shape we're gonna have Trent in uh
00:29after that holdout of his cuz basically, there's a
00:32difference. Obviously, you guys know that. Baseball players who
00:35are holding out or they're on strike and they can have their
00:37kids. They can throw with their wives. They can have them hit
00:40some ground balls. Stay in shape that way. Hoop players,
00:43you know, they're holding out. They can have, they can find a
00:45pickup game pretty easily or like we do here in Vallejo,
00:48just go around the neighborhood with steak until you have enough
00:50players to play but for a guy like Trent, like he's trying to
00:54simulate giant man charging at him and I don't know how much,
00:57how, how you can simulate that when you're holding out and I
01:01don't, you know, if anyone could do it to be him, I
01:02wouldn't put a pass in to find some way to stay in great
01:05football shape. I just wanna hear what you guys have to
01:07think about how effective he'll be tonight. Thank you. Yeah,
01:09skills. Thanks. Uh I mean, how how would you answer that?
01:12Specific to Trent Williams? I think that he'll be fine. I
01:15mean, short of him suffering an injury, I think that Trent's
01:19gonna be fine. I mean, when you play this long in the league,
01:21you understand what the job is. You know the play calls. He's
01:25not new to the team. He understands the scheme and I do
01:28believe that he was fit enough. Now, the one thing to watch
01:31will be at the end of a long drive because if Trent Williams
01:35gets into the second half, third quarter, and we're talking
01:38about a ten play, eleven play, twelve play drive, that's when
01:41you might see a little bit of fatigue. He's gonna be huffing
01:45and puffing now. He's, you know, no preseason, no camp, no
01:50games. So, I do think that as we get deeper in the game and
01:53deeper into a long drive, that's where you might see it
01:56but I have no worries about Trent Williams. I'm not really
01:58worried about it. I could he need a a breather here or there.
02:03Um sure. Yeah but you don't do breathers. No. Offensive line.
02:06No, not usually. Yeah. But again, you know, you're you're
02:09talking about like Brandon Iuk's not ready for a full
02:12compliment and Trent is. Why is that? Is that the nature of his
02:15position? Is it the fact that he's such a grizzled vet in
02:18this league and he's so great or could there be this? Like at
02:23the end of it all, I know what we worry about. Should they
02:27play Christian? Trent full snaps. What are they doing
02:30with Brandon? I'm gonna fall back on at least until I see it.
02:34I'm gonna trust that the forty-niners aren't stupid. You
02:36know what I mean? Like I think as fans sometimes we look at
02:39these things and we go, well, what about this? What about
02:41that? Well, the Niners know all of those factors as well and
02:43the their assessment is is that Trent Williams is ready for a
02:48full compliment of snaps and he is absolutely their best
02:51option for those compliment of snaps. Could something bad
02:53happen? Absolutely. Sure. Bunch of bad stuff happened to a
02:56bunch of teams yesterday. Yup. And so sure, that could happen.
03:00I think eyes will be out for it. Um and and and if there,
03:04you know, he needs to miss a drive or something here or
03:07there, then you you miss a drive. Um but I I think these
03:11decisions are not made willy nilly. Yeah, and I I don't
03:15think that he's gonna miss a drive unless he's gets injured.
03:19I mean, if he's gonna be fatigued or winded, he'll have
03:22oxygen on the sideline and I'm sure that he'll get recharged
03:25and be out there. I I just don't know if if you wanna play
03:28him, you're gonna play him and it's different than Brandon
03:30Ayuk because of the very nature of what you do offensively and
03:35you do a lot of two receiver sets and so in those sets,
03:38you'll have Ayuk in there but I would guess that tonight, you
03:41might see a little bit more of the twenty-two personnel, two
03:45tight ends, two running backs which is just one receiver and
03:48when it's one receiver, it'll be Debo and when you go to two
03:51receivers, maybe you put Jawan Jennings out there as the
03:55receiver opposite Debo in place of Brandon Ayuk because I think
03:59that you're gonna look at Ayuk playing about half the snaps he
04:03normally would. You know what? And I actually have very few
04:06concerns about that wide receiver group with Ayuk
04:09missing a few plays here and there. Yeah. Whether it's half
04:12of his compliment. I think about can Chris Conley come in
04:16and make a play here or there? Of course, he can. We know
04:19Jawan Jennings is a big piece on third down. My mind's on
04:23Jacob Cowling. Could he end up making a big play? I bet he is
04:26in the playbook tonight because he offers something downfield
04:30that the forty-niners have not always had and so can the rest
04:33of that group kind of fill in adequately as Brandon gets
04:38himself up to speed. I don't have too many worries about
04:41that. Yeah, exactly because you know, you're you have an
04:44offense that's really not predicated on Brandon Ayuk
04:47being in there every snap. You've got George and you got
04:50Debo and you got Christian. You have other weapons and you
04:53spread the ball around anyway. So, if you're gonna get into a
04:56spot where you know, maybe you're not gonna throw it to
04:59Brandon anyway, then let Jawan go in there and play or Chris
05:02Conley go in there and play and you know, the only thing that
05:04would be a concern is if you fell behind and then you felt
05:08like you had to throw it a lot and then go to three wide
05:10receivers, then you wanna have Brandon on the field. Absolutely.
05:13Eight eight eight nine five seven nine five seventy. Special
05:16shout out to anybody who's still on your way in. If you're
05:20looking at that traffic, if you're if you're bumping us with
05:24the windows down as you're on your way in the Levi Stadium,
05:27give us a call. Give us a little report on what it looks
05:30like out there. If you have found a tailgate and the the
05:34directed parking is still okay. Like we would love the reports
05:37of what it's like out there on the scene. Uh Levi Stadium and
05:41beyond. Eight eight eight nine five seven nine five seventy.
05:45We'll take your calls. It's Willard and Dibbs. We next go
05:47to Dollar Bill in San Francisco and be ready. This is a Jets
05:51fan, okay? Oh, that's right. Alright, Dollar Bill, what's up?
05:55On an opening night, babe. Hey, I just wanna give you guys
05:59this. Yeah. Yeah, I actually am not. I'm gonna be watching it
06:05at home because I wanna watch the game. I don't wanna have
06:08to. I I I this game's too important to me. I wanna watch
06:12it. I wanna watch it at home but I just wanna give you guys
06:16a little love and the only time when I'm really looking
06:21forward to is I'm gonna be looking forward to calling
06:25tomorrow and talking all the 49er fans off the ledge when to
06:30let you guys know that hey, just because you lose game one
06:34to the Jets, Jets, Jets, Jets, that your season is not over.
06:40Thank you, Dollar Bill. I I need those comforting words
06:43right there. Actually, Dollar Bill, will you just make me a
06:45promise right now? Make us a promise right now. I'm I'm not
06:50gonna I'm not gonna get back and forth on the on the week.
06:52Oh, week here and of course, he hung up. Yeah. Dollar Bill,
06:55here's the. Dollar Bill. I know you're listening. Down to 50
06:58cent bill. Downgraded. Make a dollar out of fifteen. Hey.
07:02Diamond and nickel. Dollar. Thank you. You gotta call
07:05tomorrow. Yeah. Either way. Either way. No matter what
07:09happens. We'll let you get loose. We will let you get
07:12loose if the Jets win this game tomorrow on our show but you
07:18better get your medicine now if they don't. That's the only
07:21thing I would say to any Jets fan who wants to trash talk it
07:25on the way in right now. Look, it's week one. I mean, I I hope
07:30this doesn't sound sort of like anticlimactic or or
07:33something like that but this is a losable football game. Sure.
07:37This is absolutely a losable. Four and a half is a spread.
07:39Yeah, like I mean, it's week one. Everybody looks a little
07:43out of sync. The Jets roster has plenty of players on it.
07:46They've got a very very good team. What did we say about
07:49them all last year? All last year, we said, this team's a
07:52quarterback away. Yeah. Do they have one now? I actually don't
07:55know. I know he's better than what they had last year but I
07:59really don't know exactly what we're going to see from Aaron
08:01Rodgers but this is a future Hall of Famer and a capable
08:04thrower of the football obviously. So, yeah, I expect
08:08this to be a challenge. I expect some uncomfortable
08:10moments tonight. That for me is where the real pregame lies is
08:16what is Aaron Rodgers going to look like? If he looks like he
08:19did a couple of years ago, efficient, mobile, accurate as
08:23ever, the arm is still good, the legs are back, well, then
08:26they've got action. If he looks more like the way he looked in
08:29his last year in Green Bay where he'd lost a step and he
08:33looked like he didn't have the same level of confidence, the
08:36arm was still good but he was not making the same level of
08:39play and that was now 2 years ago. So, which Aaron Rodgers
08:42are you going to get? The Jets don't know. The Niners don't
08:46know. Nobody knows what a forty, almost 41-year-old. Yeah.
08:50Achilles survivor Aaron Rodgers looks like. Well, that to me is
08:53the whole game. I agree. Although, let's bring both
08:56quarterbacks into this. If I'm one of these coaches tonight
09:00with this defense, with these pass rushers, okay? From Quinn
09:05and Williams and Javon Kinlaw. I know Hassan Reddick didn't
09:08show up. Nick Bosa, Leonard Floyd. I I can't wait to see
09:12what we see from Malik Collins. I'm excited about what I think
09:14is maybe the most underrated acquisition of the offseason
09:17for the forty-niners. But bottom line is this. Um you're
09:21not looking to break this thing open downfield tonight.
09:26It is week one and what I want from my quarterbacks is to get
09:30rid of the football. You've got good pass rushes out there and
09:33neither team has your game-breaking speedster
09:37downfield wide receiver. That's not who Debo is, who Ayuk is,
09:41it's not who Garrett Wilson is, it's not who Mike Williams is.
09:44So, what I think is is the game plan for these teams tonight
09:48and maybe really the reminder for both quarterbacks who love
09:54to hold the ball and scramble and create more time and make
09:58things happen because both have been really good at it.
10:01Um obviously, Aaron used to be and Brock is now. I I I think
10:06that that this is if I'm coaching those guys, one of the
10:08things I'm really saying is, look, don't be a hero. Exactly.
10:12Get rid of the ball. We're gonna do some quick hitters and
10:15see if we can string together some first outs. Make the plays
10:17that are available for you to make and you know, like you're
10:20saying, don't try to be the hero and don't try to make
10:22something that's not really there and that's where the
10:25Shanahan offense is really predicated on that anyway. It's
10:29you know, here's the play. If the actual primary read's not
10:32open, go to the secondary, move the chains, keep things moving,
10:37avoid the negative plays and that's where I think that uh
10:40Brock Purdy's been so good in this offense is realizing what
10:44the play calls for and if it's not there, making something
10:47positive out of it and I don't think that Aaron Rodgers is
10:50gonna hit the ground trying to do too much after missing an
10:54entire year and he's got a pretty good team now with with
10:57Garrett Wilson. He does. I mean, he's got weapons and Aaron
11:00Rodgers, you can say what you want about him and I have. He's
11:04no dummy. He knows how to play winning football and he knows
11:07he get the ball to talented people and that's how you win.
11:10Yep and again, the environment is going to be very difficult
11:15but Aaron is not going to get flustered in that kind of an
11:19environment. This is someone who's won a Super Bowl. This is
11:22a guy who's played games at Lambeau Field and Soldier Field
11:24and all of these places, all the fields and uh so look, I
11:29think that this is gonna be loud. I think it's gonna be
11:31rocking. I think it's gonna be a true everything you want out
11:34of a Monday night game but the old Aaron Rodgers, I know he
11:37used to be, he can handle that. He can handle that. Um we'll
11:41see tonight. We'll see what kind of pressure they give right up
11:43the middle. Yeah, no doubt. Tony in the city. Hey, Tony,
11:47what's going on? Thank you for calling Willard and Dibs. Hey,
11:51fellas, man. Opening night, man. This is fantastic. Let me
11:54tell you something. Aaron Rodgers is no Flash Gordon.
11:57He's washed up physically, mentally, emotionally. He's
12:00just a washed up crazy old conspiracy theorist. We're
12:03gonna absolutely destroy them. It's gonna be embarrassing for
12:08them. Just you watch. Um I hope you're right, Tony. Why are you
12:11so confident? Cuz there's this we play a punishing game, man.
12:17We play really punishing. When we get the ball, we run it. We
12:21just pound right through them. Trent Williams is gonna come
12:25out like a monster. I I really think we're just gonna
12:27absolutely kick the **** out of them. Tony, thank you for
12:31calling. I I I hope he's right. My eyes, look, I know that uh
12:36it's week one. We all wanna see the offense. We wanna see the
12:39whole thing hum. My eyes, when you talk about the punishing
12:43style that the forty-niners play on defense, well, the last
12:47time we saw them, I'd argue, no, they didn't. I know their
12:50Super Bowl was solid. Certainly solid enough against Patrick
12:54Mahomes except for if you really wanna dive deep into
12:57this and you remember that the Chiefs offense was not all that
13:01last year. They were they did not have a great year and so uh
13:05the Niners played well on defense. Dre Greenlaw gets
13:07hurt, the damn breaks, overtime, all of that stuff but
13:11you take that performance but the other two performances that
13:14they had in the playoffs were not good. So, the last time we
13:17saw this defense, it was not up to par, not in my opinion. So,
13:21that's where my eyes go tonight cuz you talk about the
13:23punishing style that they play. Well, let's see it. Let's see
13:26it. I wanna see this defense. Look, not just, not just, you
13:31know, they weren't bad last year but I think all of us felt
13:33in our belly. They could have been a little bit more dynamic.
13:36I'd love to see that tonight. And I wonder what the
13:38coordinator change is gonna do for this defense because
13:40clearly, they were not on the same page as Steve Wilkes and
13:43Nick Bosa said as much after the Super Bowl where he said,
13:47you know, they didn't even really plan for the zone read
13:49that Patrick Mahomes pulled on that short yardage play and so
13:52I wonder if Nick Sorenson, the new DC is gonna be more on the
13:57same page as this great defense and how that actually is going
14:01to turn out here tonight and throughout the course of the
14:04regular season because last year, it did look like the
14:07defense was a little bit, I guess, uneven toward the tail
14:11end of the year last year. Um alright, let me ask you about
14:15your your reaction and the text you sent me when you wake up
14:19yesterday to see Dak Prescott get 4 years, 240 million
14:23dollars. I know how good you are at math. Yeah. And 240
14:27divided by four is what? It's about 60 million. That's about
14:2960. Yeah. Okay. So, the quarterback market has been
14:32reset and it means what for the quarterback who wears red
14:36and gold? It means that the bidding for Brock Purdy right
14:39now starts at 60 million and if he comes out tonight and looks
14:42shaky and they lose, well, it goes down to about 58 or 59
14:46million and if he looks good and they win and he throws for
14:49312 and three touchdowns, well, then the number goes up to 61.
14:53I do think that the starting point for our whole ongoing
14:57conversation, I think the point where we start is now 60
15:01million because Dak got 60 and if you want to say who's better
15:04Dak or Brock, we can do a four-hour show debate style.
15:08Sure. You can take either one. I can take the other one and we
15:11can have a good debate and we can look at a number of
15:13different things and we can really, you know, parse it and
15:17break it all the way down and the bottom line is they're
15:21probably pretty similar to each other in many ways. So, if Dak's
15:25getting 60, then Brock's probably going to get 60 if
15:28he's still this good. Well, I mean, obviously, we've got we
15:31got a whole season to go through. Dak finished, where
15:34was he in the MVP race last year? Second, third, he was
15:37ahead of Brock. Yeah, and I had a Christian. I think they
15:39finished three and five. Yeah. And also, you know, you think
15:44about Dak Prescott's a little bit further along in his NFL
15:48journey. The Dallas Cowboys rely much more on an arm than
15:53the 49ers do like those are all the things that sort of but I
15:56get what the other argument would be which is I'm sorry
15:59like aren't we about winning? Isn't this about winning in the
16:04postseason? Isn't this about winning important games?
16:06They've gone head to head now twice. Brock's two and oh. So,
16:10I understand that argument and you may you may well be right
16:15and and but one thing I wonder and this isn't even about Brock
16:19or the quarterback position. I wonder how long the NFL will
16:24simply operate this way and that is to say, if you're good
16:28and you're next, you get the most. I I wonder how long we do
16:34that before the bubble bursts. Yeah. Um I think the wide
16:37receiver position is maybe more. It's going to burst first.
16:40Yeah. It's going to do it before the quarterback. Yeah.
16:42Yeah. That's good. I like that. Yeah. First to burst. Um so the
16:45quarterback position's not going to. There's no question
16:48that uh depending on if this is a healthy season and another
16:52successful season for Brock Purdy, the debate, the debate
16:56will rage. It it it will rage because the 49ers probably rely
17:00on Brock a little bit less. He hasn't been doing it for very
17:03long. Um they've got some leverage in that he hasn't been
17:07paid before. Right. But is he better and more important than
17:11Dak Prescott? You're going to get a lot of opinions on both
17:13sides. Yeah and I think they rely on him the same amount but
17:17they rely on him to do different things. So, yeah,
17:20throws it more and they rely on Dak more to make plays through
17:24the pass game but the Niners rely on Brock to just keep this
17:28whole thing running and you know, make the right read at
17:31the line of scrimmage and you know, handle, handle the
17:34offense, get in and out of the huddle. So, I don't know if
17:36that the Cowboys rely on Dak anymore. It's just a little bit
17:40of a different reliance and when Brock does throw it, for
17:43me, his throws become more important because he doesn't
17:46throw it as often. I just think Dak and CD are the entire
17:49identity of the Cowboys offense. Yeah. They they they've
17:52punted on having a good running back. They they don't. Zeke in
17:55the end zone. Zeke in the end zone. Yeah. What did he get?
17:58Ten carries yesterday like he's not he's not the centerpiece
18:02that Christian is. Um you know, it's Dak and CD and they're not
18:05being paid as such. That's all I mean on offense. The Niners
18:09have a much more well spread out identity.