• 3 months ago
Transcript
00:00It's Matt Barrows on the River Islands guest line, and we go out to him now, but we have to start, instead of asking about Christian McAfee, we have to start by congratulating him, because based on today's news, I'm pretty sure you now run the Athletic, is that correct, Matt?
00:13Last man standing, yeah. Me and Marcus Thompson are the two pillars now on the 49ers beat. I should say that we are going to be adding some folks to that, it's being settled right now, but there will be some movement in the future.
00:34Alright, they used to call it the Athletic, I call it the Barrows, until further notice, but let's get to what everybody else is talking about. How does this news grab you, and what do you think a 49er fan should brace for right now with regard to Christian?
00:49Well, I think you're absolutely right. Two days ago, the prospect of IR caused Kyle Shanahan to say, yeah, I never even considered that. We thought about playing him against the Jets. Two days later, it's totally different.
01:06What happened was, the 49ers had their hardest practice of the week on Thursday, and McAfee didn't react well to it. Shanahan said that the pain that he was experiencing after that practice was the worst it's been since this became problematic in early August.
01:24So, he's going in the wrong direction. It's not getting better, and all signs point to IR, all signs point to it happening tomorrow, and then the question would become, okay, is it just four weeks, or is it longer than that?
01:41It's been the nature of this, is that it starts to go away, everybody starts to feel better about it, optimistic about it, and then it comes roaring back. My sense is that Christian McAfee is a guy that has trouble resting it, that he wants to be out there, he wants to be working, he wants to be practicing.
02:05But, I think that what it requires right now is just him being off of that calf, him not running around and practicing, and then seeing if it resolves itself on its own.
02:18Do we have any idea when the genesis of this injury was? We've heard reports that it was sore going back to last January. Has it been something, Matt, to your knowledge, that's lingered since then all the way through now?
02:32I asked him exactly that yesterday, and he was clear that it was not related to last year's calf injury. So, apparently, that happened in week 17, that game against the Commanders, and then he was ruled out for the following week game against the Rams, and nobody really took it that seriously because most of the starters didn't play in that game.
02:58Then, of course, they had the bye, and then he was on the injury report for the Packers game, the divisional round game. He practiced that week. I forget whether he even had a questionable status. I don't think he did.
03:13He played and played well in that game, and everybody totally forgot about it. He was fine for the Lions game, wasn't on the report that week, wasn't on the report for the Super Bowl, looked really good in both of those games.
03:27So, I think it resolved at that point last year, and Achilles was never part of the equation. It was just calf. So, I think that's right, that it's not related to that calf injury from last year. This is something new, and obviously something that just won't go away.
03:45Okay, Matt Barrow's the athletic with us, so I think that that's something fans would like to know more about, which is sort of like the timeline of the entire summer. I mean, he got a new contract this summer. Is this something that, at that time, the Niners either didn't know about, or did they just think was going to go away, or was it just not even there at all?
04:07I mean, that just throws another complication into it. In the 23-off season, we were all surprised that he was out there in the spring. Very few veterans are practicing in OTAs. He was out there, and he was practicing like he was getting ready for the Super Bowl. I mean, these were full-on practices.
04:28And then he was there for the summer as well. It wasn't quite as intense as that. He was getting regular rest days along with Nick Bosa and everybody else. This past spring, the 24th spring, was entirely different. He didn't take part in the spring, but also was going through contract negotiations, and then also was getting married, and there were all sorts of things going on in his life that sort of explained, okay, why is he not on the field this May?
04:58But last May, he was. So I don't know whether the calf was an issue at that point. He certainly didn't start training camp with it being an issue. I think his last full day of practice was August 4, so that's almost two weeks, a week and a half of practicing that he did early on in training camp.
05:20So from what I know, that's when this calf issue became problematic. Now, did it become calf-slash-Achilles later on in the process? I don't know about that. It certainly started with a calf.
05:37Man, and that's just troubling to think that it isn't something that lingered from last year. It might be a totally separate issue, a separate injury, and now here we sit with an IR stint possible. Matt, where are we with the running back room? And I don't even know if they need a room right now. It's just maybe Jordan Mason and Coach Turner at a table, but what do you expect him to do with the running back situation?
05:59Yeah, I think that's a good point. Jordan Mason is the guy that can handle a bigger load maybe than the average back because he is bigger. I wrote about it this week. He had a really good off-season. He trained with Fred Warner, which gets anybody in shape for the season.
06:24And so his stamina is really good, and we saw that in the summer because it wasn't just Christian McCaffrey that went down with an injury. It was Elijah Mitchell. It was Isaac Garendo. It was Patrick Taylor Jr. Just about every running back on that team suffered a multi-week injury at some point except for Jordan Mason.
06:43And I should add Cody Schrader, the undrafted rookie, also was healthy throughout. He got scooped up by the Rams, so he would be in play right now if he hadn't.
06:55But to answer your question, it leaves Isaac Garendo and Patrick Taylor Jr. as the two other tailbacks on the 53-man roster. I asked Shanahan about Garendo today because Garendo was one of those guys, as I just said, that missed about three weeks with a hamstring strain.
07:17And so we're getting to the end of August, and there's a big question about whether he even makes the 53-man roster because he just hadn't practiced at all, hadn't put on pads. But then, of course, he does come back, and he has a very, very good final preseason game against the Raiders.
07:35And that assures the 49ers that, OK, we can keep him on the roster, and we can bump him up in the pecking order if there are injuries. And all of a sudden, there are. And he's basically the number two back for the beginning of this season.
07:51So if they do want to start giving Jordan Mason more rest, if they do want to take a little bit of load off of Deebo Samuel, which I imagine they would, 10 carries is a lot for him. I can't see him getting 10 every game for 17 games. I just don't think that's sustainable. They're going to have to start working in one of these other guys, and the first guy on that list is Garendo.
08:17Matt, you know what I find funny, and I'd love a reaction from you, is sort of like the way the goalposts have gotten moved by 49er fans in the last week. If you had asked any of us a week ago, hey, can the Niners win for a while without Christian? Everybody would have been like, hell no. So then Mason goes out, has one good game, and we're taking calls all day of everybody who's like, yeah, no, they're still the Super Bowl favorite.
08:47Have we sort of swung in the opposite direction a little bit too far in our confidence in the offense without CMC?
08:56Are you asking if the fans have overreacted?
08:59Okay, fine, maybe it was a dumb question, Matt.
09:29...waiting to see what he could do in a featured role for a while, and when he got in, it's exactly what people were envisioning.
09:38The fan base identified him a while back, so I think they're right. He does seem like somebody that can carry this team for a month.
09:49My question is, what happens if they overuse him? He didn't escape the summer entirely unscathed. There was a hip issue at one point, I believe.
10:02He didn't miss more than one or two practices, but it's possible. 28 carries is a lot, but I feel like if anybody can handle that load on the 49ers, it's Jordan Mason.
10:16Could there be a possible reunion with Matt Breida if McCaffrey eventually goes on IR? What was that parting like when they eventually cut him during cut-down day?
10:26Yeah, the feedback I got was that he wasn't interested in a practice squad spot. He's at a point in his career where, okay, if you want me, put me on the 53-man roster.
10:41If it came to that, the 49ers needed another running back on the 53-man, yeah, I think he would. When he came in, he did not look like the Matt Breida I'd been watching in 2017, 2018.
10:59But he started to work his way back to that form. I thought he got better and better, which is what you would expect.
11:06So I don't know what the ramp-up would be if he came back, but yeah, I think he would be on the short list of guys if they needed to bring somebody in.
11:15They do have a running back, Heshaun Vaughn, on the practice squad right now. I think he'd be the next guy up if need be.
11:24Matt, we had our show Sports Doctor on a short time ago, Dr. Nirav Pandya with UCSF, and he characterized the fact that Kyle Shanahan said today that yesterday was Christian's worst day in terms of pain.
11:42He characterized that as super concerning. The need for rest, okay, but the fact that this seemingly got worse as they tried to ramp him up for a game, what did you view being there in front of the actual people talking?
11:57Does Kyle look super concerned to you?
12:00I mean, the tenor has totally changed since two days ago when he basically thought that the prospect of IR was outlandish, out of the question.
12:12Now it's probably going to happen tomorrow, so again, they keep expecting this to get better. That's the nature of this injury is that it gets better with time.
12:23I talked to my own orthopedist source who said it almost always resolves itself.
12:31Now, it has to resolve with rest a lot of times, and Christian McCaffrey has not been resting it like you and I would.
12:40He hasn't been going as hard as he normally would, but he's still been practicing, and you still see him out there.
12:47He's testing it, so it was a hard test that he gave yesterday that it did not go well, and presumably it did not go well earlier in the week when they were playing the Jets as well, which is why he didn't play against them.
13:05So it's not going in the right direction, which I think is going to change the 49ers' approach to it, and I can only assume that we're talking about more rest, like real rest.
13:19Like Dan Bibb's rest, like just sitting on the sofa, eating bonbons for the week type of rest.
13:27Do you have a camera in my house, Matt?
13:30You kind of all ended me there. I'll take that as a yes.
13:35The Athletic has a very far-reaching scope. Matt Barrell's here.
13:39On 95-70 game, in a weird way, does this become some sort of a boost to the Brock Purdy campaign for a contract?
13:48What I mean is, Mark and I talked about it, if McCaffrey's out, you're going to lean probably more on Brock Purdy.
13:54Is this a chance to quiet more of the doubters playing football without one of your best players?
13:59Yeah, sure. The big critique of Brock Purdy is that he's just a product of all the special weapons around him, and didn't have probably the most special weapon on Monday.
14:10Another one of those weapons was clearly not in peak form in Brandon Aiyuk, and the 49ers still won.
14:19It wasn't a big Brock Purdy day, but I thought it was a good outing for him.
14:25It was just the right type of mature performance that you would need in that circumstance, and he delivered it.
14:33I don't remember any balls that were even close to being interceptions. It wasn't perfect.
14:42Everybody seemed a little bit rusty, but I can only imagine when Aiyuk is sharper, when Debo's not being used as a running back, that's going to help the passing attack.
14:57Speaking of Aiyuk, he was really good in Minnesota last year. Are we expecting his full complement of snaps on Sunday?
15:04No, I don't think so. He got 60% of the total. He's usually a guy that's up around 95%.
15:14His stamina is impressive, and that's one of the reasons why the 49ers like him.
15:20He never really has to come off the field, because he's the same guy down in and down out.
15:25I would imagine it's somewhere between 60% and 95%. Maybe they get it up into the high 70s for this game, and then maybe into the high 80s for the Rams game.
15:39Then maybe by the time the Patriots visit at the end of September, he's back to his normal allotment.
15:46Matt, it's great to have you. Thank you so much, and congrats again for taking over the Athletic.
15:52You're welcome. Thank you so much.
15:53All right. There it is. Batty Barrow.