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00:00We'll congratulate Sam Darnold for a wonderful performance last night, because it also led
00:05to a win for you and for me.
00:08It tightens up the NFC, and so I'm not surprised that Sam Darnold, former 49er, is sort of
00:17a talking point today and at the center of all of this.
00:22Sam Darnold has always been a very, very good quarterback in terms of arm talent.
00:28Oh, right.
00:29In terms of arm talent.
00:30He's always had the arm talent, and in fact, prior to Sam Darnold coming to the 49ers,
00:36did you not hear buzz that, ooh, the Niners, they like Sam.
00:40They like Sam.
00:41They think Sam is one of those, oh, he's always been locked with a bad team, guys.
00:47And why don't we talk about Baker Mayfield as well?
00:50They were teammates together with the Carolina Panthers, and neither one of them could consistently
00:56get first downs.
00:58Look at them now.
00:59They're both going to go to the playoffs this year.
01:01Baker, again, in fact, I know his division is crap, but still, like, all of the sudden,
01:08they can play.
01:10Is that what we're going to go with?
01:12Quote all of the sudden, they can play, or are we just going to, like, this is what I
01:18would say, Dibbs, can we put our machismo away long enough to admit that football players
01:26as individuals do not make teams?
01:29It is not a criticism of a quarterback to say, yes, things around him need to be going
01:39at least somewhat well for him to function at his highest level.
01:42You could look across the league throughout history, and the only one that might be a
01:47set aside on that is Lamar Jackson, because he truly can do magical things, even if his
01:53line breaks down and his guys aren't open, he can make plays that most other human beings
01:58cannot make.
01:59But there's other guys on the list, and Jared Goff was mentioned before, and he's a great
02:03one.
02:04He was dealt from L.A. because that head coach in that system had lost faith in him, and
02:08they were right.
02:09Stafford came in and won the Super Bowl, but Goff landed in a situation with amazing talent
02:14and a really good head coach, a great play caller, maybe the best in football, and a
02:19situation that happens to fit him perfectly.
02:21Gino Smith in Seattle resurrected his career, and there are many other instances of guys
02:27who Sam Darnold's maybe the poster child of it, where Carolina stinks and the Jets stink
02:32and you're seeing ghosts and all that, he comes here, he gets a year, regroups, and
02:36now he's leading a team that is one of the favorites to represent the NFC in the Super
02:40Bowl.
02:41So we in this business and fans, we all get far too fixated on the quarterback.
02:47He touches the ball in every play, I get it, but if your line stinks and you don't have
02:51good receivers, and you don't have good running backs, and you don't have a coach who knows
02:55what he's doing, it doesn't matter how good you are, you're not going to play great.
02:58I also think we're talking as if Brock Purdy has just been disastrous this year, and he
03:03hasn't.
03:04He has not been as good.
03:05And if you have hesitation surrounding Brock Purdy this year, I get it, I really do.
03:13I expected more from him this year, he hasn't offered that, we can acknowledge that and
03:18bring that into the discussion, I have no issue with that.
03:23But my thing is, are we just blind to the context of what's going on with every football
03:31team?
03:32And if you do want to grab a player or two like you just did, I'm cool with that too
03:35by the way, where you're like, okay there's a couple guys we want to set aside.
03:39Like the Bills are Josh Allen, and Josh Allen is the Bills.
03:43I get it.
03:44Same with Lamar to a degree.
03:46I would argue, like the Ravens defense this year, they're kind of crappy.
03:50The Bills defense isn't very good either.
03:53And the Bengals defense is so bad that that's cratering another really good quarterback,
03:58who by the way is having a fine year.
04:00Like he's playing well, but his team is also 6-8.
04:03So context matters.
04:06If everything around you is crumbling, and I'd argue with the 49ers this year, it did,
04:11you're going to get a lesser player.
04:14It doesn't change for me what the only question is.
04:19Can they win with him?
04:20That's my only question.
04:21I don't have a question about that because they have.
04:23Then there you go.
04:24So I look at Brock, and the question is, who is Brock?
04:28Is Brock the quarterback that last year was top five in the MVP, or is Brock this quarterback
04:34who has regressed a little bit?
04:35The answer is somewhere in the middle.
04:37Both.
04:38Or both.
04:39Quite frankly, he's probably somewhere in the middle.
04:41Last year, everything broke their way.
04:42They had almost no injuries and an easier schedule, and he was amazing.
04:46This year, they had a ton of injuries and a harder schedule, and he's been okay.
04:51And I was saying this to Evan before the show started.
04:54If they wouldn't have blown the Ram game, and they wouldn't have blown the Arizona game,
04:58and they're sitting here on this beautiful Tuesday morning, seven days from Christmas,
05:02make it eight, and they were eight and six.
05:04In first place.
05:05They'd be eight and six.
05:07What would we be saying?
05:08What would the conversation be, vis-a-vis Sam Darnold?
05:11It would be, yeah, they have an inside track for the four seed, and how does that look,
05:16and who do you want to face in the wild card, and would they be favored over Green Bay and
05:20Minnesota in rematches?
05:21With all the bad stuff that's happened, they're still eight and six and leading the division.
05:25That's exactly how it works out.
05:26So for me, it's tough to leap ahead to the offseason, and leap ahead to the will they
05:31or won't they.
05:32And I know that's what people want to talk about at 888-957-9570, but they were a couple
05:36plays away from that not even being an issue right now.
05:39Well, definitely, and also, let's back up and let everybody know what got the day going
05:45on this, and it was from Bonte and Joe on the roast, and Baldy's doing his weekly hit
05:49with him, and they asked him what you would feel comfortable doing with Brock Purdy going
05:54forward, and here came the big, old, shiny, kaboom answer.
05:58I'd say I'd go football for Sam Darnold right now.
06:02Wow.
06:03Wow.
06:04And so Minnesota, like, look, let's just think about Sam for a second.
06:08He sat there as a backup over here, and he learned what a first-class franchise game
06:12planning, how to build a team, like, he saw that for the first time in his life.
06:16Now he's with Kevin O'Connell, who's an elite play caller with a very, very good offense
06:21that has a real style to it, and he's flourishing.
06:23Minnesota doesn't have to commit anything to him right now.
06:26All they're doing, I talked to the general manager two weeks ago, Quezi, you can play
06:30it out.
06:31They've got a quarterback they drafted.
06:32They don't have to give him top-flight money, or they could trade him.
06:36Like, I would be having a conversation with Minnesota to see what it would take to get
06:41Sam Darnold back.
06:42He's a bigger, stronger, more athletic, I don't know, but he's bigger and stronger than
06:47what Brock is.
06:48Or he can play with both of them at a modicum of salary, and afford both and, I don't know,
06:55have a competition.
06:56Okay.
06:57First and foremost, and I love Baldy, but the scenario he actually throws out is not
07:03even possible or allowed.
07:06There is no trading of Sam Darnold.
07:08The trade deadline has passed, and Sam will be a free agent when the year is over.
07:12The Vikings cannot trade him because whoever were to acquire him would suddenly be sitting
07:16there going, wait a minute, now we have a free agent, and he's going to leave.
07:20So that's not even allowed.
07:21So first of all, you can take that sort of part of the conversation away.
07:26Let's get into the concept of what he's talking about, because he even throws in, hey, grab
07:30them both.
07:32You could look at Brock in the face and be like, you have to play for 1.1 next year,
07:38and we're signing Sam Darnold for a three-year, $30 million contract.
07:43Now let's have everybody come in and play in the sandbox together and see who wins.
07:48My only thing in response to that would be, gee, what could go wrong?
07:52Other than everything.
07:53Oh, it worked with Jimmy G when you put him on the kiddie field.
07:56That one worked out pretty well for you.
07:57Did it?
07:58It only worked because...
07:59We get a lot of shows out of it.
08:00Exactly, and everybody's legs exploded, which is why it suddenly quote-unquote worked out
08:06because the last pick in the draft ended up being a good player.
08:09Other than that, it wouldn't have worked, and it didn't work, and it did lead to a lot
08:12of screaming, and the 49ers don't want to be a clown show.
08:17So I get where Baldy's coming from, but to actually act in that fashion, I would argue
08:24makes the 49ers a clown show.
08:27You would be a clown show.
08:29Call the Vikings and ask if they can trade.
08:31They'll be like, that's not even allowed.
08:33Get off my phone.
08:34Okay, let's sign him as a free agent, bring him in here to battle with somebody who was
08:38in the Super Bowl less than a year ago, and creates a contractual situation going forward
08:44that's completely impossible.
08:46Now, if you want to just move on from Brock and replace him with Sam as a free agent,
08:53you can do that.
08:54Does anybody want to do that?
08:56Well, you could do it by having Brock still be here and be the backup and make a million
09:00dollars.
09:01It's kind of what Baldy's saying.
09:02Right, and I'm sure that the locker room will love that.
09:05Players love that.
09:06They already both were here before, and Brock ostensibly beat him out, and it was Brock's
09:10job to lose.
09:11I get that, but they brought in Sam as insurance in case the elbow wasn't good.
09:15The elbow was good, and then Brock was simply better than that.
09:19And the other piece of it is, Minnesota doesn't have to let him go to free agency.
09:23They can franchise tag him.
09:24That's correct.
09:25And I think that that might be the way they go.
09:28If Minnesota goes on a good, deep run, and they do like their quarterback, J.J. McCarthy,
09:33but they're not sure if he's ready just yet, Minnesota goes to the NFC Championship, and
09:37they lose.
09:38Darnold finishes off a really good year that he's having, and then they get to the offseason
09:43and they think, well, we're still in a window here.
09:45We don't want to turn it over to the Rook just yet.
09:48You can franchise tag him and pay him $57 for one year.
09:52A big check, yeah.
09:53Big check.
09:54I don't know what their situation is.
09:55If you're going to do that, this would be the time, because you give J.J. a healthy
09:59year as a backup.
10:00Agreed.
10:01You get one more run, Super Bowl or try again, and then at that point, you would let Sam
10:06go and you would turn it over to J.J. McCarthy.
10:09What if we whittle this down to what I think Baldy was trying to get to, which is he just
10:13thinks Sam is better than Brock.
10:15What do you think?
10:16I don't think so, but one thing that he said definitely struck a chord with me, and it's
10:21the fact that Sam is bigger and he's got a bigger arm, because what I saw from the offense
10:26this year, and Jerry Rice actually had a great comment on this yesterday morning talking
10:30about what Shanahan's offense is doing with everyone bunched up close to the line of scrimmage
10:36and what that does to hurt Brock Purdy, he doesn't have throwing lanes.
10:40Brock is only 6'1", and when you have all your splits really tight, all the defenders
10:45are also in tight, so when Brock is looking to make throws, you've got a lot more people
10:50in the way.
10:51So, that's something where if Sam is bigger, Sam wouldn't have that problem.
10:54You want to hear what the GOAT said?
10:56Yeah, I do.
10:57Exactly what Dibbs is referring to is right here.
10:58And I think it's exactly what Steve Young said, you know, he got to reinvent himself.
11:03You know, it's like defense coordinators, they catch up to you, they know your scheme
11:07and stuff like that, and if you don't do certain things, they're going to take away
11:12the strength of your offense.
11:14So my thing is, we know that we don't throw the ball that much to the outside.
11:18You need to spread that offense out, and let these route runners, these playmakers run
11:24routes.
11:25When you spread everything out, there's bigger lanes where the quarterback can actually deliver
11:30the football.
11:31And we also know that Brock Purdy is not like a 6'4 quarterback.
11:37You know, with everything being condensed like that, he's not going to be able to see
11:41over that offensive line, you know, like a guy that's 6'4 or much taller.
11:46So there's got to be lanes where he can throw the football.
11:49Yeah, I mean, it's a very interesting point, and I think all of us have mixed feelings
11:54when Brock does the jump pass that we've watched a bunch this year.
11:58It's like, that's a cool athletic move, it's cool that you can still be kind of accurate
12:02doing that.
12:03At the same time, kind of wish you didn't have to do that.
12:05Right.
12:07The sad thing about it, though, is he didn't have to do it last year, so this year he had
12:10to do it because the offensive line was not creating the pocket that he wanted to create.
12:15So I like Jerry's point, and he's playing off of what Steve Young said.
12:18I would like to see them spread the offense out a little bit more, and I mentioned before,
12:23schematically going no huddle, rolling him out, more screens, more draws.
12:27These are all back-to-the-drawing-board things for Shanahan, but when it comes to me and
12:32Darnold or Purdy, I still think Purdy is a better quarterback even though he's not
12:37as big or as strong.