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00:00I get it if you're disappointed, if you're frustrated, and if you're mad. I
00:05totally get it. I can certainly at minimum agree with the disappointment. We
00:12had such such hopes for this season. And I do have a short list of things where
00:20the 49ers as a whole, whether it's certain individuals or the organization
00:25as a whole, deserve criticism for what has happened this year. I have a
00:29very short list. But here's the thing, Dibbs. I think it gets overwhelmed by
00:37some of the things that are out of their control. And I'm not gonna just say
00:41injuries because I know that that sounds lame and all of the NFL teams deal
00:47with injuries. But you're looking at something collectively that has sort of
00:53sapped the soul from the 49ers. And my observation is this. And I mean this
00:59mainly about the last two or three weeks, Dibbs. I think that the Niners morale is
01:04shot. That's my observation. No one has said that. I don't know that they would
01:10admit that. But they look mentally defeated. They didn't just lose these
01:15last two games. And I get all the reasons why. Snow and backup quarterbacks and all
01:19kinds of things going on. It's just absolutely ravaged by injury. But they
01:23can't even they can't even put up a fight. They look slow. They look
01:27disinterested. They look like they have lost belief. Their morale, to me,
01:33is absolutely in the trash can. And I get it. And for that, I give them a pass.
01:41Yeah. I give them a pass. You can give them a pass. Well, again, for their morale. Sure.
01:47To me, their morale is shot. And the reason I give them a pass is, A, you've
01:54had your first round draft pick was shot. You have had three child deaths in the
02:03family. And you have had not just injuries, but catastrophic injuries to
02:09the most key leadership pieces that have just zapped this thing from the inside
02:16out. And I get it. I get it. There have been so many things that have happened
02:24that are completely bizarre and out of their control. And I'm gonna give them a
02:29little space just for that part. Okay. And you're allowed to give them all the
02:33space you want. And, you know, I'm also allowed to give them next to no space
02:38for that. And individually, yeah, Trent Williams, what you've gone through, I
02:42can't imagine you lost one of your twins in utero and the other one was a
02:47stillborn. And that is, I can't even imagine the devastation. And Charvaris
02:52Ward had an almost two-year-old who was sick her whole life. And she passed away
02:57about eight weeks ago. And that's also unbelievably devastating when you have
03:01to go through those days, even with a child who is that sick. And she was sick
03:07from day one, I believe. And so, that weighs on you non-stop. And so, I give
03:13those individuals all the grace. And I give the team a certain amount of grace
03:16as well. The injuries piece, that's football. And I don't know the injury
03:21status of every team, but I would imagine they're not the most injured team. They're
03:25definitely not the least injured team. They've had a lot of injuries. You go
03:31team by team and player by player. And you could look at where they fall,
03:35ultimately in football. Something you said, maybe last year, rings true to me
03:40every time we have this conversation. The injury rate is a hundred percent. So,
03:44you're gonna have guys who miss games. Very few players are gonna play in all
03:4817. So, that for me is a part of it. And the idea about the morale. And if you
03:53think that the morale is down, and I can't refute it because it's your
03:58opinion of what you see and what you think about this team. If the morale is
04:04down, for me, that's a coaching issue as much as it is a team issue. Because your
04:09job as a coach is to get your team ready physically, schematically, mentally,
04:15emotionally. Your job is to get them ready. And so, you can't afford to have
04:20the morale be down when you're still in a season that can be saved. And I
04:25disagree with Tim Kawakami as well about, you know, fold up shop. And I'm reading
04:29Matt Maoko right now on NBC Sports Bay Area. And the opening line of his piece
04:35from earlier today is, this was not the 49er season. Sometimes it's just that
04:40simple. And he's saying it in a past tense form. So, is it over at five and
04:46seven? Are we willing to just capitulate and lose the next five games? And and go
04:51five and twelve? And and start to chalk up where we want to lay the blame? I
04:55don't think about it in these terms. And if the morale is down, for me, that's a
05:00Kyle Shanahan thing that he needs to fix.
05:02That's interesting. I get that. Look, I mean, nobody gets to escape. You know
05:07what I mean? Sure, that's his job. But let me let me share it this way. And you
05:12and I know this, you know, because we're close. We see each other all the time.
05:16And and we talk a lot off the air. What goes through my mind, and I don't mean to
05:22be evasive and I don't mean to be overly serious. But you know this in in in my
05:28house, in this calendar year of twenty twenty four, my children have dealt with
05:33some unspeakable tragedy, just absolutely unspeakable. I am the head
05:38coach of the house. That's my job. And if somebody told me it's your job to make
05:46sure that their morale on a daily basis is in good shape and that they are ready
05:52to play. Let me tell you something right now. If that's my job, I'm fired. I am
05:58fired because there is so much going on behind the scenes for me to be able to
06:05snap my fingers and say, come on, off you go. Play well today. They're not playing
06:12well. They're not playing well. They're not playing well at all. And and and
06:17that's a different answer for each one of of the three kids. But my point is
06:22this. You can't just make morale. You can't do that. I cannot sit here and say
06:30that Kyle Shanahan, you're in charge of the mental welfare and output and
06:38production of fifty three plus other human beings who are going through God
06:44knows what. God knows what. And he said it best yesterday. He's like, I get it.
06:48We're judged on wins and losses no matter what the hell's going on. And I
06:53understand that he understands that. And that's the way it works. That's the deal.
06:58That's what y'all signed up for. But to just snap fingers and say you're the head
07:03coach, morale is your job. I don't think I don't think one human being can do
07:09that. I don't think you can do that. I can't look at Trent Williams and be like,
07:13come on, let's go. Come on, Charverius. Again, it's not about it. It's about all
07:19of these guys. I can't look at Fred Warner, who can probably not walk six
07:23days a week and be like, chop, chop, dude, feel good. Let's go. Come on. Your best
07:29day. Your best output. Let's do it. I don't I don't think a human being can do
07:34that. These guys are just going through hell. Sure. Like I mean, the McCaffrey.
07:41Come on, buddy. Let's go. Be good today. And he was good. And then he got, he was
07:46fantastic until he got one quarter. But the other two games, the other two games
07:51that he played, he was ramping it up. No doubt. It didn't look good. And I do think
07:56that it's and I really appreciate you sharing your story about you and your
08:00kids. But I think it's a little bit different when you're dealing with adult
08:03pro athletes. And I'm not saying that they can all flip the switch. But what you
08:08do here with me every single day, and I know what you've gone through personally,
08:12and I know what you go through professionally and all the other things
08:16you have an ability as a almost 50 year old to compartmentalize more than a
08:20teenager or a preteen can do. So I look at these athletes and yes, what they've
08:26gone through Trent and char various, I would never even expect them to to show
08:30up again to the field. And Fred, yes, you're hurt. You're playing through
08:33injury, but you're still playing football. And so for me, the whole idea
08:38about morale is something that if the team culture is as good as we all think,
08:43morale shouldn't be an issue. Yes, you've lost three in a row. Yes, you
08:47blew three games earlier in the year, but you're still right there at five and
08:51seven. If we want to sit there and and sulk and mope around. No, that's not what
08:58I'm saying. If our dauber is down, then what are we even doing here? And this is
09:02where the leadership of a head coach, this is where the leadership really
09:06shines. When you've got a defensive coordinator who's experienced, he's not.
09:10You got a special teams coordinator who can write the ship. They're getting
09:14better on special teams. And you've got a head coach who can, you know, get
09:18everyone rallied up together and realize that, okay, now this might actually be a
09:23must win. Yeah, you can rally them up. But that's the it's very, very different
09:26to go perform. And here's where I will like I do. I told you I have a if you
09:31want things that you, in my opinion, are totally fair to criticize the 49ers
09:37this year, your your offseason handling of contracts, absurd. And Brandon's
09:42behavior was just as bad. But your offseason handling of contracts, absurd.
09:48Whatever the hell happens with special teams and the 49ers, absurd. Like your
09:54ignorance to the issues there is clearly something that is worth criticism. And
10:01then I'll also go to what I said during the crossover, which is your offseason
10:06signings for depth. Your approach, especially on the defensive side of the
10:12football, has been uninspiring, to say the least. Leonard Floyd, Devondre
10:18Campbell, the depth in the secondary, all of the things that you went about doing
10:24to create a defense that is not only a good, but is ready for the unexpected.
10:30It's ready for injuries. To me, those three things are totally fair. But then
10:37when you get Kittle is hurt. Purdy misses a game. McCaffrey is out for the
10:43majority of the year. Fred breaks an ankle. Charverius his daughter. Now
10:48there's the Trent Williams situation. The Amador Lenore gets hurt. Dre Greenlaw
10:53is still not back. Ricky Pearsall is shot. When you get all of these things
10:58into a bucket. And I think you got to give him a little something. You got to
11:04give him a little something for my God that is out of their control. Of course,
11:09there's going to be a fallout from that. I don't believe the way they're playing
11:15is any fallout from any of that. I just think that you've got a team that is not
11:19good enough. You've got a defense that is not good enough. You've got a scheme
11:24that isn't good enough. You're not making adjustments on either side of the
11:27ball. Your special teams suck. And you blew three games earlier in the year.
11:30I agree with you on those. If you didn't blow those three games, you would be
11:33eight and four right now. And we all would be singing a different tune about
11:37morale.