1st & Goal: Matt Maiocco, NBC Sports Bay Area 49ers Reporter

The NFL season is inching closer and closer.

Who are the contenders and who are the pretenders? We have four downs to figure out your team's future. It's time now for First and Goal on the Zach Gelb Show. Time to preview one of the better teams in the NFL, the San Francisco 49ers, and we do so with the man that's covered the team for a long time, NBC Sports Bay Area, Matt Myoko here with us. Matt, appreciate the time as always. How you been? I've been well. The last week has been pretty crazy, but it seems like I'm conditioned to that, covering the 49ers and their quarterback situation over the last, whatever, handful of years. Yeah, no doubt about it.

So let's start with, obviously, the big topic of conversation the last few days. That's Trey Lance. I was operating of the mindset that they shouldn't trade him, but probably would. I did not expect it to be for a fourth round pick with him going to Dallas, but when you saw that news come across, how'd you kind of react to it?

Well, it took you by the shock, I think, a little bit, just because, not that that wasn't a possibility. He wasn't going to be the starter. We knew that from early in the offseason, if not at the end of last season, just as a matter of Brock Purdy being healthy. And then it wasn't a surprise after watching training camp practices that he was the number three, but he did look better than he ever has.

But Sam Darnold just beat him out. I guess the surprising thing to me was just when you take a deep breath and you kind of step back and you realize that he was the number three overall pick in a draft, 49ers traded up to get him. They spent a lot of draft capital to get him. He's still only 23 years old and he's halfway through his initial contract. So having seen where the 49ers were last year, where the number three guy to start the season ended up being the starter at the end of the year and then winning the starting job for the foreseeable future, you just kind of thought that, at least I did, that maybe the 49ers would just hold onto him as long as they could just to make sure that thing runs its course before moving on from him. It's not like a fourth round pick.

It's a staggering level of compensation to get for a guy, especially when you gave up what you did to get him. But I guess it just came to the point where they felt it was in their best interest, but also Trey Lance's best interest to move off from him at that point. That's why I think it's a mistake, Matt, because I know Brock Purdy played well last year, but it's still a small sample size, hasn't done it over a course of entire season. And I know they're trying to hype up Sam Darnold, but I can't buy into that hype where for the most part of his career, unfortunately, he's been remembered as someone that had mono with the Jets and someone that was seeing ghosts. Yeah, I guess the difference would be that, you know, there is a level of kind of, I don't know what the right word is, maybe cockiness, I guess, that, you know, the 49ers look at that and they go, OK, he was with the Jets, you know, not great coaching, horrible supporting cast, goes to the Carolina Panthers, you know, not great coaching, horrible supporting cast, or at least maybe a step up from the Jets at that point.

And so the idea here is everything is defined. There's no, you know, the guy has tremendous talent. There's no question about it. Watching him throw the football, you can see the talent. But now it's a matter of if he's ever called on to play, seeing it and reacting, you know, knowing where to go with the football. It's all black and white at the 49ers offense.

And so, you know, he doesn't have to put the team on his shoulders and will the team to victory. He just has to, as any quarterback does here, and this is the same, how Brock Purdy was able to succeed last year, you got to be able to use the guys around you. First off, the 49ers have a good defense.

Last year, arguably the best defense in the league, at least, you know, the staff say it was the best defense in the league. But as a quarterback of this team, you know, you're handing the ball off to Christian McCaffrey. You're dumping the ball off to Christian McCaffrey. You're finding George Kittle. You're finding Deebo Samuel. You're finding Brandon Iuch.

Those are some top notch weapons right there. And so you don't have to be, you know, you don't have to be shooting 27-footers. You're a point guard. And all you have to do is distribute to the open guy. And usually that open guy is very open in this offense. Just one more last thing on Trey Lance.

You know, I cover it from afar. You're there every day, Matt Mayoko. You know, it seems like Kyle Shanahan didn't love Trey Lance at first. And then through the scouting process was talked through it, through drafting him. Only four starts with all that they gave up. Once again, it's just wild that this is the end result that he gets traded for a fourth round pick after only starting four games. And one of them, he got hurt.

The other one was in a monsoon up against Chicago. Why did Shanahan, just the way that it feels, give up on this kid so quickly? Well, I think because he was still an unknown. You know, they didn't know what he could be. They like a lot about him. They definitely like a lot about Trey Lance.

But think about this. Since his final high school game, he has only attempted 420 passes in game action. So he basically, you know, was up at university or North Dakota state university for three seasons. He only played in one of those seasons. You know, he was a backup one year and then the last year it was wiped out.

Yeah, because of COVID. And then the middle year he tore it up, you know, 28 touchdown passes, no interceptions, ran the ball, you know, won the Jerry Rice award and the Walter Payton award. I mean, he won every award at that level. So the 49ers knew coming in that he was still needed experience. And, you know, the first year they had planned on doing some stuff, but he injured his finger and really couldn't throw the football very well. He was going to kind of mix in with Jimmy Garoppolo a little bit so they could use his running abilities on occasion. Well, that plan kind of fell through, but he was going to be the starter. You know, if we'd been talking a year ago today, we'd be talking about his first start coming up against the Chicago bear.

And, and so the idea was they knew there were going to be some rough patches. They knew there were going to be some ups and downs, but they figured if he played the whole season, he'd be a heck of a lot better week, week, you know, 10, 12, 11, you know, 10, 12, 14, 15, whatever. Then he was when he started the year, the problem is he got injured in the first quarter of week two. And so that development that everybody assumed would happen and everybody would have a good idea about him and he'd be able to work through some things.

That development year never happened. And then Brock Purdy gets in and he's the one who tears it up with a quarterback rating of 107 or whatever the heck it was. And the 49ers win two playoff games with him and people here are still like, boy, I wonder what could have happened if Brock Purdy had been healthy in that NFC championship game.

So basically, the locomotive that is the NFL kept right on moving. Brock Purdy jumped on and proved that he belonged. And Trey Lance never got the opportunity to show that he belonged. And therefore, just based on what they saw on the field, Brock Purdy started this season. Once he got cleared, he was the quarterback. There was no question about it because now the 49ers find themselves in a position where they can't wait around. You know, they can't like live through the ups and downs of a young quarterback such as Trey Lance, who doesn't have much experience. So what they saw from Brock Purdy was enough to make everybody. And when I say everybody, I mean the coaching staff, the front office, but even probably more importantly, the locker room know that he was going to be the guy.

Let's get to the next down. Matt Mayoko here with us, NBC Sports Bay Area. So as you just so eloquently said, the hype, the buzz, the confidence with Brock Purdy is high.

Fans, people inside the organization for you covering this team. And it was impressive what he did last year. And like you said, point guard role with a tremendous cast of characters around him. Where's the confidence that Brock's going to be able to do that over the entirety of a full 17 game regular season? Yeah, he's in a really good position and he's got a really good mindset.

You know, the question that I would have this year is just how that arm going to hold up. And he looks pretty good right now. But that's a very significant injury that he has. But he doesn't have to do much. I mean, he has to do a lot, I guess.

But based on what he showed, it doesn't look like he ever has to break character. He just has to, he doesn't have to be a world beater. He just has to be smart, decisive, accurate, and know the system inside and out. And those are the qualities that he showed last year. I mean, I've asked that question numerous times, you know, to Kyle Shanahan and to John Lynch as basically, what makes you think that what he showed is sustainable? And, you know, they can go through it and just it's the way he sees the game. It's the way he reacts with poise. It's the confidence his teammates have in him. It's his level of consistency. It's his coachability.

You know, if he makes one mistake, he doesn't make the same mistake again. And so it really showed when he stepped into that game against the Dolphins after Jimmy Garoppolo was injured, you could tell that this was a guy who's played a lot of football. And he played four years at Iowa State. He went through ups and downs at Iowa State. And so he's already gone through, you know, the adversity part of it. A lot of experiences. I think a lot of times when guys have too much success at the college level, you know, playing in Alabama or playing in Ohio State or wherever, once they get to the pros, things get really difficult for them. And then it's a matter of how do you adjust?

How do you bounce back after mistakes? Brock Purdy, in a lot of ways, maybe it was almost easier for him going to the NFL because of the support supporting cast he has with the 49ers. And the fact that he won some big games, but he also lost plenty of big games. He had to go back out on the field after throwing an interception at Iowa State. And so he's already gone through a lot of those travails that, you know, some quarterbacks come to the NFL without ever experiencing in college. This may be a weird question, just because Shanahan is so successful.

It seems like every year the Niners are in the NFC title game. You know that if he was available, another team would scoop him up in a second. But with how great this team is on paper and still the uncertainties around the quarterback position, does that put Shanahan on the hot seat at all a little bit?

Well, I would look at it this way. The move to trade Trey Lance was clearly a move made by a general manager and a head coach who aren't on the hot seat. In other words, if they were concerned or there was reason for them to be concerned, I think they would have held on to Trey Lance and kind of pump the brakes on making any decision and maybe just kind of delaying the whole Trey Lance isn't working out here narrative. But by doing what they did, ripping the Band-Aid off, it was pretty clear to me that this is a couple of decision makers who just feel like they need to do the right thing and they're not about making themselves look good.

Because frankly, it doesn't make them look good. It makes them look bad that you can have what would probably and arguably be the worst draft move in 49ers history and certainly one of the worst in probably NFL history. But at the same time, they are the ones who brought in Brock Purdy. And so if it were Trey Lance doing the things that Purdy did at the end of last season, and if it were Trey Lance in the spot where the 49ers feel like they are right now, nobody would be talking about it.

So I guess it doesn't matter how you get your players as long as you got your players. And right now, with so much star power on that team, the 49ers have their players. Matt Mayoka here with us.

Let's get to the next down. When we get to Nick Bosa, what's the latest on that contract dispute, the holdout? And do you think he's in jeopardy of missing week one?

Yeah, I do think he's in jeopardy of missing week one. You know, the 49ers have maintained that they're confident that this thing will happen and we'll see. But we're getting closer and closer to that date.

And both sides haven't been talking a whole lot publicly, so there's not a lot of information out there. But it seems pretty clear to me that Nick Bosa's camp wants to make him the highest paid non-quarterback in the league. And the 49ers, they're probably pushing back a lot about having him surpass what Aaron Donald did a couple years ago coming off that Super Bowl season when there was rumblings that he might retire and so it's a shorter term deal. But yeah, I think there is reason for concern for the 49ers about this deal getting done, at least in the timeframe that it's looking like. Because even if he comes in today, that means he would have missed all the training camp and it's a limited window. The clock is ticking before the start of the regular season and there's no replacing the practice time and the fully padded work that he would have got or he missed out on in training camp. So I do think it's a concern, but I'd be shocked if it doesn't get done.

I think it'll be really close whether it comes up and it impacts the 49ers week one or not. When you get to the new defensive coordinator, Steve Volks, who's been around the block for a long time, we've seen this organization because they have a very successful defense, have to lose their defensive coordinator, whether it's Robert Salo or D'Amico Ryans, both getting head coaching jobs. What's the early return, Matt Mayoko, on Steve Volks so far? Yeah, he's an impressive guy. He's really bonded with many of the younger players in the defensive backfield.

That's kind of where his forte is. You go out to practice and you watch him working with the corners in particular on technique stuff. I think what he's going to do, and you'll probably see a lot of this as long as Bosa's not on the field, is the past several years with Robert Salo, with D'Amico Ryans, 49ers didn't do a whole lot of blitzing. They didn't bring a lot of pressure. It was generally a four-man pass rush. I think that what they're going to do now with Steve Volks is look for those opportunities to bring more guys. Without Bosa, they might have to generate more of a pass rush. I think this defense is going to be selectively aggressive, more aggressive than they've been in the past. That would be what I would look for from Steve Volks, who comes in not bringing his defense per se, but adapting to what's already here with a pre-existing coaching staff around him and then making very slight tweaks to put his own thumbprints on this defense. Let's get to the final down.

On the way out with Matt Mayoko, NBC Sports Bay Area. Going back to the offense and not talking quarterback just for a second, which is the favorite thing to do when you bring up the 49ers. You look at their two best skill position players. I think Christian McCaffrey is going to win Offensive Player of the Year this season in the NFL.

When we get to my best friend, Deebo Samuel, two years ago, he was awesome. Last year, took a big step back. I know he had the injury as well. Where is the confidence level that Deebo Samuel is going to look more like the player two years ago than last season? He does.

I can assure you. Watching him last year, you could see it, but maybe it's been a little bit unspoken. He did not look the same. He looked heavier. When he goes back after the season and watches film, what he said was he saw somebody who looked sluggish. I think where it showed was the yards per catch.

His average went down about seven yards from 18 yards to 11 yards per catch. He definitely looks better, more of a force with the ball in his hands. When you said the two best offensive players, and you mentioned McCaffrey and Deebo Samuel, there are two other guys who I think probably are in that conversation too. That's George Kittle and Brandon Aiyuk. Brandon Aiyuk is probably a better wide receiver than Deebo Samuel, but Deebo Samuel brings so many other things where they can hit you with the jet sweep or he can just line up in the backfield and run between the tackles too. With all those other guys you mentioned, the one guy that really took off when Brock Purdy took over as quarterback was George Kittle.

He got in the end zone more than he ever had last year. Those four guys right there are probably... I can't think of another four players on offensive playmakers on any team that bring to the table what McCaffrey, Samuel, Kittle and Aiyuk bring to the 49ers. Matt Aiyuk, NBC Sports Bay Area. Matt, I always appreciate the time. Thank you. All right. My pleasure. Thank you.