Week 12 49ers MEGA Recap: Tape Takeaways, Trench Grades, and an Ugly Watch for Brock Purdy (paywall)
“I was underwhelmed by both of the 49ers’ left guards. I talked to Jake Brendel about the rotation of Spencer Burford and Ben Bartch. Here’s what he told me after Monday’s game:
It’s just kind of a way to, one, create competition, I think. And two, also just make sure that one guy is not going to get caught in a, I’m tired and can’t execute something position. So they are constantly fresh, which I think is great, but at the same time, I mean, there they are different players.
He was highly complimentary of both, saying they both grasp the scheme well. But here’s what he said on their differences:
Spence is a little bit longer, I think, and Ben has a little bit more overall drive with his feet a little bit in the running game.
That’s a fair assessment. Bartch pops much more in the running game. There’s just more initial power. But Burford can recover a bit better in pass protection with his length.“
2026 NFL mock draft: 49ers target Brandon Aiyuk replacement
“Between Brandon Aiyuk’s impending split from the 49ers, Ricky Pearsall’s struggles to catch on, and Jauan Jennings’ trepidatious contract outlook, San Francisco could be nearing a complete restart at the WR spot,” Cummings wrote. “Chris Bell can help catalyze that kind of rebuild.
“At 6’2″, 225 pounds, with over 32″ arms, Bell has the size, contact authority, and uber-explosive RAC profile that Kyle Shanahan craves. But his keen zone intelligence and domineering catch-point skills have helped him field comparisons to A.J. Brown.”
Kyle Shanahan shares final updates ahead of 49ers-Browns Week 13 matchup
“”Yeah, I watch how guys move, how they block, how they execute their routes, how they beat man-coverage, how long it takes to get them to their spots in zones. I see zero difference with Ricky now to those three games. I think the things you didn’t have to worry about as much with receivers, but now in the day of age of everyone talking about stats and fantasy stuff, seven days a week, 24-hours a day, it does put pressure on those guys a lot. I used to hear it from people’s uncles when I walked out of a stadium hearing how I messed up their fantasy game not getting their nephew the ball and stuff like that. But, now I know just that stuff is so talked about and everything, but like K.B. [WR Kendrick Bourne] went for 150 two weeks in a row and I think K.B.’s played the same each week. Sometimes that stuff’s out of the receiver’s hands, sometimes it’s just unbelievable some of the opportunities they get and what they do in them. But, usually it’s where the zones are going and the opportunities they get just based off of coverage.”
49ers vs. Browns: The Standard’s 5 fast predictions (paywall)
“Kawakami: 49ers 20, Browns 17. I’ve had a strong belief in my previous seven picks — and not coincidentally, have hit all seven. This week, I’m sure that this will be a field-position, defense-dominated game that will turn on major mistakes. But who wins it? I’m just flipping a coin and guessing that the 49ers move the ball a little better, turn it over less, block Myles Garrett reasonably well, get a late field goal from Matt Gay, and happily get the hell out of Cleveland and into their long-awaited bye week.”
Five 49ers to watch in Week 13 game vs. Browns in expected ‘blizzard’ conditions
“Brown relied on film study and instincts to make the game-clinching interception against the Panthers. He does not have as many pass attempts on Sanders to study, so there will be an element of the unexpected on Sunday.”
Why John Lynch is confident 49ers QB Brock Purdy will bounce back against Browns
“Play within the scheme,” Lynch said. “I think the encouraging thing, if you want to look for positives. He went to the right place with the ball against Carolina, it just sometimes was a little late to where he was going and didn’t throw the ball the way he should’ve thrown it or wanted to throw it. I think those things are very fixable. I think where you really worry is, ‘Oh shoot, he’s not seeing it right. He’s going the wrong place in the read. On any of those that wasn’t the case.
“He was just probably a little late and needs to be a bit more decisive. Sometimes that can come from not playing for a little while but he has got to fix it, he knows that and we’ve got all the confidence in the world he will.”
49ers’ Kendrick Bourne was lost. Then he found salvation at a Miami nightclub (paywall)
““I didn’t know how to not club,” Bourne said. “I had to learn how to not do drugs. You know, ‘Now how do I celebrate after a win?’ I didn’t know how to not hang out with a different woman every day because that’s the lifestyle I was living. And I didn’t know how to not do any of it.”
Head coach Kyle Shanahan nearly waived Bourne in 2017 after the undrafted rookie slept through a team meeting, which wasn’t his first problem with punctuality. Tight end George Kittle, a member of Bourne’s rookie class, said Bourne partied and practiced with abandon, until those times when his carousing caught up to him during his first four NFL seasons, all with the 49ers.
“Kendrick burned the candle at both ends,” Kittle said. “I mean, he excelled at that. And so sometimes by the time our Saturday walkthrough (practice) had hit, that candle had burned out.”
Given Bourne’s background, many of his teammates and coaches who knew him then were surprised in early September when he rejoined the 49ers after spending more than four years away with the Patriots.“
Scary spot for 49ers’ Kyle Shanahan? Here comes Cleveland and antagonist Jim Schwartz (paywall)
“There’s also the matter of Schwartz’s scheme, which includes the Wide 9 technique where defensive ends are positioned far outside opponents’ offensive tackles. The alignment is designed to offer pass rushers better lanes to QBs, but it’s also effective in mucking up outside-zone runs, which are a staple of Shanahan’s system.
Shanahan said Friday that facing Schwartz inspired him to hire a Wide 9 disciple, defensive line coach Kris Kocurek, in 2019. After adding Kocurek, the 49ers figured out a way to incorporate the Wide 9 principles into defensive coordinator Robert Saleh’s existing system.
Shanahan said Schwartz’s four-man defensive line is similar to that of the 49ers, but there are differences with how he deploys his back seven.“
49ers Kyle Juszczyk thankful to be a surprising 201 games in and a fan favorite (paywall)
“He wears No. 44 because his favorite player growing up was Colts tight end Dallas Clark. Juszczyk thought he would catch a lot of passes at Harvard until his coach, Tim Murphy, pulled him aside before his first game.
“He was like, ‘Listen, Juice, I want to play you out there, but I can’t just run you out there for pass plays only,’” Juszczyk said. “He’s like, ‘You’re gonna have to learn how to block if you’re gonna want to run routes.’
“And to this day, like 17 years later, like that’s really my motivation on run plays. If I can do well on this run play, they’re gonna keep me out there, and now I’ll get some opportunities to catch the ball.”
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