Greg Cosell also believes the 49ers drafted three Day 1 contributors, including a “Freak of Nature.”
Training camp is in our sights, as the San Francisco 49ers veterans report to Santa Clara this week. We’ll go through positional battles, provide as many updates as possible, all while trying to avoid things that don’t matter — such as quarterback stats in practice.
We came across one of the more respected NFL analysts, Greg Cosell, who shared his thoughts about Kyle Shanahan and Brock Purdy, along with how that’ll help shape the 49ers this season.
On Ross Tucker’s podcast, Tucker starts by saying, “There are a lot of metrics out there, Greg, like explosive plays, explosive play differential, where the Niners fared a lot better last season than a lot of people realized. Obviously, they had a down year, but I’m not sure it was as down offensively, especially considering the injuries they had, than people might think. They still produced a lot of explosive plays.”
Cosell was quick to point out that any assessment of the 49ers having a down year last season was due to their head coach is painfully inaccurate, before explaining what Purdy does well. “Kyle Shanahan is one of the best in the league,” Cosell said.
Cosell highlighted how Purdy is more of a post-snap processor who “sees the field intuitively.” Cosell continued, saying that Purdy “is an elite processor, which allows him to throw with high, high levels of anticipation. You’re dealing with a guy that is outstanding post-snap.”
One critique I’d have for Purdy last season, and this might have something to do with who he was throwing it to and them not being on the same page, was his ball placement. The processing and anticipation are as good as it gets. However, Purdy finished 26th in percentage of passes that were catchable last season and 32nd out of 39 quarterbacks who qualified for percentage of throws that were on target. That’s something to keep an eye on as we turn the page to 2025.
Cosell continued, this time switching subjects to the 49ers head coach. “Kyle Shanahan is really good. His superpower is his understanding of defense. That’s why his play-calling can be so, so good. It’s because he understands defense, maybe as well as any offensive coordinator type in the league.”
Cosell believes the 49ers drafted three players who will be meaningful contributors as rookies. That doesn’t mean they’ll be stars the second they step foot on the field, but they’ll likely be upgrades from what the Niners put out at those positions last season.
“That’s obviously Mykel Williams playing opposite of [Nick] Bosa. Alfred Collins is a freak of nature at 6’6, 330. His arm length is about 35”. They’d love for him to start at defensive tackle. And C.J. West from Indiana. He was a fourth-round pick, but he’s one of those strong, strong rotational inside DTs.”
Cosell presumably has connections inside the 49ers. He said, “I know they are very high on Dee Winters as the replacement for Dre Greenlaw. Winters obviously played a lot last year, and his tape was good.”
Cosell’s one concern seemed to be the number of young players the 49ers will put on the field this season. In today’s game, whether it’s the Rams, 49ers, or Eagles, we’re going to see tons of young players. San Francisco hasn’t always been patient enough to let their youth play through mistakes. This season, they may not have a choice.