Brayden Willis

And, you know, they're versatile chess pieces that can be moved all over the board.

I talked to Braden Willis today.

I feel really good about Braden Willis stepping in for juice.

I think he can really do a nice job as a lead blocker.

I'm not sure how Shanahan's going to handle it.

Michael don't like going into this game without juice.

Yeah.

I'm going to predict that Braden Willis is going to play great football.

I just want to say thank you.

Let's talk about Braden Willis.

He comes in last week, and both of the drives that he came in on scored touchdowns.

Like, I'm not saying he's better than Kyle Juszczyk or anywhere close.

Yeah, I like that.

And, man, I'll say this.

Braden Willis has been a stalwart on special teams.

And, man, you think about coming out of the half, Debo fumbles, coughs it up.

And, and Saran knew it, and the ball was out, and then the 49ers went on to score, uh, three touchdowns after that.

The, the, the Kareem ball that, the, on the kickoff return that Deebo got, got hit, the ball went flying up in the air right into the hands of, of Braden Willis.

The, the botched snap on the fourth and one that Kalon Black caught and took it for a first down.

So football gods had a little bit to do with it.

... and Nick Bosa's like, "I, I work alone there, bud." Um, uh, one more thing.

What do you think about Braden Willis taking over for Juice? Is that, that might be a huge deal.

This is, we have to talk about this.

So, uh, W- Willis on one of his first reps last week, he's doing the whole dash motion, going in motion, going behind the line of scrimmage, and he's going to kick out a line, a defensive lineman, and he just, like, loses his footing, and it's a, a loss of one.

They can live in 21 personnel, 13 personnel, 12 personnel, like, all these heavy sets because they trust Kyle Juszczyk and because he can line up all over the place.

Um, a couple games ago, they're using him as the third-level threat on the three-level or th- uh, three-level route combination.

So they use him in so many different ways that I just don't know if you can trust Braden Willis to do the same thing.

Obviously, there's a physicality standpoint that, now Willis has gotten a lot better, but based on what he did last week, based on this test being your first test be- uh, being Seattle, I don't know, man.

And, you know, they're versatile chess pieces that can be moved all over the board.

I talked to Braden Willis today.

I feel really good about Braden Willis stepping in for juice.

I think he can really do a nice job as a lead blocker.

I'm not sure how Shanahan's going to handle it.

Michael, don't like going into this game without juice.

Yeah.

I'm going to predict that Braden Willis is going to play great football.

His last game up there he had 18 targets, 12 catches, well over 100 yards, couple touchdowns.

Um, and then the big question is with Juice out, Jesse, do they just put in Brayden Willis and keep rolling, and do everything exactly the same? Or do you think that Shanahan goes, "You know what? No.

We're, we're gonna go more 11 personnel, and p- go three wides and, and change it up, and maybe don't lean on the fullback position as much." How do you think they're gonna handle that?

Oh man, the Ju- the Juice one is, is actually interesting, because I, I feel like with that cheat motion, banana motion, whatever you wanna call it, the 49ers have found something, and he's the best at executing it in the running game.

Um, because now you're forcing linebackers to try to, to cover these guys, and both of them are gonna get open against linebackers pretty routinely.

So I think you can do a lot of things there.

If you are gonna have a traditional fullback in, then Brayden Willis, I, I thought he looked better as a fullback in the preseason than he did a tight end, at least as a blocker.

Think he, he blocks better out of the backfield, so I think that we can get some good help there.

And Kyle Juszczyk kind of does the same thing for the Niners offense in that he's so versatile and can line up anywhere, and that, you know, the Niners can be five wide w- even with a fullback on the field, because Kyle Juszczyk can run routes and catch passes and things like that.

Without Kyle Juszczyk, I always think it's interesting how Kyle Shanahan goes about it, because, you know, is it just gonna be, are they gonna just rely on heavy tight end stuff? Is, does Kyle Shanahan trust Braden Willis enough to, like, do the fullback things that we've seen from Juszczyk in the past? I know we saw some of that on Sunday against Denver, but Seattle's, uh, you know, Denver's a good defense.

Seattle's, going to Seattle's a different animal.

How do you envision Kyle Shanahan trying to piece together what he likes to do without Kyle Juszczyk? Does he deviate from it and go a lot of 11 personnel? Um, I think that would probably be a mistake given the state of the Niners receiving corps.

Does he lean into, you know, more Luke Farrell, or is it a combination of Luke Farrell and then Braden Willis trying to replicate what Kyle Juszczyk does?

Yeah, I mean, I think, um, we've seen it a few times in games, but you've got Deebo Samuel and McCaffrey, or Deebo Samuel-

Mm-hmm

The, the, the Kareem ball that, uh, on the kickoff return that Deebo got, got hit.

The ball went flying up in the air right into the hands of, of Braden Willis.

The, the botched snap on the fourth and one that Kaylon Black caught and took it for a first down.

So football gods had a little bit to do with it.

Remember him? He's still on the team.

You could trade Braden Willis.

Can we interest you in a little Braden Willis? That's about it.

I wouldn't trade Sebastian Valdez.

I wouldn't do that.

If they get Jauan Jennings, maybe you start using a lot of 11 personnel, or maybe this is where you use, uh, 12 personnel with the two tight ends.

Well, they don't have that many tight ends right now.

But I would be disappointed if Kyle Shanahan just takes Braden Willis and puts him at fullback and uses him as much as he used Juszczyk in the past.