Game overview:
We got Brock Purdy + his 2nd-string everything else vs. the Saints 1st/2nd team defense and Derek Carr and the 1st-team offense vs. the 49ers 2nd/3rd-string defense. Neither 1st-string QB could lead a scoring drive in the 1st-quarter. Purdy left. Carr stayed into the 2nd-quarter and led a scoring drive, but the 49ers won the game from there in a pretty dull affair.
Scouting Notes from the game:
-- Brock Purdy (2-6 for 11 yards) started this game, and the stats say he didn’t do well and the football media is trashing the couple of series work...because the football establishment despises Purdy. He doesn’t look like an elite QB...he wasn’t supposed to be an elite QB...no one saw him coming, while they all argued about who was the greatest QB of the 2022 NFL Draft between Pickett-Ridder-Willis-Corral-Zappe (the first 5 QBs taken), Purdy winds up the best by far...and better than their Trevor Lawrence the draft year prior and better than their Bryce Young the following year.
Purdy must be tarred and feathered, to distract from the absolute, constant awful scouting and analysis in the NFL on draft QBs. So, Purdy working a couple series with the 2nd/3rd-string offense around him vs. the Saints mostly 1st-team defense...and it not going gangbusters = Purdy is terrible, and THEY (the media) knew it all along!
Purdy was fine here. Nothing terrible happened. It was just some choppy preseason work with 2nd-3rd-4th string guys. No starting QB is ever working in that environment in a preseason, but Purdy did...credit to him...or ‘why Kyle’ is maybe the better answer.
No QB gets destroyed more after a weak game result than Purdy. The guy has started off with a Hall of Fame career track...and it’s such a great story that should be celebrated. Instead, he must be criticized at every turn they get.
I love it, because the masses don’t believe in Purdy as it is...and he falls in almost every type of FF draft there is. People are now taking Caleb Williams over him in redrafts. Let it happen. Scoop up cheap Purdy as a great #2 FF QB, who is a top 5 FF QB producer hope.
-- The first offensive play of the game for the Saints...Taysom Hill (5-21-1) lines up as the tailback in an I-formation and gets the handoff...and looks nice. Taysom took 4 tailback handoffs and one fullback handoff in this game.
I’m starting to get the feeling that Alvin Kamara (DNP) is in a split backfield...with Taysom Hill, who is mostly labeled a Fantasy ‘TE’.
I’m so in love with myself over the cheap Taysom Hill acquisitions last year and this summer in Dynasty...and the late redraft and Best Ball pulls all summer. People are slowly starting to wake up to Taysom as a TE1 hope, but they don’t really want to believe it or are able to put it in context for how it translates to TE scoring, so his ADP is still deeper TE2/goes undrafted in a lot of typical sized, 12-team drafts.
I don’t know how it will go for Hill in-season, but it could be 5 RB/FB carries, 1-5 wildcat rushes, 1-2-3 targets, all the short yardage/goal line rushing opps, and maybe a pass or two per game – I want to possess that to see what it is early in the season...a great #2 TE to just sit back and watch how this goes.
Hill is also their #2 QB if something happens to Carr. Haener and Rattler ain’t it...
You have to continue to downgrade Kamara’s output off this. Taysom will get most every short yardage TD run opportunity.
-- I see the Saints come out on offense, and there’s good ol’ Cedrick Wilson (1-5-0/2) in the starting WR group...getting a couple targets...unable to get open...and I’m wondering – how is A.T. Perry (2-24-0/6) not a starter here over this guy? But we know Dennis Allen doesn’t like Perry because he’s recently criticized him in the press, because these guys/coaches cannot stop running their mouths when there’s a microphone nearby.
So, Wilson started (because he IS the starter...then on the next drive, with the 1st-team, I see rookie Bub Means (2-16-0/2) getting work. Not only is Wilson over Perry...so is Means now, who I like OK, but he’s not A.T. Perry.
Once the Saints 1st-team goes out, and the awful Spencer Rattler came in...so did Perry. Perry is not allowed with the 1st-team...it’s all you need to know about where ATP’s FF 2024 is headed = nowhere.
We have to wait until a new administration for Perry to have any hope...but Perry may also be doing this to himself with off field issues we can’t see/know about. Talent is not the issue.
-- Just a reminder, one that I needed: So, Derek Carr and the 1st-team are working for a few series in this game...and Carr throws 9 passes, and 4 of them to Chris Olave (3-26-0/4). Carr really only has eyes for Olave, even to his own detriment or lost opportunity on other receivers wide open. Carr is such a limited QB. He and the head coach will be flushed after this season.
You want FF WRs who are the solo apple of their QB’s eye – and you got that with Olave in 2024, again. He’s a PPR WR1 for 2024...I’m moving him firmly inside the top 12 next rankings run. He’s #13 (PPR) WR last projections.
-- Quick note: Jamaal Williams (5-32-0, 1-2-0/1) is not good. He may be the #2 RB...but Taysom would be the one to have if AK goes down.
-- 49ers UDFA rookie RB Cody Schrader (7-15-0, 1-5-0/3) continues to get work as the other top 4 RBs on the roster are out hurt to various degrees. He looks fine/capable but not impressive or future star hope. Just capable-ish. Likely he’s a practice squad guy...and probably gets taken off their squad in-season by another team.
-- Another quick note: Spencer Rattler (4-8 for 27 yards, 0 TDs/0 INT) is terrible. I was right again. All these analysts talking about the ‘real’ debate on whether Rattler should just start ahead of Derek Carr Week 1, which is a real thing for some Saints-based websites...it’s just more proof that football analysis is all emotion, and nothing gets fans and analysts more emotional than ‘rookies’/magical unicorns capable of who knows what.
-- 49ers rookie WR Jacob Cowing (4-51-0/5) had a nice showing here. He’s got a future as a contributor/low-level starter, but not likely a star WR in the NFL/FF.
-- The one IDP note I have is a recurring note now weekly...49ers rookie SAF Malik Mustapha (6 tackles, 1 sack) is the real deal. When I re-grade this entire rookie class after preseason Week 3 – I would almost guarantee Mustapha will be our top-rated safety in the class.
He may not start Week 1, but it won’t be long before he is a starter...he’s too good to keep down.
