About 7 1 2 months since you last played a Football Game and after the most unusual of offseasons, when you had nothing on the field at all, all done remotely, no otas, the way youre used to doing it, no minicamps, no preseason, is your Football Team ready for september 13th . Our team is to me, theyre more than ready to play, i mean, being, you know, its the execution and everything well see about, but everyone has the same deal, you know . Everyone has limited time and stuff and when you get out there, im sure there will be stuff that, man, this should be automatic but its not kind of automatic until they mess up. And then they realize, all right, i y can get rid of a lot of that in the preseason, whether its the guys doing it or watching someone else mess it up, so, thats stuff like its a little bit shorter on, but in terms of ready to play, i mean, being away and not being able to go to work, i mean, it started with me, i could tell the players feel the same way to where its nice for a few weeks, you know, man, this is cool to spend all this time with the family and everything, but after day 60 and stuff, you realize you dont just work to work, you need that balance in your life. Youre hungry to go back to your job and stuff. And its cool that, and our job is playing football and i can sense that from the guys. When they got here after being away, they were so hungry to be back and just to be out of whatever their situation was that weve all been in. And they got to come here and kind of focus on football and you can tell they really enjoyed it and appreciated it. I know they are sick of going against each other and they cannot wait until sunday. Theyre ready to play. Guys probably going to be a few guys, a little too excited who might jump offsides, they maybe make a mistake in the First Quarter on something, but thats part of football, stuff you have to deal with and it will be who responds the best throughout the game. And youve got 18 of 22 starters back from what was for most of the year last year, the best team in pro football. But one major change, joe staley retiring in the offseason at left tackle. And then you bring in Trent Williams and you know him, obviously, very well. Is he is he different to you as a Football Player better, hes bigger, said he gained about ten pounds of good weight. Is he different than the guy you remember . Not really. Just in terms of, trent has always been the biggest freak ive ever been around in that way and been around a lot of really good ones from just the talent level and stuff, trents just a little bit different. You know, i was with him for four years, he played all four years for us, great to be around, worked very hard. Got better every single year. Id say the difference now is just seeing him seven years later, hes just hes more of a fan in the aspect of, hes like what i was saying earlier, he understands his job, hes excited to come do his job every day. He wants to be the best at doing his job and kind of just the consistency in detail. Sitting out a year and a half, too, the situation he was in, he wasnt that happy. To not play football for awhile, which he truly does love and to be in, i think, in a situation thats kind of given him new life to the game, can tell how locked in, how inspired he is to play, but the talent has always been there and it still is. Hes obviously a physical specimen, but i was really impressed that his teammates voted him a captain. And he is Trent Williams, seventime pro bowler, so, that walks in, but joe staley was such a leader in your locker room, what kind of Leadership Qualities does trent have, coach . I mean, hes very respected, just like joe. Joe was very vocal, i mean, guys love joe and joe ran this building for many years. Trent coming in, hes not at all trying to replace joe in that way. Trents just trying to be the best that he can. And i think whats been cool about trent, he hasnt come in and tried to do anything. Trents a very cool guy, very easy to talk to. Anyone on the team, he can relate to. I think right away, any time it comes to captains and stuff like that, it always starts with your talent. Players respect the guys who look a certain way. But theyll never vote a guy in that way if they dont handle themselves right. So, its very hard for a guy like trent to earn that in just a couple two to three weeks that he had. But it shows kind of the charisma and stuff he has, is way hes acted as a person, because i think guys have really gravitated to him as a person and the talent is there, so, once he did that, you know, him and mcglynn economy are now captains for us this year. Armstead also got voted in. You mentioned buck, deforest buckner. The loss of him hes a special player. , but how do you as a group, you know, trying to fill his immense loss . Were going to have to do it by a group. Buck is as good a player there is and not by no means are we happy that bucks not here. Bucks going to did some great things for us and hes going to do a lot of great things in indy. We were excited in getting ken law in the draft, but to expect a rookie to just be able to come in and do the production and play the way that buck did, that is pretty unrealistic. Buck always played at a high level, but he just got better and better each year, which i know will happen with kin law. But to put that pressure on him alone is unrealistic and we got a lot of guys in there who can help. Sullys been doing a good job, not to mention the weight hes put on this year, i think will help him inside even more. Kinlaw, as i said, we have d. J. Jones, who has done a great job with the rotation, armstead goes everywhere. We have street, who is healthy, i would say, for the first time this year. He was able to make it through some of the season last year and definitely helped. But he was always fighting through some things. And last year, you thought he came back and at least healed enough to play, but when you watch him move this year, you can tell, all right, he still was injured last year and the guys a lot healthier, so, we got guys in there who can handle the load, bring some of that stuff for the inside players, but definitely going to be a group. With no preseason games, coach, you know, some of the front line guys dont get a lot of snaps in august, anyway, but the backups do. This first game, its going to be hot and the weather has just been weird in the bay area for an extended period of time. Do you think youre going to have to have almost all of them or if, in fact, all nine of them up on gameday and really rotate them through that first game at least . Yeah, we usually do that anyways. The way we ask our guys to play is a little bit different than i mean, some teams do it, but definitely not all. When you play the style of front that we do, you got to have nine up. Weve done it with eight. I think weve done it with seven before. It takes a toll on the guys and it completely changes over the course of the game just how we move. So, the more guys we can get up, the better. I know chris eric wants 53 linemen up, but were never going to give that to him. You need numbers, you need to stay fresh and thats what, you know, we did a pretty good job doing that earlier in the year. We have some depth luckily. More to come here on 49ers game plan. How tough and gritty are the cardinals . Kyle shanahan has not forgotten those close games in 2019 that the niners and cardinals play. Were going to have more from greg papa and kyle shannan juaht ahead. Personnel was much better, the whole plan. But to me, the biggest improvement you made outside of the personnel was you guys tackled last year, where in 2018, you were sloppy at times and it showed up. So, this first game, are you concerned even more so about just getting guys on the ground, since they didnt do that we didnt have a preseason right. No, i mean, tackle is always something youre concerned with going into the season, but and wasnt very hard to get that much better since we were historically bad in 18, especially the way we started off that year, looks like we just went for fumble recoveries every time instead of the tackles or the big hits. And i think we just emphasized that better. We kind of fixed that as the year went a little bit in 18, but we didnt do anything differently inract thought we ce were just more aware of it. More aware of getting guys to the ground, everyone get in there. The faster our defense got, the better our defense got. You always dont have to see one guy tackle in space, which is very hard for anyone. And when you get three guys there at once, and all three guys hit from different directions, your tackling is going to get a lot better. So, the better weve gotten, the less space theres been, the easier it is to tackle. Plus, i think were detailing a lot more, any time you do something historically wrong, youre going to fix that pretty quick and if you dont, you Better Change people. Even last year, when you guys tackled a hell of a lot better, one guy in particular, Russell Wilson is hard to get on the ground, certainly, but the guy youre going to see coming up, kyler murray, really hard to get on the ground. Hes elusive, hes got a rocket arm. Based on what you saw last year up close and personal and then in the second year, where you expect him to be more settled, what are you up against on sunday. Oh, everything possible. I mean, anything anything youve heard on the guy and the hype on him, its all true. He has the ability to do whatever he wants in terms of the speed he has, being probably the fastest guy on the field. Having as good of an arm as you can have, he can make every throw. And hes got a system that really can do anything, whether they want to do the air raid bubbles and everything, run the zone read, do some more conventional stuff that you see in the nfl, i mean, they got the talent at quarterback to do whatever they want. They got the scheme to mix it around. Theyve added some Wide Receivers this year. I know drake came in and helped them a lot. So, they got some weapons out there. And when you put that quarterback in the middle, you got to make sure you get after them and you youre not always going to get to them. You got to keep chasing them, keep coming. Hopefully hes going backwards instead of forwards and that makes your coverage a little bit easier. But thats also why you need a lot of dlinemen up. They have to go. They have to be ready to chase you got to earn the right almost to get a sack and youre going to earn the right to get sacks by swarming them all day. You mentioned theyve added some pieces and one of the biggest in all of football is deandre hopkins, just a physical specimen, long arms, huge hands, tough to tackle in space. Just how do you assess this guy and the challenge on sunday, coach . Well, hes always been one of the best in the game. But i think the thing that separates him from everyone else that he does the best is, he doesnt have to wibe open to ma the play. And thats a tough, frustrating thing. Its graets for a quarterback, but you can cover him perfect, the way he length is, the way he can time up and go up for balls and how unbelievably good his hands are and his handeye coordination with his size makes him very tough to stop. You have to have two guys on him at times, you got to beat him up a lot at the line, which is very tough, because hes a big guy. But he usually does get his, i mean, when he gets his opportunity, hes going to make some plays. You just have to eliminate the big ones he has and hopefully one of those you can create a turnover. The match youre going to have is the playcaller designer is against vance joseph and their defense. And they were dead last in the nfl, number 32 as far as yards allowed. Theyve upgraded a lot on that side of the ball. They got chandler jones. So, size that up, your matchup against their defense, coach. Yeah, its it always surprises me when people say the number, because every time i go against them, i feel its a grind. I mean, theyve stopped our run very well in the last two games that we played them. Probably stopped us as good as anyone in the nfl. Theyve always played they play tough man coverage, they put a lot of pressure on you. They create a lot of turnovers, which is you know, why we were down 160, starting last year versus them. We were able to come up with a couple of big plays. But theyre tough. Vance always puts pressure on you. Hes never going to sit back there and relax. Hes going to put pressure on you. They have guys to cover. Theyve added some better guys, as you mentioned and they got one of the best pass rushers in the league. Not to mention how stout and big they are inside of him. So, i mean, they got issues over there and, i know they ended up 32nd, but i want to say, you go off, like, just stats off the last six games of the year, theyre definitely in the upper half and thats what you see on tape. You see a team much better. You look at the last five games of the year and i think they will be a top ten defense. You mentioned last years game at home, it was 160 and you called that pinball screen, thr throwback to richie james. The crowd went crazy and the place ignited. You got back into the game. So, were not going to have that on sunday. Were not going to have any fans there to watch the game at all. Youve had some simulations on the practice field, the decibel level and you called it a form of human torture, which i loved that line. So, now that youve had time to wrap it a little bit, you have the directive from the league. How is this going to work as far as the sounds of the game on sunday, coach . Well, its going to be a challenge. I dont know how its going sound on tv, but to us, its just going to be this ambient for the whole game. Its not too loud, but its constant noise. It doesnt go up or down, its just constant. Its like a planes hovering over you. So, that does get a little irritating. Besides that, though, i mean, you cant let it effect you. It shouldnt change the game. But i can admit, its not the easiest thing for being comfortable and relaxed. You have to block that out and concentrate on football. Where it hit me the most was last sunday when i was at home and they played you were on there, you when they showed the green bay nfc championship game. That was really my first time, i cant remember, watching a niner Football Game at home, like a fan. And i dont watch the tv copy very much, if theres something on it, you know, someone will send me a clip or Something Like that where i can get a different angle, but i dont sit down and watch many Football Games on tv and i know how crazy our stadium was then, but to actually go back and watch it on tv and just to see the stands at kickoff, to see it completely filled, every Single Person standing up, to watch that game started a little slower than i remember. And then to watch it just take off with that first third and eight run, that was the touchdown, to watch the crowd go, like, you could see how big the crowd was and how much, like, how much it fired our players up and how much our players fired the crowd up. I can show some of this to our guys tomorrow. Its kind of its two different feelings. I want them to know how cool that place that place is. And that our guys kind of earned that, you know, when i first got here, that stadium wasnt that great. And it doesnt have much of a reason to be. The football wasnt that great. We started out here, started 09. I felt bad for the fans. They didnt have much to cheer about. And the grind it took us to give them something to cheer about and then the way that they did, like, and i always felt it last year, but to watch it on tv and actually see it and be reminded of it, with it being 200 days, it really got me going and i want the players to know how cool that was, because they earned it. Of course people are going to go to an nfc championship game and love it, but i still think it h had a lot to do with the way our team was, the way the fans fed off the team and i want our guys to be proud of that. I want them to kind of feel again what i felt sunday just watching it. And then im going to crush them and tell them that they dont have any of that this sunday, so, get over it. We got to bring it ourselves. But i want the guys to be proud of it. That doesnt just happen. Thats because of who those guys are. And i want them to feel that, so they know, theyre still going into the game, theyre the same people. And thats what our fans at home are doing. I want to inspire people. And i think we did last year. And i think its actually needed more right now. Even though you wont feel it in the stands, because theyre not there, i think reminding the players how much you do inspire people will hopefully inspire them to have that same type of energy. You got me fired up. Lets go good luck on sunday, coach. Get one. All right, man, thanks. Thank you. More to come here on this edition of 49ers game plan. The 49ers picked up two wins against the Arizona Cardinals last season. Jimmy garoppolo had some of his best games. Were going to dive into it up next. Give you my world how can i, when you wont take it from me you can go your own way go your own way your wireless. Your rules. Only with xfinity mobile. Plates, burgers, chips. Masks, outdoor air, 6 feet of distance, as few people as possible, and plenty of hand soap. Make sure lowering the risk of spreading covid19 is on your list for your next small gathering. Do your part to lower the risk. Back here with you on 49ers game plan. We get to the right tools, brought to you by manscaped. Hey, you dont have to convince Cliff Kingsbury that Jimmy Garoppolo is talented. He raichs about the niners quarterback, saying hes a special talent and that jimmy g played as good as anybody played against the cardinals all last season. Garoppolo completed 62 of 82 pass attempts for 471 yards with eight touchdowns and two sw interceptions in the two niners victories. Right now, i send you to the niners play calling team in greg papa and tim ryan, on the importance in getting a win week one. All right, laura, thank you. So, tim, last year, they won their opener and then they won the next seven. They got to 80 before their first loss. Strange year, no preseason, arizona, i think, is going to be a better team. So, how important is it for the 49ers to get off on the right foot when t foot, win the opener and also take down a division opponent at home on sunday . Yeah, i think its huge, pop. Its a division opponent. Number two, they go to new york on the road for the next two games, to stay on the east coast. I think that more than ever before, any Training Camp ive ever been to, it doesnt feel like camp when they put the pads on in midaugust. It really felt like they were just getting ready for the next game. So, everybody wants to build off continuity, from the year before, i think its vitally important for this team to do that, just keep their foot on the gas pedal. Virtually the whole teams back for the most part. Theres a couple of upgrades in a couple of areas. But i think its a big challenge for these guys facing these Arizona Cardinals, because of the unknown of not having any scrimmages against other teams or any preseason games against other teams. And then i think probably most importantly, factoring in the pandemic. I think more than ever before, really, you dont know nobody can predict how many games theyre going to play. Each one is unbelievably important, especially in the division. So, i think its huge, i think it will be a huge opportunity if they can start 10, because you dont know if youre going to get to next week. You really dont. 49ers did sweep arizona last year, but both games were really tough, especially the one at levi in midnovember. Arizona, 5101 a year ago. Most people think theyre going to make a playoff push this year, laura. Papa, thank you so much. After the break, were going to get a look at some of what the players have been up to before they suit up and hit the field on sunday. Which niners player is the best artist . Ive got the answer on the other side. Back here on 49ers game plan, as we get to our inspired move. Hey, on tuesday, the 49ers foundation kicked off the 2020 season with their annual fundraiser called players for a purpose. Only this time, as you probably guessed, it was a virtual event. Pix their was involved. Players got to hear from players, coaches, execs, and got to play with Trent Williams, deebo samuel. This was amazing. If you want to know who the best artist on the team is, ive got an answer for you. Daniel. His team won the battle, so, apparently, the guy can draw. In total, the event raised more than half a Million Dollars for the 49ers foundation. Hey, thats a wrap on a week one edition of 49ers game plan. Im laura britt. Ill see you sunday for 49ers pregame live. Rips, so many about spicy chicken strips. Wow, i hear you. 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Right now on a primetime edition of nbc bay area news the smoke remains and this weekend forcing some people to brave the bad area. Goon good evening. Im terry mcsweeney. And temperatures may have felt cooler be thank you smoke in the sky was persistent. From city to the east bay. Hayes skies and more ash in the airzy skies and more ash in the a air. Where was it the worst . The worst air quality of the day is actually right now around the inland east bay. The smoke on the satellite view. Winds aloft not helping. More smoke from the south and east near the creek fire. You can see the plume heading wards the bay area out of the south. Some of the worst air quality is not fog. Areas in purple. About twice as high asseeing le concord. 208 in livermore. That is very unhealthy