Albert Breer on 49ers’ Injuries, Cowboys Defense and 0-5 Teams

All right, welcome in. It's the Brier Report for Tuesday, October the 13th. Week five is now in the books. Hard to believe we are more than a quarter of the way through the 2026 regular season. It is a mailbag edition of the Brier Report. You guys had questions. We put the call out on Twitter. I picked three. I'm going to answer those questions right here, right now. The first question is coming from Ryan J. That's @RyanJohnJon on Twitter. He asks, how will the Niners solve their wide receiver injury issues with Deebo out a few weeks, dribbling out until December and Evans playing with broken ribs. Seems like they need some immediate help. I would say you can keep an eye on veteran additions like the one they made with Brandon Cooks. You know, certainly I think the hope would be that some of the younger players that they drafted over the last couple of years are able to step up and contribute. Jordan Watkins and Jacob Cowling have flashed over the course of the last couple of years in training camp. And those would be two guys that I think you would hope would be able to step up and play some snaps the key here to me is what you've already got on the roster and the fact that Strivling is not out for the year the fact that Deebo is not out for the year the fact that Mike Evans is not out for the year uh that to me would prevent you from really going all in on anybody especially when you consider in 2027 you're gonna have Ricky Pierce all coming back so i i know it's not the the the sexy answer to say stand pat with what you've got try to try to make your development work with guys like Cowling and Watkins the issue is just the amount of roster spots you're allotted into the position the log jam that you got there you know the fact that i think when these guys are healthy it's a relatively good receiver group who has Brock Purdy playing at an MVP level and who has the Niners now five and oh, so I wouldn't be jamming the panic button again. Like if you can add a veteran body, like they did in Brandon Cooks, I'm good with that. Go ahead and do it. They're a team over the next few years that, that is going to need to get younger. That is going to need draft draft picks. And I just, I don't see a scenario where you say, okay, yes, we're going to go out. We're going to spend three first or two first round picks to go and get this guy off of somebody else's roster uh to me it's like with the with the with the looming cap problems with the looming question how you're going to get younger you hold on to the assets that you have to go and get young uh cost control talent uh question number two this is from Bernie Bar Mazel i hope i didn't pronounce your name wrong Bernie that's at Bernie Bar Mazel good afternoon Albert how do you think the Mike Pettenhauer works in Dallas almost seems like He's the new GC, and Jerry's not wasting time nor money here. Thanks very much, Bernie. Obviously, Mike Pettenhauer has the background, having worked with Christian Parker before. So, like, I think that it's easy to slot him in and have him help Christian Parker continue to adjust the defensive coordinator job. I would also say, again, that sometimes it can take a little bit for a young coach to get his foot in. Christian Parker was really well thought of coming into Dallas. He's somebody a lot of different teams have looked at as a coordinator candidate over the last couple of years. And remember, Mike McDonald, when he wound up the Ravens defensive coordinator in 2022, got off to a rough start and he wound up by the end of his time in Baltimore being considered one of, if not the best defensive coordinator in all of football. So I wouldn't give up on Parker yet. That said, it's not to be ignored. Like, I think there's certainly a scenario where there's so much urgency in that building an urgency like uncommon in Dallas like over the years we we've seen they where they've had teams where it's like you wanted them to act and then they didn't they've acted with a ton of urgency since trading Micah Parsons Kenny Clark was a part of that trade they traded for Quentin and Williams they traded for Sean Gary they traded for Joey Porter Jr they took Caleb Downs high in the draft they have been very aggressive in trying to match what is a world-class offense with a defense that can help them win a championship and so i think you live with the growing pains for now christian parker but it's not impossible to see a world based on the urgency they've acted with across across the board where you get eight or nine or ten games in and it's just not working and you've got an experienced hand now um there and Mike Pettine to help get you out of it now the question becomes and i think this is an important one what does this look like if Mike Pettin does wind up becoming the play caller. That's a bigger picture question. I think you can go back to Philadelphia in 2023, and they had Sean Desai, who was another well-regarded young coach, as their defensive coordinator after losing Jonathan Gannon from the year before. They pulled the plug on Desai midway through the season. They handed the reins over to Matt Patricia. Matt Patricia is a very high-end defensive coach, but he was now running a system that wasn't his and what happens when you're in a situation like that is you can call it you can draw it up but when things go wrong do you know how to adjust it do you know where the where the fixes are can you can you work with it on the fly that was the problem in philly in 2023 and so if you are going to go to pet and eventually and again we're putting the cart before the horse and that a little bit but you'd have to make sure that it's that it's as much his system as possible and Christian Parker a lot of the roots of his system are coming from the Vic Fangio system and if you remember again going back to that example of Philly in 2023 Sean Desai was running the Vic Fangio system which was not Matt Patricia's roots so again some moving parts there you hope again the ideal here would be that Mike Pettine helps Christian Parker dig his way out of this rut and get him in a position where he can be the coordinator that dallas thought he would be when they hired him back in january finally question number three is from karan that's at karan mmef um mmef uh kit karan asks uh which one five team strikes first at the trade deadline and who is the first big name to go now the three oh and five teams right now are the titans the chargers and the Dolphins I think two of those teams are willing to listen already and that'd be the Dolphins and that'd be the Titans neither of those teams are in a position where it's like yes win now let's go the issue with both of those teams is like how many pieces do they have on their roster where you would look at it and say yes like they're going to move that guy off their team now with the Titans like one name that sticks out to me would be John Franklin Myers a guy who can be a versatile piece for you on the defensive line just signed there but if he'd be amenable to go into a contender obviously played um with the with the Broncos last year and was a very very valuable piece in Denver last year like he could be somebody who could have some value to somebody help you create some pass rush give you a movable piece on the defensive line Miami has a couple of pieces now Jordan Brooks and a very productive linebacker who has played really well for them the last couple of years would Jordan Brooks be somebody you'd be interested in he's somebody i think that that that may be available by trade the other name and again this is one of those do you ask and i'll get back to Tennessee with this two where's Chop Robinson right now i chop robinson is somebody who like i think has still has the ceiling to be a very high-end pass rusher in the league and he's flashed big time uh he's got some production now under Jeff Hafley he's in his third year the dolphins will need to make a decision on his fifth year option after this year if they don't envision themselves picking up that option do they listen to offers if somebody brings something serious to the table somebody maybe who liked him coming out of Penn State. Could they listen? And then the ultimate example of that would be in Tennessee with Jeffrey Simmons, who's now on his third contract. He's an integral part of the team. He's very, very important from a leadership standpoint and what Robert Saleh is trying to build. However, however much they love him, that's not stopping somebody from coming in and making a phone call. So could somebody come in and make a phone call on Jeffrey Simmons? Could somebody blow them away? Certainly something to consider. And then the third team here in the equations the Chargers and i don't know if they would have given up on the season yet based on the way the team's constructed based on who their head coach is um but certainly i think if this thing keeps going the way that it is they're at Arrowhead this weekend that could put them at oh and six going into the bye you're coming out of the bye it doesn't get a whole lot easier they got Baltimore on the other end of the bye they got the Texans on the other end of the bye they got the Rams on the other end of the bye those are their first three games after the bye if this thing doesn't start going in the right direction Khalil Mack would certainly be a name to watch there an older player but somebody who could i think absolutely help a contender and somebody you can count on from a makeup standpoint he's the right kind of guy no question about it maybe he wants to go chase a ring somewhere else something to consider there but that would be how i would look at the three oh and five teams right now appreciate you guys coming out as always you can get your comments questions to me here on the youtube page or you can get to me on my social media that's at albertbreer on twitter at albertbreer on tiktok now at albert r breer on facebook and albert underscore breer on instagram we have one more breer report coming for you this week we will be previewing week six after the big thursday night game between the broncos and seahawks we'll see you guys then