49ers vs. Panthers: The Standard’s 5 fast predictions (paywall)
“Kawakami: 49ers 30, Panthers 20. Is this the right moment for back-to-back 49ers victories for the first time since Weeks 2-3? Yup, that’s my call after their alternating W-L pattern over the last nine weeks. I hope this doesn’t also mean the end of my six-game streak of calling these games correctly. Though Bryce Young and Dowdle probably will do some damage, I just don’t see Carolina’s middle-rung defense doing much to stop Purdy, McCaffrey & Co. from putting this one out of reach.”
Since Shanahan arrived in 2017, the 49ers have used a first- or second-round pick on a receiver four times: Dante Pettis (2nd, 2018), Samuel (2nd, 2019), Aiyuk (1st, 2020), and Pearsall (1st, 2024).
The only position at which San Francisco has thrown more top picks: the defensive line. The 49ers have used six first- or second-round picks at that spot, including this year when they took Mykel Williams in the first round and defensive tackle Alfred Collins in the second.
Considering the 49ers have a league-low 12 sacks after 11 games, that’s another position likely to receive attention in April.“
“That was just taking such a physical toll on my body early in my career,” Juszczyk said.
Juszczyk, 6-foot-2 and 235 pounds, shed weight and overhauled his blocking style, relying more on angles and leverage to lessen impacts. He also began using legal cut blocks on defenders, attacking them below their waist, which annoyed opponents and initially confused his coaches. However, running backs coach Bobby Turner warmed to Juszczyk’s untraditional approach because, well, it worked.
Juszczyk is often tasked with blocking defensive ends, which requires attacking their inside shoulder and driving them toward the sideline. In 2018, he began delaying his move to their inside, realizing he could string them toward the sideline without hitting them because he was a pass-catching threat they needed to cover.
It was “using the threat of me running a route to kind of move them with my angles, with my eyes, instead of having to physically come inside and actually move them,” Juszczyk said to the Chronicle in 2022.“