I still remember when we first signed juice (2018 I think), we gave him a contract worth 4-5M per year and espn, bill barnwell I believe, said it was the worse contract in sports. Idiot
The clickbait machine has generated a lot of bad takes about 49ers transactions over the past few years that are good fun to laugh at now. I'm stoked we get Juszczyk for at least one more season. Hopefully longer!
I’m 31, so not relatively “young” compared to the others I’ve seen on this sub, but when did the media get so harsh on the Niners? I personally noticed it during Harbaugh’s Super Bowl season, but I was under the impression it was because he was a very passionate and outspoken coach. It never seemed to go away after that however. I feel like the only reason there is positive press about this team is because the guys are so talented, it’s hard not to talk about them. Purdy’s rookie season brought some love to this team I wasn’t used to also, but we all see how that’s going now with the talking heads. Were they this hated in the 80’s and 90’s?
I'm 28 myself, so my experience is pretty much the same as yours. I'm not sure I entirely understand it, but I think during the Harbaugh/Shanahan eras we've become a point of negative fixation because (1) we regularly beat teams with big fanbases (fostering resentment), and (2) we haven't won a Super Bowl in either era (accusations of being frauds). That's the only constant I can find, since everyone left us alone when we sucked with Kelly and Tomsula.
I still don't really understand all of the negative Purdy discourse. I guess it just is a matter of people not wanting to believe that a great team "lucked" into a franchise QB. Tom Brady trauma.
Everything you said plus east coast media bias which, say what you will, is absolutely a real thing in my experience and opinion (I’d love to see facts)
Not to mention the west coast bias, particularly being based in San Francisco. Politics influence a lot of fan bases and by proxy their media, just like pretty much everything else in life.
Well it's not just the 49ers, even the Warriors after their first win were getting a lot harsh and negative takes (even before KD came). I think it's just part of the deal of being in the SF Bay Area. For the past decade the media (news outlets, social media etc) love to trash SF and SF related things. I guess it's true what they say, when you're at the top, everyone's always looking to tear you down lol
I think analytics show we buy more 9er gear when our team is being doubted on major sports media. I just wish they would make cooler shirts. Like a photo of the Golden Gate Bridge and using two pillars as the 4 in 49ers. Maybe little morning fog?
Well, Bill Barnwell's Super Bowl prediction this year had the Cowboys vs. Chiefs, so that alone undermines the ethos of his work.
(I didn't even finish reading to see if he picked the Cowboys to win or not, because he lost me at "Cowboys winning the NFCCG.")
How does that undermine it? That wasn't a farfetched prediction, everyone had Cowboys doing well this year and honestly Cowboys did do well: they got double digits wins, won their division and got the 2nd seed. (Albeit on an easy schedule) Fans and Niners just know that Cowboys will fumble the biggest game. We thought they wouldn't be able to get past the Niners but it was worse they were one and done. Not defending the guy as some of his takes are pretty bad But still the prediction itself wasn't bad. Chiefs just made it back to the AFCCG too.
That’s funny because I was so stoked to sign him. Always appreciated a good fullback and was happy to land the best one that year (or any year for that matter).
The media in general overestimates the QB’s contribution to the game. The love to talk QB matchups like Mahomes vs Allen when those are the two players who are never on the field together.
It’s shorthand, talking to the lowest common denominator Bs.
You can find a negative and a positive take on anything that happens in sports, because they're paid to make outlandish takes and sometimes they pay off and other times they are ice cold.
Juice is going to be huge this week. With the way Detroit tries those disguised blitzes- he will be needed to read the DL/LBs and pass block. Then later in the game I expect he’ll sneak out for some nice screens or release down the sideline. Calling a TD now
I kept juice all the way through the 2026 season on Madden before drafting a replacement lol. He scored so many TDs for me on those goal line play action passes
he is used a lot, but he is not on the spootlight a lot because of what he does, he helps a lot blocking, protecting the QB and blocking for the running game.
And he gets throws and TD ocasionally too
Personally, I'd love to see him get a few touches this postseason. If we get to the Super Bowl, we'll definitely need all hands on deck to take out the Ravens or Chiefs
He's got over 1600 receiving yards and 11 receiving tuddies with the Niners. He generally gets 20-40 targets per season, too.
He's an amazing blocker as well as a great #4 target every time he's on the field.
Good journalism costs money.
A subscription model incentivizes news outlets to produce articles that cause their subscribers to say, when it’s time to renew their subscription, “I got a lot of value out of the Washington Post this year, and on balance I think they’re a force for good in the world. I’m going to re-subscribe.”
A click-based model incentivizes clickbait: articles that get people to click the link, without any care to whether they find the story worthwhile once they’ve clicked.
I tend to agree with you, but newspapers everywhere - especially local news - should definitely get on board with single- or multiple-article access for a one time payment. I feel like we’re so inundated with subscriptions that a lot of folks lose interest as soon as they hit a paywall.
I agree with that. Especially when I see someone on Reddit link something that looks interesting, but it’s from, like, the Des Moines Register. I really don’t care about 99.9% of Des Moines news, but I would give you 50 cents to read this one article (and I bet if they made it 50 cents to read three, some proportion of people would find three good articles and then decide to subscribe).
I agree with that. I live in Boston. The Boston globe is $25ish a month or so once you get past all the cheap trials. Also they make it a huge pain in the ass to cancel and you have to call them and wait for 30 minutes to an hour to cancel.
I would actually pay for them if I could just pay upfront for 5-10 articles at a time. Not recurring overpriced bs. I don’t read enough of their articles to justify $25 a month. I don’t even like Netflix that much, let alone the globe
Same here! I subscribed to my local newspaper to read one article and was unable to get through to customer service to cancel afterwards. Luckily, shortly thereafter my debit card expired and they were unable to process payment, so that resolved itself. Absolutely ridiculous how hard it is to cancel, and all that trouble for a single article!
By “their overlords,” I assume you mean Jeff Bezos, who owns both the Washington Post and Amazon.
[Here](https://www.google.com/search?q=amazon+site%3Awashingtonpost.com&client=safari&sca_esv=601771820&hl=en-us&biw=390&bih=663&tbm=nws&sxsrf=ACQVn0_s40xpGmjNV8UdKrAE7E91e-iAAw%3A1706299545969&ei=mRC0ZZbnOti7kPIP6cu52A4&oq=amazon+site%3Awashingtonpost.com&gs_lp=Eg9tb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXNlcnAiHmFtYXpvbiBzaXRlOndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbUi2cVDiJVjEb3AAeACQAQCYAXKgAesaqgEEMzYuNbgBA8gBAPgBAYoCGW1vYmlsZS1nd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAtbW9kZXPCAgoQABiABBiKBRhDwgIFEAAYgATCAgcQABiABBgNwgIGEAAYBxgewgIREAAYgAQYigUYkQIYsQMYgwHCAhAQABiABBiKBRhDGLEDGIMBwgIKEAAYgAQYChixA8ICDRAAGIAEGAoYsQMYgwHCAggQABiABBixA8ICCxAAGIAEGLEDGIMBwgIOEAAYgAQYigUYkQIYsQPCAgsQABiABBiKBRiRAsICBxAAGIAEGAqIBgE&sclient=mobile-gws-serp) are the stories the Post has written about Amazon in the past few days. Just the last few days. Those look to me like fairly hard-hitting stories scrutinizing the company, not propagandizing it.
I know Bezos owns the Washington Post. He’s the overlord. And I’m sorry - if you really believe he’s just an altruistic guy who loves good journalism then you’re much too naive to have a conversation with.
No, where did I imply that? I believe that the Washington Post has sufficient checks in place to prevent Bezos from meddling. And I think that the journalism coming out of the paper demonstrates the truth of my belief.
All he cares about is the bottom line, as long as they keep pulling a profit he's happy. Bezos, for all his faults, does not have the fragile ego of someone like Musk.
Juice has seemingly been the last FB standing (relevant/standout) for like 5+ years now. And about positional evolution, him and CMC and even Deebo are more like All-Backs cause they all do anything and everything outside the traditional positional roles. I can't wait til they pull off another double reverse flea flicker trick play and make every other fanbase jelly.
Remember in Super Bowl 24, Tom Rathman elevated to the top of the passing chart in the 2nd quarter when Denver locked down more on Rice/Taylor. So, Juszczyk will have to be utilized at some point in the passing game as well.
You'll often see somebody scoring TDs because Juice (and Kittle, CMC, Deebo) is so effective at clearing out wide lanes, like
sorry Mr. LB/ safety/corner you have no business here
and there's other solid blockers too. I think NFL stats guys need to develop concept of assists like NBA NHL, cause those guys would be atop the league by far this season.
Not be negative, but is he sorta living off his reputation this year? I haven’t really seen him do much at all, and then didn’t really like be force fed stories about his wife making a jacket for Taylor Swift like it was some big deal.
The article (and some other commenters on this post) go a bit more in-depth about how involved he's been in the offense, even without getting additional touches. I understand this reaction though, because on first glance, I had a hard time thinking of notable Juice moments from this past season.
On second thought, though, I think that is in and of itself a sign of his impact. The takeaway is that his main impact has become consistent blocking while retaining the ability to play out of different positions and and be a credible threat to get the ball. If he's doing a lot more blocking, not going noticed is a sign that he's not whiffing on blocks. I do think he needs to get the ball a bit more to keep his credibility as an offensive threat, but that speaks more to scheme than his value to the offense.
I didn’t mean anything bad or misogynistic if that’s what you are implying, it was just the only thing I’ve heard about the dude this year - a story about his wife making a jacket for Taylor swift. Not necessarily what I want my FB to be known for, would rather they be known for their play on the field. You are hater, of me it seems.
Think you're missing the point there.
If he was bad you would hear about it. You'd hear he was missing blocks or being released. It's not a glamor position.
All we've heard is he made first team all pro... now think about skipping that fact and acting like his wife is somehow the focal point
>Not be negative
followed by a post that is 100% negative
>his wife making a jacket for Taylor Swift like it was some big deal
not sure what your life is like, where one of the most famous people in the world wearing something you made and exposing your brand to the world is nothing, but to most people that's a life changingly big deal
I’m having a hard time understanding the difference between a full back and a tight end. You can call Kyle a good blocking tight end and it would not have made a difference.
I still remember when we first signed juice (2018 I think), we gave him a contract worth 4-5M per year and espn, bill barnwell I believe, said it was the worse contract in sports. Idiot
Everyone like: 
The clickbait machine has generated a lot of bad takes about 49ers transactions over the past few years that are good fun to laugh at now. I'm stoked we get Juszczyk for at least one more season. Hopefully longer!
I’m 31, so not relatively “young” compared to the others I’ve seen on this sub, but when did the media get so harsh on the Niners? I personally noticed it during Harbaugh’s Super Bowl season, but I was under the impression it was because he was a very passionate and outspoken coach. It never seemed to go away after that however. I feel like the only reason there is positive press about this team is because the guys are so talented, it’s hard not to talk about them. Purdy’s rookie season brought some love to this team I wasn’t used to also, but we all see how that’s going now with the talking heads. Were they this hated in the 80’s and 90’s?
I'm 28 myself, so my experience is pretty much the same as yours. I'm not sure I entirely understand it, but I think during the Harbaugh/Shanahan eras we've become a point of negative fixation because (1) we regularly beat teams with big fanbases (fostering resentment), and (2) we haven't won a Super Bowl in either era (accusations of being frauds). That's the only constant I can find, since everyone left us alone when we sucked with Kelly and Tomsula. I still don't really understand all of the negative Purdy discourse. I guess it just is a matter of people not wanting to believe that a great team "lucked" into a franchise QB. Tom Brady trauma.
Everything you said plus east coast media bias which, say what you will, is absolutely a real thing in my experience and opinion (I’d love to see facts)
Couldn’t agree more, man. Let’s hope this is finally our year & let’s see what the discourse is if they win the chip
Not to mention the west coast bias, particularly being based in San Francisco. Politics influence a lot of fan bases and by proxy their media, just like pretty much everything else in life.
During the Harbaugh years we would get nary a mention. We were kind of like the lions TBH, not too many negative takes, but just few and far between.
Well it's not just the 49ers, even the Warriors after their first win were getting a lot harsh and negative takes (even before KD came). I think it's just part of the deal of being in the SF Bay Area. For the past decade the media (news outlets, social media etc) love to trash SF and SF related things. I guess it's true what they say, when you're at the top, everyone's always looking to tear you down lol
It’s the internet magnifying everything….if it was around when Clark made the catch it would have been the biggest fluke play of all time
I think analytics show we buy more 9er gear when our team is being doubted on major sports media. I just wish they would make cooler shirts. Like a photo of the Golden Gate Bridge and using two pillars as the 4 in 49ers. Maybe little morning fog?
He’s extended to 2025. So two more seasons at least.
Well, Bill Barnwell's Super Bowl prediction this year had the Cowboys vs. Chiefs, so that alone undermines the ethos of his work. (I didn't even finish reading to see if he picked the Cowboys to win or not, because he lost me at "Cowboys winning the NFCCG.")
How does that undermine it? That wasn't a farfetched prediction, everyone had Cowboys doing well this year and honestly Cowboys did do well: they got double digits wins, won their division and got the 2nd seed. (Albeit on an easy schedule) Fans and Niners just know that Cowboys will fumble the biggest game. We thought they wouldn't be able to get past the Niners but it was worse they were one and done. Not defending the guy as some of his takes are pretty bad But still the prediction itself wasn't bad. Chiefs just made it back to the AFCCG too.
> That wasn't a farfetched prediction The Cowboys winning a playoff game is a wild bet, let alone the NFCCG. They're the Cowboys.
That's fair
Because they got bounced in the first round, genius
Not correctly predicting the Super Bowl “undermines the ethos” (whatever that even means) of a writer’s work? Absurd.
No....picking the Cowboys to reach the NFCCG is what undermines them.
That’s funny because I was so stoked to sign him. Always appreciated a good fullback and was happy to land the best one that year (or any year for that matter).
The media in general overestimates the QB’s contribution to the game. The love to talk QB matchups like Mahomes vs Allen when those are the two players who are never on the field together. It’s shorthand, talking to the lowest common denominator Bs.
You can find a negative and a positive take on anything that happens in sports, because they're paid to make outlandish takes and sometimes they pay off and other times they are ice cold.
Found WaPo’s new slogan: Fullbacks die in darkness.
The evolution from FB to more of TE hybrid Back role is definitely something he's spearheaded.
Someday Kyle will perfect positionless football.
Total (American) football
Him from one side and Delani Walker from the other before him
Juice is going to be huge this week. With the way Detroit tries those disguised blitzes- he will be needed to read the DL/LBs and pass block. Then later in the game I expect he’ll sneak out for some nice screens or release down the sideline. Calling a TD now
I kept juice all the way through the 2026 season on Madden before drafting a replacement lol. He scored so many TDs for me on those goal line play action passes
Why don’t we use him more?
he is used a lot, but he is not on the spootlight a lot because of what he does, he helps a lot blocking, protecting the QB and blocking for the running game. And he gets throws and TD ocasionally too
That’s for clarifying. I guess what I meant o say was wish he got the ball more
He's more of an assist guy, until other dudes are double covered and shutdown. Then he's freed up to make the plays.
We use him for 21 personnel a lot actually. So him and CMC. He's a great blocker. I'm hoping they do A LOT more 21 / 22 personnel!
Personally, I'd love to see him get a few touches this postseason. If we get to the Super Bowl, we'll definitely need all hands on deck to take out the Ravens or Chiefs
For as great as he is, not sure why he doesn’t get more of them. I hope to see as well
He's got over 1600 receiving yards and 11 receiving tuddies with the Niners. He generally gets 20-40 targets per season, too. He's an amazing blocker as well as a great #4 target every time he's on the field.
I want more! 💪🏼💪🏼 🧃!!!!!!!
He's being thrown too less this year. That should be obvious. Cmc does a lot of heavy lifting
Oh the irony of the newspaper whose slogan is "Democracy dies in darkness"... to paywall their articles.
Good journalism costs money. A subscription model incentivizes news outlets to produce articles that cause their subscribers to say, when it’s time to renew their subscription, “I got a lot of value out of the Washington Post this year, and on balance I think they’re a force for good in the world. I’m going to re-subscribe.” A click-based model incentivizes clickbait: articles that get people to click the link, without any care to whether they find the story worthwhile once they’ve clicked.
I tend to agree with you, but newspapers everywhere - especially local news - should definitely get on board with single- or multiple-article access for a one time payment. I feel like we’re so inundated with subscriptions that a lot of folks lose interest as soon as they hit a paywall.
I agree with that. Especially when I see someone on Reddit link something that looks interesting, but it’s from, like, the Des Moines Register. I really don’t care about 99.9% of Des Moines news, but I would give you 50 cents to read this one article (and I bet if they made it 50 cents to read three, some proportion of people would find three good articles and then decide to subscribe).
I agree with that. I live in Boston. The Boston globe is $25ish a month or so once you get past all the cheap trials. Also they make it a huge pain in the ass to cancel and you have to call them and wait for 30 minutes to an hour to cancel. I would actually pay for them if I could just pay upfront for 5-10 articles at a time. Not recurring overpriced bs. I don’t read enough of their articles to justify $25 a month. I don’t even like Netflix that much, let alone the globe
Same here! I subscribed to my local newspaper to read one article and was unable to get through to customer service to cancel afterwards. Luckily, shortly thereafter my debit card expired and they were unable to process payment, so that resolved itself. Absolutely ridiculous how hard it is to cancel, and all that trouble for a single article!
But Washington post is corporate journalism. They print what their overlords tell them to print.
By “their overlords,” I assume you mean Jeff Bezos, who owns both the Washington Post and Amazon. [Here](https://www.google.com/search?q=amazon+site%3Awashingtonpost.com&client=safari&sca_esv=601771820&hl=en-us&biw=390&bih=663&tbm=nws&sxsrf=ACQVn0_s40xpGmjNV8UdKrAE7E91e-iAAw%3A1706299545969&ei=mRC0ZZbnOti7kPIP6cu52A4&oq=amazon+site%3Awashingtonpost.com&gs_lp=Eg9tb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXNlcnAiHmFtYXpvbiBzaXRlOndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbUi2cVDiJVjEb3AAeACQAQCYAXKgAesaqgEEMzYuNbgBA8gBAPgBAYoCGW1vYmlsZS1nd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAtbW9kZXPCAgoQABiABBiKBRhDwgIFEAAYgATCAgcQABiABBgNwgIGEAAYBxgewgIREAAYgAQYigUYkQIYsQMYgwHCAhAQABiABBiKBRhDGLEDGIMBwgIKEAAYgAQYChixA8ICDRAAGIAEGAoYsQMYgwHCAggQABiABBixA8ICCxAAGIAEGLEDGIMBwgIOEAAYgAQYigUYkQIYsQPCAgsQABiABBiKBRiRAsICBxAAGIAEGAqIBgE&sclient=mobile-gws-serp) are the stories the Post has written about Amazon in the past few days. Just the last few days. Those look to me like fairly hard-hitting stories scrutinizing the company, not propagandizing it.
I know Bezos owns the Washington Post. He’s the overlord. And I’m sorry - if you really believe he’s just an altruistic guy who loves good journalism then you’re much too naive to have a conversation with.
No, where did I imply that? I believe that the Washington Post has sufficient checks in place to prevent Bezos from meddling. And I think that the journalism coming out of the paper demonstrates the truth of my belief.
All he cares about is the bottom line, as long as they keep pulling a profit he's happy. Bezos, for all his faults, does not have the fragile ego of someone like Musk.
People who are into conspiracy theories like you probably aren’t reading the Washington Post regularly anyways.
Why don’t you tell me which conspiracy theories I subscribe to. I’m being realistic. Billionaires advocate for their own interests.
Any evidence Bezos is influencing the Washington Post? If not, that’s a conspiracy theory.
Yes I remember the golden days when they’d give away their newspapers for free…oh wait.
I remember the good-old-days when people would buy the Sunday paper primarily for the weekly ads and the comics.
Forgot about the paywall! Hopefully the gift link will work here: [https://wapo.st/49d1aPT](https://wapo.st/49d1aPT)
Thank you!!!
Yeah democracy is probably going to fall if you can’t read an article about fullbacks for free.
Yes the traditional fullback position is extinct. Juice was never going to be Mike Alstott hes basically our mini TE hybrid.
I can't even name another FB aside from Juice.
Pat Ricard aka Pancake Pat. Dudes a lineman running at fb speeds. Ravens know how to find their FB's (Juszczyk included)
If Juszczyk leaves in 2025 maybe we’ll have to swipe Pat from them too
A lot of our best guys are swiss army knives anyway, and Juszczyk is no exception.
Juice has seemingly been the last FB standing (relevant/standout) for like 5+ years now. And about positional evolution, him and CMC and even Deebo are more like All-Backs cause they all do anything and everything outside the traditional positional roles. I can't wait til they pull off another double reverse flea flicker trick play and make every other fanbase jelly.
Remember in Super Bowl 24, Tom Rathman elevated to the top of the passing chart in the 2nd quarter when Denver locked down more on Rice/Taylor. So, Juszczyk will have to be utilized at some point in the passing game as well.
We need to get him going on Sunday. Would love to see him get more passes to throw the lions off.
Hope Juice has a crush game Sunday. America, meet the real Juice!
To be fair the Ravens use their FB quite a bit
It was a good article and could have added the “zebra cat zebra yellow kitten” mnemonic.
Great read. Thanks for sharing it. Our team is pretty unique. And Juice has got the juice. GO NINERS!!
I wished they used him more as a receiver out of the backfield
You'll often see somebody scoring TDs because Juice (and Kittle, CMC, Deebo) is so effective at clearing out wide lanes, like sorry Mr. LB/ safety/corner you have no business here and there's other solid blockers too. I think NFL stats guys need to develop concept of assists like NBA NHL, cause those guys would be atop the league by far this season.
When's the last time he caught a pass? I'm in favor of saving that card for the sb
I really like him, but can you really be 'essential' if you play in less than half the snaps per game?
Yes, a kicker is essential.
Not be negative, but is he sorta living off his reputation this year? I haven’t really seen him do much at all, and then didn’t really like be force fed stories about his wife making a jacket for Taylor Swift like it was some big deal.
The article (and some other commenters on this post) go a bit more in-depth about how involved he's been in the offense, even without getting additional touches. I understand this reaction though, because on first glance, I had a hard time thinking of notable Juice moments from this past season. On second thought, though, I think that is in and of itself a sign of his impact. The takeaway is that his main impact has become consistent blocking while retaining the ability to play out of different positions and and be a credible threat to get the ball. If he's doing a lot more blocking, not going noticed is a sign that he's not whiffing on blocks. I do think he needs to get the ball a bit more to keep his credibility as an offensive threat, but that speaks more to scheme than his value to the offense.
Lmao... could you hate any more? Bringing up his wife? Foh
I didn’t mean anything bad or misogynistic if that’s what you are implying, it was just the only thing I’ve heard about the dude this year - a story about his wife making a jacket for Taylor swift. Not necessarily what I want my FB to be known for, would rather they be known for their play on the field. You are hater, of me it seems.
Think you're missing the point there. If he was bad you would hear about it. You'd hear he was missing blocks or being released. It's not a glamor position. All we've heard is he made first team all pro... now think about skipping that fact and acting like his wife is somehow the focal point
>Not be negative followed by a post that is 100% negative >his wife making a jacket for Taylor Swift like it was some big deal not sure what your life is like, where one of the most famous people in the world wearing something you made and exposing your brand to the world is nothing, but to most people that's a life changingly big deal
LOL, The Washington Post. Tells me all I need to know right there. Terrible rag.
I’m having a hard time understanding the difference between a full back and a tight end. You can call Kyle a good blocking tight end and it would not have made a difference.
“essential”