49ers FB Kyle Juszczyk Talks Kittle, Shanahan, Purdy & More with Rich

Kyle Juszczyk arrived for his 14th NFL season the way he started his first one, as the kind of guy who answers a Harvard introduction with a measured nod. Rich actually forgot to mention Harvard on the open. Juszczyk noticed, kindly.

"I take pride in it, but I also respect you not mentioning it," Juszczyk said.

The Harvard story is the part of Juszczyk's path most people miss. Harvard was his best football option coming out of high school. Not a fallback. Not an academic choice with a football side. Harvard, at the time, was putting one player into the NFL every year. Juszczyk's dream was to be that next one. He was.

Rich did the math out loud for the bit. Juszczyk's career scrimmage yards, halved, are 311. His SAT score, by his own recollection, was about 1250. The math, Juszczyk admitted on air, runs slightly against him.

"My ACT was better," Juszczyk added. He scored a 33. Rich let him keep it.

The bigger 49ers story Juszczyk wanted to share was the new draft class. Two names stood out to him in his first week in the locker room. Jordan Stribbling, the wide receiver out of Mississippi, and Kaylin Black, the running back from Indiana. Black, like Juszczyk, was not invited to the NFL Combine. Juszczyk said he intends to bring that detail up the first chance he gets.

Black is, in Juszczyk's words, "an absolute ball of muscle." The previous holder of the team's most-muscular-in-the-locker-room title was safety Malik Mustafa. Juszczyk told Mustafa his title is in jeopardy.

"This week Kaylin's walking around with his shirt off," Juszczyk said. "I told Malik, you got major competition now."

The football part of the draft class evaluation was clean. Black runs natural routes, has natural hands, and looks the part of a real running back even before contact. Stribbling, despite a smaller production profile in Mississippi, has shown explosion and stride length in OTAs that have impressed Juszczyk on appearance alone.

The 49ers head coach piece was the longest section. Juszczyk called Kyle Shanahan "five dimensions deep into a four-dimension game of chess." The thing Juszczyk most appreciates is Shanahan's defensive literacy. The head coach, in team meetings, breaks down every single defensive assignment and uses the opponent's responsibilities against them as the foundation for the playbook.

"He understands the defense just as good as if not better than most defensive coordinators," Juszczyk said.

That, in turn, produces what Juszczyk called confidence to play freer. The 49ers players know Shanahan is not going to put them in a mismatch they cannot execute. They play fast because the framework around them is secure.

On Brock Purdy, Juszczyk highlighted post-snap processing as the underrated skill. Purdy reads the actual defense after the ball is snapped, not just the pre-snap shell. The result is the off-script playmaking ability that gets less attention than his structured passing.

"He can sit in the pocket. He can do things in progression," Juszczyk said. "But if he needs to run around and buy some time, I think he's one of the better guys in the league at doing it."

The other 49ers Year 14 storyline Rich wanted to address was the Australia opener. The team flies to Melbourne for Week 1 against the Rams. Juszczyk has heard the 38,000 air miles number. He has decided to receive it as a privilege.

"What a cool experience to be one of the first teams to ever play an NFL game in Australia and to play in such a big stadium with over 100,000 fans," he said. The recovery weeks after, he admitted, are the question.

The closer Rich made room for was the Seattle revenge thread. The Seahawks beat the 49ers in San Francisco in a previous Super Bowl. They won the Lombardi in the visiting locker room. Juszczyk plays Seattle in Week 12 at home this season.

"Anytime we play the Seahawks, it's going to be personal," Juszczyk said. "Wherever it is, we look forward to it."

Rich asked if the 49ers locker room had been cleansed of any residual energy after the Seahawks lifted a trophy there. Juszczyk said the 49ers had renovated extensively in the offseason, so the question was moot. Rich, channeling Poltergeist, recommended sage anyway.

The conversation closed with the Bottle Rock weekend plans Juszczyk and his wife Kristen have with the Kittles. Lil Wayne tonight. Lorde Friday. Foo Fighters Saturday. Backstreet Boys and Ludacris Sunday. Kittle's Achilles, Juszczyk noted, is healed enough to keep up.

The final detail was a tradition Kyle and Kristen have built. On every team flight, they pick one classic movie neither has seen and watch it together, then talk it over at the hotel. The recent surprise hit was Children of Men, which Kyle said may be his new favorite of all time.

Rich added one to the list. Poltergeist.

The American Century Championship in Lake Tahoe gets him both Juszczyks and possibly Kittle in person in July. Juszczyk said he is aiming to finish higher than 88th this year. Rich, who finished 59th, has built that into the bet.