49ers Notes: Staley details new role, a DPOY comp for a rookie, and Griese's 'unfinished business'

The first set of organized team activities (OTAs) offered a first look at some of the new faces in the 49ers' building. Wednesday was a chance to meet the new coaches on staff, and to connect with most of the coaching staff on their philosophies, springtime optimism, and lessons learned over the last year.

The most notable of those new names is Brandon Staley. The out-of-favor former Chargers head coach was once viewed in glowing terms, as a defensive wunderkind. But as the Chargers failed to reach expectations, and the aging roster started to crumble into itself, Staley was fired, to no one's surprise.

He spoke Wednesday for the first time as a member of the 49ers about what brought him to Santa Clara and what, exactly, his role is. The real question was whether he'd be secretly running the show, and if Nick Sorensen took the defensive coordinator title in name only. The 49ers have denied those statements, but Staley clearly holds the currency that matters most: Kyle Shanahan's trust.

Brandon Staley's role, and immediate trust

A recurring theme from Staley's availability was that his relationship and shared views with Shanahan and John Lynch brought him here. That was the draw, and that is how this job has been constructed. He reports to them.

He has been heavily involved throughout free agency and the Draft, offering advice that has been utilized already (see: Leonard Floyd). There's a clear delineation in that Sorensen is the one who will be calling plays, and he will be on the field. It has not yet been decided where Staley will be, but they have not ruled out him being on the field, too.

"We'll work through all the seasonal rhythm stuff, but I think I'm gonna be here for Kyle and John, where they need me to be," Staley said. "I think it'll be kind of a combination of all my roles in the NFL, but I'm going to be working primarily on defense, but I'll be with a lot of the different position groups, mostly in the secondary, and then working with Kyle closely on a lot of other things."

Staley having an explicit line of constant communication is interesting. Shanahan clearly had to involve himself with the defense last season far more than he ever has before, and would ever like to, with Steve Wilks at the helm. Wilks made mistakes that frayed an already weak trust, and struggled to acclimate to a scheme in which he was the lone true outsider.

Staley feels like a hire that allows new knowledge to be brought in, but mainly a mind Shanahan and Lynch (and Mike Shanahan) trust to use as a sounding board.

"I think that's been the aspect I think the job that I've enjoyed the most is just teaming up with Kyle and John, and doing what's going to be best for the Niners," Staley said. "And that encompasses a lot of different things, but if he needs something, then we've been able to connect and collaborate on that, and that's a big part of the role that I was excited about."

The protracted time between Staley's initial interview and being hired, he said, had to do with what his role actually would be. But from a fundamental, "does this feel right" standpoint, it was a clear match.

"I think it was just more or less ironing out the role," Staley said. "I think, again, a lot of respect from afar. And then coming here and meeting with Kyle and John, it was just probably determining the role and the fit. I think that we both had that respect for each other from a football standpoint, from a leadership standpoint, but it's just 'Okay, how's it gonna work here? Can it work here?'

"And I think it became clear to all of us that it could, and that would be great for everybody, and so, very thankful for the opportunity. And like I said, I'm excited to get to work."

As for Staley's transition from head coach to assistant, he admitted it's a "reset." He positioned that as a positive and said he spent much of his time talking to people important to him, reading, working out, and working out what the next right step for him was.

"I don't think looking at it as a reset is a bad thing," Staley said. "I think that looking at that, I think about playing quarterback, when you reset, it's giving you a pause to move on to the next thing. And I was really excited about the role. Talking to Kyle and John there's just a lot in common ground and how to lead a football team.

"And that's what I was looking for more than anything, was an opportunity where, hey, you feel like you're going to be aligned with the right people, who do things the right way, and where you have a chance to improve. And where you also have a chance to affect a team that can compete for a championship. So I think all those stars kind of aligned and it's been energizing, and I think that reset, like you're saying, has allowed me to do that."

The origins of 'cheat' motion, and 49ers' work to evolve

Last year was a season defined in many ways from a trend standpoint -- Mike MacDonald's pick blitzes and tone-setting Ravens defenses exemplified a revelatory year for many defenses with skilled coordinators -- but particularly by NFL offenses' increasing use of motion.

The Dolphins popularized the "cheat" motion early on, and the 49ers shuffled Christian McCaffrey into no-man's land with "bump" motion much more than any other team. I spoke to 49ers coaches, McCaffrey and other players during the Super Bowl week to break down why they use "bump," which you can read here.

But the "cheat" motion, the one in which players take a full, running start (or, but sometimes a half-speed version of that, depending on... the player) was actually borne before last season.

That's according to tight ends coach Brian Fleury, who revealed Wednesday that he found what he believes to be the first example of "cheat" motion. It happened upon him during some offseason film study, and that example occurred spontaneously.

The inaugural cheat motion-er? Kyle Juszczyk. See: here.

"Go back and watch when we played in New Orleans in 2022, Juice, I think, was the very first cheat motion and it happened organically," Fleury said. "Because we changed the play, right as the ball was about to be snapped and he did exactly that. And I really, honestly think that might have been the origin of it."

Fleury said he wondered if Mike McDaniel, the former 49ers offensive coordinator and Dolphins head coach who popularized the motion, saw that same clip.

"I noticed it within the last six months as I was going back and looking at stuff, like wow, this actually happened before we even were doing it on purpose," Fleury said. "I wonder if Mike [McDaniel] saw that and that's where it came from. So I don't know, maybe that's a question for Mike, but it's something to think about. I'm trying to give Kyle credit."

49ers coaches are tasked with special projects over the offseason to assess trends, to see how certain wrinkles worked or didn't throughout the league, and how teams reacted and evolved. Fleury was tasked with looking at the evolution of motion, and how defenses reacted to those motions.

"It was interesting to see how teams evolved into handling some of the unusual shifts and motions that we started doing out of the backfield and then looking at not only how we were using them, but obviously some other teams started using them as well," Fleury said. "And looking at maybe how they were defended earlier in the season versus maybe some teams that had seen several of those teams throughout the course of the year, maybe their defense evolved a little bit.

"So that was what I spent a decent amount of time on. It's intriguing. It gives you some ideas of how to advance moving forward, but it'll also be fun to see how now all the defenses in the league had the offseason to do the same thing and see kind of how plans are shaping in the first quarter of the season."

He indicated there were some defenses that came up with impressive answers to the problems motion present. That's the game.

"Things don't always work the way you expect them to," Fleury said. "So there were some challenges. Some people had some good answers that maybe we hadn't anticipated. So that's always the back and forth in the chess match."

Optimism for Mason Pline

One player who is very much worth keeping an eye on in training camp is undrafted rookie tight end Mason Pline, a former basketball player out of Furman.

You might not give a guy like that a shot to make the roster in some situations. But the 49ers' tight end group is the weakest on the roster behind George Kittle. It's a veteran blocking tight end in Eric Saubert, a second-year, late-round pick in Brayden Willis, a third-round pick in Cam Latu who dropped almost everything who came his way in training camp, and who is still working back from meniscus surgery, Jake Tonges, and Pline.

Pline has the frame and athleticism to be an NFL-caliber tight end. With weak competition around him, he has a very real chance to make this roster.

"He's a guy that I'm really excited to work with because he's inexperienced at the position relative to a lot of the guys we get, but there's definitely a talent level there that is unique and he's extremely competitive," Fleury said. "He's extremely intelligent and he has the right mindset that you're looking for, for somebody in that position. He just wants to absorb as much as he can and fight and compete as hard as he's capable of doing for a job. So I'm excited to see how he develops."

Pline shows up with strength and above average athleticism on the field. At feet, 6 inches and 254 pounds, he's not a long-but-lean prototype. He can play with force. Fleury went further when asked how enticing his physical upside is.

"I mean, there isn't anything I can say right now that I don't think he will be able to do once he gets there," Fleury said. "There's not a limitation that I think will prevent him from becoming an NFL tight end at all."

He also has the help of arguably the league's best tight end.

Kittle was on hand for the first part of OTAs in a veteran, teaching capacity. You'll see here (with a new, shorter haircut) that Kittle was coaching up Willis.

That stuff matters, especially for someone like Pline.

"George is always a huge help and just in terms of mentoring the guys but particularly like, it can be intimidating for somebody like Mason to come in," Fleury said. "And George kind of just puts all that to rest right away. He's awesome in terms of the mentoring process and just helping give little pieces of advice or even coaching on some of the physical things of it, little pieces that helped him learn as a young rookie. He's great about sharing all that information. So it's very valuable."

A DPOY comparison for Malik Mustapha

Defensive backs coach Daniel Bullocks had high praise for Malik Mustapha. To be fair, it's harder to find someone who will criticize Mustapha than the inverse.

Aside from his 5-foot-10-inch frame, there's almost nothing to dislike. He is a rapid athlete. He covers ground in the blink of an eye, and not in a downhill-only way. He is a fluid mover who can flip his hips and trigger to the ball in the air, or toward the line of scrimmage. And he packs a wallop as a hitter.

And his work ethic? Take Bullocks' assessment of working with him thus far.

"It's been great to be honest with you," Bullocks said. "He's got a great work ethic. He's probably the first guy in the building and probably the last guy to leave... picks it up fast. He works at it as well... knowing he's got to play strong safety, got to be able to play free safety as well. That's the biggest thing that popped up to me is just the work ethic, how fast he can pick it up."

Bullocks highlighted a number of skills that Mustapha offers. Tackling ability can often be highlighted in a binary vacuum. You're either good at tackling or not. But there's tackling in the box versus the open field, the latter of which is crucial for safeties, and their "eraser" responsibility to prevent explosive plays. Mustapha, Bullocks said, has both.

While there was limited tape of him playing single-high safety at Wake Forest, Bullocks said he saw more than enough to believe he can play in any role they ask of him.

"He can do everything that we can ask him to do on the back end," Bullocks said.

The most tantalizing quality he has, though, is his movement.

"For somebody with his stature, the guy's got good feet and he's got fluid hips," Bullocks said. "When you watch in Indy and you watch him moving, damn, he can move, he can change direction, not a stiff athlete, which he really showed on tape. But just his relentless motor, the style that he play with when he's out there on the field. You can see he's relentless."

Those movement skills earned Mustapha an eyebrow-raising comparison to a former Defensive Player of the Year.

"When I look at [Malik], I look at a guy like Bob Sanders, a guy that's more of a stout stature, that's shorter, that's physical," Bullocks said. "When you look at Malik, I think I compare him similar to that. I know [Sanders was] an All-Pro, but Malik has that same type of body type and balance that Bob Sanders played with."

For anyone who remembers Sanders, who was an All-Pro in the only two seasons he played more than 14 games (and won Defensive Player of the Year and the Super Bowl in the 2007 season), you know that is monumentally high praise.

Brian Griese's 'unfinished business'

It's now Brian Griese's third year coaching quarterbacks for the San Francisco 49ers. He was instrumental in Brock Purdy being drafted last by the team, and was part of his chaotic rise, from Trey Lance, to Jimmy Garoppolo, to Purdy in 2022.

After a Super Bowl loss, how does Griese feel about the job? I asked him. His answer lingered upon the bitter taste on the tip of the tongue.

"I can't answer that question without referencing the way that last year ended," Griese said. "Yeah, there was a newness two years ago. We felt like we didn't have a chance to even see if we could compete at the end of the year. And then obviously, we know we got there and came up just a little bit short.

"So I'd say, how do I feel? I feel like there's unfinished business. That's how I feel. So there's an edge and a sense of urgency. I feel that-- I hope that our quarterback room feels, I hope that our team feels. I think they do. So that's my first reaction to your question. That's what I feel, is a sense of urgency."