San Francisco 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk joined KNBR on Friday morning for a lengthy interview and discussed several topics. He shared that February's Super Bowl LIV loss to the Kansas City Chiefs stuck with him for a long time.
"It's going to stick with me for the rest of my life, obviously," Juszczyk noted on the Murph and Mac show.
Time heals all wounds, even Super Bowl losses. It helps that Juszczyk doesn't have to hear about the Super Bowl champion Chiefs on a daily basis now, with most of the sports world on pause due to the coronavirus pandemic.
"It's a little bit more out-of-sight, out-of-mind, whereas the first couple of weeks, all I saw were Kansas City Chiefs highlights, and guys scoring touchdowns," Juszczyk said. "It just continued to drive that knife deeper into your heart. But the further you get away from it, the more you get to appreciate what kind of season we did have, and what an amazing journey the whole process was."
Juszczyk is looking forward to the 2020 season, assuming it is played. A lot of things are up in the air during these uncertain times. The defeat gives the fullback some extra motivation as he trains on his own this offseason.
Juszczyk believes the 49ers are built to return to the Super Bowl and should be an even better team in 2020. One of the reasons for that optimism is players like wide receiver Deebo Samuel, who is entering his second season.
"If I played Madden or I was just a fan of the Niners, I think Deebo might be my favorite player," Juszczyk said of the young and talented wideout.
Sorry, George Kittle.
One reason why Juszczyk is such a Deebo fan is because of his versatility, which was evident in the Super Bowl. He set a new record for rushing yards by a receiver in the Super Bowl, and nearly showed off his versatility in another way, reveals Juszczyk.
"I just love the fact that he does everything," he explained. "He's a wide receiver. He's basically our fourth running back. He can throw the ball. I mean, we called a play in the Super Bowl for him to throw it to Jimmy, but he had the awareness that Jimmy was covered, to tuck the ball and run. That's a rookie on the biggest stage you could possibly play on making those kinds of decisions. And he works his tail off."
Juszczyk has no doubt that with Samuel's athleticism, work ethic, and study habits, the arrow is pointed up for the young wideout.
Still, the 49ers weren't without their losses this offseason. While the team is returning 10 of 11 starters on each side of the football, the two losses are significant.
San Francisco traded Pro Bowl defensive tackle DeForest Buckner to the Indianapolis Colts. The team then watched as veteran wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders, who joined the team via a mid-season trade, signed with the New Orleans Saints. Both were crucial contributors to the team's run last season.
Juszczyk was shocked by the trade of Buckner, one of the most-liked players in the locker room.
"The DeForest trade, that probably hurt me more than any sort of transaction that I've ever been a part of in my NFL career," he shared. "DeForest is just -- you can't say enough good things about him. What a genuine, great guy, phenomenal teammate. Just good friends to me and my family. His wife and my wife are very good friends.
"The personal aspect of [the trade] hurt, like a lot, but it is a business. I'm never going to question what John (Lynch) and Kyle (Shanahan) do. So if they think that's going to, in the long run, make our team better, then we've got to stick with it."
Sanders' presence will be missed both on the field and in the locker room. The younger receivers looked up to the veteran and learned from him.
"There's no question that Emmanuel changed our offense for the better," Juszczyk said. "His ability to just be that one-on-one matchup beater really changed it for us; to be a dynamic playmaker. We were missing that. Adding that to our offense really kind of sparked us to that next level."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Juszczyk below.