How the 49ers Match Up with the Cardinals

Grant Cohn explains to Howard Balzer how the San Francisco 49ers match up with the Arizona Cardinals.

The 49ers open the regular season Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals. To preview the matchup, I interviewed Sports Illustrated's AllCardinals publisher Howard Balzer about the Cardinals, and Howard interviewed me about the 49ers.

Here are snippets of the second part of the interview.

BALZER: Deebo Samuel was declared out for this game, and he brings a lot to this team beyond just being a receiver. He can run. Without Samuel, do you see the 49ers going more to the run, and maybe even more to George Kittle?

COHN: What you're going to see is a lot of Brandon Aiyuk, if he's healthy enough. He looked terrific in training camp and can do lots of the things Samuel does. You'll see Aiyuk in Samuel's role, you'll see plenty of runs and the new element you'll see is Jordan Reed. He could catch five passes and make an impact against the Cardinals.

BALZER: Will the defensive line be as good without DeForest Buckner as they were last season with him?

COHN: Think of it this way: The 49ers essentially traded Buckner for one guy -- Javon Kinlaw. He plays the same position as Buckner. Wears the same jersey number. Is supposed to be Buckner's replacement. But he's not a starter. The starter is former first-round pick Solomon Thomas, who is improving, but is not Buckner -- not even close. So it's still a great line, but not as great as last year, at least not yet. Maybe Kinlaw will blossom during the season.

BALZER: Will Richard Sherman follow DeAndre Hopkins in this game? No one is going to know on each play where Hopkins is lining up.

COHN: I think they're going to make Sherman shadow him in certain situations. It will be tough to shadow Hopkins on first down, because when you move your cornerback all over the defense to cover one guy, you let everyone know you're playing man-to-man coverage, which is fine on third and seven. But on first down, the 49ers like to play zone coverage. So I would expect Sherman to cover Hopkins man to man during obvious passing situations, but not every play.

Watch the full interview below.