Each week, I get to sit down with different 49ers players for the team's only player-focused podcast, discussing the upcoming game week and leading players through fan-submitted questions about football, life and everything in between. Tight ends Ross Dwelley and Charlie Woerner joined the 49ers You've Got Mail podcast presented by Manscaped ahead of the team's Week 3 primetime matchup against the Denver Broncos.
Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify to stay up to date on the latest episodes of You've Got Mail presented by Manscaped.
Here are five things we learned about our tight end duo:
Fans want to know the ins and outs of on-the-field play. For tight ends, blocking is a key part of the job, and Dwelley and Woerner both enjoy a good pancake block.
Woerner: "It's pretty rewarding. To put another grown man on his back is pretty nice—just to have him and have complete control over him feels pretty good. Theres's not too much else to it."
Dwelley: "You've got to have your right hand placement. You have to keep driving your feet when they try and shed you. You have to be fully present for that one."
Every player's path to the NFL looks a little bit different, but Dwelley and Woerner's stories are similar. Both fell in love with the sport at an early age, and, for Woerner, playing in the NFL is a family affair.
Woerner: "I started when I was 11 and then played from then on. Through high school recruiting, I was always asked about my uncle because he played at Georgia, won the national championship, then went to the USFL when that was popular in the '80s and then played for the Falcons and Saints after that."
Dwelley: "I've been playing tackle football since second grade, so I've been playing for a while. In high school, I took a year off of football my junior year because I thought I was going to play baseball…I really missed football, and I wanted to come back to it my senior year of high school. I played, did well enough to get an offer from USD. I went to San Diego just wanting to play football, hang out with the guys. I ended up playing well and started focusing on it even harder. I got a little lucky, I signed on as an undrafted free agent and started off on practice squad."
Only half of this tight end duo currently owns a dog, but both have at one point had dogs as part of their everyday lives. Dwelley had the strongest take on how to welcome a second dog into your home without displacing your first furry friend.
Dwelley: "I have friends that have two dogs, and they've said that the first dog will have a little bit of jealousy issues at the start. It's just like with a kid, if you have a second kid the (first) kid might get a little jealous…It might be a little tough at the start but eventually the dog will learn to love the other dog. I don't think there's really much to worry about. You've already gone through being a puppy owner with the first dog, so you already kind of know what to expect from the puppy."
Woerner (chiming in, jokingly): "That old dog might try to kill the new dog though. We had plenty of dogs growing up, and whenever we brought a new one, you couldn't put them in the same room. Ours were kind of like inside-outside dogs but you still have to watch out every now and then."
When it comes to car etiquette and dating, Woerner and Dwelley are absolutely on the same page. You should be allowed to eat in someone's car, or else, it's definitely a red flag.
Woerner: Yeah, dude—yes. Come on! Is that like way too 'Type A?' Just relax a little bit. We change diapers in the truck. We eat full meals in the truck. You've just got to ride and go."
Dwelley: "Unless you've got like a Rolls-Royce or something like that…We've got Hanley (golden retriever) in the back of the car. We've got dog hair, sand after she goes to the beach—my car is pretty crazy. We got a little mat there for her so she's not just on the seat, but that's a little aggressive. What if you just want to get some In-N-Out and eat it the car?"
*To close out the podcast session, Woerner and Dwelley shared a fun fact about themselves. *
Woerner: "I feel like everyone always goes 'big eyes' when I say I am one of seven kids."
Dwelley: "Before I was in the NFL, I did a lot of dirt biking and a lot of snow skiing. I was a huge outdoor sport guy."
