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An Overview of the San Francisco 49ers Defense
After playing championship-caliber defense for three consecutive seasons, the 49ers backslid a little in 2024. They remained outstanding versus the pass, giving up the third-fewest yards and the second-lowest yards per attempt. Four teams surrendered fewer completions of 40+ yards, and only the Eagles allowed fewer of 20+. It was the run defense that took a step back. San Francisco was middle of the pack in yards allowed, but they gave up the second most runs of 20+ yards and the second most rushing scores. The big play numbers were down as well. The pass rush dropped from 48 sacks in 2023 to 37, and the team went from 28 takeaways to 17. The eye-catching and un-49ers-like statistic was scoring, where their 25.6 points per game ranked 29th.
In addition to the shortcomings, San Francisco went into the off-season with salary cap issues. The combination led to significant roster turnover with several high-priced veterans ushered out, and at least four new starters. Free agency brought corner Tre Brown, safeties Jason Pinnock and Richie Grant, and linebacker Luke Gifford, but the biggest story was San Francisco's commitment to getting younger and better via the draft. They went defense with their first five picks and six of the first seven. Three of those picks were directed at the defensive line, including the first two.
Another thing the 49ers' defense has to deal with is the change at defensive coordinator. They lost Steve Wilks to a head coaching position after the 2023 season, promoting Nick Sorensen to replace him. Sorensen was let go in January, replaced by former Jets head coach Robert Saleh, who ran the San Francisco defense from 2017 to 2020. Saleh is a fiery coach who got a raw deal with the Jets' situation. He is a familiar face to many in the organization and should be an upgrade, but he will not bring major scheme changes.
San Francisco 49ers Defensive Linemen
Leonard Floyd and Malik Collins were starters last year, and Javon Hargrave would have been had he played more than the first three games. All of them are gone, likely creating some position battles this summer.
The competition for the edge position ended when the team selected Mykel Williams eleventh overall. At six feet five and 260 pounds, Williams has good size. A big wingspan and outstanding traits. Williams entered the draft after his junior year at Georgia, so at age 21, he has room to grow both physically and technically.
Williams is adequate as a point of attack defender versus the run. That should improve with experience and hard work in the weight room. He has a nasty bull rush and a strong closing burst, but needs a bigger arsenal of moves as a pass rusher. That too will come with time and good coaching.
One important box that Williams leaves unchecked is college production. His three years with the Bulldogs produced 67 combined tackles, 14 sacks, and 4 turnovers. In his final season there, he went 15-21-5 with 2 forced fumbles. While it is always a plus to see good numbers coming into the league, not having them is far from a deal-breaker. NFL history is littered with players who underperformed statistically in school, only to explode as pros. We could see modest production from Williams as a rookie, but don't hesitate to stash him on a taxi squad for safekeeping in dynasty formats.
No speculation is needed when it comes to the other edge position. Nick Bosa is elite from both NFL and fantasy perspectives. Throw out 2020 when he missed virtually the entire season, and you get a player who averages 37 tackles, 14 assists, 13 sacks, and 4 turnovers. He is a perennial top-twelve edge defender and is a threat to win a sack title.
Bosa has at least nine sacks in each of his five campaigns outside of 2020. Had he not missed three games with a quad injury last year, he would all but certainly be on a string of four consecutive years with at least 51 combined tackles and double-digit sacks. Bosa's best year was 2022 when he was 41-10-18 with a pair of forced fumbles. At 33-19-9 with 3 takeaways in fourteen contests, he was the fantasy game's 15th-ranked edge defender in 2024 with an average points per game that was ninth. Bosa is not a consideration to be the first edge defender off the board, but he should be among the first ten.
No future stars are lurking down the San Francisco depth chart at the edge position. They do, however, have serviceable veteran depth in Yetur Gross-Matos and Bryce Huff, who signed with the team after having played under Salah in New York. Neither of these players has enough juice to become fantasy relevant if a starter goes down, but they can fill in adequately on the field.
Once upon a time, the 49ers gave us one of the fantasy game's elite options at tackle. That ended when they elected not to re-sign DeForest Buckner after the 2019 season. Since that time, they have thrown both high draft picks and significant free-agent capital at the position with marginal success. Javon Hargrave was a candidate to break that trend last year. Instead, he spent most of the season on IR.
Malik Collins led San Francisco's interior line statistically with a mediocre 20-13-5 and 2 recoveries. That was not enough to keep him in town, so the team heads into training camp with a wide-open competition for the jobs. Kevin Givens and Jordan Elliott are the veterans vying for playing time and are penciled in as starters entering camp. Second-round pick Alfred Collins and fourth-round selection CJ West are the challengers.
Collins is a big man, at six feet six and 332 pounds. He is mobile for his size and difficult to move. He does not have much wiggle as a pass rusher, though, and is probably not the next Buckner. Collins played five seasons at Texas, totaling seven career sacks. He was 27-28-1 in 16 games last year. CJ West is also north of 330 pounds, but he is more of a bowling ball type. West has a lot of starting experience from his college career, albeit against lesser competition at Kent State. He transferred to Indiana for his senior year, where he totaled 40 stops and 2 sacks. To sum it all up, San Francisco could get solid play from their interior, but it doesn't look like anyone will buck the statistical trend this year.
- DE Nick Bosa – Perennial top-12 with top-5 potential
- DE Mykel Williams – Strong dynasty target with second starter potential as a rookie
- DE Yetur Gross-Matos – Injury sleeper with marginal potential
- DE Bryce Huff – No impact
- DE Robert Beal Jr. – No impact
- DT Kevin Givens – No impact
- DT Jordan Elliott – No impact
- DT Alfred Collins – No impact expected
- DT CJ West – No impact
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