Adjustments Coming to the San Francisco 49ers Protection?
For most of Robert Saleh’s tenure as Defense Coordinator with the 49ers, covers in secondary school were pretty straightforward. Violators knew they would face primarily zone coverage, mostly cover 3 and cover 4, with man coverage being used from time to time.
Part of it was due to philosophy, another part was out of necessity.
The 49ers’ defense philosophy for the first three seasons under Saleh was to keep everything in front of secondary school to reduce the possibility of abandoning explosive games by playing the aforementioned zone covers and disrupting the quarterback by rushing with only the four lines of defense.
The defense wasn’t very good in the first two seasons. Most of these fights were due to the lack of pass rushers. That changed in 2019.
After a dismal 2018 season, the 49ers took some steps that would drastically improve their defense. The first was trading two round two draft picks to the Kansas City Chiefs for Dee Ford. While Ford’s total snapshots were reduced in 2019 due to injuries, the impact on the field was felt.
In addition to Ford, San Francisco used its first round pick to add another pass rusher, Nick Bosa, who was named NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year in his nine sack rookie campaign.
With Ford and Bosa and the rest of the 49ers line of defense harassing opposing quarterbacks, the 49ers secondary school flourished. After forcing just two interceptions for the full year of 2018, the 49ers were able to force 12 en route to a Super Bowl mooring in 2019.
In 2020, injuries limited Ford and Bosa to just five-quarters. With Ford and Bosa on the sidelines, there was hardly a rush for the 49ers, which fell from 48 bags in 2019 to just 30.
Due to the inability to generate a pass rush with just four players, Robert Saleh had to use more Blitz Packs than any of his first three seasons in San Francisco. And for the most part, the changes worked.
A big part of the extra lightning packs was Jason Verrett’s ability to play coverage of men when he replaced Richard Sherman on the starting grid.
With Saleh becoming the New York Jets head coach, there are a number of questions about how new defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans could transform the 49ers’ defensive attack.
The selection of cornerbacks Ambry Thomas and Deommodore Lenoir in the design may have provided the first signs of possible changes.
The addition of Thomas and Lenoir allowed two backups to step in and maintain defense in case Verrett was injured. Both of them excelled in reporting on men during their college years.
With Nick Bosa set to return from injury and Samson Ebukam standing in line to take on Dee Ford’s role on the other side, the rush of passers-by is expected to return to 2019 levels. However, if it takes Bosa some time to come back up to date and Ebukam does not live up to expectations. The focus on man coverage in secondary school will allow Ryans to build on the pressure packages deployed last season to keep defense high.
