San Francisco 49ers middle linebacker Fred Warner (54) leaves with an injury on the cart during an NFL football game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Sunday, Oct 12, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Peter Joneleit)
Peter Joneleit/Associated Press
Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Sterling Shepard (17) and teammates react after an injury to San Francisco 49ers middle linebacker Fred Warner during the first half of an NFL football game in Tampa, Fla., Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Jason Behnken)
Jason Behnken/Associated Press
San Francisco 49ers middle linebacker Fred Warner (54) is tended to after being injured during the first half of an NFL football game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Tampa, Fla., Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025.
Jason Behnken/AP
TAMPA, Fla. — It wasn’t visible to the television audience or 62,411 fans at Raymond James Stadium, but the immediate reaction of San Francisco 49ers defensive tackle CJ West and Buccaneers wide receiver Tez Johnson let everyone know: Something horrific had just happened to 49ers linebacker Fred Warner.
West and Johnson both glanced at Warner on the ground, his dislocated right ankle bent at a grotesque angle, and placed both hands on their helmets and turned away, sickened. Johnson and Buccaneers offensive tackle Tristan Wirfs, among those closest to Warner, waved furiously to the 49ers sideline for medical assistance.
“It was nasty,” West said. “It was just nasty.”
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Three hours later, after the 49ers’ 30-19 loss to Tampa Bay, 49ers safety Ji’Ayir Brown looked nearly as shaken up as West did when Warner was injured midway through the first quarter. Asked about the impact of losing the 49ers’ four-time, first-team All-Pro and six-time team captain, Brown, who crashed into the back Warner’s leg while tackling running back Rachaad White, placed his right thumb and index finger on his temple, shook his head and searched for words.
“It’s tough, bro,” Brown said. “It’s tough … Seeing him go down — a guy that doesn’t go down — I mean, hearing that, man, it’s draining.”
Warner, 28, addressed the team in the postgame locker room. Players said the eight-year veteran encouraged them by pointing to their 4-2 record. And he talked optimistically about the “next man up,” which, in this case, is linebacker Tatum Bethune, a 2024 seventh-round pick who arrived Sunday with one start and 54 defensive snaps on his NFL resume.
Based on that, it sounds as if Warner was handling his absence better than his teammates in a hushed visitor’s locker room. Wide receiver Jauan Jennings didn’t see Warner’s right ankle before it was quickly covered by an air cast, but he told reporters seeing him carted off the field required him to take nausea medication, saying “it just made me sick to my stomach.”
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It was a reaction to entering uncharted territory without a player West said he viewed as “invincible.”
Warner has made 62 straight starts and played in 121 of 122 regular-season games. Left tackle Trent Williams said the 49ers had lost far more than a durable do-it-all menace who ranks second in 49ers’ history in tackles and owns franchise records in forced fumbles and pass breakups by a linebacker.
“Not only is he one of the best linebackers ever to play the game, but he’s the heart and soul of this team. Not just the heart and soul of this defense,” Williams said. “So, you know, it’s one thing to see somebody go down, and go to the blue tent, and nobody really knows what’s really going on. When you see a guy that’s injured like that, it’s really like a gut punch. It truly is really hard to continue.”
For years, Warner has infused the 49ers’ defense with swagger while establishing a sky-high standard. On Sunday, when the Bucs faced 4th-and-1 from their 37 yard-line on their first drive, Warner screamed and waved to their sideline, begging them not to punt. This season, he’s twice placed both hands on his helmet after a wide-open running back has dropped a pass, furious about the busted assignment instead of celebrating his team’s good fortune.
“I think the thing about Fred is that he sets the standard,” linebacker Luke Gifford said. “And I think everybody rises to the standard that he sets. The way we work is because of Fred. We’ve learned from him … You don’t replace Fred Warner.”
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That was evident Sunday after Warner’s exit — which was preceded three weeks earlier by the season-ending loss of pass rusher Nick Bosa — left the 49ers without a defensive player who had earned All-Pro or Pro Bowl honors.
Tampa Bay was playing without starting running back Bucky Irving, frontline wide receivers Mike Evans and Chris Godwin and it lost rookie wideout Emeka Egbuka to hamstring injury early in the third quarter after the first-round pick arrived ranked fourth in the NFL in receiving yards.
Still, the skeleton-crew Bucs had 315 yards and scored 23 points in the final 52-plus minutes without Warner on the field. Their final five full possessions included three touchdowns, on drives of 68, 72 and 66 yards, a missed field goal and a field goal.
The pass rush was, again, a rumor without Bosa. The 49ers had one sack and one QB hit Sunday while unbothered QB Baker Mayfield threw for 256 yards, two touchdowns and posted a 139.0 passer rating. Without Bosa, the 49ers have two sacks and three QB hits in three games and QBs have a 111.8 rating. Now, starting Sunday when they host the Falcons, they’ll play a full game without Bosa and Warner for the first time since 2018, the season before Bosa was drafted No. 2 overall.
“Man, bro, we lost those two guys and, like you said, we can’t replace them,” Brown said. “When we’re all out there together, man, you can feel it. And when one person is not out there, you can feel it. Now, with both of them not out there, it’s even more daunting.”
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General manager John Lynch said last week that he was having “a lot of good and productive” trade talks to help fill the void left by Bosa’s absence. However, he referenced the fact that the 49ers, who made an offseason effort to have a younger and lower-priced roster, couldn’t overspend in terms of the contract they’ll assume or draft-pick compensation. Now, can they really afford to swing deals for two players who can lessen the blow of losing Bosa and Warner?
If not, Sunday’s defensive performance could be an unpleasant foreshadowing. On Sunday, after Warner’s exit, cornerback Deommodore Lenoir was the only player among their 10 other starters who entered the season with more than 18 career starts.
“I think it’s obviously tough being as young as we are,” Gifford said. “We’ve got a lot of new pieces. But the thing about it is that I think that the culture that this place has and the way that it’s been built with guys like Fred, it’s instilled in everybody on our defense. You turn on the tape and see the way guys run and hit and how hard they play, that’s part of who we are.”
Gifford had a point. Warner set a standard other have worked to reach. But the truth is that who the 49ers are changed, irrevocably, when Warner was on the ground Sunday and two players on opposite teams turned away: You don’t replace Fred Warner.