The San Francisco 49ers have been preaching versatility on defense under new defensive coordinator Raheem Morris, and perhaps no player has symbolized that more than fifth-round rookie linebacker Jaden Dugger.<\/p>\n
Dugger, a safety-converted-MIKE in college, fits what the 49ers have generally liked with their linebackers from an athleticism perspective. But there\u2019s a lot more to the puzzle, as the 49ers have moved him around all three linebacker spots and even played him in some other roles off the edge, despite it being his first offseason with the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery day of practice, [he] plays the MIKE, WILL, and the star position,\u201d linebackers coach K.J. Wright said of Dugger. \u201cAnd now throw him a curveball, he\u2019s gonna play D-line. You\u2019re like, what? That can do a lot to a player\u2019s mind. I kid you not, guys, he handled it pitch perfect. He went with the D-line, he rushed, he set the edge, showed some really good versatility. He did one-on-ones against the running backs, made it look easy.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so he is a linebacker. Like he\u2019s not a D-lineman, he is a linebacker. But as time goes on, things happen. We need a 3rd down package. Hey, you go play defensive end, you go burn that edge and go get after that quarterback. He can do that. But his main position is a linebacker, but he can also down the line showcase that he can go on the line of scrimmage, be extra valuable for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
And this versatility isn\u2019t new. Wright identified it on tape when scouting Dugger and felt more confident in the rookie after interviewing him during the pre-draft scouting process.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew [he could be versatile] when I interviewed him in April or whatever. I knew, I was like, this guy can handle multiple [positions]. He did it in college,\u201d Wright said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA guy that played safety, a guy that played on the ball, a guy that went to MIKE linebacker. I knew that he could handle what we\u2019re asking him to do. It\u2019s not easy, but for a guy to be able to play 3 positions, guys, 3 positions in practice is really cool to see. I\u2019m just excited for his future. We meet every day as rookies, each and every practice. We get on the board, tell me what you see. I hand him the clicker, you\u2019re the coach, and we just talk it out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dugger is still relatively new to the linebacker position after starting his college career as a safety. And the 49ers understand that, and are looking to continue developing him at the position. But there were clear positives on tape that Wright identified which made him confident that Dugger could be a fit in San Francisco.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to ask questions. I\u2019m going to ask football questions. I\u2019m going to get on the tape. Tell me what you see,\u201d Wright continued about his pre-draft meeting with Dugger. \u201cWalk me through your progression throughout the week and how you get ready to play a football game. I can tell guys who have a plan. I can tell guys who don\u2019t have a plan. And he was a guy that had a plan. He had a regimen. He had a routine. And for him to just play Mike at Louisiana Lafayette, his just one year, I knew that he was still raw. He still had some growing and developing to do. He\u2019s still growing. It\u2019s, what, practice 10? Yeah, he\u2019s going to keep getting better each and every time he steps on the football field.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, through nearly a full offseason, Wright is seeing the film play out on the field with Dugger\u2019s athleticism, and he feels the rookie is going to be a player.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the thing is with Dugger, like, he is that guy that I saw on film,\u201d Wright added. \u201cYou guys see this man run from the numbers to the other numbers, like he covers so much grass, you know what I mean? When you see him tackle, like, we don\u2019t obviously tackle, we see him like make contact, he\u2019s the guy that can sink into his hips. Same way that he was in college.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just my job to make sure that keep tapping to those to those strengths that he has, but also let\u2019s keep developing, taking on linemen. Let\u2019s keep developing striking, get comfortable in front of the huddle because you know it\u2019s about to be about sixty thousand fans out there next week. You got to be loud. You got to be vocal. You got to get everybody on the same page and so on. It\u2019s obviously growing pains as a rookie, but as time goes on, he\u2019s going to be a guy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The San Francisco 49ers have been preaching versatility on defense under new defensive coordinator Raheem Morris, and perhaps…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431579,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,8376,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-431578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-49ers-news","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}