The San Francisco 49ers have had a bevy of strong defensive coordinators in the Kyle Shanahan era. It all started with Robert Saleh, one of the best defensive minds in the NFL, who has since been hired as a head coach twice after stints in San Francisco.<\/p>\n
The 49ers then had DeMeco Ryans, who quickly established himself as a special defensive mind in his two-year stint as defensive coordinator. After two failed experiments with Steve Wilks and Nick Sorensen, and Saleh\u2019s second stint last season, San Francisco had a vacancy at the coveted position again.<\/p>\n
A ton of names were floated around, but Kyle Shanahan and Co. focused on one: former Atlanta Falcons head coach Raheem Morris, who had been with Shanahan in Atlanta and Washington a decade ago.<\/p>\n
Morris had been an assistant in football since 1998 and a head coach twice, while having a ton of experience as a playcaller. Initially, despite all that, there were some who worried that the scheme difference could lead to some early growing pains.<\/p>\n
But through five games, Morris has been a fantastic addition, as several 49ers defenders are enjoying the best stints of their careers, while the unit as a whole has looked elite despite dealing with injuries.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t surprise me with Raheem,\u201d Kyle Shanahan said this week. \u201cI\u2019ve just been around him for too long. He\u2019s one of the best people and best coaches I\u2019ve ever been around. I tried to bring him here originally when I left Atlanta. They wouldn\u2019t let him out.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, it\u2019s been a long time coming to get him here. He\u2019s done an unbelievable job this year, especially with the injuries, but just overall everything he\u2019s mixed up schematically. I love the confidence he\u2019s given our DBs and the way they\u2019ve been playing since training camp. He\u2019s had a real huge effect on this team and we\u2019re very lucky to have him.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 49ers have been decimated on the defensive line. They ran it back with a secondary that was inconsistent last year. And they\u2019re also relying on a good amount of young talent. Still, they rank third in EPA allowed per play, third in points allowed per game, and sixth in yards allowed per game.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s with the team facing the Los Angeles Rams, Denver Broncos, and Seattle Seahawks through the first five weeks.<\/p>\n
The 49ers\u2019 defensive line personnel has been decimated. The team has been without Nick Bosa, Mykel Williams, Alfred Collins, Sam Okuayinonu, CJ West, and others for parts of the year. That\u2019s prompted them to rely on a number of players who signed in training camp or later to play key snaps. And still, the group is producing.<\/p>\n
Osa Odighizuwa has been a very solid addition, leading the team with 15 pressures to go with a 12.8 pass-rush win rate on the interior so far. Keion White, a former New England Patriots second-round pick, has been a revelation. He\u2019s second on the team in pressures (13) while recording eight defensive stops, good for fourth on the team.<\/p>\n
Gracen Halton has immediately stepped up as a rookie, and we\u2019ve seen him get better each week. He had his best game yet against the Seahawks with three pressures and three defensive stops, along with a forced fumble. The same goes for both rookies Romello Height and Jaden Dugger, who had quality outings as well in Week 5.<\/p>\n
The veteran linebackers Fred Warner and Dre Greenlaw have looked very good, with Warner seeming like a Defensive Player of the Year candidate once again, despite coming off a major injury.<\/p>\n
And the secondary has exceeded all expectations. Renardo Green and Malik Mustapha are having the best years of their careers. The group as a whole has looked very good in coverage, and they\u2019re playing with a high level of confidence as Shanahan noted.<\/p>\n
Morris\u2019s blitz packages have also given opposing quarterbacks trouble. But the key part is that he\u2019s keeping things simple for his defense, which has allowed the group to pick things up faster and play freely with more confidence.<\/p>\n
The 49ers are averaging 17 pressures a game, despite their personnel, while also swarming to the ball and looking good in coverage. That\u2019s got me thinking about how good Morris is relative to his predecessors, which is a very high bar to meet. So far though, he\u2019s passed every test with flying colors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The San Francisco 49ers have had a bevy of strong defensive coordinators in the Kyle Shanahan era. It…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496914,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,8376,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-496913","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\/496913","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=496913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}