Niners Nation
Your daily San Francisco 49ers news for Tuesday, February 18th, 2025
49ers rookie is already a top 100 NFL player after strong 2024 season
“Puni wound up starting all 17 games for San Francisco at right guard. He earned an 80.5 overall grade from PFF, and particularly excelled as a run blocker where he was given a very strong 81.5 grade.”
49ers reportedly make decision on exclusive-rights free agents
“The key takeaway is that the 49ers have decided to retain all their exclusive-rights free agents for now.
Two of the defensive linemen on the list, Anderson and Okuayinonu, showed promise during their limited playing time in a challenging 2024 season for the 49ers. Okuayinonu participated in 44% of defensive snaps, while Anderson played 34%. Both could become important depth players to watch as the offseason progresses.”
“West (6-2, 317) earned a career-high 88.1 run-defense grade last season from Pro Football Focus, recording an overall defensive grade of 83.6.
“I take a lot of pride in defending the run,” West said. “I feel like if a team is successfully running the ball on us, I take responsibility for that. I put the blame solely on myself. It’s a pride thing for me. It has to be about pride when it comes to stopping the run.”
West has posted an overall grade of 80.1 or higher in each of the past three seasons, playing primarily on the interior of the defensive front.”
Barnwell: 49ers’ Deebo Samuel still a YAC threat, but the problem is ‘most everything else’
““Yards per carry can be misleading if a player is picking up a lot of short-yardage first downs,” Barnwell wrote, “but he went from generating first downs on more than 30% of his runs from 2021 to 2023 to just 11.9% this season.”
