Niners Nation
The style of play has made it difficult for this team to hold up for an entire season. Will 2024 be any different?
Steve Wilks is out. Nick Sorensen is in, with assistance from Brandon Staley. If you’ve been listening to Kyle Shanahan this offseason, he’s been steadfast about the San Francisco 49ers defense returning to their identity.
The days of Robert Saleh and DeMeco Ryans were simple. The Niners would play a bullying style of football. You knew they would rush four, but that didn’t matter because they were too fast and physical.
Sorensen has been in the building, run meetings, and knows the personnel on the roster. It shouldn’t take much for the coaching staff to get back to the days before Wilks.
Where does Staley fit in? He brings a different perspective, coming from the Vic Fangio coaching tree, but hiring an “outsider” makes sense if the plan is for him to soak up knowledge from your scheme while sharing his experiences about how he and Fangio used to attack offenses or limit star players when it comes to game-planning — the latter is something Fangio has been known for excelling at for years.
Creativity left once Ryans’ did. Remember a couple of seasons ago in the playoffs when DeMeco double-teamed Green Bay Packers wide receiver Davante Adams?
Staley should play a significant role in helping Sorensen when it comes to game-planning.
Wilks was missing one of the most important pieces on the defense for much of the second half, as Arik Armstead injured himself against the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 12. The 49ers had the best top-end talent of any team in the NFL. That's why last year, the NFC felt more like the 49ers invitational.
But we saw how lousy the run defense looked when Armstead was injured. The defense also implemented a rookie safety on the fly while shuffling the lineup due to various other injuries every week.
The 49ers' biggest fight this year will likely be the same as it is every season: The battle of attrition. The Ringer’s Diante Lee went into detail about’ the Niners'defense, from what Talanoa Hufanga means to the team to the domino effect from losing Armstead and Dre Greenlaw in the short-term:
“Hufanga is young. I think he’ll bounce back from his injury and be fine. When he’s there, it does change their defensive backfield. He’s a guy that can play from depth, do some different things as far as playing in the seam, a deep half, and still showing up in run support. That’s what makes Hufanga a special player.
Is Charvarius Ward as healthy again? I would like trust him. He’s even better there than he was in Kansas City.
My big question is, is De’Vondre Campbell going to be an adequate Dre Greenlaw replacement for as long as Greenlaw’s out? We don’t know what the timeline is for the recovery on his Achilles injury....
