49ers 2017 Season: San Francisco’s new run defense
By Jonah Burros
Today, Niner Noise will continue our analysis of the new 2017 San Francisco 49ers team with part four of our five-part series addressing the nuts and bolts of the new team. Parts one, two and three addressed the running game, passing game and pass defense. Today we will break down last years’ biggest weakness with how the 49ers plan on stopping the run in 2017.
The hopeless past
In 2016, the San Francisco 49ers owned the worst run defense in franchise history and the third worst in NFL history.
The 2016 team allowed 2,654 yards, 25 touchdowns, 4.8 yards per carry and 166 yards per game. The situation this unfortunate defense put the Niners in last year does not even allow you to properly evaluate the pass defense or, for that matter, other aspects of the team due to the irregular nature of the opponents taking advantage of this weakness.
The 49ers have invested in the defensive side of the ball heavily in the past six years. Since 2011 they have invested seven picks in Round 1, two picks in Round 2 and three picks in Round 3. Out of these 12 players, 11 are currently on the roster at this point of the 2017 preseason.
San Francisco 49ers
Eight of these players were playing in 2016, during the historically awful year, that the new regime is currently working to dig themselves out of.
The 2011 season, when they began investing so heavily in the draft on the defensive side of the ball, the 49ers had the best rush defense in the league. Whether it has been the exodus of the players from that year or the many different coaching and scheme changes, the investment has completely failed to this point, going from first to worst in the same period of time.
New general manager John Lynch and new head coach Kyle Shanahan have appropriately focused on this glaring weakness with some free agency acquisitions and top draft selections in their first year of the 49ers rebuild.
In addition to the new talent brought in, they have also implemented an entirely new scheme and defensive coaching staff. The 4-3 under scheme is to be the new way of things and new defensive coordinator Robert Saleh will be captaining the ship.
Saleh has been a true student and implementor of this new scheme, working under Seattle Seahawks DC Gus Bradley for three years as defensive quality control and then following Bradley to the Jacksonville Jaguars as the linebackers coach for as many years.
The new 4-3 under scheme and the new DC put the fans of the 49ers in an entirely new spot as far as understanding what this means when addressing the horrible nature of what happened last year in the running game.
We will first look at the scheme and what it means in stopping the rush and then the roster.