San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch appears to have a clear-cut plan how to rebuild the team’s defense in 2017, and it all starts from the ground up.
As a nine-time NFL Pro Bowl safety, San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch knows a thing or two about defenses.
One of the things he knows is no defensive back is capable of staying with a wide receiver forever. At some point, that receiver will get open. The only factor is how quickly the guys up front can converge on a quarterback.
This knowledge has carried over into his plans as a first-year executive with the Niners.
San Francisco 49ers
Lynch’s plans have been reflected by his efforts in both free agency and the NFL Draft — areas in which the once-hapless 49ers defense have seen vast improvement since an abysmal 2016 campaign.
In this sense, Lynch is subscribing to the defensive theory, “it all starts in the trenches.”
And while San Francisco is a ways away from boasting an elite-level defense, Lynch has surely put the team on the right path.
Bad vs. Good vs. Elite Defenses
Here’s my complicated analysis for you.
When a front seven isn’t very good against the run or the pass — just like the 49ers a year ago — it doesn’t matter how good a secondary is. Teams don’t need to pass. They can just run the ball, gain yardage and chew up the clock.
See San Francisco’s historically bad 2016 campaign as a pure example.
An OK-to-good front seven can be effective if it has an elite-level secondary. But teams armed with an elite front seven (think the Denver Broncos from 2015 or the Seattle Seahawks from 2013), paired with a good-to-elite secondary, that’s what makes a top-echelon defense at the NFL level.
Even the 49ers had a defense like this back in 2012. San Francisco was armed with a tremendous defensive line, elite linebacker corps and solid contributors within the secondary.
It’s not a complex formula.
How John Lynch Is Rebuilding the 49ers Defense
This is something former GM Trent Baalke tried to do the last couple of seasons. For all his mistakes, let’s give him credit for looking at the trenches first.
In 2015, defensive end Arik Armstead was supposed to be the find. Last year, fellow DE DeForest Buckner was the notable pickup.
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Yet Baalke also invested heavily in defensive backs — Eric Reid, Jimmie Ward, Jaquiski Tartt — in early NFL Draft rounds.
This hurt the 49ers in some ways, although Buckner and Armstead are still key components.
Rather than follow suit and focus on the secondary, though, Lynch put his efforts up front. Despite already having two starting-caliber defensive linemen in Armstead and Buckner, Lynch’s first draft pick brought in Stanford’s Solomon Thomas. Lynch’s second addressed the linebacker group, with Reuben Foster going at the tail end of Round 1.
Tack on the free-agent signing of nose tackle Earl Mitchell, primarily poised to address the Niners’ run-stopping woes, and one can see the plan unfold.
And the same plan goes with adding veteran EDGE Elvis Dumervil via free agency. It’s all part of solidifying the front seven first before worrying too much about the secondary.
Whether or not these moves pan out remains to be seen. In fact, Pro Football Focus recently ranked San Francisco’s front seven the worst in the entire league heading into 2017 despite all the changes.
Next: John Lynch continues to prove he's the anti-Trent Baalke
Still, the plan to get the Niners defense back on track has a clear-cut path laid out. And it’s going to be excited to watch the results unfold.