49ers’ wide-9 alingment has trickle-down effect on defense

The San Francisco 49ers are going to be using more of a wide-9 defensive alignment in 2019, which has some unique effects on the rest of the defense.

For the last two seasons, San Francisco 49ers coordinator Robert Saleh failed to quite replicate the same kind of defensive efficiency he enjoyed when he was an assistant with both the Seattle Seahawks and Jacksonville Jaguars.

A year ago, the Niners were good enough at preventing teams from gouging them for a ton of yards, finishing 13th best in that category, but this group allowed the fifth most points in the league.

Saleh’s attempt to create the 4-3 base, Cover 3 single-high safety scheme didn’t quite work, namely because San Francisco lacked the playmakers at all three levels to make it happen.

Entering 2019, things will be a bit different.

One of the changes will be a shift to a wide-9 format along the defensive line, which is the preferred formation for new defensive line coach Kris Kocurek.

As our own Chris Wilson pointed out, along with 49ers Webzone’s Bret Rumbeck, there are plenty of advantages to spreading out the formation a bit. Especially after the additions of edge rushers Dee Ford and Nick Bosa this offseason.

Yet these changes aren’t going to focus solely on the defensive line. In fact, there’s going to be a “trickle down” effect, of sorts, on the other two levels of the defense.

Over the last two seasons, San Francisco placed its strong-side (SAM) linebacker up against the line of scrimmage. With setting the edge being a priority, the SAM would often have to be bigger to match up against blocking tight ends and, at times, offensive tackles or guards kicking outside.

With the wide-9 alignment, however, the SAM can be pushed back off the line of scrimmage, acting as “stack linebackers,” relying more on open-field tackling and pursuit rather than sheer strength. Now, the Niners’ linebacking corps should be much more interchangeable than before. That’s another bonus.

Additionally, the 49ers’ previous alignment typically called for the strong safety to be up towards the line of scrimmage, too. Hence the single-high safety scheme.

The wide-9 formation essentially frees up the SAM linebacker to lock down a spot where Saleh’s strong safety would be, allowing the defender to back up a bit and operate more Cover 2 safety formations instead.

It’s one of the reasons why you might have been reading more about the Niners’ safety tandem being much more interchangeable this season.

One of the bonuses here, aside from having two defenders potentially deep in the middle of the field, is it can free up rotations to either side of the defense, when called upon. It essentially creates more options and deception on the defensive side, frequently leading to more turnovers, too.

The 49ers only had two interceptions last year, and the hope is for these changes to provide a significant uptick in that number in 2019.

If it works, the Niners defense should see a vast improvement in those points allowed as well. And Saleh might have finally answered those who criticized his efforts, previously.