San Francisco 49ers: Power ranking top 10 players entering 2020

49ers EDGE Dee Ford

In his first year in San Francisco, EDGE Dee Ford played in 14 games, including the playoffs, which doesn’t appear to be all that bad.

But Ford, who was plagued by injuries throughout the campaign, was only on the field for 322 total snaps, again including the playoffs, limiting the impact he was able to have on the 49ers defense.

The 2019 49ers defense was quite good, but during those snaps when Ford was on the field, they found much of their success. The splits with Ford in and out of the lineup are quite staggering, including sacks (39 versus nine) and pressure rates (32 percent versus 24.8 percent), just to point out a few.

So although availability is a major issue with Ford, there’s little doubt the former Chief has a major impact on the 49ers defensive dominance when he’s healthy and rushing the passer.

It isn’t that the Niners defense can’t be good in 2020 without him, it’s just that they will likely much better with Ford on the field.

And that may be a key to getting the 49ers back to the Super Bowl after the 2020 regular season is said and done.