SF 49ers depth chart: Niners finalizing deal for Ezekiel Ansah

The SF 49ers are bringing aboard some pass-rushing help to alleviate the loss of EDGE Nick Bosa, signing veteran Ezekiel Ansah to a one-year deal.

With the SF 49ers‘ devastating losses of defensive end Nick Bosa to an ACL tear, and the knee injury to Solomon Thomas as well, the Niners are certainly pressed to bring aboard some pass-rushing help after their Week 2 road win over the New York Jets last Sunday.

According to sources close to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, the 49ers are finalizing a one-year deal with free-agent defensive end Ezekiel Ansah.

The terms of the deal have not been made public yet, although Ansah previously met with Niners brass last week after multiple workouts.

No deal was reached at that time, however. But the seriousness of San Francisco’s current pass-rushing shortage quickly erased any standoff the two sides otherwise had before last Sunday’s game at MetLife Stadium.

This signing comes in the wake of the injuries along the defensive line, where Bosa is expected to miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL.

While not official yet, Thomas is also in danger of missing the rest of the season, too.

The SF 49ers are also dealing with injuries to a number of other defensive linemen, notably EDGE Dee Ford (neck), Ronald Blair (knee) and Jullian Taylor (knee). Bosa and Thomas now being added to the fray surely put more pressure on the Niners to get some sort of deal with Ansah done sooner than later.

Ansah played last season with the Seattle Seahawks, finishing with just 2.5 sacks in 11 games.

Perhaps that was due in part to a shoulder injury he was recovering from earlier in 2019.
He was much more effective in his time with the Detroit Lions, where he registered 48 sacks under the tutelage of then-Detroit defensive line coach Kris Kocurek, including a career-high 14.5 sacks and had a Pro Bowl appearance in his six seasons with the team.

Now with the 49ers, Kocurek hopes to replicate that kind of success with Ansah again, only in San Francisco.

At 31 years old, it remains to be seen what exactly Ansah has left in the tank. But with the injuries racking up along the defensive line, this move makes a lot of sense.