First-year 49ers defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans inherits a solid defense in 2021, yet there are still some major hurdles and questions to answer.
In 2017, then-San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh was taking on a new job for which he was totally unfamiliar and amid a complete roster rebuild under head coach Kyle Shanahan.
Saleh, of course, turned that challenge into the head coaching job of the New York Jets in 2021, leading to one of his assistants, now-Niners coordinator DeMeco Ryans, to hopefully have an easier path ahead of him this season and beyond.
Ryans doesn’t inherit a rebuilding defense like Saleh did. San Francisco has playmakers at all three levels, which should make Ryans’ life less painful.
That said, there are a number of major question marks and challenges Ryans will face in year one of his coordinating tenure.
No. 5: Will DeMeco Ryans be forced to rely heavily on 49ers’ depth linebackers?
Ryans, a prominent linebacker during his NFL playing days, is going to rely heavily on standouts like All-Pro Fred Warner to dictate the defensive changes the 49ers will experience in 2021.
Warner and third-year pro Dre Greenlaw comprise one of the better starting linebacker tandems in the league, but the depth behind those two is questionable at best, untested and also somewhat injury prone.
Azeez Al-Shaair figures to hold down the No. 3 spot on the depth chart, which is fine. But after that?
Undrafted rookies Justin Hilliard and Elijah Sullivan, whose injuries at the collegiate level forced each to go through six seasons at their respective programs. Those two will be competing with veterans like Al-Shaair, James Burgess and Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles.
If both Warner and Greenlaw stay healthy, it’s no bother. But Ryans, who saw the Niners’ injury woes last year, knows all too well how injury attrition can pile up.
Hopefully, it doesn’t here.
No. 4: Can 49ers safety duo of Jimmie Ward, Jaquiski Tartt stay healthy?
DeMeco Ryans and the entire San Francisco front office would have the right to shudder when thinking about injury concerns and risks after the 49ers were (and it wasn’t even close) the most injured team in the NFL a season ago.
Free safety Jimmie Ward, however, wasn’t part of that problem in 2020. Somewhat odd, considering Ward missed 29 regular-season games over the first four years of his career before enjoying relatively clean slates of health the last two season.
No complaints there, and the Niners are clearly better with Ward on the field than they are without him. Same goes with strong safety Jaquiski Tartt, whose injury woes have predominantly hit the last four years.
Tartt, who has landed on season-ending injured reserve in three of the last four seasons, has missed 29 regular-season games over the last four years of his career.
Almost a mirror image of Ward in that way, except Tartt has the unfortunate history of being the recent player on this side of the spectrum.
San Francisco stockpiled some safety depth during the offseason, namely by inking veterans like Tavon Wilson and Tony Jefferson while also using a day-three NFL Draft pick on Talanoa Hufanga.
Ryans is better guarded against injury at safety this year than he would have been in 2019 or 2020, which is a plus.
But the bigger plus would be for both Ward and Tartt to be on the field all year long.
No. 3: Which young 49ers cornerbacks separate from the pack?
This is a pressing question for DeMeco Ryans, not just in 2021, but also for the next coming years.
Veteran starting cornerbacks Jason Verrett and K’Waun Williams have a few things in common. First, they’re both on the wrong side of 30 years old. Second, they also have pretty extensive injury histories, although Verrett enjoyed a relatively clean slate of health last year.
Third, and perhaps most importantly, both will be free agents in 2022. The 49ers have to start thinking about how their secondary will look next season and beyond, and the time to begin those evaluations is right now.
Ryans will be looking at the Niners’ two rookies, Ambry Thomas and Deommodore Lenoir, as possible long-term solutions, although both may need to develop a while first before assuming larger roles. Thomas, a Round 3 selection during the NFL Draft, opted out of his final season at Michigan because of the pandemic, while Lenoir, a fifth-round pick, might be more of a developmental defensive back.
Perhaps another depth corner begins to ascend, however. Third-year pro Tim Harris Jr., who was redshirted in 2019 after being selected by San Francisco in Round 6 of that year’s draft, saw some modest action on special teams last year. Maybe it’ll be Mark Fields II on the rise.
If no one, well, looks like the 49ers will again be pushing cornerback to the top of the 2022 needs list.
No. 2: Where will 49ers’ supplementary pass rush come from?
DeMeco Ryans is getting EDGE Nick Bosa back from a 2020 ACL tear. That’s great news. And there’s also an outside shot fellow EDGE Dee Ford returns at some point this season after suffering a serious back injury a year ago, too.
More good news.
But the pass-rushing question marks start to pile up awfully quick after those two.
Will Ryans get the most out of fifth-year pro Samson Ebukam, whose speed could be a great asset and potentially alleviates any lengthy absence from Ford? Maybe. But Ebukam never had more than 4.5 sacks in a single season during his four-year stint with the Los Angeles Rams. In 2019, defensive end Arik Armstead led the team with 10 sacks, but most of those came from the interior when both Bosa and Ford were handling the outside pressure.
Reserve defensive end Ronald Blair followed Robert Saleh to the Jets, while backup EDGE Jordan Willis was slapped with a six-game PED-related suspension.
Two of the now-relevant Niners edge rusher? Daeshon Hall and Arden Key, who’ve combined to register 4.5 sacks during their careers.
The lack of pass-rushing depth, especially if injuries again become a problem, could force Ryans to scheme pressure in 2021, not unlike what Saleh had to do for much of 2020 in the wake of season-ending injuries to both Ford and Bosa.
Leading to, perhaps, the biggest burning question of all for Ryans and Co.
No. 1: Will DeMeco Ryans, 49ers be a blitz-happy team?
In three of the four years under Robert Saleh, San Francisco wasn’t a blitz-heavy team. Only in 2020, thanks to injuries to players like Nick Bosa and Dee Ford, did Saleh implement more blitz-heavy packages:
- 2017 blitz percentage: 22.4 percent (20th)
- 2018 blitz percentage: 20.4 percent (22nd)
- 2019 blitz percentage: 20.9 percent (29th)
- 2020 blitz percentage: 33.6 percent (10th)
Read More: 4 changes DeMeco Ryans may implement with 49ers defense
A four-man pass rush was Saleh’s proverbial “bread and butter,” but that might not be the case for DeMeco Ryans, a former linebacker, who had 13.5 sacks over his 10-year career and would probably have liked a few more.
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Ryans has a blitz-threatening linebacker in Fred Warner, who flashed those efforts the last two seasons, while Talanoa Hufanga also managed 6.5 sacks as a strong-side safety his last two collegiate years.
Ryans might have hinted at some changes during his introductory press conference, too:
"Our D-Line is going to attack. Our linebackers and secondary, they’re going to play with base fundamentals. We’re going to play off our defensive line. We’re going to let our D-Line just get off the ball and attack, and we’re going to clean up things behind them, but we will be a more, I feel like aggressive, attacking defense."
Translating the coachspeak, it appears as if Ryans is looking to settle somewhere between the four-man dominant pass rush from 2017 through 2019 and the excessive-but-understandable blitzing tendencies from a year ago.
Or, just as possibly, Ryans is concealing his intention to use pressure from all areas of the field, including sending Warner on more than a fair share of well-time blitzes.
If it works out, Ryans and the 49ers defense can hopefully pick up where Saleh left off.