49ers roster: Kerry Hyder to thrive back with San Francisco?

The 49ers welcomed defensive end Kerry Hyder back this offseason after his one-year stint with the Seahawks, but will Hyder emulate his 2020 form again?

The San Francisco 49ers have recently developed a knack for turning underperforming pass-rushers into quality players.

A year ago, the Niners did this with former Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Arden Key, whose 6.5 sacks in 2021 landed him a quality free-agent deal with the Jacksonville Jaguars this offseason.

The season before, San Francisco turned former Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys defensive lineman Kerry Hyder Jr. into its top sack-getter of the 2020 season.

Granted, the 49ers’ injury plague that year, namely losing EDGE Nick Bosa to an ACL tear early, opened up the door for the former Texas Tech lineman to have a career-best year, setting the mark with 8.5 sacks in a renaissance campaign that translated into a two-year free-agent deal with the Seattle Seahawks in 2021.

Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com
Generated 6/20/2022.

The Hawks let Hyder go, though, one year into his two-year deal, and San Francisco was more than happy to engineer a reunion, mitigating the free-agent loss of Key and bolstering an already potent defensive line heading into 2022.

While Hyder already has proven success with the 49ers and working with defensive line coach Kris Kocurek, is a 2020-like campaign awaiting him?

Or will he be lost in the shuffle as long as players like Bosa stay healthy?

Let’s take a deeper dive.

Why Kerry Hyder thrives again with 49ers in 2022

There’s also something to be said of Kocurek, who has to be viewed as one of the NFL’s best positional coaches and turned Hyder, previously a rotational lineman with only one statistically strong season, 2016, into a top pass-rusher in 2020.

Reuniting with Kocurek has to benefit Hyder, and his 35-plus hurries in both 2016 and 2020 under the D-line coach points to the defensive end reverting back to some statistical relevance.

The Niners primarily played Hyder as a defensive end in 2020, a total of 675 edge snaps out of his 715 played that season, according to Pro Football Focus.

While Bosa and rookie EDGE Drake Jackson will command starter’s attention on the outside, Hyder could easily work his way back into the rotation as a B-unit rotational pass-rusher, getting plenty of opportunities and aiming to replicate his 2020 numbers in this role.

Why Kerry Hyder doesn’t impact 49ers defense much

Hyder was envisioned as a depth player only when San Francisco originally signed him in 2020, and it was only because of injuries to Bosa and fellow pass-rusher Dee Ford that gave Hyder the chance to be a featured player on defense.

The 49ers are poised to move on from Ford, yes, but the addition of Jackson and other returning pass-rushers like Samson Ebukam, Jordan Willis, Charles Omenihu and the 2022 free-agent pickup of EDGE Kemoko Turay create quite the logjam along the defensive line.

Read More: 49ers’ 3 biggest positional logjams entering training camp

Even if Hyder is playing at a quality level during training camp and into the regular season, he simply might not see the number of snaps to make much of a statistical difference.

On top of that, if there is a Niners D-line weakness, it’s on the inside. And that’s not where Hyder primarily played during his career-best 2020 season.

Kerry Hyder’s roster chances, projected role in 2022

While his 2020 numbers suggest a guaranteed spot on San Francisco’s 53-man roster this season, Hyder’s contractual numbers say otherwise.

The 49ers inked Hyder to a one-year, $1.5 million deal this season, and $750,000 of that would be dead money if cut, according to Over the Cap.

That’s substantial. But it’s not a surefire “you’re going to make the roster no matter what” kind of guarantee. And while there are plenty of other Niners depth D-linemen who don’t have anything by the way of guarantees in their respective contracts, all that will matter in determining the regular-season cut is the actual on-field production and prowess between now and Week 1.

For now, though, Hyder is on the stronger side of the roster bubble, and he’s poised to be one of those rotational defensive ends who backs up Bosa, Ebukam and Jackson, likely helping the latter transition to life at the pro level and eventually giving up reps as the 2022 season moves along.

We shouldn’t expect the same numbers Hyder posted in 2020, though, as the sack opportunities are far more likely to go to other featured members of San Francisco’s defense.

Still, ranging between four and six sacks wouldn’t be a bad objective for the 31 year old this season.