Probably the position group that is giving San Francisco 49ers fans the most fits right now is safety. The Niners got very uneven play from safeties last season, and they didn't do a ton to address that deficiency in the offseason.
The two most significant moves San Francisco made was to sign undrafted free agent Jalen Stroman out of Notre Dame and sign Ashtyn Davis in free agency, who is solid but is not an elite, starting-caliber safety by any stretch.
If the 49ers were not willing to spend big or make a trade to shore up the position, then maybe they will decide to have a player on the roster change positions.
David Lombardi of the San Francisco Standard recently threw that idea out on social media, writing, “Don’t sleep on the possibility of Upton Stout filling a 49ers’ gap at safety… The 49ers will want Stout, their best defensive player to close last season, on the field for 100% of snaps. As a pure nickel, that was not the case for Stout last season.”
It’s certainly an interesting thought, although it would be a little surprising. ESPN recently ranked Stout as San Francisco’s likeliest breakout player, but the thinking was he would do so as a cornerback, not a safety.
Lombardi compared a potential role like that for Stout to the way the 49ers used to use Jimmie Ward. While Ward was predominantly a safety, they did use him as the nickel cornerback at times, so maybe Stout could occupy a similar sort of hybrid role for San Francisco.
New defensive coordinator Raheem Morris seems to have a more fluid philosophy when it comes to defensive backs. Instead of set positions, he seems to be more open to the idea of roles for players, which will be an interesting thing to watch in training camp and the preseason.
Stout isn’t the only Swiss Army knife the Niners have on defense. San Francisco drafted linebacker Jaden Dugger in the fifth round of the 2026 NFL Draft, and he is similarly viewed as a guy who can move around and play different positions.
There is a risk to moving guys around like that, though. It could be a risk to have Stout play a new position when he showed aptitude at cornerback, so the Niners should be careful and make sure they don’t mess up his development.
Every defensive coordinator puts their own unique stamp on a defense (except if it’s Nick Sorensen), so maybe more positional fluidity will be Morris’ contribution to San Francisco’s defense.
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