The 49ers biggest issue defensively comes with their structure.
When it comes to the San Francisco 49ers in 2024, it’s safe to say the team has underperformed this season, standing at 5-6 through the first 2/3 of the season on the outside looking in when it comes to the NFC playoff race.
Offensively, San Francisco has seen a significant dip in their red zone efficiency, and just hasn’t been clean all year, be it due to turnovers, penalties, or just sheer missed opportunities.
Defensively, though, the 49ers have struggled to defend the run at times. This was on display this past weekend when the Green Bay Packers scored 38 points thanks to a 100-yard, three-touchdown performance from Josh Jacobs.
Earlier in the offseason and during the first few weeks of the season, I highlighted a major change that the team needed to implement: going away from the Wide 9.
For years, the Wide 9 has been San Francisco’s staple defense, as they focused on rushing the passer at a high level. As the 49ers built up their defense, it worked to a high degree.
In 2019, they had strong defensive end talent, such as Nick Bosa and Dee Ford, but more importantly, they had high-end defensive tackle talent, with DeForest Buckner, D.J. Jones, and Arik Armstead all playing key roles on the interior.
With strong options to plug the gaps and eat up space in the middle, the 49ers successfully were able to operate out of the Wide 9, creating one of the best pass rushes in the NFL, which led to an elite defense.
That carried over to the last few seasons, with the 49ers using situational pass-rushers like Arden Key and Charles Omenihu to plug the holes left by departing players. Armstead’s presence on the interior was crucial in both areas, but his injuries and the departure of D.J. Jones sometimes led to holes in the run game.
However, heading into 2024, there was a clear hole along the defensive line. With Armstead getting released, there wasn’t a space-eater up the middle, as the 49ers went into the season with Javon Hargrave, Maliek Collins, and Jordan Elliott as their top defensive tackles.
On the edge, the 49ers brought in Leonard Floyd and Yetur Gross-Matos to complement Nick Bosa, but they didn’t have their usual depth on the outside, thanks to having more of a top-heavy roster this season.
But, with the personnel at hand, there were significant questions on whether the Wide 9 would be effective this season. One, the 49ers didn’t have that presence up the middle, which was seen early in the season as teams would gash them in the run game. And two, the pass rush wasn’t going to be as strong, which was the primary reason to go to the Wide 9.
Through the first 12 weeks of the season, the 49ers haven’t statistically been as bad as advertised in the run game. But they’re not a great team in that department either, and the Wide 9 is clearly providing problems. Hargrave has been out since Week 3, Collins hasn’t been as effective down the stretch, and Elliott has been a non-factor all season, giving the team virtually zero pass-rush and dealing with his fair share of injuries.
On the edge, there hasn’t been a single consistent player outside of Nick Bosa, so the pass rush hasn’t been as good as the 49ers hoped, either.
With the defensive ups and downs, many have looked to place the blame on first-year defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen. However, the attachment to the scheme is more so on head coach Kyle Shanahan.
After deviating away in 2023 to hire defensive coordinator Steve Wilks, the 49ers head coach wanted more similarity to previous years. Only the personnel on the team haven’t matched the scheme well, leading to issues defensively.
Sorensen hasn’t done the best job either, but he’s in his first year as a play-caller with a team depleted by injuries, and it doesn’t feel like things will change until the 49ers move away from their current defensive philosophy.
So, Kyle Shanahan, the ball’s in your court.