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49ers DC Nick Sorensen is Under the Microscope this Week vs. the Chiefs

Next week, Sorensen will have to face Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes for the first time as a defensive coordinator.

Grant Cohn

Jul 25, 2024; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen answers questions at a press conference following Day 3 of training camp at SAP Performance Facility. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images
Jul 25, 2024; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen answers questions at a press conference following Day 3 of training camp at SAP Performance Facility. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images / D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images
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Don't let the 49ers' win over the Seahawks overshadow what's at stake for Nick Sorensen next week against the Chiefs.

Sorensen is having a rough start to his first season as a defensive coordinator. He replaced Steve Wilks, whom the 49ers fired after just one season because he let the defense drop from first to third in points allowed.

This season under Sorensen, the 49ers rank 14th in points allowed. They've given up 21.7 points per game, up from 17.5 points per game under Wilks in 2023. And the 49ers haven't faced many high-powered offenses, yet.

Next week, Sorensen will have to face Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes for the first time as a defensive coordinator. When Wilks faced the Chiefs in the Super Bowl, Wilks held them to 19 points through four quarters and 25 points including overtime. And then the 49ers fired him a few days later.

Can Sorensen hold the Chiefs to fewer than 20 points in four quarters? He couldn't even hold the Seahawks to fewer than 20 points this past Thursday night, and their quarterback is Geno Smith, who's nothing special.

So far through six games this season, Sorensen hasn't shown the ability to confuse opposing quarterbacks or pressure them consistently. He's simply relying on the talent of his players, which is why the 49ers defense has underperformed.

The Chiefs are one of the most difficult teams in the league to beat when they've had an extra week to prepare. Sorensen better be ready.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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