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Grading the 49ers Defensive Linemen at the Bye Week

The 49ers need to trade for another pass rusher before the deadline on Nov. 5.

Grant Cohn

October 20, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa (97) defends against Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) during the second quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn Images
October 20, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa (97) defends against Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) during the second quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn Images / Kyle Terada-Imagn Images
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The 49ers have the week off, so let's grade them position by position based solely on what they've done this season. So far, we've graded the quarterback, the running backs, the wide receivers, the tight ends and the offensive linemen.

POSITION: Defensive line

NAMES: Nick Bosa, Javon Hargrave, Maliek Collins, Leonard Floyd, Yetur Gross-Matos, Sam Okuayinonu, Jordan Elliott, Kevin Givens, Kalia Davis, Robert Beal, Evan Anderson.

GRADE: C

COMMENTS: Nick Bosa is still a good player, but he's not what he used to be. He can pressure the quarterback like he did when he was younger, but he doesn't convert those pressures into sacks nearly as often. And he misses lots of tackles these days. Through eight games this season, he has 10 missed tackles according to Pro Football Focus. Last season, he had eight missed tackles in 17 games. And in 2022, he had two missed tackles all year. He seems less motivated than he did in the past.

Other than Bosa, the 49ers' best defensive lineman has been Sam Okuayinonu, who spent last season on the 49ers practice squad. He has 3 sacks and 9 quarterback hurries in 96 pass rush snaps according to PFF, which is good. He should start and play more often.

The rest of the 49ers defensive linemen have been mediocre at best. Javon Hargrave is out for the season. Yetur Gross-Matos hasn't played since Week 3. And Leonard Floyd and Maliek Collins both have been invisible. That's why the 49ers rank 18th in sack percentage and 15th in pressure percentage. They're just an average unit. The 49ers need to trade for another pass rusher before the deadline on Nov. 5.

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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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