How the 49ers' Third Down Defense Will Improve This Year

The 49ers' third-down issues mostly were schematic.

Grant Cohn | Aug 1, 2024

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-USA TODAY Sports / D. Ross Cameron-USA TODAY Sports

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San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers defense gave up just 17.5 points per game last season -- third-fewest in the NFL. And yet, they flat-out stunk on third down.

In 2023, the 49ers defense gave up third-down conversions 42.5 percent of the time -- sixth-worst in the NFL. Hard to fathom on a defense that has Nick Bosa, Fred Warner and Charvarius Ward.

The 49ers' third-down issues mostly were schematic. Under defensive coordinator Steve Wilks, whom they fired this offseason, the 49ers rarely if ever disguised their coverages before the snap. In addition, their pressure schemes were as vanilla and basic as they come. Most of the time, the 49ers rushed four defensive linemen in the same four rushing lanes. And opposing offenses exploited their predictability.

Now Wilks is gone and the defensive coordinator is Nick Sorensen. In addition, the 49ers hired former Chargers head coach and Rams defensive coordinator Brandon Staley as the assistant head coach. And the two of them already have made significant changes to the third down pressure schemes.

In practice this week in front of hundreds of fans, the 49ers unveiled some blitzes they didn't use last year. Picture Nick Bosa, Fred Warner, Leonard Floyd and Yetur Gross-Matos standing near the line of scrimmage with Maliek Collins in a three-point stance. When the ball is snapped, one or two of the defenders standing up drop into coverage -- usually Floyd and Gross-Matos. While one or two other players who are lurking at the second level of the defense -- usually De'Vondre Campbell and George Odum -- rush the quarterback.

This schematic adjustment should make the 49ers defense much less predictable this season.

Published Aug 1, 2024

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.