Nick Sorensen Explains How Tashaun Gipson Will Help the 49ers Defense

The 49ers made an interesting move this week.

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

SANTA CLARA -- The 49ers made an interesting move this week.

They signed safety Tashaun Gipson to their practice squad. Gipson started 33 games at free safety for the 49ers the past two seasons before signing this year with the Jaguars and getting suspended for using performance-enhancing drugs. Now his suspension is over and the Jaguars have released him, so he has returned to the 49ers, and it's unclear what he'll do.

For now, he'll practice and help the 49ers young safeties -- Ji'Ayir Brown and Malik Mustapha. But if they struggle, don't be surprised if Gipson returns to the starting lineup.

Here's what defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen said this week about Gipson and the rest of the safeties courtesy of the 49ers p.r. department.

Q: How much do you expect S Tashaun Gipson Sr. back in the building might help, just, even with little things with those young guys?

SORENSEN: “I think it's huge. He started for us the last two years. He's a great dude. He's played a ton of ball. He's taken it, like 33 career picks. He's had a ton of success and he is a great guy. And just having him back, I think everyone was real excited to see him. I think he's excited to be here and be back and feel like he didn't leave. We're just excited to have him back, see how he feels. He hasn't done a whole lot, so we'll just kind of figure it out as we go.”

Q: One of your starting safeties is 24 and the other is 22-years old. Obviously they're making plays, but are they also making mistakes that you would expect young safeties, inexperienced safeties, to make and was that something that we were seeing at the end of the Cowboys game?

SORENSEN: “No one is perfect, period, but when the guys are young and the one thing that's cool about them that you guys ask about them and that I say weekly, is that they do get better and they learn every week. And even with [S Ji’Ayir Brown] Tig, he came in midway through the season, so really he's kind of played a year now. So he is a young safety, I'm glad you say it like that, but he's played a lot of ball too. I think those guys have accelerated their growth, they care a lot. They continue to communicate well, but it's not perfect. And I think getting a lot of young guys playing time early, even early in the season when we were kind of rotating some guys has really, it's starting to pay the dividends and that's where you see them making plays. They're feeling more confident and that's been good.”

Q: How much growth have you seen from S Malik Mustapha and Ji’Ayir, just in this season so far in the first half of the season?

SORENSEN: “A lot. The more that we can let those guys play free and fast, then you see them show up and I think that's what you see out of Malik, too. And the more they play, they're going to play that way and they start to expect things and it's not the first time they've seen something. So, the acceleration's been great.”

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