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PFF: The 49ers Have the NFL's 2nd-Best Linebacker Unit
The 49ers under Kyle Shanahan aren't Super Bowl Champions, but they are the best team in the NFL on paper according to Pro Football Focus.
PFF recently said that the 49ers have the best running back room, the best group of receivers, the second-best head coach and the second-best defensive line in the NFL. Now, PFF says the 49ers have the second-best linebacker unit in the NFL even though Dre Greenlaw currently is recovering from a torn Achilles he suffered in February.
"Fred Warner, arguably the best linebacker in the NFL right now, has earned PFF grades above 80.0 in each of the past four seasons.," writes PFF analyst Gordon McGuiness. "The 49ers would have a case for the No. 1 spot if not for Dre Greenlaw’s injury in the Super Bowl, making his availability to start the 2024 season a question mark. But in signing De’Vondre Campbell, who has earned PFF grades above 65.0 in each of the past three seasons, they have given themselves a cushion."
I agree with McGuiness that the 49ers would have the best linebacker duo in the NFL if Greenlaw were healthy, but he's not. And Greenlaw is an excellent player, perhaps the most underrated player on the 49ers. His absence should drop the 49ers' ranking more than just one measly spot.
There's no way the 49ers have the second-best linebacker unit in the NFL without Greenlaw. He's the tone-setter on the defense, the player who hits the hardest and runs the fastest from sideline to sideline. He's a perfect complement for Warner who's a finesse coverage specialist.
Fortunately for the 49ers, Greenlaw should return at some point this year.
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.