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Projecting the 49ers' Starting Defensive Line for 2024

The disappointing position group on the 49ers on the 49ers last season was their defensive line.

Grant Cohn

Jan 28, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa (97) is introduced before the NFC Championship football game against the Detroit Lions at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 28, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa (97) is introduced before the NFC Championship football game against the Detroit Lions at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports / Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
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The disappointing position group on the 49ers on the 49ers last season was their defensive line.

With all the money the 49ers pour into it, you'd think it would be the best position on the team. But last season, it struggled against the run and ranked 20th out of 32 teams in sack percentage. It was not good at anything. And it had Nick Bosa, Javon Hargrave, Arik Armstead and Chase Young.

Now Armstead and Young are gone, and in their places the 49ers have added a group of veterans -- Leonard Floyd and Yetur Gross-Matos at defensive end, and Maliek Collins and Jordan Elliott at defensive tackle. And it's unclear which two of those four will start next to Bosa and Hargrave.

Floyd and Collins probably are the favorites to start because they've been starters their entire career. But those two are pass-rush specialists. Neither one is particularly good at stopping the run, which is a major weakness for the 49ers defense. Floyd is a 3-4 outside linebacker who's most comfortable lining up in a two-point stance. He'll get pushed around in the run game if he's playing with his hand in the dirt.

That's why the 49ers should start Gross-Matos and Elliott. Those two are run-stuffing specialists who are large and difficult to move. Gross-Matos can set a strong edge and Elliott can hold his ground against double-teams, which means they're excellent fits in the 49ers' Wide 9 defense.

Save Collins and Floyd for the passing downs when they can do the most damage.

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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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