Taking Stock of the 49ers Defensive Line

Is it getting better or worse?

Grant Cohn | Feb 24, 2024

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San Francisco 49ers

Is the 49ers defensive line getting better or worse?

Let's take stock.

Nick Bosa

He's still an elite player, but he recorded fewer sacks, fewer quarterback hits and fewer tackles for loss in 2023 than he did in 2022 despite playing an extra game. At times, his effort was an issue on run plays, considering he didn't set edge well, although he played with tremendous heart in the Super Bowl. Still, he made a critical error on the final drive of the season when he crashed down on the running back and let Patrick Mahomes run for a long gain.

Stock down

Javon Hargrave

Hargrave was dominant while playing on a five-man front on the Eagles in 2022. Then the 49ers signed him and played him in a four-man Wide 9 front, and he was still good, but he struggled a bit against the run because he's not big enough to hold his ground against double teams. He just turned 31 on Feb. 7.

Stock down

Arik Armstead

From 2018 to 2021, Armstead never missed a game. He was a dominant run defender and a powerful pass rusher, too. Now, he's hardly ever healthy. He has missed 13 games with plantar fasciitis the past two seasons and now he has a torn MCL. I'm guessing 2024 will be his final season on the team.

Stock down

Chase Young

The 49ers thought they stole Chase Young from the Commanders when they traded a third-round pick for him at the deadline. They thought Young would play hard for them and rise to the occassion on a Super Bowl contender.

They were wrong.

Stock down

Published Feb 24, 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.