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The 49ers Defense has been Alarmingly Bad Through Three Games

They certainly have lots of injured players, but most of them are on offense.

Grant Cohn

Sep 15, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa (97) looks on before the game against the Minnesota Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images
Sep 15, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa (97) looks on before the game against the Minnesota Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images / Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images
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Something is seriously wrong with the 49ers defense.

Through three games, it's one of the worst defenses in the NFL. It has given up 6.1 yards per play, which is third worst among 32 NFL teams. It also has allowed an average opponent passer rating of 101.5, which is sixth worst in the league. And the 49ers haven't faced Patrick Mahomes yet. So far, they've faced Aaron Rodgers coming off a 12-month layoff, Sam Darnold and Matthew Stafford without his top two wide receivers.

What is the 49ers' excuse?

They certainly have lots of injured players, but most of them are on offense. The only starter the 49ers currently are missing on defense is Dre Greenlaw, who's a good linebacker. But his absence doesn't explain why the pass rush has disappeared or why the pass coverage down the field has fallen off a cliff.

It's early, but it seems like rookie defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen has been a poor hire. He's blitzing at the lowest rate of any team in the league, which means he's being passive considering the 49ers' four-man pass rush hasn't produced on its own.

Last season, the 49ers defensive coordinator was Steve Wilks, and his defense gave up just 17.5 points per game, which was third-fewest in the league. But the players and the front office felt Wilks underperformed. So when they lost the Super Bowl to the Chiefs, they essentially scapegoated him by firing him a few days later.

In hindsight, it seems that was an emotional decision that made the defense worse.

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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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