New York Giants Week 3: Examining the San Francisco 49ers' Defense

If you thought the Dallas Cowboys defense was scary good, wait until you see what the 49ers field on their defense.

Author:
Brandon Olsen
Publish date:
Sep 20, 2023 12:00 PM EDT

In this story:

If you thought the New York Giants had a hard time against the Dallas Cowboys' defense, the San Francisco 49ers are right up there with arguably the best defense in the NFL.

Let's see who they have and how they deploy them.

Personnel

San Francisco sets the tone is set in the trenches. With the highest-paid defensive player in NFL history, Nick Bosa lives up to that billing every time he steps onto the field. Bosa has nine pressures through two games, and while he hasn’t hit home yet with a sack, that’s mostly due to the extra attention he receives as a pass-rusher.

His running mates along the defensive line are usually a combination of Arik Armstead, Javon Hargrave, Clelin Ferrell, Drake Jackson, and Javon Kinlaw. With how often the 49ers rotate players specifically along their defensive front, the Giants will face multiple combinations of those rushers.

With no Saquon Barkley likely for the Giants, expect to see the combination of Bosa, Jackson, Hargrave, and Kinlaw on the defensive line to pin their ears back and rush Daniel Jones. That four-man front has combined for 31 pressures so far this season.

In the second level, Fred Warner and Dre Greenlaw are the mainstays, with Warner being arguably the best off-ball linebacker in the NFL. Through two games, Warner has been used as a pass-rusher more than in the past, signaling this defense is getting more aggressive under defensive coordinator Steve Wilks.

Warner has played every defensive snap so far for the 49ers, with Greenlaw playing all but three snaps. Rotation is the name of the game on the defensive line, but the linebackers play Iron Man football in San Francisco.

The secondary is the weakest spot on this defense, although they aren’t "weak" at all. At safety, Tashaun Gipson and Talanoa Hufanga are the guys that are ideally on the field for every snap, with Gipson as the deep safety and Hufanga moving all around the field. Hufanga continues to take steps with his feel for the game and has begun to take the next step as a cover man.

At cornerback, the 49ers made a big move last offseason in signing Charvarius Ward from the Kansas City Chiefs, and so far, he’s given them their money's worth. Ward has been a borderline elite cover man for the past three years, and pairing him with this elite pass rush makes him much more lethal.

Opposite Ward is Deommodore Lenoir, who’s struggled so far in 2023, allowing 15 receptions and 140 yards on 20 targets, although he also has an interception. The biggest issue for Lenoir is his size, which the Giants could attack, but we’ll talk about that later.

In the slot, the 49ers are on their second-string nickel as Samuel Womack III was recently placed on injured reserve. In his absence, Isaiah Oliver has been the one to step up, and while he’s done a fine job so far, allowing eight completions on nine targets but just 54 yards, it remains to be seen if he can consistently find success.

Scheme

The 49ers' primary coverage is Cover 3, but they’ve also expanded their repertoire a bit, adding in more man coverage under Wilks. Wilks has shown the willingness to shift more toward man or zone depending on the current matchup, so against the Giants, I would expect to see primarily zone coverage of Cover 1 with a linebacker underneath as the hole defender or in a spy on Daniel Jones.

Wilks is also bringing forth one of the most aggressive 49ers defenses we’ve seen in recent years, which, paired with an already great pass rush, could spell disaster early on for the Giants.

So far, Fred Warner has been used as a pass-rusher on 8.7 percent of passing down snaps, Dre Greenlaw on 6.3 percent, and Isaiah Oliver on 5 percent. None of those numbers are outrageous, but being willing to use off-ball players as pass-rushers against the Giants is a strong strategy to contain Daniel Jones.

The 49ers, under Wilks, also take a rather old-school approach with their defensive linemen. Where most modern defenses tend to work with "creepers," which drops a traditional defensive lineman into coverage, the 49ers don’t.

Wilks also shies away from putting his off-ball players on the line of scrimmage, which many modern defenses also do to simulate pressure coming in. It’s a rather arrogant approach of, “Our guys are better than yours; we don’t need to simulate anything.” With this personnel, it works.

What This Means for the Giants

The Giants gave Daniel Jones a contract extension worth $160M this past offseason, and with Saquon Barkley likely out, Jones will need to earn his paycheck this week. Jones has to withstand pressure because he will be under pressure quite often, and he has to have his internal timer ticking immediately.

With his mobility, Jones has to be willing to tuck and run often as a way to make this aggressive 49ers defense pay but also as a way to pick up any yardage that might be available, as the current running back room won’t be the type to create much when the offensive line fails.

The Giants need to get more creative offensively for this game. Barkley isn’t likely to be available, and the running game, generally, has been uninspiring. All training camp, there were clips of the Giants putting Darren Waller, Parris Campbell, and other players in the backfield, and now is the time to break that out consistently.

The name of the game here has to be getting the ball to playmakers in space and getting it to them quickly. If that means handing it off to Campbell or Jalin Hyatt, then so be it. The wide receiver screen game needs to become an extension of the running game to supplement Barkley’s absence.

Final Thoughts

This game isn’t going to be pretty for the Giants. If they find success offensively, it has to be by getting the ball out quickly and allowing for yards after catch opportunities; even then, this is a FAST 49ers defense.

A low-scoring affair here gives the Giants a better chance to walk out of Levi’s Stadium with a win, so that’s what every Giants fan should be hoping for.

If there’s another performance like what we saw in the first six quarters of the season, there will be a lot of uncomfortable conversations about the true status of this franchise.