Do the 49ers Need to be Better on Defense?
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Defense has been the main strength of the San Francisco 49ers since 2019.
Every year they rank as one of, if not the top defenses in the league. It is always the backbone of the team despite having an offensive oriented head coach in Kyle Shanahan. The last two seasons the 49ers have been kept alive for the playoffs and ventured far in it thanks to their defense, especially in 2021. This will likely be the case again in 2023 as the defense is primed to be strong even with a new defensive coordinator.
However, despite being an elite side, Fred Warner believes the 49ers defense needs to be better.
“It’s always possible,” said Warner at the Dwight Clark Legacy Series event. “And I’ll always say, ‘Defense wins championships.’ It’s going to start and end with us. We take that on our shoulders, that responsibility. And we need to be better. To say that last year’s ending was hurtful, it was,” Warner said. “It sucks the way that it ended. I feel like we never had a chance to really compete in that game. What are the ways our defense could have been better in that game? That’s what I’m looking at,” he said. “How could I have been better for our team and our defense?”
Is Warner correct? Do the 49ers need to be better on defense?
In some facets, of course. Either you're getting worse or getting better in the NFL. With Steve Wilks taking over for DeMeco Ryans as defensive coordinator, you can expect blitzing to be a heavier emphasis for the 49ers in 2023, and maybe even some more man-to-man coverage. That is a way to improve the defense.
But really, the defense is the LEAST of the 49ers worries. They always come through without a doubt. Where the 49ers really need to be better at is on offense. They have let their defense down countless times with stalled out drives, starting out slow, and not generating enough points. That changed last year when they acquired Christian McCaffrey and when Brock Purdy took over as the starter.
Every year the responsibility of carrying the 49ers falls on the defense, but this year it needs to finally be the offense. No more slow starts and stagnation. The talent on offense, even with the influx at quarterback, is so oversaturated that they should be great throughout the season. They should be able to shoulder the burden of success for the team, and they're going to have to in case there ends up being a sizable drop off from Ryans to Wilks.
Warner has the right mindset in believing the defense needs to be better. The standards he set for himself and his teammates are absurdly high. It's why he's an All-Pro player on an elite defense. But the reality is that the defense doesn't really need to be better when they are already an upper echelon side. The offense is the side that needs to pick up the slack and be consistent for once and not slack off the first half of the season as always.
