Have the 49ers Fixed Their Pass Rush?

They ranked 20th in sack percentage in 2023 and 16th in sack percentage in 2022 after ranking third in sack percentage in 2021. Which means the fall off started two years ago.
Have the 49ers Fixed Their Pass Rush?
Have the 49ers Fixed Their Pass Rush? /
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The 49ers invest way too much into their defensive line to have a subpar pass rush.

But that's what they've had the past two seasons. They ranked 20th in sack percentage in 2023 and 16th in sack percentage in 2022 after ranking third in sack percentage in 2021. Which means the fall off started two years ago.

That's why the 49ers signed Javon Hargrave last year -- they thought he would supercharge their pass rush, but he didn't. He was ordinary, and collectively the pass remained subpar.

So this offseason, the 49ers made major changes. They released Arik Armstead, who had just five sacks in the past two seasons, and they replaced him with Maliek Collins, who has 8.5 sacks in the past two seasons. Upgrade.

In addition, the 49ers did not re-sign Chase Young, who has just 16.5 sacks in his career. Instead, they signed Leonard Floyd, who has 19.5 sacks in the past two seasons. Big upgrade.

On paper, the 49ers absolutely have improved their pass rush from last season. Armstead is a good run defender when healthy, but he's not a pass rusher. At best, he pushes the pocket and creates pressure, but he rarely finishes plays with sacks. And Young simply doesn't play hard -- he had just 2.5 sacks in 9 games with the 49ers, who reportedly did not offer him a contract. That's how much they don't like him.

Now, the 49ers will have four good pass rushers on the field at the same time in Floyd, Collins, Hargrave and Nick Bosa. 

Mission accomplished.


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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.