49ers Stock Report: Three Risers and Fallers From Week 15

Losing to the lowly Atlanta Falcons after being heavily favored at home was a less than ideal look for the San Francisco 49ers. This was a matchup that had trap game written all over it after the 49ers were ecstatic over their shootout win against the New Orleans Saints. Clearly the red and gold were not able to come down from that game, thus it costed them the game against the Falcons.

A loss like that is tough, even without half of the defensive starters available. The offense was fully healthy, yet couldn't shoulder the burden. That is why quite in this weeks 49ers stock report there are a couple of offensive players who under the fallers category.

With that said: Here are the three risers and fallers from week 15.

Risers

Mike McGlinchey

I think it is safe to say that Mike McGlinchey was plagued by rust in week 10 against the Seattle Seahawks. Ever since that poor performance he has been playing lights out. In fact, he is even reach career highs in pass blocking efficiency per Pro Football Focus. It is amazing to see the performances he has strung along following week 10.

McGlinchey never let that game get into his head. Instead, he used it to fuel himself towards reaching his goal of full-on conditioning. Let's not forget that he was out of the game for over a month. Getting adjusted to the game speed and cardio back up takes a while to get back up to par. Now that he is settled in again, he is making pass rushers obsolete when they attack him. McGlinchey's impact continues to soar high the same way his stock is rising.

Dre Greenlaw

Last week against the Saints, rookie linebacker Dre Greenlaw was a liability in coverage. It was that liability that had his stock take a hit and fall. Of course, going up against Drew Brees will always be extremely difficult. Nevertheless, Greenlaw showed a weakness at the SuperDome. A weakness that he was able to mask with his great performance against the run.

Greenlaw, along with Fred Warner, filled in the running lanes before they even opened up. They made the ground game with Devonta Freeman a non-factor, which helped keep the Falcons one-dimensional. Even though Julio Jones was constantly gashing the defense - it was still encouraging to see Greenlaw get back on the horse and fight back. A rookie could easily stay a mess after one bad game, but he has proven that it is going to take a lot more to hurt his mentality.

George Kittle

It's quite strange putting tight end George Kittle as a player who rose his stock. Anyone who watches football understands he is one of - if not the best tight end in the game. However, factoring in the last two games of how he has impacted the offense - his stock is at an all-time high. It is so high that it has been clear that he is the second most important player, not just on the offense, but the entire 49ers team.

No other team can say that about their tight end and that is because no other does what Kittle can do. An elite blocker in both run and pass, yet can go out on a route and run it so sharp that it puts any defender on skates. This guy is going to get cashed out whenever the 49ers sit down with him to extend him.

Fallers

Mike Person

For the vast majority of the season the interior offensive line for the 49ers has been stout. However, against the Falcons they were the offense’s Achilles heel; specifically with guard Mike Person. According to Pro Football Focus, Person allowed five pressures in the week 15 matchup. That is outright absurd and gives clarity as to why the 49ers offense was stagnate for most of the game.

The pressure was just too much for Jimmy Garoppolo to just sit back there. It’s why a lot of quick passes were put on display. If the offensive line cannot block, then quick releases is the main way to offset the weakness. Person has been relatively sound this season, but he had his worst game of the season against the Falcons. His stock takes a hit going into Saturday’s matchup with the Rams where he will look to make up for his shaky performance.

Laken Tomlinson

Person wasn’t the only guard of the 49ers to have a slouchy performance. Laken Tomlinson joins Person as a faller in this week’s stock report. Tomlinson for most of the season has been one of the better pass blockers, but in both facets of the game he never asserted himself enough. At least, not to the point that we’re used to seeing from him. Person had the worse of the two performances.

However, the constant pressure didn’t just come off of Person’s side. Tomlinson is nearly at fault for why Garoppolo never found his comfort zone. To put things in perspective: Garoppolo averaged only 3.7 vertical air yards per throw, and only 1.9 completed air yards. Both figures were the lowest in the NFL by about a yard per NextGen Stats. If the 49ers want to beat the Rams Saturday, then Tomlinson and person will need to clean up their errors.

49ers’ pass rush

When the 49ers loss to the Ravens; the consensus was that the pass rush would start to pick up again. They had the challenging task of facing mobile quarterbacks entering week 13 for the last four games. Now that they were going to face off against Drew Brees and Matt Ryan - they should have had a bunch of multi-sack players. However, that wasn't the case in any of these last two games. The 49ers' pass rush has a combined three sacks in the last three games, which is a far cry to their 44 sacks before Baltimore.

This is still a top tier group of pass rushers with DeForest Buckner, Arik Armstead and Nick Bosa - make no mistake. But one of the reasons why the 49ers loss to the Falcons was because of the lack of finishing from this group. The pressures they generated combined from the three reach double digits, which shows that they are still playing at a high-level. They just have been struggling to finish. At one point in the game, Matt Ryan evaded Bosa by a simple step up in the pocket. He's got to make that play 10 times out of 10. Their lack of finishing is why their stock is falling.

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