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Former NFL OC Says the 49ers Need a Changeup to Their Wide 9 Defense

"You get that Wide 9 scheme, if you ever watch end-zone tape and you look at the Wide 9 defense, it's like the Grand Canyon out there."
Grant Cohn|
Feb 11, 2024; Paradise, Nevada, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive tackle Javon Hargrave (98) celebrates a fumble recovery against the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 11, 2024; Paradise, Nevada, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive tackle Javon Hargrave (98) celebrates a fumble recovery against the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports | Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

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San Francisco 49ers

I recently asked former Raiders offensive coordinator Tom Walsh what the 49ers' biggest weakness on defense is. Here's what he said.

WALSH: "I was shocked that the Lions didn't try to run the ball more in the second half of the NFC Championship Game. You get that Wide 9 scheme, if you ever watch end-zone tape and you look at the Wide 9 defense, it's like the Grand Canyon out there. There are huge gaps. Offenses can stretch them out horizontally and create creases just by alignment that physically are going to challenge the ability of the defenders to take on blocker and be able to squeeze the hole because the hole is going to be so big. Instead of a two-lane highway, it's like 280."

ME: And teams can put out two or three tight ends, widen the splits between the offensive linemen and make those holes in the Wide 9 defense even bigger.

WALSH: "Correct. And I'll be interested see how many teams study Detroit's first-half offense against the Niners this past year and find ways to utilize big personnel, whether it's multiple tight ends or a sixth offensive lineman. That's why the 49ers have to come up with an eight-in-the-box concept that can handle that."

ME: Should they also use a five-man front sometimes?

WALSH: "You've got to have changeups you can go to. If what you're doing isn't holding up and you're getting gashed you have to have a Plan B. You have to change the tempo of the game defensively just like you have to change the tempo of the game offensively."

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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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