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Fred Warner Says the 49ers Defense Wants to Play with Better Effort

"I've loved seeing everybody running to the football. That's the standard. It always has been the standard."
Grant Cohn|
Feb 11, 2024; Paradise, Nevada, USA; San Francisco 49ers linebacker Fred Warner (54) arrives before playing against the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 11, 2024; Paradise, Nevada, USA; San Francisco 49ers linebacker Fred Warner (54) arrives before playing against the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports | Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

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San Francisco 49ers

SANTA CLARA -- The 49ers nearly lost the NFC Championship Game simply because their defense didn't play hard.

Their offense had to erase a 17-point halftime deficit. The Detroit Lions steamrolled a 49ers defense that was jogging around the field during the first half. Just a shameful performance by a unit that was the best in the NFL in 2022.

The players have to take responsibility for their effort and make sure they play harder this year. Fred Warner spoke about that Wednesday at minicamp.

Q: When Kyle Shanahan hired Nick Sorensen, one of the things he said is that he wanted to do was get back to what made you guys you with DeMeco Ryans and Robert Saleh. How has that shown up in terms of scheme and energy?

WARNER: "The thing we've always prided ourselves on is the style in which we play. We can talk about scheme all day long and sureing up the little things and the details we operate in our scheme, but style has to show through every single play. Obviously right now in OTAs, we can't show off that physicality and violence we play with, but the effort part is something we have harped on since the beginning of OTAs, and I've loved seeing everybody running to the football. That's the standard. It always has been the standard, but you have to be reminded of that every single year or else it fades if it's not continued to be a focus. I think everybody is going the right direction right now."

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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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