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John Lynch Explains Which Defensive Tackles Fit the 49ers' Wide 9 Front

If the 49ers draft another undersized defensive tackle, they would be repeating the Javon Hargrave mistake.
Grant Cohn|
Feb 27, 2025; Indianapolis, IN, USA; San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch speaks during the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine at the Indiana Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Feb 27, 2025; Indianapolis, IN, USA; San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch speaks during the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine at the Indiana Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

INDIANAPOLIS -- The 49ers need a defensive tackle who fits their system.

Two years ago, they gave a four-year, $84 million contract to Javon Hargrave, who was an outstanding player in the Philadelphia Eagles' five-man front that created lots of one-on-one matchups which he dominated.

On the 49ers, Hargrave played in a Wide 9 defensive front which exposed him to constant double-teams in the run game and he couldn't hold his ground against. He simply isn't big enough to anchor against two blockers. Which means he's a good player but a bad scheme fit, and so now the 49ers have to cut him.

This week, I asked John Lynch if certain defensive tackles fit the 49ers' Wide 9 front better than others.

"That's a good question because there's a lot of space there," Lynch said. "I think that's always an evolving deal. When we first started doing it, we were one of the early adopters. Now, there are a lot of teams playing the Wide 9.

"I think the bottom line is guys who can get off and disrupt and make plays. Those are the guys we're looking for. They come in a lot of different packages, so to say we're looking for a huge guy -- no, we're looking for guys who fit what we do. Hopefully, that is a huge guy, but they come in different packages."

To be fair, Arik Armstead never had an explosive get-off but he was an extremely effective defensive tackle for the 49ers when he was healthy because he could anchor against double teams and collapse the pocket on pass plays.

If the 49ers draft another undersized defensive tackle, they would be repeating the Hargrave mistake. So if they're going to draft a defensive tackle with a high pick, he needs to be big and explosive, otherwise he won't fit.

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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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