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Ole Miss DT Walter Nolen Might Not Fit the 49ers' Wide 9 Defense

The Wide 9 defense is designed to get defensive ends one-on-one matchups by moving them outside the tight end before the snap. This alignment puts a ton of stress on the defensive tackles because they don't get one-on-one matchups. They get doubled-teamed on run plays all game.
Grant Cohn|
Sep 28, 2024; Oxford, Mississippi, USA; Mississippi Rebels defensive linemen Walter Nolen (2) and linebacker Suntarine Perkins (4) react after a sack during the second half against the Kentucky Wildcats at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images
Sep 28, 2024; Oxford, Mississippi, USA; Mississippi Rebels defensive linemen Walter Nolen (2) and linebacker Suntarine Perkins (4) react after a sack during the second half against the Kentucky Wildcats at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images | Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers could have a dilemma when they're on the clock with the 11th pick.

They desperately need a defensive tackle to replace Javon Hargrave whom they plan to cut when the league year starts on March 12, and Ole Miss defensive tackle Walter Nolen most likely will be available. And he's an excellent player. But he might not fit the 49ers' Wide 9 defense.

Nolen is 6'3", 293 pounds, which means he's roughly 25 pounds lighter than the defensive tackles Robert Saleh generally looks for. In the final season of his first stint as the 49ers' defensive coordinator, he started D.J. Jones (6'1", 319 lbs.) and Javon Kinlaw (6'5", 324 lbs.).

The Wide 9 defense is designed to get defensive ends one-on-one matchups by moving them outside the tight end before the snap. This alignment puts a ton of stress on the defensive tackles because they don't get one-on-one matchups. They get doubled-teamed on run plays all game.

Which brings us back to Nolen. He would be a phenomenal fit in a five-man front such as the one Vic Fangio uses on the Eagles. That's because Fangio's scheme creates a one-on-one matchup for the three-technique defensive tackle on every play, and Nolen is unblockable one-on-one. Think Justin Smith, who was a borderline Hall of Famer for the 49ers when Fangio was their defensive coordinator.

Smith was 6'4", 290 pounds. And as great as he was, he wouldn't have fit the Wide 9.

So if Nolen is available with the 11th pick, I don't expect the 49ers to take him.

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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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