It all starts defensively with the pass rush. The best secondary in the world is going to look pedestrian if the opposing quarterback can sit in the pocket all day. Without a pass rush, a defense is not able to generate as many turnovers. This is the subject of today's question.
Question: Did the 49ers do anything to improve their pass rush this offseason?
Answer: Here are the measures the 49ers took to breathe more life into their pass rush and improve on the 30 sacks they registered as a team in 2008:
1) Elevated Manny Lawson into the role as a third-down pass-rusher. (After all, they drafted him in the first round of the 2006 draft primarily because of the pass-rush skills he showed at
Last year, the 49ers teamed Parys Haralson on one side with Roderick Green or Tully Banta-Cain on third downs. But, obviously, coordinator Greg Manusky and coach Mike Singletary believe Lawson is better than Green and Banta-Cain. Lawson will be a three-down player this season, while Green and Banta-Cain are no longer on the team.
2) Hired Al Harris as an assistant coach with the title "pass rush specialist."
In his nine-year playing career, Harris' official high in sacks was six in 1983 with the Bears. Harris, obviously, will devote all of his attention to the pass rush, while working alongside with outside linebackers coach Jason Tarver and defensive line coach Jim Tomsula. Unfortunately, we may never find out directly from Harris about how he believes things are going. For the first time in 49ers history, position coaches - at least for now -- are prohibited from speaking (on the record) with the media.
Manusky said a couple weeks ago that the major focuses during the offseason program have been on the pass rush and creating turnovers. Those goals are connected. Interceptions generally happen because a QB is pressured. And more than half of all fumbles occur when an unsuspecting quarterback gets the ball jarred loose during a sack.
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What the 49ers did not do was acquire a big-name free agent or draft pick to help in this area. The 49ers signed Marques Harris, who recorded eight sacks in 56 games with the Chargers in his first four seasons.
The club showed some interest in Jason Taylor and would have been interested in Greg Ellis, if the Raiders had not been inclined to award Ellis the kind of money he was seeking.
Everybody assumed the 49ers would exit the draft with at least one pass-rushing outside linebacker. However, the 49ers did not consider anyone available worthy of a pick in the first two rounds of the draft.
The 49ers traded their pick in the second round to the Panthers, who used it to select
Although the draft was deep in those pass-rushing outside linebackers, the 49ers found players at other positions they simply liked better.
So they decided to stick with Lawson, placing a lot of pressure on him to spark a pass rush that was severely lacking last season.
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Happy Father's Day.
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Happy Father's Day back to you, MM. I have doubts that we have done enough to really expect a better rush. I'm hoping we can generate some interior pressure to help Manny and Parys. I fear that if Franklin is the best NT of our bunch, it could be a long and painful year. Maybe they can still do enough to scrape out some wins. Got to always have faith though, as a die-hard 9erfan.
How about some word on our backup OLBs? Jay Moore looking good?
Hi Matt, I think you'll see a revived pass rush this year. In past years we changed from 3/4 to 4/3 too often. I think Manusky will let them play to their strengths and Singletary will have them in attack mode. Singletary doesn't mess around, he'll find the right people to get after the passer and the defense will be top 10 or maybe even top 5.
Happy Father's Day Matt.
Matt,
You seem more than a little unhappy about the 49ers and their policy regarding assistant coaches talking to the media. You've mentioned the policy direct, or indirectly several times now. I'll throw my two cents in; it's Sing's first year as a HC, he has a direction he's headed in and this was his call, I support it, I figure we have to give him at least one full season before we can judge him.
I have noticed the same thing James noted . . . that you are not happy with the assistants not being permitted to talk to the media on the record AND WITH GOOD REASON. My question is why do you think they are doing this? My GUESS is in the recent past there has been information leaked to the media from assistants that they as an organization, or maybe Coach Sing personally, have not been happy with. Any idea what the reasoning behind the rule is Matt? Do other teams have this policy?
I'm confident that Manny and Parys can be very strong.but we have no depth.If either goes down the liklihood of making the playoffs is radically diminished.This is our only pressing need RT isn't even close.If we had pass-rush depth with Snyder's abilities and Boone's potential I think we could still be effective.
Happy Father's Day Matt. Knowing this one means much to you, I wish you and your family all the best.
As for relying on Lawson and Paris for the pass rush, I'm concerned that these are the same guys who are playing all three downs. You need guys who are fresh to pass rush, especially late in the game and this tells me that the 9ers have no depth at this spot and no apparent plan B. I like Manny, but he's never shown an ability to pass rush in the pros. Let's hope he can make it happen.
Why u think we don't have depth behind Lawson and Willis. We have Harris, Jay moore, McKillop, Brooks. If they decided to leave them, we have depth there. U think that Everette Brown, was gonna be so much better than some of those guys. I say ok he was gonna be better, but do u think he was gonna lead us to the SB - no. And i think we can get a better pass rusher than Brown next year with the pick we got from the Panthers, Theres a reason he slide there. Stick around with the niners, the coaching stuff know what they are doing. Thats a transition year for us anyway
They also added Demetric Evans via free agency.
Matt,
Count me as one who was not surprised that we did not draft a pass rusher this year. All the highly regarded ones in the draft were 4-3 DEs, meaning they had (very) limited experience covering passes. None had Lawson's exceptional athleticism. None were better candidates than Moore and Brooks, who've had awhile to practice dropping back. We picked up an experienced 3-4 OLB in Harris as insurance, too.
I realize that we haven't shown that we have any players capable of generating big sack numbers. However, I believe that as a 3-4 defense matures, those numbers start coming from the scheme itself. If we're confident in both OLBs in coverage, we can then send either one or both on a blitz, or drop them both and blitz DB(s). The strength of a 3-4 is in fostering confusion across the line, and that comes from aggressive play-calling.
The short answers to what the 49ers have done to improve the pass rush are "not enough" or "virtually nothing". Maybe there are valid reasons unknown to us for Brown slipping to the 2nd round, but a week before the draft he was mentioned by many so called draft experts as a top ten pick - in fact, it was widely speculated that the 49ers would take him in the 1st round. It is noteworthy that Carolina has managed their team better than McCloughan has his, and yet Carolina was willing to trade a future #1 for Brown. Certainly, if the 49ers have not improved their own pass rush and Brown excels in Carolina, McCloughan is going to have egg on his face.
I doubt that MM is the only one that resents the 49ers' policy against media access to the assistant coaches - I know that I do. The media is our only conduit for information, and a lot of the more candid stuff comes from the assistant coaches. So if the media is denied full access all we can expect them to report is team managed spin. Whenever any organization is afraid of public scrutiny one has to wonder what they are hiding. In this case it could be years of mismanagement and poor choices that may not have improved as much as many of us hope.
If you want a pass rush bring one more than they can block.
Definetly this is the main concern going into the season, I totally agree.
Much of the success we will have in the pass rush will be because of great playing from Justin Smith taking more people blocking him and allowing Lawson and Haralson to get to the QB, and also the maturing of the 3-4 scheme as some here have mentioned.
Other than that, there is nothing I see on how we can improve in this area. I agree a draft pick in this area was not the solution either.
Hopefully the scheme has matured enough, because that will impact on many other areas of the defense.
Not only do we need a better pass rush, but it must come predominately from the front 5 in the 3-4 or the front 4 in the 4-3. Blitzes leaves holes in the attack that good QBs exploit with hot reads and other schemes. Of course we must blitz, but it can't be the main form of getting pressure to the QB.
petaluman wrote| June 21, 2009 4:37 PM |
Matt,
Count me as one who was not surprised that we did not draft a pass rusher this year. All the highly regarded ones in the draft were 4-3 DEs, meaning they had (very) limited experience covering passes. None had Lawson's exceptional athleticism. None were better candidates than Moore and Brooks, who've had awhile to practice dropping back. We picked up an experienced 3-4 OLB in Harris as insurance, too.
I realize that we haven't shown that we have any players capable of generating big sack numbers. However, I believe that as a 3-4 defense matures, those numbers start coming from the scheme itself. If we're confident in both OLBs in coverage, we can then send either one or both on a blitz, or drop them both and blitz DB(s). The strength of a 3-4 is in fostering confusion across the line, and that comes from aggressive play-calling.
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Rosco could learn a thing or two from reading your excellent post above Peteluma !!! I have been the biggest advocate for an improved pass rush that I know,for about the last decade. I think pass rush is probably THE most important thing that effects winning and losing almost every game. But even I understood the sound reasoning in not drafting Brown with out 2nd round pick. Matt said it perfectly,the Niners did not think Brown could play in their 3-4 defense ,it's as simple as that. It was a genius move to get an additional 1st rounder next year instead of drafting a player we thought was inferior. Good job Scott McGloughan,keep up the very excellent work !!!
I agree top cat and petaluma. The defense success will be the result of execution, teamwork, experience and having the players most suited to be effective in the scheme.
How much wood will Willis lay, when Willis will lay wood?
Totally agree with you petaluma about scheme vs. components. Not only that but think about where the 49ers ranked last year in sacks. They were down at the bottom in the NFL, I think just being in the same scheme & just working at getting better in that scheme the 49ers can only go up in sack total this year. That's my 2 cents.
Good post petaluman. I would also add that the 49ers finished middle of the pack in sacks last year with 30 sacks. It is not great, it is not terrible. The 2nd highest ranked defense (Ravens) only had 34 sacks last year.
A CB's best friend is a great pass rush. Well, a DL/OLB's best friend is a great CB. The line, the secondary, the defensive play calling, the coverage scheme -- all of it is important and a team can have a really good defense when they all compliment each other. Not every team has a Demarcus Ware. And when the chips were down for the Cowpokes last year -- that pass rush didn't seem to matter (44-6 loss to the Eagles).
I think the 49ers will have a good defense simply by virtue of being able to be more aggressive (seeya, Nolan!). They will gamble maybe more and give up a few painful scores, but they will get some turnovers too. I certainly don't see them as a top 5 defense, but I think they could possibly crack the top ten. If the offense completely implodes (and therefore leaves the D on the field too long) then they probably won't.
Scheme is certainly the only hope of improving the pass rush. Expecting a 4th year player coming off a serious knee injury to all of a sudden become an adequate pass rusher and hiring a specialist coach who wasnt exactly special certainly isn't going to get the job done. The only other hope is that another good player is cut or we trade for someone. I wouldn't give up either #1 for Peppers but there must be another guy who can help. I honestly don't think the 9ers are done addressing this need since what they've done so far is not enough. They must know that to be the case.
Houston: Manny was coming off the serious injury LAST YEAR but this year he will be starting his 2nd year after the injury,the time when most players with that injury get back to normal.
Manny was not given the chance to be a true pass rusher when Nolan was here(except some at the beginning of his rookie year). Manny should be ready and able and will be given the chance for the first time . If he stays healthy he should provide a better pass rush and all around better play from his position than we have had for years.