Tuesday, May 12, 2026

Taken By Force


 Many reasons why the 49ers are on the low end of forcing turnovers, but what is the number one reason in your opinion?

15 comments:

  1. There may be many reasons. But my top two are poor tackling and lack of pass rush.

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    1. I agree with you, especially on the lack of pass rush. If they can speed up the qb decision making process I feel like it could be like that jar of olives. Get those first couple out and the rest will come!

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  2. IMO the #1 reason was Injuries to star players. The #2 reason: Lack of a pass rush that put pressure on the QB, forced mistakes and created turnovers. The #3 reason: The defensive forced to play vanilla defense (soft coverage), that prioritized preventing big plays rather than forcing mistakes.

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  3. JonnyDells, "The more I'm watching of Carver Willis(LT #50), the more I'm loving this kid's run blocking. Here he's working against a 4i".

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  4. Hope that Willis proves his supporters comments right. If Willis starts and Colby and Cruz (if he makes it) make positive improvements down the road. The 49ers OL will have a nice young nucleus to continue to build on.

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  5. In my opinion, the biggest issue for the defense is their inability to stop the run. It’s a whole different game when it’s third and eight compared to third and two.

    The players I’ll be keeping an eye on in the draft are Stribling, Willis, and Cruz.

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    1. Yeah, that's something I was about to comment on. I agree that stopping the run is an area I have some concerns around.

      Mykel made a huge difference when on the field last year, and Warner obviously does as well. But Mykel might not be himself early this season.

      I get why they focused on replacing Elliott and Davis with two undersized penetrating 3Ts, and I get why they also went Height over other options. But my fear is that in doing so they've reverted to having a defense that is more focused on rushing the passer than stopping the run, and we saw what happened in 2024.

      They're putting a lot of faith in Collins and West being true run stuffers in the middle.

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    2. Warner and Greenlaw should be able to complement Collins and West.

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  6. Something Dieter has been saying for a while, and now Larry has noted after speaking with Middlekauff - the 49ers give more power to their coaches in selecting players than any other team, especially on day 3. Not a criticism, just an interesting note.

    But Larry made an interesting point that this probably helps explain why they tend to be better at evaluating some positions than others - some coaches are excellent at identifying guys that fit (Foerster, Kocurek, Holland), others not so much.

    Of note, Dieter and Larry both pointed out that Saleh was highly involved in selecting players last year. That actually gives me a lot of confidence in all those guys, because Saleh had a pretty good track record finding talented defensive players in NY.

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  7. Good point regarding Saleh. Mikel gets a pass because of his injury. But when it comes to Saleh's defensive draft picks, I believe that Stout was the best overall. Collins had a few flashes, Martin also showed promise. But, Stout stood out, imho.
    It takes 2-3 yrs to see rookies develop. I believe Collins, West, and Martin will show very good improvement in 2026.

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  8. Interesting views from Eric Branch and Matt Maiocco regarding rookie OL Willis.
    Per Branch...
    "It would be at least a mild disappointment if Willis isn't the season-opening starter at left guard."
    Maiocco believe's that Willis is a "long shot" to be the starter.

    I will trust the training camp process.

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  9. As a followup to a question to the above posts! On May 10, 2026 at 2:34 PM, I posted....
    * "The question TBD for the 2026 season is, who will be the 9ers left OG and can he help improve the 49ers O-line VS Rams and Seattle?"
    On May 13, 2026 at 8:01 AM PDT, Nicholas McGee wrote an article
    that addressed that question, "Do the 49ers now have good offensive line depth?"
    https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/49ers-now-good-offensive-line-150100746.html
    The majority of the article is information that we already knew. The part of interesting to me was:
    "On the surface, the options the 49ers have at that spot (L OG) do not look overly convincing. Connor Colby started six games as a rookie seventh-round pick before he was benched for playing like a rookie seventh-round pick against a ferocious Houston Texans defensive line. Free agent signing Robert Jones has experience in the system after playing for Mike McDaniel in Miami but missed all of last season with the Dallas Cowboys through injury.
    The wild card, though, is rookie fourth-round pick Carver Willis, who played tackle at Washington but will move inside with the 49ers.
    While playing at tackle often exposed Willis’ flaws in pass protection, he excelled run blocking in an offense that majored in zone scheme with a heavy sprinkling of gap scheme runs. Per Sports Info Solutions, the Huskies averaged 7.3 yards per attempt when running behind Willis last season, putting him second among interior linemen in the 2026 class tracked by the site."
    * The question I asked on my May 10, 2026 at 2:34 PM post was can
    the 9ers run against Seattle and the Rams defense. The 9er rookie O-Lineman Carver Willis offers some encouragement that the 9ers can run the rock against both.


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  10. Four of the last five games will be critical for this team: vs. Rams, at Chargers, at Chiefs, and vs. Eagles. The matchup against the Chargers comes on a Thursday night, just four days after facing the Rams.

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Ground Control To Major Kyle

The 49ers have signed free agent RB Jordan Mims, per his agent Shawn O’Gorman.