Addressing the pass rush was viewed by most as one of the San Francisco 49ers' biggest needs heading into the 2018 NFL Draft. Yet, as the draft progressed, it became more and more clear that the 49ers might not add a true edge rusher to the defense.
In 2017, the defensive unit accumulated just 30 total sacks. That was good enough to tie the Miami Dolphins for 26th in the league. Elvis Dumervil, who led the defense with 6.5 sacks, is no longer with the team.
Following the draft, general manager John Lynch addressed the 49ers passing on edge rushers in this draft class.
"Those guys are difficult to find, first and foremost," Lynch said. "We felt like there were a couple guys who had an opportunity to be special there. Just where we were, we didn't have an opportunity or chose not to take them. I think one thing Kyle and I believe strongly in is that there's a lot of pieces right here that, if you just look at their history, might give fans and whatnot pause. We believe there's opportunity.
"Part of this deal is you have to develop your own talent, so we believe that collectively we've got to get better as a unit. We've got to become better finishers. We believe we have that [on the team now].
"Were we adverse to adding to it? Not at all. That's just kind of the way the draft fell. We're always looking to get better at every position. But, we do believe there's great room for growth with the guys we have and that's got to come alive. That's a challenge to them, it's a challenge to our coaches and it's a challenge to all of us. That's what this game is all about."
Head coach Kyle Shanahan also commented on the team passing on edge rushers.
"One thing people don't take into account, we talk about pass rush and there's nine D-linemen allowed on our roster and there's eight D-linemen up on game day, and look at all our D-linemen," Shanahan said. "We have some pretty good players. Yeah, we'd love to add whoever the best pass rusher is on the outside in the draft. We'd love to get a Von Miller, but you only get eight up on game day and you only get nine on our roster.
"So, you just keep drafting rushers. You've got to be pretty good to beat out [Cassius Marsh]. You've got to be pretty good to beat out [Arik Armstead]. You don't just get guys. If you get them, someone else has got to get cut and we've got a pretty good group. We're going to look to improve at every position all the time but people don't realize that it's not just stockpiling people, and hey, we've got 20 pass rushers, let's see which one turns up.
"You only get a few, and in order to bring one in, who are they replacing. We don't have guys that are just easy to replace. We've got a bunch of good players, and again, it's a good problem, but we'll always look for better but that's not an easy thing to do."
