Pro Football Focus stated an interesting statistic yesterday regarding San Francisco 49ers first-round selection, DeForest Buckner. While Buckner had 83 tackles and 10.5 sacks in 2015 during his 13 games with the Oregon Ducks, he also pressured the quarterback 67 times. That is ten more than the next closest college 3-4 defensive end.
Niners rookie DeForest Buckner pressured the QB 67 times in 2015. The next-best college 3-4 DE had 57 pic.twitter.com/ZpaKCmMPCF
— Pro Football Focus (@PFF) May 8, 2016
The 49ers hope that Buckner will bookend a defensive line with former Oregon teammate Arik Armstead, last year's first-round selection. The 49ers defense managed just 28 sacks last season, ranking 29th in the league. Buckner was one of two defensive lineman selected during the three days of the draft. The other was DE Ronald Blair out of Appalachian State.
Buckner was recruited to Oregon by new 49ers head coach Chip Kelly, who takes over a team that went just 5-11 last season.
RELATED Round 1, Pick 7: 49ers select Oregon DE DeForest Buckner
Buckner and the 49ers' other rookies concluded a minicamp over the weekend, where he chose 99 as his jersey number. The team will next be on the field together from May 17 through 19 for organized team activities.
Pro Football Focus was admittedly obsessed with Buckner and below are some other interesting statistics that they pointed out within their scouting report, where they called him an "ideal 3-4 end."
- No. 1 overall grade among interior defensive linemen
- Top pass rushing grade
- Eighth-highest grade against the run
- Led all interior defensive linemen with 951 snaps
- Had two games where he played over 100 snaps in each
