49ers DL coach Jeff Zgonina Thread

This dude needs his own thread. By all appearances he has been doing an excellent job so far.

When Zgonina arrived as a coach last year, his first order of business was to help yank the defensive line out of its run-stopping misery. The 49ers had invested a boatload of first-round draft capital in the front, but the 2016 defense was far and away the NFL's worst against the run anyway, hemorrhaging 4.6 yards per carry.

Under Zgonina in 2017, the 49ers allowed only 3.6 yards per rush, good for a surge from dead last to No. 6 in the NFL.

https://theathletic.com/375173/2018/06/02/49ers-assistants-jeff-zgonina-and-chris-kiffin-look-to-uncover-a-missing-component-in-the-defensive-line/

Zgonina played 17 years in the league as a defensive lineman winning a Super Bowl with the Rams in 1999. He played for eight teams over his lengthy career and began his coaching career in 2013 with the Houston Texans. He has a lot of energy at practice but is not the yeller like the defensive coaches of the recent past. You will not hear him screaming "BLUDGEON" anytime soon. Also unlike his predecessors, he currently looks like he could still suit up and play for a team, even though it's been more than seven years since he last donned an NFL jersey.

Zgonina's philosophy for a long career is simple: "run to the ball." He jokes, "if you're holding onto the ball, that's when you get hurt. If you're standing around, someone's going to roll you up. That's what I preach. I believe in it. There ain't no zippers on my knees." With that in mind, he is cross training the defensive line to play more than one position.

SAM can play LEO, some LEOs could play SAM. It's just so I can rotate and can always have fresh guys out there. On long drives I can substitute twice if I have to. Get some fresh guys in there, everybody always running to the ball, that's what it's all about.

https://www.ninersnation.com/2017/6/21/15803900/49ers-defensive-line-rotation-deforest-buckner-jeff-zgonina

Jury is still out on him as coach. I think Chris Kiffin will help him and the team this year. That was a very solid under the radar hire

Originally posted by StubbyNBY:

Jury is still out on him as coach. I think Chris Kiffin will help him and the team this year. That was a very solid under the radar hire

Seems like kiffin was good to round out zgonina and help with pass rush.
Happy with our staff.

scary looking dude. dont remember him as a player tbph.

Originally posted by English:

scary looking dude. dont remember him as a player tbph.

Solid DT. Known/played with the lambs too in their "glory" years lolz.

2016 were the awful days of dial, Purcell & Armstead holding down the line.

Lol, that was bad. Let's add O'Neil's ridiculous schemes and we have a bottom 5 run defense.

Originally posted by SmokeCrabtrees:

Originally posted by StubbyNBY:
Jury is still out on him as coach. I think Chris Kiffin will help him and the team this year. That was a very solid under the radar hire

Seems like kiffin was good to round out zgonina and help with pass rush.
Happy with our staff.

I agree. Zgonina seems to have had a productive career as a DT, but no real playing experinece at LEO, so Kiffen is going to help him with the pass rush schemes. Not that Zgonia doesn't know them, but I think Kiffen will help in the nitpicky details regarding the pass rush vs run stopping. I know the Kiffen/Dungey defense was one of the top run defenses in the league and they did it without size, and more on quickness and athleticism. If Kaneavius Street can come back 100%, he can play pretty much most, if not all the positions on the D Line. He may be a better base LEO than Solomon on first downs.

With Z and Kiff, I expect to see those "almost" QB sacks by DeFo become SACKs, and I expect to see Arik busting thru the OL, but this yr, once thru, knowing what to do to get to the QB. With Solomon, kind of the same. We were soooo close last yr with many near misses on sacks. This yr, esp with up coaching Marsh, Day, Pita, et al, and also the 3 guys noted above, if not sacks, we are going to put one bucket load of pressure on QBs...but maintain our good Run stopping play. Somehow, I just see this D take off, and the push from our entire DL is going to be fierce.

With all the investment in DBs, one would think we see INTs go up and pass completions go way down. Looking for lots of 3 and outs on D this yr and TOP to end up with our D playing only 22 mins/game. That would be sweet. With kyle's playcalling and JG behind Center, I could see our having 38 to 40 mins on the field. That would be something. Actually, in Dak/Zeke's first yr, the Cowboys O did average 38 mins/game. So it can be done.

Originally posted by English:
scary looking dude. dont remember him as a player tbph.

Maybe those are the kind of guys that make the best coaches

meh dude got 3 first round picks on that line and aint done nothing yet.

Originally posted by susweel:
meh dude got 3 first round picks on that line and aint done nothing yet.

To be fair, that's mostly on Baalke and Lynch and their inability to evaluate talent.

Originally posted by pdizo916:

To be fair, that's mostly on Baalke and Lynch and their inability to evaluate talent.

Dude is absolute garbage, rebuilding the most talent poor roster in football into a potential playoff team in one year.

Originally posted by Phoenix49ers:

Originally posted by pdizo916:
To be fair, that's mostly on Baalke and Lynch and their inability to evaluate talent.

Dude is absolute garbage, rebuilding the most talent poor roster in football into a potential playoff team in one year.

so what do you think we are. a playoff team or a brick by brick team still a year away from the playoffs.

Originally posted by susweel:

meh dude got 3 first round picks on that line and aint done nothing yet.

Wrong again.

the 2016 defense was far and away the NFL's worst against the run anyway, hemorrhaging 4.6 yards per carry.

Under Zgonina in 2017, the 49ers allowed only 3.6 yards per rush, good for a surge from dead last to No. 6 in the NFL

Originally posted by cciowa:

so what do you think we are. a playoff team or a brick by brick team still a year away from the playoffs.

I think they are quite a bit ahead of schedule of the 3-4 year window most had for them just to have a shot at the playoffs.

One year in and we are talking about a team that could reasonably win anywhere from 7 to 10 games.

Go look at the roster at the end of the 2016 season and compare it to the roster today. In a short period of time they got younger, faster, more talented and added a franchise QB. That is a damn good year by any ratings system.