Our Underachieving Season Was Due To

49ers' defensive blue chips

Here's the list of the first-rounders on the Niners' defense entering the 2018 season:

-- Jimmie Ward, defensive back: 30th overall pick, 2014
-- Arik Armstead, defensive lineman: 17th overall, 2015
-- DeForest Buckner, defensive lineman: seventh overall, 2016
-- Solomon Thomas, defensive lineman: third overall, 2017
-- Reuben Foster, linebacker: 31st overall, 2017 (released in November)

The Niners signed elite veteran corner Richard Sherman, who was coming off of injury, in the offseason and then focused on fortifying their offense around Jimmy Garoppolo with their first couple selections in the draft. This seemed to signal a belief that their prior draft picks would perform, especially along their defensive front. While sacks aren't the only measure of pressure, their total of 37 for the season (tied for 22nd) provides a quick way to contextualize their underperformance. I took a little deeper dive into their ability to create disruptive pressures and limit rushes -- they don't rank lower than 20th in either contextualized metric. When you take that into account and consider how many high-potential players they have on D, their poor third-down percentage (40.3, ranked 21st) is surprising. It will be interesting to see how defensive coordinator Robert Saleh, who spent three seasons as an assistant coach with Seattle's Legion of Boom defense, will scheme to create more disruptive pressure with the high-potential young group in his third season on the job.

Originally posted by cciowa:

Originally posted by LasVegasWally:

Originally posted by JaggedJ:

Originally posted by brodiebluebanaszak:

Originally posted by NinerBuff:
QB1 going down in the third game. Period.

This is not about injuries

Then your thread title is invalid.

Injuries happen, lesser players come in and are generally more prone to turnovers/inability to takeaway.

You can't disregard injuries from a discussion about why our season was poor.

This x 100000000000000000000

no ,. but you also can not totally hang your hat on that excuse. and yes many do which is just whistling past the end zone to me

Originally posted by LVJay:


http://www.knbr.com/2019/01/16/cassius-marsh-explains-how-magic-the-gathering-sharpens-his-mind/

Originally posted by wysiwyg:
Bosa / Allen / Williams do not just take the job of the Karate Kid.

I propose a battle to the death, Dungeons and Dragons stylee, yo

Originally posted by T-9ers:
We lack the talent to be a complete team imo. Too many underperforming draft picks. Lynch and co. gotta nail this draft son.

I can't put it all on Jimmy G, maybe we have 7 wins with him.

Originally posted by cciowa:

Originally posted by T-9ers:

We lack the talent to be a complete team imo. Too many underperforming draft picks. Lynch and co. gotta nail this draft son.

I can't put it all on Jimmy G, maybe we have 7 wins with him.

this makes the most sense of all. of course the injuries played a role but if is dumb in my opinion to hang all our woes on the injury bug