Defensive Line Thread

Originally posted by Sask49erFan:

Originally posted by Chance:
Wish we would have kept Eason and let Luke Gifford kick rocks. For f**k's sake.

It's going to be a DJ Reed all over again. We should have never let Eason go.

I was going to say Thompson could have a big role but he is hurt too.

This team is a mess. An utter disaster. Does this have the look of a championship DLine?

DE- Nick Bosa / Khalid Kareem
DT- Osa Odiahizuwa / Gracen Halton
DT- CJ West / James Thompson?
DE- Keion White / Romello Height

Thompson is back at practice today per reports. He will probably play a major role Thursday night.

To answer your question - absolutely not. They were counting on big year two from Collins/West. Both look out of shape and worse in 2026. Collins is now out for the year. They got Thompson who looks promising but lost Eason. Osa will be huge. Keion White is good but shouldn't be a starter. Mykel will be back so that will help a bit. But where's the pass rush coming from? Bosa is the only "sack" guy they have. Height didn't have one flash in preseason.

Originally posted by Sask49erFan:

Originally posted by Chance:
Wish we would have kept Eason and let Luke Gifford kick rocks. For f**k's sake.

It's going to be a DJ Reed all over again. We should have never let Eason go.

I was going to say Thompson could have a big role but he is hurt too.

This team is a mess. An utter disaster. Does this have the look of a championship DLine?

DE- Nick Bosa / Khalid Kareem
DT- Osa Odiahizuwa / Gracen Halton
DT- CJ West / James Thompson?
DE- Keion White / Romello Height

Calm down. The team is not an utter disaster, lol.

Originally posted by Chance:

Originally posted by Sask49erFan:

Originally posted by Chance:
Wish we would have kept Eason and let Luke Gifford kick rocks. For f**k's sake.

It's going to be a DJ Reed all over again. We should have never let Eason go.

I was going to say Thompson could have a big role but he is hurt too.

This team is a mess. An utter disaster. Does this have the look of a championship DLine?

DE- Nick Bosa / Khalid Kareem
DT- Osa Odiahizuwa / Gracen Halton
DT- CJ West / James Thompson?
DE- Keion White / Romello Height

Calm down. The team is not an utter disaster, lol.

The d-line could still be ok, but what's going to happen when we actually start playing games? We can't even make it through practices without losing guys and we can't afford to lose anyone else on the d-line.

Keeping Enrique Cruz over ANYONE let alone Bryson Eason was f**king stupid in the moment and is only aging worse with time.

Originally posted by 49ersRing:

Originally posted by Chance:

Originally posted by Sask49erFan:

Originally posted by Chance:
Wish we would have kept Eason and let Luke Gifford kick rocks. For f**k's sake.

It's going to be a DJ Reed all over again. We should have never let Eason go.

I was going to say Thompson could have a big role but he is hurt too.

This team is a mess. An utter disaster. Does this have the look of a championship DLine?

DE- Nick Bosa / Khalid Kareem
DT- Osa Odiahizuwa / Gracen Halton
DT- CJ West / James Thompson?
DE- Keion White / Romello Height

Calm down. The team is not an utter disaster, lol.

The d-line could still be ok, but what's going to happen when we actually start playing games? We can't even make it through practices without losing guys and we can't afford to lose anyone else on the d-line.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Lol.

I think there's lots of vet DT free agents still available that can play better than Collins.

Originally posted by Predator85:
I think there's lots of vet DT free agents still available that can play better than Collins.

Definitely

Originally posted by Chance:

Originally posted by Sask49erFan:

Originally posted by Chance:
Wish we would have kept Eason and let Luke Gifford kick rocks. For f**k's sake.

It's going to be a DJ Reed all over again. We should have never let Eason go.

I was going to say Thompson could have a big role but he is hurt too.

This team is a mess. An utter disaster. Does this have the look of a championship DLine?

DE- Nick Bosa / Khalid Kareem
DT- Osa Odiahizuwa / Gracen Halton
DT- CJ West / James Thompson?
DE- Keion White / Romello Height

Calm down. The team is not an utter disaster, lol.

Do you think that we did enough to address the league low 20 sacks from last year?

It is a disaster especially when Bosa misses time which is guaranteed

Originally posted by Predator85:
I think there's lots of vet DT free agents still available that can play better than Collins.

I'm sure we would have signed one of them if Kyle/Lynch thought that

Williams recovery from his ACL becomes pretty important now. Can play inside and out when we feel light on both.

At the very least it could give us flexibility on both the roster and which position we target if we decide to trade for anyone.

Very dim silver lining, but whatever, hard to stay positive when guys keep breaking down.

Now we need CJ West to step up. Not sure if he will or not. He's quick with the good first step. But not the big, space eater of Alfred Collins. Just much different players. You want a huge gap plugger. Now we don't have our best one. This is a bad situation.

Dieter has become my favorite local media person. He's one of the few members of local media that actually knows football. I couldn't agree more with his tweets:

James Thompson Jr is going to have to go from UDFA to NFL caliber starter.

Originally posted by ads_2006:

Originally posted by Predator85:

I think there's lots of vet DT free agents still available that can play better than Collins.

I'm sure we would have signed one of them if Kyle/Lynch thought that

Larry Ogunjobi has 27.5 career sacks and is available FA

Originally posted by Heroism:
Dieter has become my favorite local media person. He's one of the few members of local media that actually knows football. I couldn't agree more with his tweets:

The Bryson Eason waving was questionable in the moment and looks reprehensible with hindsight. https://t.co/GXceCgnHZJ

— Dieter Kurtenbach 🔥 (@dieter) September 9, 2026

Niners now have one healthy 0/1 tech: CJ West.

McVay might run duo on 40 straight plays.

(Though to be fair he was probably going to do that with Collins in the lineup, too.)

— Dieter Kurtenbach 🔥 (@dieter) September 9, 2026

The roster building of this team is beyond questionable.

20 sacks last year? Let's only draft a undesized guy in the 3rd and rely on Bosa to not get hurt again.

No starting LG? Let's draft a tackle in the 4th and move him to guard.

Teams are going to absolutely target our weaknesses