Fred Warner and Nick Bosa might be the only players in the front seven that will be familiar faces on the 49ers defense.
One of the biggest storylines during the San Francisco 49ers‘ upcoming training camp is how many new faces there will be. And these just aren’t players competing for depth spots. These are players who are going to play, and play a ton.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan was asked what his realistic expectations for the defense are this year, after having seen Robert Saleh during this offseason. Shanahan spoke about the number of established veterans on that side of the ball, and how there’s not “many people in the league” better than Fred Warner and Nick Bosa. Shanahan also used the term “love” when describing what Deommodore Lenoir has done these past few years.
Here’s more from Shanahan:
“There’s a chance we could have six new guys starting. There’s a chance we could have eight, we’ll see how it plays out. And anytime you say that, that’s different. That is a different team, that is a different side of the ball. And so, that does take some time.”
The spot(s) next to Warner, everyone to the left of Bosa, the third cornerback, and perhaps a safety. It’ll be a brand new defense, which has Shanahan excited about what this unit can become:
“That’s why I’m so excited to get started with camp so we can start working that. I thought we got a really good head start in OTAs. When you have a young defense like that, you think of six out of our first nine games are on the road, I know that’ll be a huge challenge for them. But I think we have the capability with some of the veterans that we’ve had here, some of the new guys that we’ve added, some of these vets we’ve brought in to create some competition with these new guys. As long as we keep getting better throughout the year, I think we have a chance to turn it into a real good defense.”
The good news for the 49ers’ young-ish — it’s really more of a compilation of new faces and inexperience — defense is that they won’t face a run of high-powered offenses out of the gate. There are some soft landing spots that should help build their confidence.
We’ll try to update as camp goes along, which players are making a push to start and whether there are any under-the-radar players to keep an eye on.