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When he left, they took a leap of faith, and it works worked out very well.
After Robert Saleh left his job as San Francisco defensive coordinator to become the Jets head coach in January, 2021, the 49ers promoted linebacker coach DeMeco Ryans to replace him.
Ryans, a former NFL linebacker for Houston and Philadelphia, was just 36 at the time when he got promoted to DC, and had only been coaching since 2017, first as a 49ers defensive quality control coach, and then as the inside linebacker coach the last two years.
So Kyle Shanahan was taking a little bit of a chance on a somewhat inexperienced coach to take over for Saleh, but it’s worked out very well for San Francisco. Ryans has the 49ers’ defensive playing on a very high level, and that unit is a big reason they beat Dallas and Green Bay in the first two rounds of the playoffs.
And aside from Ryans doing an excellent job, another reason for the 49ers’ defensive success this year is their front seven, which has been dominating.
They are running the same defense as the Jets, but the results have been a little better.
So what do the Jets need to do to get to the 49ers’ defensive level, playing essentially the same scheme?
Well, first of all, they need to get a pass rusher like Nick Bosa, who consistently wrecks the game. They need to address that high in the draft. They could get Carl Lawson back this year from an achilles injury, and while he’s a decent pass rusher, he’s not a double-digit sack guy. Bosa had 15.5 sacks this past season.
Also, they need better overall linebacker play, the kind of play the 49ers get from their entire unit.
The Jets got consistent play from C.J. Mosley, but what was going on around him needs to improve. All the other players who saw action around him, played hard, but were too inconsistent, and were sometimes out of position. They had too many see-and-go reactors, sometimes making dubious reads, and too often out of position. One of them, the social media department highlights quite a bit, and he’s incredibly tough and a big-time hitter, but needs to improve the sophistication of his eyes.
The 49ers’ linebacker corps of Fred Warner, Dre Greenlaw and Azeez Al-Shaair has been playing on a very high level as a unit.
They all have great speed and cover a lot of ground. This is also true of the Jets’ linebacker corps. They also have fast guys who cover a lot of ground.
However, the 49ers unit is more fundamentally sound.
It’s one thing to assemble a bunch of linebackers who run 4.6, but that 4.6 speed can look like 4.9 on film, if they are out of position too much.
So if the Jets want to have a linebacker corps like San Francisco, they need to surround Mosley with not only fast run-and-hit linebackers, but guys with top-shelf instincts.
The Jets have the resources (draft capital and cap space) to make the requisite changes they need on defense this off-season, and part of those resources should go to a game-wrecking pass rusher and linebackers loaded with instincts.
And if they can do that, their unit could look similar to what you’ve been seeing from San Francisco.
January 28, 2022
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