49ers have intriguing plan for stud defensive lineman in 2025

USA Today

18 hours ago

49ers have intriguing plan for stud defensive lineman in 2025
The San Francisco 49ers are hoping that the changes that they made on the defensive side of the ball, including replacing Nick Sorenson with Robert Saleh as the team's defensive coordinator, gets them out of the basement in the NFC West after a 6-11 campaign.
One area that they're expecting much improvement in is their pass rushing, as the 49ers brought down opposing quarterbacks on 6.69% of their dropbacks in 2024, good for 18th in the NFL.
The main reason San Francisco is anticipating more success applying pressure is the addition of first-round pick Mykel Williams. The edge rusher brings an ability that should help compliment Nick Bosa and the newly-acquired Bryce Huff.
Interestingly, Williams' position coach, Kris Kocurek recently shared that they plan to use the rookie both on the edge and in the interior of their line.
"That's one thing at Georgia that he displayed," Kocurek told reporters earlier this week (via The Atheltic's Matt Barrows). "He can get to the passer from the edge and then slide over guards and utilize that skill set, the wiggle, the ability to get on the edges and manipulate guards from the interior. He's just a really versatile player, which is something we've always utilized in the past with guys like Arden Key and Charles Omenihu and Arik Armstead in 2019 and 2020. … The thing we like about Mykel is we've seen it at Georgia. He'll line up 4i, 3-technique, 3-technique on both sides, edge player. So he's done it before, so I don't think the learning curve is quite as steep with him."
The 20-year-old was a five-star recruit out of Hardaway High School in Columbus, Georgia, before spending the last three seasons with the Bulldogs. During that time, he appeared in 40 games and recorded 67 tackles (23 for a loss), 14 sacks, four passes defensed, three forced fumbles and one fumble recovery.
He also won a national championship in his first season and earned All-SEC honors the last two.
As Kocurek mentioned, Williams did play all around Georgia's defensive front. In his 1,184 defensive line snaps with the Bulldogs, 638 (53.9%) were on the edge 408 (34.5%) were over the tackle and 138 (11.7%) were inside.
That versality could hep San Francisco get more pass rushers on the field in certain situations, creating more problems for opposing offensive linemen and quarterbacks and hopefully resulting in more sacks and/or turnovers.
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