When you make the kind of improvement in one season that the 49ers did last year, it means you’ve made tremendous progress in building your roster. And that’s why San Francisco is where it is today, as a foremost Super Bowl contender, because the leadership team of general manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan has done a terrific job over the past three years of adding talent and strength to the roster. That makes the 49ers one of the most powerful teams in the NFL today, with winning talent distributed throughout a stocked roster. Here, as the 49ers prepare to begin defense of their 2019 NFC championship and ultimately go one step beyond, The Niner Report reviews and analyzes the team by 12 positional groups (including special teams) and ranks each unit, going from strongest to weakest, to help identify the top strengths of the roster and the areas where the team needs to get better this season for the 49ers to both maintain their elite status and capture the franchise’s first Lombardi Trophy in more than a quarter-century.
DEFENSIVE LINE
Esta historia es de la edición September 2020 de Niner Report.
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Esta historia es de la edición September 2020 de Niner Report.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
EIGHT IS ENOUGH
Set 49ers lineup still has several new starters
Calling all cornerbacks
Loss of Verrett exposes 49ers’ thin depth at CB
Always finding their way to run
49ers system accomplished at developing homegrown talent
ANOTHER COMEBACK?
Resilient veteran Verrett to miss rest of season
TOP 10 Rookie running backs
THE BACK LIST
STOCK UP STOCK DOWN
DEOMMODORE LENOIR | AMBRY THOMAS
Will Mostert run for 49ers again?
Raheem Mostert was primed this year to be the centerpiece of one of the NFL’s most dynamic offenses, featured as the lead performer in San Francisco’s grinding rushing attack while making his climb among the league’s top running backs.
THE WONDER OF WARNER
49ers make All-Pro star highest-paid LB in NFL
Making the right choice at QB
In the weeks that follow after you read this — and perhaps sometime even sooner than that — Kyle Shanahan and the rest of the 49ers organization will make a titanic decision that will have present, future and perhaps even everlasting implications for the franchise. It will chart the course for the team’s pivotal 2021 season while determining whether San Francisco really does have the juice to return to powerhouse status and again be considered a legitimate contender to get back to the Super Bowl.
TOP 10 Linebacker seasons
Fred Warner vaulted to stardom with a spectacular 2020 season — and the 49ers rewarded him this summer with a $95.225 million deal that makes him the highest-paid inside linebacker in NFL history. By today’s standards, Warner’s performance last year was worth the money as he posted an Approximate Value of 19 — matching the highest score ever recorded by a San Francisco defender according to a Pro Football Reference formula that puts a single number on each player-season across all positions since 1960. Patrick Willis and NaVorro Bowman (twice) also had seasons with an AV of 19 as they dominate this list of the greatest individual seasons by a linebacker in 49ers history.
