Kwon Alexander vs Dre Greenlaw

Outside of obvious passing downs and against elite slot WR's, shouldn't we be in base way more often this season? I'm not sure why you need to bring an extra DB on the field when you have 3 LB's and 2 Safties who all are pretty damn good in coverage. Many are assuming that either Alexander or Greenlaw will lose snaps, and obviously that's true, but only partially if K. William's ends up on the field less.

Having 3 really good to elite LB's will only help us and should be looked at as a strength going forward.

Originally posted by Nastastical:
Outside of obvious passing downs and against elite slot WR's, shouldn't we be in base way more often this season? I'm not sure why you need to bring an extra DB on the field when you have 3 LB's and 2 Safties who all are pretty damn good in coverage. Many are assuming that either Alexander or Greenlaw will lose snaps, and obviously that's true, but only partially if K. William's ends up on the field less.

Having 3 really good to elite LB's will only help us and should be looked at as a strength going forward.

It remains to be seen how often the 49ers stay in base vs 3 WRs in run/pass neutral downs. Offensive personnel often dictates what defensive personnel is in the game. If it's an offense that likes to run the ball out of 11 personnel, I'd assume Saleh will keep the 3 LBs on the field in response, on run/pass neutral downs.

K'Waun Williams played 60% of the defense snaps last season while missing one game. The reason I made this thread is because whichever player, Kwon or Dre, lines up at the WILL is going to play many more snaps than whoever gets slotted into SAM. I see pros and cons for either player.

Originally posted by Giedi:

Originally posted by Heroism:
Aziz was awful.

I don't' remember him making many mistakes when he was on the field. For an undrafted, I thought he did well as a rotational player when he played. Finally, I didn't see any 49ers denials when Kwon was reportedly on a trade list with DeeFord, Brieda and Goodwin. I don't think they'd put Kwon on any trade block if Azeez was as awful as you said he was.

They traded Buckner... So everyone was probably available for the right price.

Sometimes I think writers get inspiration from this forum.

(snippet of article written 5/21)
https://theathletic.com/1828640/2020/05/21/can-dre-greenlaw-and-kwon-alexander-spearhead-more-49ers-three-linebacker-sets/
At the moment, middle (Mike) linebacker Fred Warner has his name set in stone, but the 49ers' weakside (Will) and strongside (Sam) linebacker slots remain undetermined. Whenever the defense employs its nickel package — which happens on the majority of snaps — an extra defensive back replaces the Sam linebacker.

That means that the winner of the looming battle between Alexander and Greenlaw is likely to see considerably more playing time in 2020.

PFF awarded Greenlaw the higher overall defensive grade, primarily thanks to excellent tackling — he ranked in the top-five of tackling efficiency rankings, missing only one stop over those four games. Meanwhile, Alexander did not tackle efficiently, ranking near the bottom of the NFL's linebackers in that metric.

But when healthy, Alexander was one of the league's best linebackers in coverage. He allowed the second-lowest passer rating in football (67.4) before his pectoral tear, even while coming off a 2018 ACL tear. Greenlaw is no slouch in coverage — his overtime interception in Week 10 against Seattle is an under-appreciated highlight of the 2019 season — but he isn't breaking up passes at Alexander's level yet.

Originally posted by All22:

Originally posted by Giedi:

Originally posted by Heroism:

Aziz was awful.

I don't' remember him making many mistakes when he was on the field. For an undrafted, I thought he did well as a rotational player when he played. Finally, I didn't see any 49ers denials when Kwon was reportedly on a trade list with DeeFord, Brieda and Goodwin. I don't think they'd put Kwon on any trade block if Azeez was as awful as you said he was.

They traded Buckner... So everyone was probably available for the right price.

Don't agree. They didn't trade Buckner for the price, imo, they traded him because of the coming cap hit. $21m for a DT. That doesn't mean necessarily that they would have traded anyone else, it was something of a one-off situation.

Originally posted by thl408:

Sometimes I think writers get inspiration from this forum.

100% accurate. DL has also been covering a lot of the IOL and pass protection issues too lately. What better place to get content for reader interest than from the webzone? I've literally had work/data stolen from here.

This is a great topic.

Edge to Kwon overall. But taking into account age, durability, and contract - Dre. Glad to have them both, but Dre may make Kwon expendable. Looking forward to seeing if Dre can continue his upward trajectory and not fall off in year 2.

Both Kwon and Ford will be gone to make room for Joey Bosa when it's time to go after him

Kwon has been doing this consistently. Love Dre but how many times have we had guys burst on the seen their first year then fizzle out. Future looks bright, but wanna see him do it again before we put all our eggs in that basket.

I think unless Kwon shows out big time this year we move on, cap implications permitting. Kwon is good but Dre ain't far behind. It's about to be Dre day

Originally posted by FredFlintstone:
Both Kwon and Ford will be gone to make room for Joey Bosa when it's time to go after him

Yabba Dabba DOO

Got chubby

Robert Saleh in 2020...hold my beer.


If you can't see, Seattle played base 69% last year. 2nd was the Cards at 38%. NFL average is 27%.

It does not account for big S-Nickel packages.

We also need to consider K'Waun Williams will be a FA next year and he's not going to be cheap.

Originally posted by GhostOfBaalke:

Kwon has been doing this consistently. Love Dre but how many times have we had guys burst on the seen their first year then fizzle out. Future looks bright, but wanna see him do it again before we put all our eggs in that basket.

Was just going to say this. All we have to do is look at 2017. Colbert looked like a legit starting quality safety and completely fell off a cliff the next season.

Dre is extremely likeable both on and off the field but let's not crown him just yet. Kwon has been doing this his whole career.

Originally posted by thl408:
Sometimes I think writers get inspiration from this forum.

Originally posted by NCommand:
Robert Saleh in 2020...hold my beer.

The Seahawks played more base defense than any other team in 2019

Can this still work in today's NFL?

— PFF (@PFF) May 23, 2020

If you can't see, Seattle played base 69% last year. 2nd was the Cards at 38%. NFL average is 27%.

It does not account for big S-Nickel packages.

We also need to consider K'Waun Williams will be a FA next year and he's not going to be cheap.

I can't see Saleh using base personnel in obvious passing downs. Even though the SAM (Kwon or Dre) is athletic enough to not look silly covering a slot WR, the better matchup is putting KWilliams on the field in place of the SAM imo. Trying to man cover with a LB vs a slot WR is usually a mismatch. Perhaps 1st/2nd down when there is a threat to of the run, Saleh can use base versus 3WR.

CKupp/LFitzgerald/TLockette vs a LB in man coverage is a win for the offense. The defense last season was so zone dominant that perhaps they don't care the QB knows he is about to see a zone coverage (base vs 3WR).