2011 49ers Grades: Parys Haralson

by David Fucillo on Feb 20, 2012 8:00 AM PST in 49ers Grades

In 2011, the San Francisco 49ers developed one of the strongest front sevens in the NFL. The defensive line and inside linebackers, along with Aldon Smith, get much of the fanfare, but in reality the kudos should extend to Ahmad Brooks and Parys Haralson. We've discussed Brooks plenty, but Parys Haralson often falls under the radar. Heck, I overlooked him in our alphabetical run through the individual player grades this past weekend.

While Ahmad Brooks was just about an every down outside linebacker, his opposite was a dynamic duo of Parys Haralson and Aldon Smith. The 49ers drafted Aldon Smith as an outside linebacker, but for his rookie season, they let him focus primarily his pass rushing skills. He played a little bit in the 3-4, but spent the vast majority of his time as a nickel defensive end opposite Brooks. When he was out, Parys Haralson was the guy taking all the other snaps in the 3-4 look.

Early in Haralson's career he flashed some pass rush skills, leading the team with eight sacks in 2008. His sack numbers have decreased each year since then as he has become more adept at stopping the run. He does not bring the needed drop-back and pass rush skills a complete OLB would have, which resulted in the time-share with Aldon Smith.

Haralson was fairly successful in what he did as, in a similar vein to Alex Smith, he did his best at what he was asked to do. By basically platooning him with Aldon Smith, the 49ers worked around his weaknesses and found success.

Of course, with Ahmad Brooks entering free agency this year, that puts the 49ers in a position where they could have a fairly significant question mark at OLB. If Brooks leaves, barring an addition to the roster, the 49ers are looking at Aldon Smith and Parys Haralson as the two every-down outside linebackers.

Aldon Smith has a ton of upside, but in his year two are you comfortable with those two as the starting outside linebackers for the 49ers?

Poll

How would you rate Parys Haralson's 2011 season on a 1-10 scale (1=worst rating, 10=best rating)?

1

3 votes

2

3 votes

3

12 votes

4

27 votes

5

61 votes

6

121 votes

7

230 votes

8

97 votes

9

27 votes

10

13 votes

594 votes | Poll has closed

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Comments

Parys, Larry & Aldon all had very good seasons....

However, im still of the opinion that even if we re-sign Larry, the 9ers STILL have to spend one of their draft picks on another young Pass Rusher to partner up with Aldon.

Players who can SACK the Q.B. are game changers, momentum changers.

Aldon’s sacks changed the games in our favor.

But I don’t seriously think a team can relay on one legit Pass Rusher to week in and week out, all season long get those sacks at critical times.

I hope the 9ers are smart enough to recognize how important it is to draft another young Pass Rusher who can cause havoc with Aldon for the next 10 years.

You can NEVER have to many Pass Rushers.

by BigMar on Feb 20, 2012 8:46 AM PST reply actions

From a football standpoint you are absolutely right

From a salary cap standpoint you just can’t keep more than one exceptional pass rusher on the team long term without making serious compromises elsewhere on the defense or giving up on fielding a decent offense. Right now we are in a great position with Aldon on his rookie contract but once that is over we are going to have to break out the checkbook for him. Do that for another “Aldon” a year later and we’re going to have to gut the secondary or the line or one of Willis / Bowman has to go.

What’s more important than having the pass rushers is having a scouting department that can properly evaluate pass rushing talent, linebackers coaches that know how to develop them in context with what the DC is trying to do, and a defensive coordinator who can play with blitz schemes to get better production out of the players than their talent alone would have produced.

You get that process in place, and you don’t worry too much about having pass rushers. Maybe you still have one elite guy — but you know that your less talented players are still going to be able to get to the quarterback because your process is right.

That’s how Baltimore and Pittsburgh have been dominant with their linebacking corps for the last decade+. Some of those guys were truly elite. Others were products of the process in those two franchises and were easily replaced when they started making contract demands. That is where we need to be.

Every time Jamie Dukes says something enlightening and informative about football Jerry Rice and I mount up on our flying grizzly bears and claim pirate treasure from the moon. That's how often it happens.

by Ougadas on Feb 20, 2012 9:05 AM PST up reply actions

Parys was solid this year

I gave him a 7. He’s no Aldon when it comes to pass rush but he’s definitely not a liability either.

by KGboomer on Feb 20, 2012 9:47 AM PST reply actions

7

I don’t remember many great plays that he made, but I do remember him getting beat for the Lynch TD that broke our streak. I generally thought he was better than many vocal people gave him credit for.

by mrg80 on Feb 20, 2012 10:30 AM PST reply actions

You always hope that guys don't regress their next year

I hope Aldon can keep the same pace next year, but teams will really be zeroing in on him and I imagine his numbers won’t be as good and I’m not sure if Brooks will be back. Combine those two possibilities and it worries me that Parys will be the guy opposite Aldon. Although he did what was asked to do, if he’s asked to more, I don’t think he can get it done. I think we definitely need to draft a OLB/DE in the 3rd-5rd range to take those snaps that Aldon was taking from Parys.

by agchee on Feb 20, 2012 5:08 PM PST reply actions