FanPost

Thoughts on defense, D-Line depth chart and related matters.


I feel like things seem a bit clearer with regard to how the defense may look next year. Probably a lot of these points are obvious and or wrong. Please let me know where I am confused.

1. Ian Williams looks solid at nose tackle. I had thought that Dorsey might compete for that job.Looks to me like he will not. Barring injury, I would expect Ian W to take all the snaps at NT, about 22 snaps per game since the niners play a lot of nickel (i.e., 4 down-lineman defense: no nose tackle).

2. I am guessing that Dorsey and Dobbs will be the primary back-ups for J Smith and MacDonald. That would be in both nickel and base. I assume the plan is to reduce snap count percentage somewhat for both D lineman. (They were both rather high last year and seemed to wear down.

3. I would guess that Ahmad and Aldon continue to start at OLB (obvi) and that Lemonier and Parys are the primary back-ups. Which side do they sub on? I am not really sure. I am guessing Lenomier may get some of Ahmad's snaps on the left particularly on passing downs?

Overall, seems like a step up from last year. The talk about loosing Sopoaga and Franklin in free agency: please. That is addition by subtraction. Ian Williams looks like a serious upgrade to me. The back-ups at both olb and interior Dline also seem much improved.

Venturing into the secondary:

Reid looked good. Covered well. Likes to hit. Met expectations. (Anybody have a guess as to who wears the green dot helmet next year?)

Regarding Spillman: dude is a great athlete and special teams stand-out. He seems to be improving at safety as well. Any chance he gets some snaps at safety this year (in non-goal line situations), either in place of Reid (the rookie) or Whitner (the veteran who may be slowing down just a bit)?

Cornerback: Cox and Brock looked pretty good I thought. Nnamdi as well. I wonder if slot and one corner position may be both up for grabs (since I wonder if Carlos may be slowing down). Anybody have any thoughts about how the corners will shake out and if they will be improved or not over last year?

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Niners Nation's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of Niners Nation's writers or editors.