The San Francisco 49ers wrap up their preseason schedule Thursday evening, likely going with a fairly vanilla game plan against the San Diego Chargers. That being said, as vanilla as things can be in the preseason, the team has shown something different.
The #49ers have blitzed on 39% of dropbacks this PRESEASON. Really interested to see how much that carries over. https://t.co/P0zqvbryNb
— Jeff Deeney (@PFF_Jeff) August 31, 2016
I tweeted at Jeff, and he said that last season, the 49ers blitzed the quarterback 30.6 percent of the time in the preseason, and 30.8 percent of the time in the regular season. We are seeing a 9 percent increase in the preseason. I followed up with Jeff about the Browns use of blitzing last year under Jim O’Neil. He said the Browns blitzed 50.4 percent during the preseason, and then only 27.4 percent during the regular season.
There is this talk that O’Neil will bring the blitz, and it is appearing more in the preseason. But will this hold up into the regular season? Or will the 49ers looked to their defensive front to create the havoc?