49ers QB Brian Hoyer facing less pressure than at first glance

The San Francisco 49ers offensive line has had plenty of issues to figure out, but when it comes to protecting the quarterback, it’s actually doing a fairly decent job. Brian Hoyer is fifth in the NFL with 13 sacks, but according to ESPN’s NFL Matchup program, he ranks 20th in terms of most pressure.

They recently tweeted a stat for quarterbacks facing the most pressure. That covered sacks, hurries, and hits. According to them, Tyrod Taylor leads the NFL, facing pressure 41 percent of his dropbacks. Hoyer did not appear in the top ten, so I followed up with them, and they said he ranks 20th, facing pressure 25 percent of the time.

The 49ers offensive line is far from perfect, but it seems like pressure is generally coming up the middle more than from the edges. Trent Brown has given up five pressures all season, and Joe Staley has ranked highly with regularity in pass blocking. The interior of the line has had issues, but it seems at times like Hoyer displays a case of happy feet. We’ll have more on that later in the week, but for the time being, the line might be rounding into form a little bit better than we might have otherwise expected.