The 49ers defense has several new faces who had significant playing time

The San Francisco 49ers added a few new faces to the roster over the last month. Several of those players had pretty significant playing time considering some of them had only been in the building a few days. That was the case again in Week 12 vs. the Seattle Seahawks.

Antone Exum Jr. was signed on November 7th and played 40 defensive snaps on Sunday, or 60 percent. The injury to Adrian Colbert’s thumb pushed him into the starting role where he registered two solo tackles and one combined.

Sheldon Day was claimed off of waivers November 20th, and played 30 defensive snaps (45 percent). He registered two solo tackles on the day. He expressed that he felt like he played more than he had when he was with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Day added even though he couldn’t remember how many first team reps he took in practice, it wasn’t a challenge getting so many snaps in a new system.

“It wasn’t challenging at all. It was a good experience for me. I would definitely say that I enjoyed every bit of it.”

Cassius Marsh was claimed off of waivers November 22nd, and played 27 snaps (40 percent). He registered two solo tackles. Marsh worked out in the offseason with DeForest Buckner, Eli Harold, and Ronald Blair in Hawaii at Michael Bennett’s facility. Needless to say that made it even easier for him to feel comfortable in Santa Clara.

“Pretty smooth. It’s a pretty similar defense. Call-wise, the linguistics are a little bit different. I could definitely be better, a couple mistakes out there, but it was a pretty easy transition for me.”

Neither Marsh or Day thought they would play as many snaps as they did but were very happy to do so. Marsh added that he never wants to come off the field and will prepare this week as if he will be playing every down in Chicago.

Here are the snap counts for Week 12.