Golden Nuggets: Ford believes the 49ers will be even better this year

San Francisco 49ers edge rusher Dee Ford spoke highly of D.J. Jones, cracked some jokes about teams injecting noise into their stadiums, and a lot more on Friday. Ford was asked whether the loss in the Super Bowl hurt more than jumping offsides as a Chief, which essentially cost Kansas City a victory. Here’s what he said:

It still hurts. We put in a lot of work, and I feel like, even though narratives don’t matter, they matter, honestly, when you think about it. And we fought the narrative (last season) of when we fall off the map if we were real or not, but we stuck together each week, and we had to battle. We started getting each team’s best shot.

When you put in that amount of work, of course, it’s terrible to come up short, but you’ve got to have a short memory. Part of being a championship team is having a short memory and moving on. I said even before I got to San Francisco, I said if I was to dwell on things that happened in the past, I wouldn’t be any good in the future and helping my team get back.

It’s the same thing this year. We can’t dwell on the loss. We’ve got to use that to push forward and be even better — which we are going to be — be even better next year because now we’re going to have to face another narrative of just having that hiccup season after the Super Bowl.

Props to Ford for not flinching and answering the question. He’s been the brunt of a lot of jokes, and that can’t be easy to answer. There’s a reason Nick Bosa, Arik Armstead, and DeForest Buckner all said Ford was the leader of the defensive line. That type of leadership and ownership is why.

Speaking of the defensive line, Ford had high praise for D.J. Jones:

“In the beginning of the season, we really saw what D.J. could do. He’s a game-changer. He can definitely disrupt the whole offensive line the way that he penetrates and pushes pads back. Man, he’s definitely a pivotal part. I think he’s in the same boat as me. Just being available is the more important thing. The more we have D.J., the more scarier the D-line is as a whole. We all play together, and everything that we do together is tied in together. D.J. will be a very important part of that.”

Here’s to the injury gods letting us see the 49ers defensive line at full strength all season.

Onto some links:

49ers’ McGlinchey not finished learning from retired Staley (NBC Sports)

49ers 2020 ‘Who Is?’ series: DeMarkus Acy a dark-horse sleeper (Niners Noise)

Three 49ers returning from injury can make offense better (NBC Sports)

49ers’ Dee Ford ready to ‘sack some quarterbacks’ after offseason surgery (Branch)

Ranking the top 15 49ers part two, Nos. 10 through 6. Where does Jimmy Garoppolo land? (Biderman)

Dee Ford takes a shot at ‘a couple of teams’ while discussing the possibility of no fans in stadiums (49ers Webzone)