This is Part 4 of our eight-part State of the 49ers series — where we’ll assess each position group and introduce some high-level solutions to get the team back into next season’s Super Bowl hunt. Up next: the linebackers.
The last time the 49ers fielded an elite defense, a pair of top-tier linebackers roared at the middle of it. This was no coincidence.
The year was 2022. The 49ers defense finished No. 1 in expected points added (EPA). The headlining linebackers were Fred Warner and Dre Greenlaw. Sublime seasons from both of them, along with an excellent year from third linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair, supercharged the effort. That trio formed the heart of a defense that stifled both the run and the pass.
The 49ers defense has severely regressed in each of the two seasons since, finishing at No. 26 EPA in 2024. Linebacker play has eroded significantly in that timespan. Again, this is no coincidence.
Warner has trucked along on a Hall of Fame trajectory throughout the entire saga, though a Week 4 foot fracture — which he played through for the rest of the 2024 season — did hurt his play. Greenlaw’s performance, meanwhile, has been significantly affected by injuries over the past two years. He played hurt through much of 2023 before tearing his Achilles in that season’s Super Bowl — a game which he’d begun with a dominant quarter. Greenlaw then looked explosive again in his late 2024 return but managed to play only 34 snaps.
Meanwhile, the 49ers’ replacements at linebacker delivered play that ranged from mediocre to nonexistent — veteran De’Vondre Campbell literally refused to participate in the game in which Greenlaw returned. The 49ers kicked Campbell off the field and suspended him for the rest of the season. The fiasco was painfully emblematic of the team’s difficulties at linebacker. Campbell hadn’t even been their first choice to fill in for Greenlaw; the 49ers signed him only after linebacker Eric Kendricks backed out of a verbal agreement to join and went to the Dallas Cowboys instead.
The final 2024 result at linebacker, as illustrated by the performance table below, wasn’t pretty. The color coded chart (blue is good and red is bad) represents Pro Football Focus’ grades. Of linebackers who saw regular playing time, only Warner scored well.
MTKL% is missed tackle percentage, where the NFL median is about 11 percent. RTG is passer rating allowed into coverage, where the NFL median among qualifying linebackers is about 106 (lower numbers here indicated better performance).
The 49ers’ Wide-9 defensive front has been reliant on excellent linebacker play to fill abnormally large gaps. Unsurprisingly, team leadership — starting with returning defensive coordinator Robert Saleh — is expressing urgency to restock the position this offseason.
Greenlaw, who’s scheduled to become a free agent in March, headlines this project.
“Obviously, we want him back,” 49ers edge rusher Nick Bosa said of Greenlaw last weekend. “I know Saleh is very adamant about that.”
Consider Greenlaw and Saleh’s shared history. After the 49ers finished 4-12 in 2018, their staff was picked to coach the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala. It was there that Saleh and his fellow 49ers coaches grew enamored with two players whom the team would draft three months later: Greenlaw and receiver Deebo Samuel.
Within a year, Greenlaw and Samuel had played vital roles in paving the 49ers’ path from 4-12 in 2018 to NFC Championship and Super Bowl appearances to close the 2019 season. Following the NFC title game victory, Saleh — wearing a custom-made “Mobile to Miami” t-shirt — beamed as he hugged Greenlaw in the corner of the 49ers’ locker room.
Coach Kyle Shanahan’s goal when pursuing Saleh to rejoin the team last month was simple: Bring the defense back to pre-2023 levels. And it’s clear that Saleh is well aware that can only happen if the 49ers improve at linebacker.
Free agency will be necessary for this job
A firmer idea of Greenlaw’s market probably won’t begin to materialize until the NFL Scouting Combine at the end of this month. That’s where agents and team executives have a chance to meet in person. Greenlaw’s case is an especially intriguing one. Although he played prolifically upon returning to the lineup in December, Greenlaw might not have displayed the durability needed to secure long-term contract offers. If that’s the case, a shorter-term, incentive-laden deal might be what it takes to bring him back to the 49ers.
But even if Greenlaw is resigned, the 49ers have plenty of work to do at linebacker. They currently have only three players — Warner, Dee Winters, and Tatum Bethune — under contract at the position, so several more signings here will be necessary just to field a team.
Winters showed some progress in his second season. His best play came against the Seattle Seahawks in November when he blanketed star receiver DK Metcalf far downfield before breaking up quarterback Geno Smith’s pass. Success in coverage is mandatory for effective NFL linebackers in the modern game, and Winters — who began his college career as a safety — has shown enough potential speed to at least fill the No. 3 linebacker spot.
The 49ers are also still hopeful that Bethune and Jalen Graham (an exclusive rights free agent who will be back if the team wants him) can continue to grow into viable roles outside of special teams. But those youngsters remain developmental projects. They come with uncertainty, as does a potential signee like Greenlaw, given the ongoing questions about his durability following last season’s Achilles injury.
That means the 49ers will again very likely be in the market for a veteran linebacker in free agency. They certainly hope the process will yield better results than it did last season, which ended with Campbell walking out on the team.
Saleh coached 25-year-old Jamien Sherwood, who’s scheduled to be a free agent, over the past four seasons with the New York Jets. Sherwood checks in at just 216 pounds, much lighter than Warner or Greenlaw (both are about 230 pounds). That’s allowed Sherwood the speed to develop into a solid coverage linebacker over his four seasons in the NFL. He was a dependable tackler even at that lighter weight during a breakout 2024 season with the Jets.
Saleh will likely want to fortify his 49ers defense with a familiar face like Sherwood. The problem is that Jeff Ulbrich, Saleh’s former defensive coordinator in New York who now holds that position with the Atlanta Falcons, will also be interested in Sherwood.
It’s rarely easy to land plus-contributors in the NFL, but the 49ers are in a spot where they need to do just that. Linebacker, a unit which binds the defensive front with the backfield, has proven to be indispensable to this team’s success. Kendricks, 32, and Bobby Wagner, who’s now 34, also project to be available system fits if the 49ers again choose to plug a hole with an older veteran.
It’s unreasonable to think the 49ers can immediately rebuild their linebacker room to 2022 heights, when Warner, Greenlaw and Al-Shaair patrolled the field. But they can begin taking steps in that direction this offseason.
In fact, their new defensive coordinator — who showed that he has a keen eye for linebacker talent and development during his first stint with the team — has come aboard demanding just that.