The San Francisco 49ers got a big win over the Carolina Panthers on Monday, using a stellar defensive performance to win 20-9 and improve to 8-4 on the season.
Safety Ji’Ayir Brown was the star of the day, recording two clutch interceptions, including one in the end zone. Brown had seen his snap count and tackle numbers increase over the past few weeks, but the ball-hawking numbers hadn’t been there this year.
But on Monday, he was able to intercept Bryce Young twice, which helped him earn the NFC
Defensive Player of the Week honors.
Is Brown experiencing a breakthrough moment after a couple of years of up-and-down play?
“He has played like this before, so I don’t want to say like he’s just overall improving,” Shanahan said of Brown. “I thought he played at a high level when he came in as a rookie and played for us. But I think just stringing together these weeks, you know when you’re in and out throughout the offseason with the surgery he had and the injuries in training camp, it’s hard to just get better each week.
“I think stringing together, whatever these weeks are, six weeks, maybe more, he’s been starting, you can just see him getting more consistent, getting more confident doing his job great, knowing when to cheat his job and take some of the tips and knowing when to make some educated guesses and stuff. That’s the way you make plays out there by doing that stuff. Can’t get carried away with it though, because that’s the way you give plays to the other team, and I think he’s found a really good balance at that each week.”
This season, Brown has seen his role fluctuate quite a bit, playing both some big nickel and safety, while also being in and out of the rotation.
“Tig’s been awesome,” Shanahan continued. “When he first started over [here], he replaced Huf (Talanoa Hufanga) when Huf got injured, I believe it was Huf’s ACL injury. And then Tig played at a really high level all the way to the Super Bowl and into the next year. He was in and out a little bit when Huf came back. But this offseason, went through a lot of rehab stuff, missed some time with camp. Missed some time in the offseason, gave guys other opportunities, which had him start off not in a safety role, which I can’t tell you guys about how well he handled that. He really became a very good player on special teams, which is how he started out.
“He was unbelievable in our big nickel role and really just with how he was handled both of those roles. We wanted to make sure we gave him an opportunity back at safety before Malik [Mustapha] came back. And when we did, he did well in that role and has kept the job and is getting better and better each week.”
Brown has been a starter for the last seven weeks, playing at or near 100 percent of the defensive snaps in all of those games. Prior to this weekend, we had seen glimpses but not enough consistency from the 49ers’ safety room. Perhaps Brown can help turn a corner there, starting with his ball-hawking skills.
“I don’t know about breakthrough or anything like that. I do know, what’s been great is he does get better every week,” defensive coordinator Robert Saleh said about Brown. “And this goes back to training camp. He missed some time during OTAs with the injury, comes in training camp, kind of gets bad news that he was going to be, that he wasn’t going to start.
“But, we carved out a role for him so he could stay involved. Whether he liked it or not, you couldn’t tell. He attacked the heck out of it, did everything that we asked, and really helped everybody around him. He was even helping the young kid at safety [Marques] Sigle, trying to get him squared away, and when he was given another opportunity to go back at safety, he’s improved every single week. Definitely wanting to make sure that he can slam the door and make sure that he leaves no doubt that he’s the safety.
“So, long story short, I still think he’s going to continue improving. The biggest thing I would take away from the game for him last week is I felt like he was playing football, not fit-ball. I always tell players, you can be a fit-ball player and do exactly what the book tells you to do, but you’re the one out there shooting bullets, you’re the one that’s playing football. And like the second interception was just him playing football. If he did it by the book, he wouldn’t have made that play. And so, he’s improving big time with regard to understanding the game and being more of a football player.”
Brown will likely continue to carry his starting role over the rest of the season, and the 49ers will need more from the safety room. Let’s see if Monday’s game can kickstart the step up in play from the group.
