Everybody’s favorite reporter here, G**** C*** wrote today about the 49ers trading for Daron Payne. I’m not sure I’d want a questionable locker room presence like him, but the resident rabble-rouser has a point: it’s time to start scouring for gettable defensive linemen. I was watching the Giants-Rams game and noticed that Kayvon Thibedoux was hard to notice. I wouldn’t give up Mac Jones or a super premium draft pick to get him.
There’s a tier of player that might be worth giving up the best QB insurance
policy in the entire NFL, but that tier has to be really selective. Those 48 hours over the preseason where Vita Vea seemed tradeable come to mind… that’s the level of game changer the 49ers need. It’s something I’m paying attention to when watching non-49ers NFL games, alongside looking at 49ers opponents and getting a feel for how they’re playing.
49ers place DT CJ West on IR, sign two D-linemen to roster, practice squad
“The placed defensive tackle CJ West, who started the 49ers’ first two games of the season, on injured reserve with a bone chip in his knee, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said.”
Why had 49ers’ CJ West gone south? Severe knee injury provides context for awful opening (paywall)
“He had something in (training) camp,” Shanahan said. “I don’t know if this is the same (injury), or if it was something new. But it was bothering him a lot after the game.”
West’s injury, which won’t end his season, Shanahan said, is the latest in the 49ers’ defensive trenches.”
49ers Week 2 Tape Takeaways: Protection questions (paywall)
“I really want to focus on one play that I think will be fundamental going forward.
It’s about protections.
The 49ers lost their last Super Bowl due to protection breakdowns against blitzes. They got throttled by Seattle twice because they (1) didn’t have the physicality to run against an imperious front and defensive unit that doesn’t have to adjust personnel to stop it, and (2) Mike Macdonald manipulates offensive line rules and defeats slides.
Macdonald is the master of simulated pressures. He has his own, unique pressure packages…
…Brock Purdy and Mike Evans combined for an outrageous, off-schedule play. That’s great. The fact that Purdy had no good answer within the design of the play is a problem.
This is simulated pressure with—I believe—Cover-8 behind it. Same thing as Cover-6, except quarters is run to the opposite of the passing strength…..
Cover-8 is predicated on a four-man rush, and this rushes four, but uses a simulated pressure to break down protection rules.
Macdonald has his own variations, including one that’s functionally similar of the play below, but with Cover-3 behind it. Macdonald will also blitz both corners from either edge drop two interior defenders drop into coverage…..
Seattle’s front poses physical, schematic, and even technique-oriented answers to the run game. Their personnel allows them to be multiple without sacrificing size. That’s why I’ve talked about left guard so damn much this offseason. I’m dubious of the 49ers’ ability to create any displacement up front.
But the other component is having answers to problems. The Seahawks can be beaten, but they use post-snap rotations, simulated pressures and an abundance of different pressure packages to break protection rules with coverages behind them that often account for tendencies of where offenses look for answers.
I’m not yet confident that the 49ers will have enough of those answers. That’s why this is a play that should be front of mind from them. It’s not that one of these plays is going to break them down against every team. But if they don’t proactively answer some of these questions, it could do just that against Seattle.”
49ers poach a veteran defensive tackle off the Vikings’ practice squad
“Tom Pelissero tweeted that the 49ers are signing veteran Naquan Jones off the Minnesota Vikings practice squad. Jones, 6’3”, 313 pounds, played 177 snaps in 2025 with the Houston Texans and the Los Angeles Chargers. He spent 2023 and 2024 with the Arizona Cardinals. Jones spent the first three years of his career with the Titans.
Per Sumer Sports, Jones had 13 tackles with two misses in 2025. He recorded 13 impact plays across 177 snaps. Don’t expect much as a pass rusher. He had only two pressures, with a 3.3% win rate. His run-stop percentage was a bit better at 4.8%….This move also suggests the 49ers did not want to use Sebastian Valdez, Kevin Givens, or McKinnley Jackson — the defensive tackles from the practice squad — in a game setting.”
Kyle Shanahan shares updates ahead of 49ers-Cardinals game
“After the game this week, FB Kyle Juszczyk said that the touchdown to Demarcus Week One was impressive because Robinson was the alert on that play and him and TE George Kittle both liked it because they’re often the alert. How common is it to have the player that’s the alert be the targeted receiver?
“It’s pretty common. That’s why I hate when wideouts get judged off of stats. The only way you can force a ball to somebody, to me, is by handing it off to them. Or you can just throw into double coverage and avoid the open people. But I mean, we have that on all our plays and you attack certain coverages and if number one’s covered a certain way, it should take you to number two. If they do a certain thing there, then three should be open. That’s why you like a quarterback who can go through those progressions. You like an O-Line who can give them the time to. And you like receivers who run as hard as they can every play, knowing that just because it says alert on a piece of paper, you get a certain coverage and that alert becomes number one very fast. If you think that it’s always just, ‘Hey, they’re forcing the ball here or there,’ when it’s your time, you won’t be ready. We haven’t thrown that route. We haven’t called that concept versus that coverage yet and didn’t get it much in camp either. That’s a credit to how all our guys are and especially D-Rob on that play. He was running his ass off like he was number one and based off that coverage he was.”
Why 49ers’ Brock Purdy looks poised for his best season yet
“Purdy’s pursuit of his best season began soon after the last campaign ended, when Shanahan and his staff gave their annual “get better” tape for each player to study over the offseason. Purdy’s tape focused on a few foundational principles: not hanging on to big-play reads for too long so the ball can come out quicker and the offense can stay ahead of the chains; understanding when to better use his legs; and knowing when to take shots down the field without being reckless.
All of those things showed up during training camp, whether it was on days when he consistently took checkdowns for easy completions or other days when he pushed the ball downfield for big plays.
Warner, who had some serious battles against Purdy and the top offense in camp, said the game now seems to move slowly for Purdy. Warner noted Purdy has evolved in the ways he manipulates defenses with cadence and motion, knows every coverage defenses can throw at him and then has the athletic ability and creativity to make a play when things break down.”
