The San Francisco 49ers’ defense sat at the bottom of the league in pressure rate and sack totals in 2025. Losing Nick Bosa and others throughout the season didn’t help.
Try as they may, the 49ers’ defense tried to keep the team in games, but the bottom fell out against Seattle in the divisional round. Fast forward to the offseason, and Kyle Shanahan brought in his good friend Raheem Morris, just fired from the head coach position in Atlanta, to help revive the defense and pass rush.
Robert Saleh did
a great job considering the sum of his parts, but the defense ranked near the bottom in blitz rate. All things considered, the defense was fairly vanilla with coverages and pass rush. What can Morris do to change that? Now, while the structure of the Falcons’ defense is Morris’ scheme and ideas, former 49ers linebacker Jeff Ulbrich was the play-caller. It was a collaborative effort between the two defensive minds.
Bryan Knowles of FTN Fantasy tracked each team’s simulated pressure and blitz rates from 2025.
Saleh finished in the bottom six in simulated pressure rate at 3.5%, but had a sparkling DVOA rate of -17.5%. How much of that is a small sample size? It’s a good portion of the equation, but showing pressure isn’t the cure; sending the right players and putting pressure on offensive linemen is.
As far as Ulbrich and Morris, Atlanta simulated pressure on 6.5% of their snaps, but were unsuccessful with a DVOA of 8.3%. The Falcons had plenty of defensive linemen who are capable of winning up front, but confusing offenses wasn’t a strength for the defense.
What about blitz rates? The easy answer is that the 49ers’ blitz rate is sure to go up in 2026. Is it because of the coordinator change? Sure, but the real answer is that it would be almost impossible to keep up the same blitz rate or go lower for the 49ers.
Saleh blitzed at the fourth-lowest rate in the NFL at 23.4%. Again, the key isn’t just to blitz and blitz, but to be able to choose your spot to create pressure. The DVOA on blitzes is 9.7%. Positive DVOA on defense isn’t what you’re looking for.
Ulbrich and Morris are on opposite ends in blitz rate. The Falcons held the seventh-highest blitz rate at 36.1%. With a 39.3% efficiency rate and a -6.9% DVOA, Atlanta routinely was able to get home and create pressure.
Will we see the 49ers get to the near 40% blitz rate in 2026? That remains to be seen, but Morris is certainly going to turn up the heat on opposing offenses. It will be interesting to see how Morris can marry the back end with the front end and create pressure to end drives. Turnovers would be nice as well.
