The 49ers’ biggest need heading into the 2025 season is the same need they had going into 2024’s start or the NFL trade deadline:
It’s also (arguably, of course) the team’s biggest issue every year for the last five campaigns.
The 49ers never replaced All-Pro defensive tackle DeForest Buckner following the 2019 season. They tried the draft and free agency, and between the two routes, there were moments where Buckner’s absence didn’t loom as large.
But those moments were fleeting — the need never really went away.
The Niners cannot go on living like that. Not if they want to make the playoffs in 2025, much less compete for a title.
Don’t get me wrong—the 49ers have many needs that need to be addressed this offseason. But if the Niners come away with one thing between now and Week 1, it needs to be a true, bonafide “war daddy” defensive tackle who can both stop the run and rush the passer from the 1- or 3-technique position.
And after a season where luck couldn’t have been more adversarial, things have turned for the Niners — it’s early returns on my scouting, but this looks like the best early-round defensive tackle draft class in recent memory.
Now, some folks will look at a spreadsheet and tell you that the 49ers’ defense was good this season.
Those people don’t understand the first thing about football.
I love stats as much as the next guy (probably more, actually), but numbers lie in this sport all the time.
You know what doesn’t lie? The eye in the sky.
Here’s what it saw all season: the 49ers, running a wide-split, one-gap defensive line (a Wide-9 look with one defensive end effectively at the slot receiver), were gashed in the run game, particularly in the moments of games that mattered.
Both Maliek Collins and Jordan Elliott were on the field for over 200 run plays in the first 17 weeks of the season. They combined for 20 run stops (per Pro Football Focus) and a stunning seven tackles for loss.
To call their play pitiful might be giving them too much credit.
Collins spent most of the year being pushed backward. Elliott’s shoulders and hips swung like a saloon door for running backs to enter.
Part of the Niners’ problem is that they ask their defensive linemen—even the big boys in the middle—to play one gap and try to penetrate into the backfield off the snap. It’s not a new ask, and opposing offensive line coaches have a bunch of tricks to counter it, one of which is a counter run.
There were also pop double teams and insert blocks. I could go on, but suffice it to say that Collins, Elliott, and their backups, Evan Anderson, Khalia Davis, or Kevin Givens, proved to be much of a foil.
In the past, the 49ers have won with middling defensive tackle play because they had two elite linebackers behind them. This year, that was not the case. Offensive coordinators isolated Fred Warner in the run game — knowing they could easily get to the second level against this Niners’ interior defensive line — leaving either Dee Winters or DeVondre Campbell to make one-on-one plays.
They didn’t.
There was one half of football where the Niners had two great linebackers on the field — the first half of the 49ers’ game against the Rams in Week 15. That was Dre Greenlaw’s one healthy half of the season, and the Niners’ defense was a sight to behold. The 49ers (with some help from the rain) held the Rams to 89 yards on their first seven drives of the game — Greenlaw and Warner combined for 12 tackles.
I’d expect Greenlaw, a free agent, to return to the Niners, but his ability to consistently be the player he was is in question moving forward. The Niners must draft his future replacement on Day 2 or 3 this April.
But more importantly, they must find somebody (or multiple somebodies) who can hold their gap on the line’s interior.
Free agency isn’t the play — the Niners have already swung and missed in that realm.
A trade seems unlikely, too. How did Collins work out?
The draft seems like the answer for San Francisco, which, with a loss on Sunday, will pick at No. 11.
And in a first round with five — perhaps even seven — first-round caliber defensive tackles, it seems like a tremendous opportunity for San Francisco to finally replace Buckner.
The top name at the position in this draft class is Mason Graham from Michigan. I doubt the 49ers will be in a position to land him, but that’s the best-case scenario at No. 11. (I wouldn’t trade up to get him.)
There are also Derrick Harmon and Shemar Steward from Oregon and Texas A&M.
But the name I think you — and the 49ers — should circle right now is Ole Miss’ Walter Nolen.
As bright as his film is, his NFL Draft Combine performance will be even brighter. He’s a scheme fit, to be sure, but also an upgrade — he’s too fast and too strong — with serious upside down the line when he learns how to optimize his pad level.
Nolen is a game-breaker of the highest order. He should be available for the 49ers in the draft.
I’m planting my flag now because, after five years of DT futility, we’re well past the point of being early.
This is where the Niners need to go this offseason. Don’t let anyone tell you differently.