Golden Nuggets: Who’s your bounce back candidate for 2024?
Your daily San Francisco 49ers news for Sunday, May 26th, 2024
“It’s not a matter of ‘if’ in my mind; it’s a matter of ‘when’ when we do go win one,” Warner said Wednesday on NFL Network (h/t SI.com). “I think the key is to continue to find guys who are finishers. You want to bring in cats who can finish. The guys who are here, you want to have an internal look at yourself and be like, ‘How can I be better for this team?’
“I’ve looked at myself, even when I had a good year last year, how can I be better for that moment to where I punch a ball out, force an interception? I don’t know, just help finish the game for my team.”
“But St. Brown’s extension gives him $28 million a year through three years, and Aiyuk will be wanting something in that neighborhood.”
“While much of the focus has been on the 49ers’ right tackle situation, Brendel also had his struggles last season in pass protection. In 2022 he was good as a pass blocker, and while he saw a leap as a run blocker in 2023, he saw his productivity dip on passing downs. PFF had him down for 33 total pressures, up from 14 the previous year. In true pass sets that number climbed to 15 from 8. If Brendel can continue being an effective run blocker while seeing his pass protection tick back up toward his 2022 numbers he could be a Pro Bowl-caliber player in 2024.”
“The 49ers may have to reconsider what Leonard Floyd’s role is going to be for them in 2024 if they believe he can be an every-down player for them at this point in his career. The good news is there’s a blueprint of their own they can follow to maximize their veteran defensive lineman.
Floyd last season for the Bills missed a whopping 37 percent of his tackles according to Pro Football Focus. That was by far the highest missed tackle rate of his career.
Buffalo primarily used Floyd on passing downs, which led to him playing a 576 total snaps and 167 snaps against the run. The total snaps were his fewest since 2018, while the run snaps were his fewest ever. This is a pattern the 49ers should be following this season.”
