Hopefully, the Niners have some of those pieces in place.
The San Francisco 49ers (twice) found out the hard way just how good the Seattle Seahawks defense was in 2025.
So did the New England Patriots, too, who struggled to get much of anything going against the Niners’ NFC West rivals until garbage time in the Super Bowl.
Even head coach Kyle Shanahan joked about that Hawks defense leading up to the game, pointing out how San Francisco couldn’t even muster a single touchdown against the Hawks in both Week 18 and the divisional round.
Shanahan and general manager John Lynch now have a tall task, especially in light of how the 49ers offense had to carry the team down the stretch and into the playoffs. True, injuries played a massive role in the Niners defense being vulnerable into the playoffs, and the loss of coordinator Robert Saleh to the Tennessee Titans’ head-coaching gig hurts.
But, if San Francisco invests further into said defense, Seattle might have been kind enough to present a perfect blueprint.
49ers can adopt Seahawks’ defensive-build strategy under Raheem Morris
Raheem Morris is now in to replace Saleh, and the former will certainly bring his own unique spin on how to formulate the 49ers defense going forward.
But, the Seahawks’ blueprint isn’t an unfamiliar one: rush four, blitz occasionally and leave the rest of the defenders in sticky coverage, as CBS Sports’ Pete Prisco pointed out after the Super Bowl:
The Niners, at least during their first Super Bowl run under Shanahan in 2019, subscribed to a similar theory with an elite defensive line that featured then-rookie edge Nick Bosa, going along with standout defensive tackles Arik Armstead and DeForest Buckner.
Entering 2026, Bosa is still present. But his Week 3 ACL tear casts doubts on how effective he’ll be this upcoming season, highlighting the need to infuse the pass rush while not sacrificing run defense.
No team was better at this than Seattle last year, allowing a league-low 292 points and just 4.6 yards per play, all the while holding opponents to a mere 3.7 yards per rush and ranking third with 180 quarterback pressures, blitzing just under 20 percent of the time.
San Francisco hopes some pieces are already in place, including Bosa and 2025 rookie defensive tackle Alfred Collins.
But, to get to a Seahawks-like Super Bowl level, the 49ers clearly have some work to do.
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