49ers stats – Page 6 – Syndication Server

Don’t judge Nick Bosa by his sack numbers

Nick Bosa’s sack numbers are down, but not because his play has declined says #49ers DL Arik Armstead.

Getting the quarterback on the ground has been an issue for the 49ers in the 2023 season. Naturally with their pass rush struggling, all eyes go to the newly-paid, reigning Defensive Player of the Year. Criticism has been plenty for Nick Bosa, but his teammate Arik Armstead made it clear that the sack numbers aren’t indicative of how Bosa is affecting games.

Bosa last season led the NFL with 18.5 sacks. This year through eight games he’s posted only 2.5, while the 49ers as a team rank 18th in that category. It would certainly make sense to want more from Bosa in terms of getting the QB on the ground, but Armstead believes the DE is still having a dramatic impact on opposing signal callers.

“Bosa affects the quarterback at the highest rate of any player I’ve ever been around in my life,” Armstead said in an episode of ‘3rd and Long.’ “Each game through how guys are trying to block him, literally double teaming him, chipping him – I’ve been all apart of it trying to figure out ways to free him up throughout the game. And I’m rushing with him. So we’re having to go through all these protections and literally, even with all that, he’s still the most effective pass rusher I’ve ever played with.

“And week-in and week-out whether he gets a sack or not he’s affecting the quarterback at a high level and a high rate – getting him off his spot, making them leave extra blockers in protection to deal with him – and so Bosa is still dominating this game at a high level regardless of how the sack numbers look. He’s still playing at an extremely high level and he’s the best I’ve ever been around.”

This isn’t just anecdotal either. Bosa despite the low sack total is tied for third in the NFL in pressures and he’s first in QB hits according to Pro Football Focus. The football analytics site also credits him with four sacks.

So, what changed from last year where Bosa was racking up sacks in bunches? One key is the lack of production from the other DE spot.

Bosa leads the 49ers with 44 pressures. Defensive tackles Javon Hargrave (26), Armstead (20) and Javon Kinlaw (15) are the next three-highest totals on San Francisco. DEs Drake Jackson and Clelin Ferrell are both tied with 14, and more than half of Jackson’s came in the first two weeks. He has zero in the last two games while his workload has been taken over by Randy Gregory (six pressures in three games).

Teams are able to do the type of blocking on Bosa that Armstead laid out in part because they’re not needing to dedicate resources to the other side. That’s where newly-acquired Chase Young should come into play. He racked up 38 pressures and six sacks in seven games with the Commanders per PFF. That along should buoy Bosa’s sack totals as teams start committing more bodies to the opposite side of the defensive line.

Ultimately the most successful version of the defensive line will be one where Bosa’s sack numbers are better than they’ve been, but his low totals haven’t been because of a steep drop off in play.

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WR Jauan Jennings had weird game in 49ers’ Week 8 loss

Poor Jauan Jennings. He set a dubious season-high for NFL pass catchers this season:

A quick look at the box score would indicate 49ers wide receiver Jauan Jennings wasn’t involved much in the team’s offense in a 31-17 Week 8 loss to the Bengals.

It turns out he was extremely involved, but didn’t get any work. Jennings played a whopping 50 snaps in 63 offensive plays and ran routes on 33 of those plays. That’s the most routes without a target this season according to a tweet from Ben Solak of the Ringer.

In 50 snaps and 33 routes, Jennings managed to earn zero targets, which is remarkable considering the team’s injury problems at wide receiver. Deebo Samuel was out of Sunday’s game and WR Ray-Ray McCloud only earned two targets on the team’s 30 pass attempts.

Jennings has become a pretty reliable option for the 49ers, particularly on third down. San Francisco faced only nine third downs in Week 8 which limited opportunities for Jennings to make an impact in that spot. Beyond that it was clear QB Brock Purdy was going to lean on WR Brandon Aiyuk, TE George Kittle and RB Christian McCaffrey to try and get the passing game rolling after he tossed a pair of interceptions in Week 7. He threw 27 of his 30 passes their direction.

That left a player like Jennings to block in the run game and cruise around the field getting some wind sprints in when the 49ers turned to the passing game.

A better distribution of targets may ultimately help Purdy and the 49ers’ offense, but they have a handful of other problems to iron out before they prioritize getting touches for a player like Jennings.

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Who was good, who was bad in 49ers 19-17 loss to Browns

Who was good, and who was bad in the #49ers’ Week 6 loss to the Browns:

The 49ers on Sunday in Cleveland suffered their first loss of the year. San Francisco fell 19-17 in an ugly contest that ended on a missed Jake Moody field goal in the final seconds.

Let’s run through who was good, and more so who wasn’t, in the 49ers’ Week 6 loss:

4 wild Christian McCaffrey stats heading into Week 4

Christian McCaffrey’s consistency with the #49ers has him on the verge of some historic statistical production:

The Christian McCaffrey addition made too much sense for the 49ers. While some argued that the team’s success with late-round and undrafted RBs was evidence that they overpaid for a player at that position when they traded for McCaffrey – the most expensive RB in the NFL. Returns through an entire season’s worth of games have justified the investment though.

McCaffrey in 17 games (including the postseason) has rushed for 1,337 yards and 13 touchdowns on 259 carries. He’s also hauled in 75 receptions for 595 yards and three touchdowns. McCaffrey has also scored at least one touchdown in 12 consecutive games including the postseason.

His performance with the 49ers has him on the precipice of some pretty incredible statistical accomplishments that few in the NFL have reached, and he’ll get there with a big game Sunday vs. the Cardinals.

The 49ers communications team laid out some of those stats:

Javon Hargrave makes huge impact in 1st game with 49ers

It didn’t take long for the #49ers defensive line to feel the impact of Javon Hargrave.

It didn’t take long for defensive tackle Javon Hargrave to make his mark on the San Francisco 49ers defense.

In Hargrave’s first game with San Francisco, the 49ers racked up 30 pressures on 51 dropbacks by Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett, according to ESPN’s Nick Wagoner.

Despite losing Samson Ebukam and Charles Omenihu, two of their top edge rushers from last year, the 49ers defensive front picked up where it left off with Hargrave leading the way.

Hargrave tied for the team lead with five pressures. Second-year defensive end Drake Jackson also had five while tallying three sacks. That’s as many sacks as Jackson had all of his rookie season. He benefited greatly from the interior pressure Hargrave helped create and did well to clean up a couple of sacks when Pickett bailed out of a collapsing pocket.

Also in the mix were DTs Arik Armstead and Javon Kinlaw, along with DEs Nick Bosa and Clelin Ferrell. Each of them had three pressures.

Armstead in particular spent a ton of time in the backfield, and it’s not a huge surprise that a big game from him came in his first start alongside Hargrave. The 49ers former first-round pick has struggled to reach the heights he climbed to in 2019 alongside DT DeForest Buckner, who was traded ahead of the 2020 season.

In that 2019 campaign, Armstead put up a career-high 10 sacks. In three seasons since then, he has just 9.5 sacks. While he didn’t tally one Sunday, he was a force in the middle of the offensive line. He spent plenty of time collapsing the pocket as Pickett was sacked five times and never got comfortable.

While San Francisco’s offensive playmakers will get plenty of shine, Hargrave leading the way for the 49ers defense could be what they need to get over the hump and hoist the franchise’s sixth Lombardi Trophy.

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ESPN’s early statistical projections for key 49ers on offense in 2023

ESPN’s Mike Clay has some statistical projections for the #49ers offense this year:

The 49ers are in pretty good shape on offense despite some uncertainty under center. While the draft and the quarterback situation will undoubtedly have an impact on the direction of the team’s offense, ESPN’s Mike Clay has already released some statistical projections for the entire league.

His projections don’t typically include 17 games because they factor in potential injuries, and it remains to be seen what kind of roles rookies will have in 2023, which will in some ways alter the projected stats on each club.

For the 49ers the numbers offer an interesting scenario. In Clay’s projections, there’s a regression from Brock Purdy and with it regressions from virtually all of the 49ers pass catchers. George Kittle’s receiving TDs dip and Brandon Aiyuk fails to reach the 1,000-yard mark through the air. However, there’s a projected bounce-back year from Deebo Samuel.

Let’s take a look at Clay’s early projections for the 49ers offense in 2023. Stats in bold indicate a team-high:

Jimmy Garoppolo tied career-high in one category vs. Chargers

Jimmy Garoppolo tied a career-high in a semi-important stat against the Chargers.

Perhaps the most notable statistic from Jimmy Garoppolo’s performance against the Chargers on Sunday Night Football won’t show up in a traditional box score. Garoppolo on Sunday tied his career-high in throwaways with three according to Pro Football Focus.

In an otherwise unspectacular night where he completed 18-of-29 throws for 240 yards with no touchdowns, Garoppolo also took just one sack and didn’t throw an interception. Several factors play into the lack of sacks and turnovers, but throwing the ball away plays a key role, and it’s not something the 49ers’ QB does often.

Going into Sunday night he’d been credited with only one throwaway in the 2022 season. His three against the Chargers tied a career high he’d done two other times. The first time he did it was in Week 16 of the 2017 season in his fourth start with San Francisco. He did it again last year in a Week 14 overtime win at Cincinnati.

The reason throwaways matter for Garoppolo is his penchant to hold the ball too long, then force a throw into traffic or take a bad sack. A throwaway is better than a sack or interception, and taking the incompletion and living to fight another down is an underrated skill.

Bigger than the stat in a vacuum is Garoppolo’s decision-making, which has been very good over the last few weeks. It could’ve swung a six-point 49ers win had he turned it over or taken another bad sack against the Chargers. Throwaways go down as incompletions, which aren’t great, but they can certainly be better than the alternative. If Garoppolo continues his strong run of decision-making, the 49ers offense should continue building heading into the playoff push.

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Jimmy Garoppolo tied career-high in one category vs. Chargers

Jimmy Garoppolo tied a career-high in a semi-important stat against the Chargers.

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49ers on verge of having two 1,000-yard receivers for first time since 1998

The #49ers are on the verge of doing something they haven’t done since 1998.

Getting a pass catcher to 1,000 receiving yards hasn’t been easy for the 49ers lately. When Deebo Samuel eclipsed that mark earlier in the season it was only the sixth time since 2010 that San Francisco had a 1,000-yard receiver. Now they’re on the verge of having two in the same year.

Tight end George Kittle missed three games in 2021 because of a calf injury and until Week 13 didn’t look quite like his old self. Going into Week 13 Kittle had 425 yards in eight games. Over his last three games though Kittle has racked up 425 yards on 28 catches, including six catches for 93 yards in the 49ers’ Week 15 win over the Falcons. Now he’s up to 850 receiving yards and within striking distance of 1,000.

Should Kittle rack up the requisite 150 yards to get to 1,000, it would mark the first time since 1998 that the 49ers had two 1,000-yard receivers in the same season. That year it was Jerry Rice with 1,157. yards and Terrell Owens with 1,097. Rice was involved the two times it happened prior to that as well. He and John Taylor both went over 1,000 yards in 1989 and 1991.

Given where the 49ers offense was at the halfway point it’s hard to believe they’re on track to have a pair of 1,000-yard pass catchers, but it’s clear their offense can’t hit its ceiling unless they’re feeding Samuel and Kittle. If they continue putting up strong numbers there’s a path to a deep playoff run to go along with their small slice of 49ers history.

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Welcome back, Kittle: 49ers star TE shines last 2 weeks

George Kittle’s last two games nearly matched his production for the entire season. The #49ers’ superstar is back in a big way.

George Kittle wasn’t entirely absent from the 49ers’ offense for the first 12 weeks, but he was certainly falling short of the astronomical standard he set during his first four seasons as a pro. The last two weeks, however, have offered a reminder of just how dominant Kittle is and set a new bar for excellence over a short stretch.

Kittle on Sunday in a 26-23 49ers win over the Bengals caught 13 of his 15 targets for 151 yards and a touchdown. That performance came on the heels of 12 targets, nine catches, 181 yards and two touchdowns in Seattle the previous week. Over the two-game stretch Kittle earned 38 percent of the team’s targets and nearly matched his season totals prior to that point.

In Weeks 1-12, Kittle played eight games and spent three on injured reserve with a calf injury. In those games he hauled in 35 of 49 targets for 425 yards and three touchdowns. He capped the slow first eight contests with one catch for 13 yards in a Week 12 win over the Vikings.

Then the switch flipped.

In Weeks 13-14 he caught 22 of 27 balls thrown his way and racked up 332 receiving yards and three touchdowns.

Bengals coach Zac Taylor addressed his team’s inability to stop Kittle during the 49ers’ come-from-behind overtime win: “We tried everything.”

Everything isn’t typically enough to slow down Kittle when he’s rolling. He built his reputation on being a tenacious run blocker whose physicality makes him nigh impossible to bring down in the open field. He’s been exactly that since the calendar turned to December. An injury helped facilitate a slow start to 2021 for him, but a banged up Deebo Samuel opened the door for him the last two weeks and he kicked the door off its hinges with a pair of vintage performances.

Per ESPN’s Nick Wagoner, Kittle became the second tight end in NFL history to have consecutive games with 150-plus receiving yards. The other was Broncos TE Shannon Sharpe in 1996. Kittle’s 151 yards also marked his fourth-career game with 150-plus receiving yards – tying him with Kellen Winslow Sr. for the second-most by a tight end in the Super Bowl era.

If the 49ers are going to dig deep and find the consistency they’ve lacked offensively this season, it’s going to require more outings like the last two from Kittle.