San Francisco has made a huge trade before Tuesday’s deadline, sending Alexander to New Orleans.
The San Francisco 49ers have struck a deal with the New Orleans Saints before Tuesday’s trade deadline. They’re sending linebacker Kwon Alexander to the Saints, offloading his bloated contract.
According to Adam Schefter of ESPN, the 49ers will get a conditional fifth-round pick and likely a player in exchange for Alexander. Tom Pelissero of NFL Network reported that Kiko Alonso is the player San Francisco will receive as part of the package for Alexander.
49ers are acquiring a conditional 5th-round pick and likely a player in exchange for LB Kwon Alexander, per source. https://t.co/z3JjE6jiz9
Alexander was a Pro Bowler in 2017 with the Buccaneers but he’s only played 13 games for the 49ers since coming to San Francisco before the 2019 season. This season, he’s had issues with missed tackles and overaggressiveness in his pursuit of ball carriers, leading to gaffes for San Francisco’s defense.
The 49ers signed Alexander to a four-year, $54 million contract in 2019 and he was slated to have cap hits of more than $16 million in each of the next two seasons.
In five games this season, Alexander has 30 tackles, one sack and a forced fumble.
The 49ers have depth at linebacker even with Alexander now gone. Fred Warner has become one of the best linebackers in football, and Dre Greenlaw, a fifth-round pick in 2019, has played extremely well this year and will see his role grow in place of Alexander.
The 49ers don’t know whether Kwon Alexander will miss time with a high ankle sprain of unknown severity.
[jwplayer 1VluAHxZ-ThvAeFxT]
The 49ers couldn’t escape their Week 5 loss to the Dolphins without another injured starter. Linebacker Kwon Alexander is dealing with a potential high ankle sprain according to head coach Kyle Shanahan.
Shanahan told reporters during his Monday video conference that Alexander suffered what the team believes is a high ankle sprain, but the severity of the ailment is unknown, leaving some uncertainty about how much time the linebacker will miss.
“They’re not sure of the severity of it. It could be a minor one for whatever that means,” Shanahan said. “So, that’s why, usually if it was automatic high ankle sprain, I’d be talking about IR and stuff right now, but they told me to hold on that because they think it possibly could be a minor one. Don’t know. They’ve got to do more work today on it and we’ll have an answer on that for Wednesday.”
Alexander didn’t wind up missing any time Sunday. He played all but one snap on defense and racked up five tackles and a sack. Still, high ankle sprains are typically painful injuries that knock players out for multiple weeks. Jimmy Garoppolo missed two weeks with his and still didn’t appear to be quite right Sunday.
Injuries have been an unfortunate theme for Alexander over the last three seasons. A torn ACL in 2018 limited him to only six games. A torn pectoral cut his regular season to just eight games last year. Now he has a high ankle sprain that could wind up costing him multiple games.
This season Alexander has 30 tackles, three tackles for loss and one sack through the first five games.
Kwon Alexander’s job isn’t in jeopardy despite Dre Greenlaw’s strong rookie year.
Dre Greenlaw’s performance at Will linebacker after Kwon Alexander went down with an injury in Week 9 last season was part of the reason San Francisco’s defense remained dominant during Alexander’s absence.
The strong showing from the fifth-round pick wasn’t enough to shake up the 49ers’ linebacking corps though according to head coach Kyle Shanahan.
Shanahan was asked after Saturday’s practice whether there would be a competition for the starting Will linebacker spot — the player on the weak side who typically stays on the field in nickel situations while the Sam linebacker on the strong side comes off the field. The head coach quickly denied any open competition at linebacker.
Kyle Shanahan said he doesn’t think there’s an open competition between Kwon Alexander and Dre Greenlaw for the "Will" linebacker spot. That spot is Alexander’s, but noted no spot is set in stone. #49ers
San Francisco signed Alexander as a free agent last offseason to a four-year, $54 million deal. Shanahan indicated he was brought in specifically to fit at the Will spot.
It makes sense that the 49ers would want Alexander on the field as much as possible in passing situations. While Greenlaw had a strong rookie year and was the team’s best tackler at linebacker, Alexander is still their best in coverage at that spot.
He allowed a passer rating of 67.4 last season with no touchdowns and one interception in eight regular season games. He allowed one catch for every 11 snaps in coverage — which was the best rate on the team according to Pro Football Focus. While San Francisco has a trio of very good, versatile linebackers, Alexander is a cut above in coverage, which is why the club prefers to keep him on the field in those passing situations.
Greenlaw will still have a valuable role as the Sam linebacker, and he’s an exceptional insurance policy should Alexander become unavailable. Going into this season though the 49ers linebackers will look the same as they did last year. Their three starters were among the NFL’s best trios, so it makes sense the club wouldn’t make any changes.
Charley Casserly over at NFL.com called this former Buccaneers linebacker the best value pick made by Tampa Bay GM Jason Licht.
With the NFL draft less than two weeks away, general managers are likely putting in some extra hours between now and then as this year’s draft will be fully virtual for the first time in light of the coronavirus pandemic.
Jason Licht of the Bucs has already said he’ll have the team’s director of football technology, Spencer Dille, at his house to make any repairs for him should technical difficulties arise during the draft. Fortunately, for Licht, he has experience when it comes to the draft, having been in charge of it since he was hired as the Bucs GM in 2014. Licht has hit home runs on several draft picks, but has also had a few duds, like cornerback Vernon Hargreaves and kicker Robert Aguayo.
So, which player has been his best pick, and which his best value pick? According to Charley Casserly of NFL.com, Licht’s best selection came in the 2014 NFL draft in the form of wide receiver Mike Evans.
Per Casserly:
“The 6-foot-5 wideout is so hard to stop because of his size, speed and hands. He’s been consistently great with up-and-down quarterback play, logging at least 1,000 receiving yards in every one of his six NFL seasons.”
No surprise there. Evans has been nothing short of spectacular since entering the league. As for who Casserly believes has been the best value pick during the Licht era, that honor goes to former Bucs linebacker Kwon Alexander, who was selected in the fourth round of the 2015 draft.
“A true run-and-chase linebacker, Alexander is highly instinctive and was a solid player and leader for the Bucs’ D for four seasons.”
Licht also seems to have found a future star in linebacker Devin White, who was taken fifth overall in last year’s draft. Tampa Bay owns the 14th pick in round one this year, and many experts believe they’ll target an offensive tackle to help protect Tom Brady. Knowing Licht is leading the charge for the Bucs in the draft should inspire confidence in Tampa Bay fans.
The 49ers all practiced in full Friday, and they’re healthy going into the Super Bowl.
The 49ers didn’t have any players on their injury report for Super Bowl Sunday, meaning their entire 53-man roster will be available.
There was a small question throughout the week with running back Tevin Coleman, safety Jaquiski Tartt and linebacker Kwon Alexander all limited during Bye week workouts and Wednesday and Thursday of Super Bowl week.
However, all three players were full participants in Friday’s practice and won’t have an injury designation in the Super Bowl.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan said Coleman, who dislocated his shoulder in the NFC championship game, is feeling good about his injury.
It’ll be all hands on deck Sunday for San Francisco against a Chiefs team that’s playing well on both sides of the ball. Having all three of Alexander, Tartt and Coleman healthy will make life for the 49ers a little bit easier.
The 49ers come into Super Bowl LIV with a championship-level defense. That doesn’t mean they’ll be able to contain Patrick Mahomes.
MIAMI — The 2019 San Francisco 49ers defense dealt with a late-season wobble due to injuries to key players Dee Ford, Kwon Alexander, and Jaquiski Tartt and has come back recently to retain its status as one of the best defenses in the NFL. Only the Patriots had a better Defensive DVOA (Football Outsiders’ opponent-adjusted efficiency metric) than the 49ers, and neither the Vikings nor the Packers had much of an answer for them in the playoffs.
It’s a significant strength coming into Super Bowl LIV. The problem is, San Francisco’s significant strength is about to run into the Chiefs’ overwhelming strength, which is their offense when Patrick Mahomes is healthy. The reigning NFL MVP worked through knee and hand injuries this season, but recent games have shown a relatively clean bill of health for Mahomes the thrower and Mahomes the runner, and that’s a rather glaring problem for 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh and his crew, no matter how good they have been.
The respect San Francisco holds for Mahomes is evident and well-deserved.
“One, his mobility is unique,” Saleh recently said when asked to analyze what makes Mahomes so formidable. “His arm strength is ridiculous. He’s very, very accurate. But, what I don’t think people give him enough credit for is that he actually plays quarterback. There’s a lot of people, there’s a lot of quarterbacks in this league that will say no to number one [the first progression] and then it just becomes street ball. He gets rid of the ball on time. He puts it where it needs to be. He hits a lot of throws in rhythm. And when he needs to take his shot, he knows how to buy time in the pocket and do it. So, he’s a superstar in every way you can possibly imagine and he’s going to be tough to deal with.”
And then, there’s the matter of Mahomes’ receivers — Tyreek Hill, Sammy Watkins, Mecole Hardman, and tight end Travis Kelce. In a word, yikes.
“They’re, at every position, it almost looks like they got their roster from the Olympic relay team and threw them all on the football field,” Saleh said. “Not to say they can’t run routes and catch either, because they can do that. They’re a special group and you can see why they’re there.”
Understanding the challenge is one thing. Dealing with it is another. The combination of Mahomes’ acumen and the ridiculous speed and synchronization of his receivers make Mahomes the most terrifying deep thrower in the NFL. Through the 2019 regular season and postseason, per Pro Football Focus, Mahomes has attempted just 69 passes of 20 or more air yards (Aaron Rodgers has led the league with 101), but he’s completed 36 of them for 1,275 yards, a league-leading 15 touchdowns, just two interceptions, and a league-leading passer rating of 125.2.
This is not great news for San Francisco’s pass defense, which fared pretty well on Richard Sherman’s left side in DVOA against deep passes, ranking seventh in the league, but was average elsewhere. This defense ranked 21st against deep passes over the middle, and 15th to the right. Dealing with Mahomes’ deep ball and his deep receivers is a challenge every defense eventually faces, and now, it’s San Francisco’s turn.
But wait… there’s more. Much more. Basically, Patrick Mahomes is a modern-day defensive nightmare.
(AP Photo/Ed Zurga)
Playing against Mahomes is a bit like hanging on to a tiger by the tail — it’s dangerous when you engage, and fatal when you let go. The Texans found that out in the wild-card round of the playoffs when they put up a 24-0 lead on the Chiefs, only to watch Mahomes and that offense score touchdowns on seven straight drives on the way to a 51-31 win. Mahomes threw five touchdown passes in that game, tight end Travis Kelce caught three of them, and Houston’s no-matter-what strategy of playing man coverage was exposed as a fool’s errand.
Not that the 49ers play a lot of man defense; in the 2019 season, they did so on just 61 targets, allowing 47 completions for 638 yards, seven touchdowns, and two interceptions. San Francisco plays mostly iterations of zone defense led by pressure from a voluminous front four, speed linebackers Kwon Alexander and Fred Warner, and a great secondary when everyone’s healthy and the right people are in.
But against Cover-3 and Cover-4, San Francisco’s two primary coverages this season, Per Sports Info Solutions, Mahomes has completed 33 of 47 passes of 15 air yards or more for 1,036 yards, 795 air yards, 10 touchdowns, one interception, and a quarterback rating of 143.4. The 49ers defended 379 catchable targets in the regular season; 196 were in either Cover-3 (114) or Cover-4 (82). And when defending passing attempts of 15 or more air yards this season in those two coverages, the 49ers allowed 21 completions on 37 attempts for 492 yards, four touchdowns, and two interceptions. The deep ball could be a problem for Richard Sherman and his friends.
This is not a strength-against-strength battle for the 49ers, though replacing cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon with Emmanuel Moseley has really worked well in the playoffs. In two postseason games, Moseley has allowed six catches on 11 targets for 58 yards, 29 yards after the catch, no touchdowns, one interception, and an opponent passer rating of 31.6. Last time Mahomes faced a secondary this statistically formidable, it was last December 8 against New England, when he completed 26 of 40 passes for 283 yards, one touchdown, and one interception in a 23-16 win for the Chiefs. The Patriots play man coverage at the league’s highest rate, but they also have the best overall secondary from a talent-to-scheme perspective.
Bottom line, there isn’t a schematic edge to be gained when you’re facing Mahomes. You must play sound coverage at every level, and you must know who to double when. Sometimes it means doubling tight end Travis Kelce; other times, it could mean throwing a bracket at Tyreek Hill on a vertical route. But you have to have answers for those two, as well as receivers Sammy Watkins and Mecole Hardman. In 2019, Kansas City put three receivers and a tight end on the field on 359 of Mahomes’ dropbacks — he attempted 332 passes, completing 220 for 2,896 yards, 1,421 air yards, 21 touchdowns, and four interceptions.
Okay, you say — just get some heat on him with that great 49ers front four, and it’s all good. Well, not so much. In the 2019 regular season and postseason, including the games he played in which he had lower-body injuries and really couldn’t break the pocket as he’d like to, Mahomes completed 71 of 145 passes for 1,057 yards, a league-leading 12 touchdowns, and just two interceptions. And if you’re thinking of blitzing him — well, don’t. That takes a defender out of coverage, and that’s when Mahomes really gets going. Against the blitz this season, he’s completed 62 of 92 passes for 805 yards, seven touchdowns, and no interceptions.
Here in Week 14, New England gets pressure up the middle, but it doesn’t matter. Mahomes just side-steps it, waits for Hardman to scald the one-on-one coverage, and does his thing downfield. It’s an underthrow, but as Hardman is in the next county by the time the ball comes down, that doesn’t really matter.
So, how to stop Mahomes, or at least slow him down? Sending as many defenders into coverage as possible is one way to go.
The Lions, for all their failures in the 2019 season, did a pretty decent job of limiting explosive plays from the Chiefs in a 34-30 Week 4 loss — and they did it without cornerback Darius Slay, who missed the game with a hamstring injury, and safety Quandre Diggs, who suffered his own hamstring injury in the first half. Mahomes completed 24 of 42 passes for 315 yards, but he also didn’t throw a touchdown pass for the first time in a 14-game stretch, one short of the NFL record set by Peyton Manning. In that game, the Lions endeavored to double both Watkins and Kelce. They totaled 71 snaps in the slot from their cornerbacks, linebackers, and safeties. Detroit’s defenders had the athleticism to delay Mahomes’ reads, bump and constrict receiver freedom through the routes, and clamp down when the ball came down in potential big-play situations.
The problem with using the Detroit game as a model for the Super Bowl is that Tyreek Hill was also out of that game with a broken clavicle he suffered in Week 1 against the Jaguars. When Hill’s in there, taking one of your safeties and maybe your slot cornerback downtown on every play, it adds some complexity to the recipe.
That said, Detroit did present a favorable paradigm by playing a lot of aggressive coverage looks at the line, and added some pattern-reading principles to best follow Mahomes’ targets through their routes. The Lions also got to their coverage spots with a delay at times, perhaps to limit the amount of time Mahomes had to diagnose who was covering who. Of course, with all those rushing lanes opened through coverage, Mahomes was able to run, which he did for what was then a career high of 54 yards.
And if the 49ers want to run a ton of nickel against this offense, they should go with the feeling. Fred Warner and Kwon Alexander are quality coverage linebackers, and in K’Waun Williams, San Francisco has a great slot defender. From the slot this season, Williams has allowed 48 catches on 66 targets for 375 yards, no touchdowns, two interceptions, and an opponent passer rating of 73.7.
Watch the way he reads Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph in Week 3 as Rudolph breaks the pocket and tries to hit receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster on a mobile option route. The result? An interception.
The ability to spy the quarterback as he extends the play and jump the throw in time could be a somewhat valuable asset against Mahomes.
Different kinds of pattern-matching and pattern-reading have been as close to Kryptonite as anything in Mahomes’ NFL career. The Broncos confounded him in 2018 with different match blitzes that proved effective. But Mahomes sees the field more effectively now, and he’s better at taking apart coverages, especially disguised coverages. There’s also a legitimate question about the 49ers’ ability to deal with the Chiefs’ receiver speed in anything approaching man or match coverage.
In the AFC Championship game, the Titans tried a different approach with three-man rushes, putting eight in coverage at times, only to see Mahomes run eight times for 53 yards and one amazing touchdown.
Mahomes also completed 23 of 35 passes for 294 yards, three touchdowns, and no interceptions. With that, another conclusion becomes clear: Blitz Mahomes, and he’ll kill you. Drop eight, and he’ll kill you. Fun!
“When you have all these weapons, and you only bring a three-man rush, it gives me room to run it,” Mahomes said after the game. “I love being here with this team, and all these guys make things a lot easier.”
Finding ways to stop Patrick Mahomes at this point in the season is like being asked to build a perfect weapon with a bunch of stuff from the junk drawer in your kitchen. No matter how good your defense is, the options are limited. If Saleh can pull off a MacGyver and actually create the perfect beast in Super Bowl LIV, he’ll have done more than most defensive coordinators have managed — and he’ll most likely be rewarded with a Lombardi Trophy.
Touchdown Wire editor Doug Farrar previously covered football for Yahoo! Sports, Sports Illustrated, Bleacher Report, the Washington Post, and Football Outsiders. His first book, “The Genius of Desperation,” a schematic history of professional football, was published by Triumph Books in 2018 and won the Professional Football Researchers Association’s Nelson Ross Award for “Outstanding recent achievement in pro football research and historiography.”
Fred Warner, Kwon Alexander and Dre Greenlaw could be major difference makers in coverage in the 2020 Super Bowl.
The Chiefs’ team speed elevates them to an exceptionally dangerous level on offense. Behind head coach Andy Reid and offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy, Kansas City’s offense is designed to create and exploit mismatches with their gaggle of explosive athletes on the perimeter.
San Francisco’s defense may be more well-equipped than most to handle some of those playmakers quarterback Patrick Mahomes has so much success getting the ball to.
While the talk of the 49ers defense is their defensive line, the linebacking corps behind them could become the story Sunday. Part of the way Kansas City gashes teams is by getting their wide receivers, who all run 4.3ish in the 40-yard dash, matched up with linebackers in coverage. Most linebackers in the NFL aren’t built to run with those pass catchers. The 49ers group might be just athletic enough to hang with them.
Here’s how dominant the trio of Fred Warner, Kwon Alexander and Dre Greenlaw were in coverage this year:
All three of the 49ers linebackers are top 15 in coverage grade among LBs with at least 30 targets (including playoffs)
The key isn’t so much keeping up with those receivers in a foot race. There aren’t many players in the league able to do that. However, they are athletic enough to stay stuck to those receivers long enough to make a play if the pass rush gets home. Two or three steps of tight coverage could be the difference between an incompletion and a touchdown.
They’ll also get plenty of matchups on tight end Travis Kelce, who is as good a pass catcher as there is at his position. While safeties and cornerbacks will get matched up on Kelce, the linebacking trio will have to run with him in the middle of the field.
Kansas City’s offense is a different animal for a defense, and it’s not necessarily going to be easy for the 49ers. However, if they can utilize their speed in the second level to eliminate some easy throws and swarm to the football when passes are completed underneath, they may be able to take away some easy completions for Mahomes and at least make his life a little more difficult.
Tevin Coleman would be the only 49er on the injury report if the Super Bowl was played a week earlier.
There’s an oddity in the Super Bowl Bye week that requires teams to submit status reports as if the game is Sunday. Despite not practicing all week, running back Tevin Coleman was listed as ‘questionable’ with a shoulder injury. No other 49ers player was on that injury report.
That’s a good sign for multiple reasons.
First, the defensive trio of Dee Ford, Kwon Alexander and Jaquiski Tartt were all limited again Friday, but didn’t show up on the injury report. That indicates that barring a setback between Friday and next Sunday, they’ll be ready for the Super Bowl. There was never significant doubt about that, but nagging injuries become magnified before the biggest game of the year.
Coleman’s ‘questionable’ status is interesting considering he was listed as a non-participant again Friday after dislocating his shoulder in the NFC championship game. The running back did have pads on and went through stretches with the team before retreating to a side field to continue rehab work on his shoulder.
A ‘questionable’ status for the Bye week is a positive sign that Coleman is on track to play in the Super Bowl, although we won’t likely have a definitive answer on that until closer to game time.
After a tough year on the injury front, the 49ers are in a good spot to be as healthy as their current 53-man roster will allow going into Super Bowl LIV.
Tevin Coleman didn’t practice, but looks like he’s on track to return for the Super Bowl.
The 49ers on Thursday had their first practice leading up to Super Bowl LIV, which means their first official participation report came out as well. They didn’t practice Wednesday, so their participation report was only an estimation.
Thursday’s report looked exactly like Wednesday’s with only a minor exception. Wide receiver Dante Pettis missed the session with an illness. Kansas City is dealing with a similar issue with multiple players missing practice during the week to fight off an illness during flu season.
The 49ers actually had some issues with the coaches getting sick in the week leading up to the NFC championship game.
“I think they quarantined a few of the coaches,” defensive coordinator Robert Saleh told reporters before Thursday’s practice. “But I think the players are doing all right.”
Keeping players from getting sick sounds like a menial task, but the 49ers experienced the impact an illness can have on a player in Week 1 when Tampa Bay wide receiver Mike Evans was under the weather. He caught just two passes for 28 yards in a year where he had 67 receptions and nearly 1,200 yards.
There was some positive news on the injury front from reporters at the team facility. Running back Tevin Coleman was seen working out on a side field during the session. Coleman’s status for Super Bowl LIV is unknown after he dislocated his shoulder in the NFC championship game. He was officially listed as a non-participant in practice, but his on-field rehab is a good indicator that the week off may be enough time to get him ready for the Super Bowl.
Here’s the full participation report from Thursday:
The only 49ers player to miss their estimated practice was RB Tevin Coleman.
The 49ers were supposed to have a normal week of practice in the Bye week ahead of Super Bowl LIV. They opted not to have a practice Wednesday, but still had to release an estimated participation report.
There weren’t any surprises on that report.
Tevin Coleman dislocated his shoulder in the NFC championship game. He may be back for the Super Bowl, but he would not have practiced Wednesday.
The trio of Kwon Alexander, Jaquiski Tartt and Dee Ford all would’ve been limited.
Alexander is still easing his way back in after returning from a torn pectoral two weeks ago. He played 25 snaps in the divisional round vs. the Vikings, and 20 in the NFC championship game. He may not have a full practice during the Bye or in the week leading up to the game in an effort to ensure he’s healthy.
Tartt had what Shanahan described as an irritation in the ribs he injured in Week 13 against the Ravens. Tartt missed the final four games, but played every snap in the first two playoff games. His limited participation shouldn’t be a huge concern moving forward.
Ford is in a similar spot to the other two. He’s recovering from a hamstring injury, and additional full work probably isn’t necessary for the pass rush specialist. He may get some full practices in before Super Bowl LIV, but the team will want to be certain he can play.
There was a minor ankle injury for Dre Greenlaw in the NFC championship, but it wouldn’t have hindered him in practice. He was listed as a full participant.
Here’s the full participation report:
Did not participate
RB Tevin Coleman (shoulder)
Limited participation
DE Dee Ford (quad, hamstring)
LB Kwon Alexander (pectoral)
SS Jaquiski Tartt (ribs)
