
49ers QB Brock Purdy said new DC Raheem Morris has already made the secondary more difficult to attack with tighter coverage and different looks.
“Raheem’s done a good job of coaching up our DBs in terms of being sticky … and that match coverage, it’s real,” Purdy said, via The Athletic. “They’ve done a really good job with it. I think we have the right personnel on the defense to play that kind of defense.”
49ers LB Fred Warner said Morris’ use of five-man fronts and varied coverages is forcing the offense to adjust rather than anticipate what is coming.
“Now we’re having some of those five-down looks, different coverages and things of that sort,” Warner said. “It’s new for all of us. We’ve all got to learn on my end, and obviously for them, they can’t just be like, ‘Oh, I know exactly what they’re running and let’s just book it up.’”
Morris said he is building a defense around San Francisco’s personnel and established culture rather than imposing a system that belongs solely to him.
“The guys that we have on our roster are just obsessed,” Morris said. “They crave more information, they crave energy, they crave the ability to go out there and learn every single day. … This is not my defense. This is the defense we’re building that’s built for the Niners and what we’ve already had in place, what we’ve done or what they’ve done, what I want to be a part of and move forward from there.”
Morris added that DE Nick Bosa has looked impressive while gradually working his way back from a knee injury.
“To watch that guy and what he’s able to do, the amount of power he plays with, the speed, the presence, he’s one of the calmest players I’ve ever been around in my life,” Morris said. “And he brings this certain ease and a certain ability to move just effortlessly every single day. He’s limited and working his way back, but he looks excellent. That’s always a good time for us.”
Morris said mixing four- and five-man fronts gives the 49ers more ways to influence opposing offenses and create versatility in the passing game.
“You’re just talking about different ways to dictate what you want on offense,” he said. “You get certain runs in a four-down front that you know you’re going to get, and you got to fit up. You get certain runs in the five-down front that you know you’ve got to fit up. You open up more things in the passing game when you go to the five-man front. You create some versatility with some different people. So, to be able to mix those things in, like most of the league’s doing right now, is a lot of fun.”
Purdy also said Morris’ disguises and changing defensive shells are giving the offense useful preparation for looks it will encounter around the NFL.
“He gives us all these different kinds of looks, and the shell’s always changing,” Purdy said. “Raheem’s done a good job with trying to disguise things against the quarterback, but also the techniques that the DBs are playing with now, too. I feel like this is the kind of stuff that we’re starting to see more in the NFL. And so it gives us good reps. You’ve got to win your one-on-one matchups. … It’s been good work on both sides of the ball.”
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