The NFL's Best Defender Is...

The NFL’s Best Defender Is…

Fred Warner should be the Defensive Player of the Year. If you watch the tape, there’s no real debate. The first reason is turnovers. In the 49ers’ win over the Raiders, Warner’s forced fumble of Bowers in the third quarter was his fifth of the season — and the 23rd of his career. To put that in perspective, five forced fumbles would have led the league last year. Joey Bosa paced the NFL with a whopping five forced fumbles in 2025. T.J. Watt led the league with six in 2024, and Antoine Winfield Jr. led with six in 2023.

Warner has already matched last season’s leader, and he’s doing it from linebacker. Legendary linebackers such as Ray Lewis, Luke Kuechly, Brian Urlacher, Bobby Wagner, and Patrick Willis never reached five forced fumbles in a season. Warner has five, a career high, with nine games left. That matters because a forced fumble can swing a game as much as an interception. It’s one of the most valuable plays a defender can make, and Warner keeps making it.

The second reason is what he does in the red zone, and most of it never shows up on a stat sheet. He stuffed the Rams’ run on fourth-and-goal. Against the Raiders, Warner hopped over the line to stuff Kirk Cousins on a quarterback sneak, a play almost nobody else in the league can make. Plenty of defenders around the league are piling up sacks, and those count. But a linebacker who reads the snap, times his jump and stops a quarterback sneak at the goal line is one of a kind. Those plays are the difference between seven points and zero, and Warner keeps winning them.

The third reason is third down. Whether he’s stopping Bijan Robinson short of the sticks or breaking up a pass in coverage, Warner forces offenses to punt again and again. The analytics back up what the tape shows: he earned an 83.5 overall PFF defensive grade in the 2026 season, 2nd among 74 qualified linebackers.

He’s also back to full strength after a season-ending injury, when he managed to play only six games for the 49ers before a broken right ankle ended his season prematurely in Week 6. He’s come back better than ever and shows up on nearly every snap. He’s not just one of the names in the Defensive Player of the Year conversation anymore. He needs to win it, because he’s earned it.