San Francisco 49ers: Cast-offs pivotal to performance of front seven

The San Francisco 49ers’ front seven struggled to produce sacks in 2017. A number of cast-offs from other teams will be key to their hopes of changing that.

It is often said that one man’s trash is another’s treasure. It is a somewhat cliche phrase, but one the San Francisco 49ers will hope holds true as their defense looks to take a step forward in 2018.

San Francisco made positive strides down the stretch in almost every area in 2017, and the defense profited significantly from the offense’s vast improvement with Jimmy Garoppolo at the controls.

Still, the 49ers’ passing defense ranked a lowly 28th in Football Outsiders DVOA and the Niners had just 30 sacks on the season despite some extremely impressive work on the interior by DeForest Buckner in particular.

It was one of the big surprises of the draft that the 49ers did not select an edge rusher to help address their inability to get the quarterback on the ground and, going into the 2018 season, it appears as if the Niners will be reliant largely on a pair of cast-offs from other teams to capitalise on the havoc they expect Buckner, Solomon Thomas and Arik Armstead to wreak inside.

The 49ers claimed Cassius Marsh off waivers from the New England Patriots in November and were impressed with what he produced as he recorded two sacks and a pair of forced fumbles, so much so that they signed him to a two-year extension in the offseason.

Marsh’s career has been low profile to the point that his recent revelations about not enjoying playing in New England are probably what he is best known for across four seasons in the NFL.

But, upon joining the 49ers, the former Seahawk brought excellent burst off the snap and a high motor as an edge rusher, and his demeanor is one that impresses defensive coordinator Robert Saleh.

"“When he first got here, if I remember right, we talked about that he is the definition of all gas, no brakes. The guy is just on tilt whenever he’s in the building. Even though he got the contract extension, he still embodies that. He wants to do more. He’s always asking to do more, so having him is great.” – Robert Saleh, per NBC Bay Area, on Cassius Marsh."

Yet the 49ers have seen little in the way of Marsh winning one-on-one battles off the edge, his sack against the Chicago Bears last season coming as a result of a free run to the quarterback, with his second against the Los Angeles Rams on a play where Buckner got to the signal-caller as well.

San Francisco will hope Marsh can demonstrate some physical gifts to go along with his high effort and they will have a similar ambition for free agent addition Jeremiah Attaochu.

Attaochu had a stellar Pro Day ahead of the 2014 draft, posting a 10-yard split of 1.55 seconds. However, the Georgia Tech product’s career has been hampered by injuries and playing on the same team as two stellar defensive ends in Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram.

He had six sacks in 2015 but, as Ted Nguyen of The Athletic stated in his film review of Attaochu, those sacks were largely the result of effort plays, with explosion and the ability to bend around the edge in short supply in his time with the Chargers.

It remains to be seen whether Attaochu can show better athletically with the Niners. Yet they may well be hoping that, in a scheme where defenders are largely able to avoid overthinking and can attack downhill quickly, Marsh and Attaochu will succeed in bursting off the snap consistently and put themselves in the best position to clean up pressure created by the interior defenders on a regular basis.

Buckner is the best player the 49ers have at creating interior pressure. Yet, for him to remain as impactful as he has been — Buckner led all interior defenders in quarterback hits with 19 in 2017, per Pro Football Focus — the Niners need to have a rotation capable of providing him with more rest.

In each of his two seasons as a pro, Buckner has played over 1,000 snaps, and one of the players who will be key to helping him play a more sustainable number in 2018 is Sheldon Day.

Day struggled for playing time on a stacked Jaguars defensive line in 2017 and the Niners picked him up off waivers in November.

He is undersized for an interior defensive lineman and only had one sack in six games with San Francisco, yet he demonstrated the kind of quickness off the snap that can make him extremely difficult for opposing offensive linemen and quarterbacks to deal with.

Having a rotational player who can take the pass-rush strain off the first wave of interior defenders would be a huge boost for the 49ers defense but, regardless of what they do up the middle, the reality is the Niners must have better play off the edge.

They won’t generate many headlines, but Marsh, Attaochu and Day all figure to be extremely important for the 49ers in 2018 and, in all three instances, they are players cast aside by other teams.

Next: NFL 2018: Ranking the top 50 pass rushers in the league

Yet if they can help turn around an anaemic 49ers pass rush, then they will quickly become treasured by San Francisco.