San Francisco 49ers: 3 Early breakout candidates for 2019 season

3. Fred Warner, LB

After his rookie campaign, the San Francisco 49ers were certainly hoping that linebacker Reuben Foster could be a force for a defense on the rise. Instead, his off-field conduct and then poor on-field play showed that his 2017 efforts were more an aberration than anything that could be relied upon. Thus, the Niners were thankful that they landed Fred Warner in the third round of the 2018 draft.

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Asked to step in and play a substantial role in the middle of the defense right away, Warner came out of BYU and impressed throughout his rookie season. Though he had his growing pains in coverage, the highly athletic youngster proved to be a tackling machine and a strong run defender, registering 124 total tackles and tying for the most run stops among rookie linebackers, per Pro Football Focus on Twitter.

With Foster now in Washington following his release by the 49ers, Warner now has a new running mate in free-agent addition Kwon Alexander. That new addition and, hopefully, adding stability to the linebacker corps should ultimately help the second-year defender become a more well-rounded player.

If that is the case and, specifically if Warner can become a more disciplined and sound player when asked to drop into coverage, the BYU product could very well establish himself as one of the premier up-and-coming linebackers in the NFL.