Latest news with #KrisKocurek
New York Times
09-06-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
49ers' Kris Kocurek goes deep on Bryce Huff, Mykel Williams and revamped D-line
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Kris Kocurek had a rare shutout last year. The San Francisco 49ers didn't use any of their eight draft picks on a defensive lineman, compelling Kocurek to go all-in for free agent Evan Anderson once the draft ended. This year was different. Three of the team's first five picks were defensive linemen, and the 49ers put a cherry on top of Kocurek's haul last week when they traded for pass-rush specialist Bryce Huff. Advertisement Kocurek, who arrived as defensive line coach in 2019, hasn't seen this much turnover since his inaugural season in San Francisco. Which is why I stuck next to him during a half-hour session last week when the defensive assistants were made available to the media. For reporters, the annual gathering is usually like speed dating: You go around the room and grab tidbits from each of the coaches. This year, the defensive line is so young, so new and so integral to the team's success that it seemed worthwhile to concentrate on Kocurek. He held court for the full 30 minutes, and some of the reporters circulating asked the same question as another reporter. For that reason, the following is not a true transcript but rather the 10 most interesting answers Kocurek gave. The order of the questions has also been altered for continuity. Do you plan to use first-round pick Mykel Williams as an edge or interior pass rusher? Both. That's one thing at Georgia that he displayed. He can get to the passer from the edge and then slide over guards and utilize that skill set, the wiggle, the ability to get on the edges and manipulate guards from the interior. He's just a really versatile player, which is something we've always utilized in the past with guys like Arden Key and Charles Omenihu and Arik Armstead in 2019 and 2020. … The thing we like about Mykel is we've seen it at Georgia. He'll line up 4i, 3-technique, 3-technique on both sides, edge player. So he's done it before, so I don't think the learning curve is quite as steep with him. Has Williams stood out in practice as far as running to the football? The first day, I would say, was good. But we explained to him that good's not good enough. We need him to be elite in certain categories. And getting to the football with effort is one category that Mykel needs to be elite at. And I challenged him after the first day. I'm not saying that it was bad. But it wasn't quite exactly what we wanted. And I thought that in the following days, he's really, really responded on making a concerted effort to get to the football, whether it's out on the field chasing plays 30 yards down the field. And not just running because the coach said to run, but running with intent, running to get to the football with a purpose. So I like where he's at in that stage of it. Advertisement What's the interaction between Williams and Nick Bosa been like? (Williams has) really gravitated toward Nick a lot. And if you watch 'em at practice, he's always standing right behind Nick. And Nick knows he's watching him, and he's a kid who's really eager to learn and wants to know how and why. … I think it's a good match. You've got an older — I shouldn't say 'older' — you've got a veteran player, Nick, going on his seventh year with a rookie who's like a sponge right now and wants to learn from one of the best in the game. It's a good matchup. What do you like about Huff? His speed is always showing up. His ability to get off, to close space on tackles really quick, make air disappear and win on the edge. And then with his built-in leverage in his body, he has the ability to (convert) speed to power. When tackles overcompensate and over-set on him, he can beat people across his face, inside, as well. Huff did well under Robert Saleh with the New York Jets, but what did you see from him last year in Philadelphia? It was hand in the ground versus playing the stand-up outside linebacker role. It's different — the foot sequence. If you're born into a hand-in-the-ground defense, it's an adjustment period to turn yourself into a standup outside linebacker and vice versa. … I still saw a good player on tape (in Philadelphia). He had a wrist injury about midseason that I think kind of derailed his progression with him being a stand-up player. But I thought he was really coming along. A look at new guy Bryce Huff, who was one of the few DEs practicing today. — Matt Barrows (@mattbarrows) June 4, 2025 What's your vision for rookie defensive tackle Alfred Collins, who played in a different system at Texas. Will he have to adjust? You look for the skill set on tape (and) he has the ability to play within our scheme. And we don't ever want to draft a big guy just to draft a big guy. He still has to have the skill set that we call for within the scheme. So you see enough of it on tape. You're right — he did play more of a frog stance (four-point stance). But there are times — passing situations — where they kind of turned him loose. And you saw the explosiveness of his body, the ability to really change direction and the speed to pursue the ball, the change of speed to go fetch plays downfield. So, yeah, it's going to be a little bit of a learning curve. Seventeen years in the NFL, I've dealt with that a lot. But he'll be all right. We've got time through camp to adjust to it. He'll be fine. You have a number of young, big, quick defensive tackles in Collins, Evan Anderson and C.J. West. How do you decide where they line up at defensive tackle? When we're looking at 'em in an evaluation setting, we kind of get a sense of, 'Hey, is this guy more of a 3-technique? Is this guy more of an A-gap player playing down at the 2i and a shade?' But with the way offenses are nowadays and the way they can manipulate the fronts and they can slide the fronts, you have to have the versatility to play both. … Some guys are more built for the A-gap, and the longer players are maybe a little better suited to play the three-technique. But they've got to be able to play both. They've got to be interchangeable. We do have certain spots envisioned, but quickly they could go from one to the next before the snap of the football. And they've got to be able to execute at both. What do you think of West's hands? His ability to be able to strike and win contact and jolt that contact and control blockers with his hands, and then his ability to shed and escape blockers. As a young dude coming from college, it's advanced for where he's at this stage in his career. … It's obviously something that really drew us to him. Advertisement What are you looking for from Anderson this offseason? Just wanted him to get back here as early as he could, get with our strength staff as early as he could, continue to change his body into the type of body that he foresees himself playing at, that type that we want. … He's done a really good job this offseason. I think he's taken a jump. Going into his second year, it's kind of where in this scheme guys start getting a good feel for exactly what we want done. And he should see a jump in his play. Has Saleh's scheme evolved since he was last in San Francisco? Yeah, there's always things that evolve within a scheme. I would say the place that it's evolved maybe the least is up front and what we do up front. The coverage aspects of it and how you adjust to what offenses are doing from a motion standpoint — a lot of these college coordinators integrate into the NFL with what they were doing on a college level. Especially the back-end dudes. They have a lot of adjustments that have to change yearly. And up front, yeah, there's some small tweaks. Nothing significant that you're gonna be able to see. But there will be some small tweaks that have been changed since (Saleh) was here in 2020. (Top photo of Bryce Huff and Kris Kocurek: Jeff Chiu / Associated Press)
New York Times
08-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
49ers' Robert Saleh says he's looking 2 years ahead as he rebuilds defense
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Though the San Francisco 49ers' recent draft class has all sorts of similarities to players Robert Saleh coached previously in San Francisco, the team's defensive coordinator insists his eye is very much on the future. 'You know, you're always trying to stay two years ahead of the offense,' Saleh said Thursday during his first public comments since being hired in January. 'There's always trends with offenses, and you can get an idea of what they're trying to do and what they're trying to get done. You're just trying to pick up on those trends. I don't want to get into too much detail, but you're always trying to stay ahead of them.' Advertisement Saleh avoided specifics but said his scheme has evolved 'significantly' since 2017, his initial season with the 49ers, and even from 2019, the year the defense took a major shift with the hiring of defensive line coach Kris Kocurek and the implementation of the Wide 9 front. That year was considered the high-water mark for recent 49ers defenses. They finished first in pass defense, tallied 48 sacks — including 41 by their defensive linemen — and allowed fewer than 20 points per game. That unit seemed to be on the 49ers' collective mind during the recent draft. In the third round, they took a linebacker, Nick Martin, who reminded them of Dre Greenlaw, a 14-game starter, including the Super Bowl, during his rookie year in 2019. Later in the round, they snagged a pint-size but pugnacious nickel cornerback, Upton Stout, who seems like a carbon copy of former 49ers nickelback K'Waun Williams. Williams' best NFL season came in 2019, when he had career highs in interceptions (two) and forced fumbles (four). In the fourth round, they selected C.J. West, a defensive tackle who reminds them of one-time 49er D.J. Jones. Kocurek has been pining for Jones-like defenders over the past two seasons. Now he has two: Evan Anderson, whom Kocurek fought hard to land after last year's draft, and West. 'Extremely stout, sturdy, but also has the quickness and strength to play in the other team's backfield,' general manager John Lynch said of West. 'Makes a lot of splash plays in the other team's backfield.' In second-round pick Alfred Collins, the 49ers have length in the middle of their defensive line that they haven't had since Arik Armstead and DeForest Buckner lined up next to each other. And in first-rounder Mykel Williams, the team has a bookend for defensive end Nick Bosa that it hasn't had since Dee Ford started having back issues midway through the 2019 season. Then there's Saleh himself. The 49ers seemed locked in on Saleh as their next defensive coordinator as soon as the season ended, and they waited nearly three weeks for him to look into head coaching opportunities before hiring him to a top-of-the-market contract. Saleh, who left the 49ers to become the New York Jets head coach in 2021, was asked Thursday whether he considered going to a different team, one with which he hadn't already built a reputation. He said no and gave two reasons. Advertisement The first was loyalty to Kyle Shanahan, Lynch and CEO Jed York, who made him a first-time coordinator in 2017. The talent-starved 49ers struggled that season and the next, and a chorus of fans began calling for his job. 'And it could have been very easy to move on from me,' he said. 'So I'm indebted to this organization, to those men, for the rest of my life.' Saleh also cited the collaboration between the 49ers' coaching and scouting staffs that he said doesn't exist with other franchises. 'Most buildings maybe spend a week in terms of communication between scouting department and coaching staff with regards to the draft,' he said. 'This organization will spend three to four weeks just grinding on tape — offense, defense, special teams and going deep into the seventh round (and) undrafted free-agent-type players. And I think that's why this organization has had so much success finding Day 3 picks that come to fruition. And even the undrafted free agents end up having success in this league.' Saleh met with the 49ers' top personnel officials as soon as he arrived in January to discuss how he has evolved since leaving to become the Jets' head coach. One difference may be the size of the defensive ends he sought when he first arrived in 2017 versus what he's looking for now. The Wide 9 requires big-bodied ends who can set an edge in the running game and plow through tight ends on pass plays, something that's reflected in the 6-foot-5, 267-pound Williams. The cornerbacks, meanwhile, seem to have gotten smaller. Early on in Saleh's first 49ers tenure, the team looked for tall, long cornerbacks like the Seattle Seahawks used — someone like former Seahawk Richard Sherman. More recently, the 49ers have found success with smaller, feisty players like Deommodore Lenoir and Renardo Green. Advertisement 'When (Saleh) came in, he sat down with us, and he kind of talked about how he's evolved and his time away from here, and he also heard from us how we've evolved and how we see players,' director of player personnel RJ Gillen said last month. 'And then we came together and took a consensus in terms of the plan and type of players and skill sets and fits moving forward.' The 49ers ended up taking defensive players with their first five picks, the first time the franchise has done so since 1981. Three of those picks — Ronnie Lott, Eric Wright and Carlton Williamson — were 16-game starters as rookies. Saleh made it clear the incoming rookies who arrived this week for minicamp have plenty of work before any can be declared starters, including understanding Saleh's 'all gas, no break' philosophy. But it's also clear that after an offseason roster purge, there are opportunities to be had. 'They've got OTAs, training camp — it's gonna be a crash course,' Saleh said. 'And if any of them are worthy, they'll be on the field Week 1.'
