SANTA CLARA – Fred Warner’s All-Pro presence multiplied year after year, start after start on the 49ers’ defense. Now he’s laid up on his couch, elevating his surgically repaired right ankle and cuddling with his toddler son, Beau.
Defensive coordinator Robert Saleh doesn’t want Warner to vanish from the 49ers’ sight.
“He’ll be around the locker room,” Saleh said. “I texted him the other day and said, ‘You ain’t dead. Let’s go hang out, grab a cup of coffee.’”
Saleh called it “shameful” that Warner’s season presumably ended last Sunday in the 49ers’ 30-19 loss to Tampa Bay.
“Fred is special,” Saleh continued. “It’s unfortunate but it’s someone else’s time and it’s their opportunity and I’m really looking forward to seeing all these guys grow in their roles.”
The 49ers defense marches on without Warner, and its front line has done so feebly without Nick Bosa since Sept. 21. Saleh’s unit must rally behind all 11 defenders, including Warner’s young but promising replacement, second-year linebacker Tatum Bethune.
“Saleh always preaches that everybody has one job and you don’t want to do too much,” defensive tackle Kalia Davis said. “Fred did only have one job, but he was making up for a lot.”
Sunday night, the 49ers (4-2) welcome the Atlanta Falcons (3-2) and NFL scrimmage-yards leader Bijan Robinson to Levi’s Stadium. At least two new starters will be on defense: Bethune and safety Malik Mustapha, who replaces rookie Marques Sigle next to Ji’Ayir Brown.
“Everybody should just do their job and don’t be that one guy where they make a big play and it was your fault,” Davis added.” That’s how I’ll be thinking. I don’t want it to be me.”
On the play Warner got hurt, the 49ers were missing a right defensive end, and coaches mistakenly assumed practice-squad call-up Trevis Gipson stayed on the field to fill that role after racing down on kickoff coverage and making the initial hit on a tackle.
“Between special teams and getting guys on the field, it’s shameful it happened that way from a communication standpoint,” Saleh said. “I’m always going to beat myself up over that because it starts with me.”
Saleh acknowledged it’s “obviously frustrating” that his defense remains without an interception this season — and through an NFL-record 13 straight games dating back to last season.
An inferior pass rush impacts that. The 49ers have just seven sacks and 14 quarterback hits this season. The Denver Broncos’ Nik Bonitto, alone, leads the NFL with eight sacks and 16 quarterback hits. The Falcons come to town touting 15 sacks, with nine players producing at least one.
Huff leads the 49ers with three sacks and four quarterback hits, and he nearly had a fourth sack last Sunday but Baker Mayfield escaped the grasp of Huff and Gipson for a 15-yard scramble on third-and-14. “That kept me up at night. That one hurt,” said Gipson, who’s hungry for more opportunities.
The 49ers’ only other sacks, aside from Bosa’s two, are one apiece from defensive lineman Mykel Williams and nickel back Upton Stout. Of opponents’ 193 passes, just 19 have been broken up by the 49ers, 10 have gone for touchdowns, and 67.9% are being completed for a combined 104.7 passer rating.
“There’s going to be mistakes and going to gain some scars, but as long as they get them at 100 mph, they’ll get them at full speed and hopefully learn lessons,” Saleh said of his youth-laden defense.
A week after general manager John Lynch said he was working the trade-market phones, he didn’t express any greater urgency after Warner’s injury, and perhaps quite the contrary.
“We’ve got plenty in this team to go compete and win football games,” Lynch said on KNBR 680-AM.
KITTLE’S ENCOURAGING ENCORE
Tight end George Kittle practiced on back-to-back days for the first time since a Grade 3 hamstring tear. “I fully plan on playing on Sunday, as long as Kyle lets me,” Kittle said. “It’s up to them, but hopefully I will play, which I think I will.”
Kittle knew precisely that he was hurt on the 26th offensive play of the season, running a go-route and feeling like a “rubber band snapped in my hamstring,” though he noted the muscle at least did not tear from the bone.
Asked if he can give the 49ers offense a needed push, Kittle replied: “I’m going to try my best to shove everybody as hard as I possibly can, whether it’s with my energy or hopefully a really good playing ability. That would be my dream.”
MAC JONES: ‘I’ll BE OUT THERE’
Quarterback Mac Jones was a full participant and looks in line to make his third straight start and fifth overall in place of Brock Purdy, who practiced a second straight day in a limited role.
Jones has battled oblique and rib issues, but said he’s been through worse, such as playing every snap of his 2021 rookie season in New England. “I’ll be out there if I can, and I know my team needs me,” Jones said. “I put a lot into in the offseason. It’s really just mental toughness. Yeah I want to move around and I’ve been working on that.”
Right guard Dominick Puni (knee) returned after missing Wednesday’s session, as did running back Christian McCaffrey and left tackle Trent Williams who had that practice off to rest, as usual.
ANOTHER RECEIVER INJURY
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Marquez Valdes-Scantling did not practice because of a calf injury, further thinning a wide receiver unit that figures to be without Ricky Pearsall a third straight game because of a knee issue.
Valdes-Scantling practiced on Wednesday and played 42 snaps in Sunday’s loss in his native Tampa. He has four catches on eight targets for 40 yards, all over the past three games.
Poised to make his 49ers debut is rookie fourth-round pick Jordan Watkins, who nearly collided in warmups Thursday with Skyy Moore in Moore’s return from a one-day hiatus (ankle injury).
Although Brandon Aiyuk became eligible in Week 5 to come off the Physically Unable To Perform list, the 49ers have yet to open his practice window. He’s been doing individual conditioning in the morning before practice, and Shanahan loosely projected a Week 10 comeback, which would be Nov. 9 against the Rams.
