SANTA CLARA — 49ers defensive lineman Ronald Blair believes that the defense will improve going forward. This season, the bonds created between his teammates have set the stage for greater things ahead.
“It’s all about trust,” Blair said. "If one guy doesn’t trust another guy, the whole unit falls apart. So there’s got to be 11 people out there trusting each other.”
Blair saw the struggles from the beginning of the season as growing pains for the young defense. Blown coverages were a result of a lack of communication which got better as they played together more.
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“Early on we didn’t communicate well,” Blair said. “As the season went on we got more comfortable together, learning how to play off each other. And we were having fun.”
Blair credits the addition of pass-rushing specialist coach Chris Kiffin for the improvement as well as bringing new approaches to the defensive line room.
“We have to credit him a lot to how good our communication got towards the end of the season,” Blair said. “He brought in some really good stuff. He made you see the pass rush from a different perspective and helped develop the communication.”
Like fellow defensive lineman Arik Armstead, Blair missed much of the 2017 season due to injury. He believes playing in all 16 games in 2018 helped his development as a player. He registered 36 tackles on the season: 24 of which were solo, and 10 were for a loss. He also was credited for 5.5 sacks and 14 quarterback hits.
San Francisco 49ers
“Last year I was still learning the system,” Blair said. “And I was hurt at the beginning of the season so I really didn’t get my chance. I played a few games. This year playing the whole season, just seeing how it is, helped.”
Another factor for improvement on the defensive line was figuring out what each player does the best. Blair noted it wasn’t easy at first with so much rotation on the line, but they learned how to adapt.
“It was about learning my teammates,” Blair said. “It gives you a baseline. Now you don’t have to go through those growing pains. You know what people like to do, and what they don’t like to do, so you don’t really have to fight it.
“It’s more natural now,” Blair said. “Making sure we know what everyone does well in certain positions of the game.”
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Blair also explained that part of the struggles early on involved many of the younger players making the switch from how they played in college to working in an NFL system.
"That’s a huge thing, because everyone, when you’re younger, you feel like you have to be superman every play," Blair said. "Because that’s what you were in college, and that’s not the case. You have to learn to work together to make it easier on yourself. That’s the big thing in the game today.
“You just don’t want to try to do too much because then you make other people put strain on other people that they aren’t used to. You just have to learn to work together and make it a cohesive unit.”
Blair and 49ers hope that the defense can keep the momentum going into 2019 with most of the core pieces -- such as Blair, Armstead and DeForest Buckner -- staying the same.