The 49ers had one of the best defenses in the league in 2023, but they spent a lot of time working on their defensive line this offseason.
On Monday, General Manager John Lynch discussed the team’s approach to their defensive front. Lynch said the team felt it “needed to rework” the group after their loss to the Chiefs in the Super Bowl and they did so with a number of veteran additions. They signed Leonard Floyd, Yetur Gross-Matos, and Jordan Elliott as free agents while also trading for Maliek Collins.
The Floyd and Gross-Matos signings were both for two years, which is a different than other deals the 49ers have done in recent years and which Lynch said was done with continuity in mind.
“But this year, we wanted some stability,” Lynch said, via 49ersWebzone.com. “So you go find a Leonard Floyd, an established vet, a presence on the opposite side of [Nick] Bosa, a Yetur Gross-Matos, who was really a guy out there that we really got a consensus and felt great about him, and being able to add a guy like that for two years. And on the inside, a Jordan Elliott and a Maliek Collins via trade. We reworked our defensive line.”
The new additions meant that the 49ers parted ways with other contributors, including longtime staple Arik Armstead. The hope is that the changes result in a net positive up front in 2024.
