SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Fred Warner, on his means out of the locker room, stopped on the stall of second-year security Ji’Ayir Brown, positioned close to the exit. Warner didn’t say something, simply stopped and stared with a smile. Brown, when he noticed Warner, dapped up the San Francisco 49ers’ chief and advised him he couldn’t wait till he watched the movie.
“Watch once you see me blocking,” Brown mentioned via a smile after an emphatic handshake.
Brown was talking of Warner’s landing, a 45-yard interception return that shifted Sunday’s recreation within the 49ers’ favor. The house group received again to .500 with a 30-13 Week 4 win over visiting New England, ending the 49ers’ two-game shedding streak with a spark from their all-world linebacker. And the movie will present him flying downfield to get forward of Warner. Brown completed his full-speed dash by crashing into Patriots quarterback Jacoby Brissett, retaining him from attending to Warner.
“Oh,” Warner replied, “I already know.”
Warner was talking of his consciousness of the envoy. He was gassed as he crossed the 10-yard line. The second-quarter interception, during which he leaped to snag Brissett’s cross out of the air, knocked the wind out of him as he landed. With each palms securing the ball, Warner landed on his again.
He instantly received up and took off, however as he chugged alongside towards his 45-yard choose six, it caught up with him. He was near not making it. Warner knew he solely did so as a result of his teammates made certain of it.
Brown was joined by cornerback Charvarius Ward, who additionally high-tailed it downfield to assist. Malik Mustapha took out one other Patriot.
“I used to be blocking,” Nick Bosa mentioned. “Form of arrange a wall for him. I believe I blocked a pair guys.”
Honest. Bosa can safely say he received in the way in which of a few Patriots early in Warner’s return.
Fred doing Fred issues 💪
📺 #NEvsSF on FOX
NFL+ // https://t.co/KTh0i4nCVJ pic.twitter.com/6FglMdkuEe— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) September 29, 2024
Defenses all the time need to rating. However it’s additional particular for the 49ers to rally on behalf of Warner. The best way he’s put the protection, the entire group, on his again these first 4 weeks is jaw-dropping even for Warner, already entrenched as top-of-the-line linebackers in soccer.
He’s discovered one other degree.
“Dude is completely different,” Brown mentioned. “The perfect linebacker within the recreation. With no query. Not even shut.”
Warner sat the second half with an aggravated ankle. That it was unhealthy sufficient to pressure Warner to faucet out is trigger for concern, particularly with the 49ers’ early-season harm woes.
However by the point he’d left the sport, the 49ers had been up 20-3. And Warner was as much as 4 takeaways in his 14 quarters of motion.
Let’s put that in perspective. Warner has as many takeaways as the whole protection of eight NFL groups. Not less than eight different defenses have fewer than 4 pressured turnovers. By Week 4, Warner has doubled up the Philadelphia Eagles, Las Vegas Raiders and Washington Commanders in takeaways.
The clutchness of his large performs solely add to his Defensive Participant of the 12 months marketing campaign. Two of his takeaways got here within the pink zone — an interception and a pressured fumble on the purpose line in opposition to Minnesota. Plus the six he scored on Sunday, that’s a powerful case for an 18-point impression on the scoreboard by Warner.
“He’s all the time performed on the highest of ranges,” Bosa mentioned. “Typically issues come your means in a recreation, and he’s taken benefit of all these alternatives. Clearly his stats are loopy proper now. I don’t see it slowing down.”
The excellence of Warner to start out this season is as vital to the 49ers’ spirit as it’s to their scheme. Ought to San Francisco survive this gradual begin and regain its championship-level type, it is going to be largely as a result of Warner upheld the usual. Whereas the 49ers struggled via harm, offseason drama, inconsistency, rust, and the Tremendous Bowl hangover they’d by no means admit, Warner’s brilliance carried out the double process of constructing important performs for the 49ers and indicting their inadequacy.
Greatness is stress for its neighbors. And Warner seems to be as nice as he’s ever been.
“It’s his preparation,” Brown mentioned. “Dude is all the time intentional. He goes via on a regular basis prefer it’s recreation day. That’s the enjoyable half, when he will get on the market and truly exhibits all his preparation off.”
Fred Warner’s interception was his fourth takeaway of the season. (Ezra Shaw / Getty Photos)
The 49ers’ turnover on the defensive facet of the ball has elevated the diploma of issue for Warner. He doesn’t have his favourite sidekick, Dre Greenlaw, who’s recovering from a torn Achilles. Arik Armstead, a stalwart on the 49ers’ defensive position, is now in Jacksonville. And with Javon Hargrave on injured reserve, the beginning defensive entrance solely options Bosa from years previous.
The secondary has added Isaac Yiadom at nook, moved Deommodore Lenoir to the slot, and George Odum and Mustapha are getting reps with Talanoa Hufanga injured.
Warner, because the hub of the protection, has answered the decision by turning up his management. His presence is felt much more outdoors the linebacker corps as he adopts the duty of serving to expediate the jelling course of.
“I used to be excited from the second we received all the brand new guys we did this offseason,” Warner mentioned. “The chance was to now proceed to construct that cohesion and chemistry amongst the group. I believe one of the best groups are those which can be the closest. And that doesn’t occur in a single day. Week by week, we’ve received to proceed to search out that closeness as a group, as a protection. The extra we try this, the higher we’ll play.”
What bonds a protection higher than takeaways? Warner created a second with a flex of his number of skills.
The interception was a product of his instincts and expertise — and preparation — studying Brissett and drifting right into a window the place the Patriots’ quarterback was aiming.
“I want I might see soccer the way in which he sees soccer,” mentioned defensive lineman Sam Okuayinonu, who was referred to as up from the apply squad Sunday and performed with Warner for the primary time.
“His mindset of dominance. He desires to dominate. That’s what I’m making an attempt to do. He’s a frontrunner, too. When he speaks, you are feeling that s— via your chest.”
The interception additionally confirmed off Warner’s athleticism, as he needed to stand up for that one. The palms weren’t too shabby both.
Along with his diaphragm spasming from gravity’s yank again to earth, Warner’s toughness got here into play. His sense of the second. His penchant for playmaking.
Earlier than the interception, the 49ers’ offense had the ball deep in Patriots territory twice on Sunday. As soon as on a brief discipline triggered of a 49ers takeaway. Each occasions, they managed solely a discipline purpose. It’s the type of squandered alternative that received them in bother in final week’s gut-punch loss on the Rams.
Warner wasn’t leaving this to probability. He received up shortly and took off. And, once more, created a second to elevate his group.
“So far as management,” Brown mentioned, “and perspective and persona and mindset, he’s the one you need.”
GO DEEPER
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(High picture of Fred Warner throughout Sunday’s recreation: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Photos)
