© Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
INDIANAPOLIS — Nick Bosa or Josh Allen? That’s the question the 49ers will have to answer in about eight weeks.
With the No. 2 overall selection in April’s draft, the 49ers are likely to select an edge rusher, unless they trade back. If quarterback Kyler Murray goes No. 1 overall, San Francisco will have its choice of its top prospect. When it comes to edge rushers, draft experts and talent evaluators have reached a consensus: Bosa and Allen are the top dogs.
Perhaps the best evaluator stood behind a lectern Friday at the NFL Combine and answered questions from a small contingent of reporters. That was Penn State’s Trace McSorley, the only quarterback who has played against both Bosa and Allen.
The question was two-fold: who is the most challenging edge rusher you have game-planned against, and why?
“I would say just going back to this last year, Josh Allen was probably the toughest,” McSorley said. “I didn’t play against Nick Bosa last year, so I didn’t have to game-plan against him this year, but Josh Allen was definitely one in this draft class throughout this last year that was probably the toughest one we had to go against in a game-plan’s perspective, because how, they would play him in the rush, they would drop him at times, so it was hard to know exactly when he was coming, but you had to make sure he was protected.”
There may be some recency bias here. In the final game of McSorley’s career, Allen sacked him three times in the VRBO Citrus Bowl. On two of those sacks, Penn State offensive linemen lost track of Allen. On the third, Allen blew past the Penn State left tackle for the sack.
One year earlier, Bosa managed just one tackle against Penn State. Bosa played the first three games of the 2018 season before a core muscle injury ended his junior season, eliminating a rematch with McSorley.
When asked about edge-rushers, McSorley brought up Allen and Bosa unprompted. His answer — detailing the several ways Kentucky used its mercurial athlete — summarized the differences between Allen and Bosa. As an outside linebacker, Allen frequently dropped into coverage, but he also played with his hand on the ground. Bosa is a true edge-rusher that specializes in reaching the quarterback.
McSorley sees plenty of those edge-rush attributes in Allen.
“His first step off the ball is something that is incredible,” McSorley said. “That’s one of the things you see that jumps out on film right away. His first step, how he will edge tackles, his speed and bend off the edge, he is long, he gets really good bend, and he is able to really attack the ball when he gets to the quarterback. He isn’t just looking for the sack. He’s looking for the strip-sack every single time.”
Allen forced five fumbles this past season and 11 over the past three years. Those game-changing plays were part of Allen’s preeminent defensive season in 2018 — with 17 sacks, 21.5 tackles for a loss, and a team-leading 88 tackles — that resulted in the Bednarik Award, given annually to college football’s top defensive player. Perhaps most impressive, Allen pressured opposing quarterbacks on 23.4 percent of snaps, the most of any top-tier edge rusher in this year’s draft class.
McSorley wasn’t alone in his assessment of Allen. Missouri’s Drew Lock, likely a first-round draft pick, remembers the same game-planning challenges.
“You got to think about him, you got to know he’s there, you got to know where he’s at, you got to make sure the line knows where he’s at if you’re trying to slide to him,” Lock said. “I would think if you had any player on your team that does that, then pretty high praise to him.”
A quarterback’s relationship with an edge rusher is evidently different from that of an offensive lineman, who has a closer feel for an edge rusher’s repertoire. But the presence of a player like Allen or Bosa constantly fills a quarterback’s mind, influencing his reads and pocket space.
The 49ers have lacked this type of edge presence since Aldon Smith amassed 19.5 sacks in 2012. San Francisco’s edge rushers combined for just 14 sacks in 2018. The lack of pressure contributed to all-time lows — the 49ers tallied two interceptions and forced seven turnovers, which are both the fewest in NFL history.
Adding either Allen or Bosa figures to elevate the 49ers defense. At the very least, a dynamic edge presence would inflict fear into opponents.
This was one of the realities for the quarterbacks who game-planned for Allen in 2018. They knew he was coming. Many times, he was better than the film suggested.
“You never get a full story of who somebody is by watching film until you really get in person and see him,” Mississippi State’s Nick Fitzgerald said. “Honestly, (Allen) disrupted everything about our game. The way he was able to come off the edge so quickly, so powerful. By the time I hit my third step he was already there. He disrupts everything. I couldn’t pass the ball. He was making plays in the run game as well. He was definitely a big game-disrupter.”
“Sadly for us, we underestimated his ability to really change a game.”
The word is out now.
