The 49ers defense is the best in the NFL by nearly every metric, and yet they haven’t had their second best defensive lineman healthy for nearly the entire year.
That could change soon, with defensive lineman Arik Armstead set to return to practice this week as the plantar fasciitis in his foot continues to heal.
With the 49ers facing a big matchup vs. the Miami Dolphins on Sunday, could we see Armstead back in the lineup? 49ers beat writer Matt Maiocco says that unless Armstead is somehow 100 percent by the weekend, it’s probably unlikely.
“He probably won’t practice fully but will return to practice on Wednesday,” Maiocco said on KNBR Tuesday. “He got out there a little bit and ran around on Friday. I would think that’s a guy that you want to make sure, get him a little bit more practice time, my guess is he’ll be questionable for the game. I would think that if there’s any question at all, unless he just is a clean bill of health, I can’t imagine them putting him out there for this game on Sunday. Maybe wait a week and have him ready to go against the Buccaneers.
“I would think they would err on the side of caution on that one, not only because of how long he’s been out and where he is health-wise, but also the importance of the games coming up too.”
On the offensive side of the ball, one of the 49ers’ lone weaknesses all season has been their effectiveness in the red zone. Despite boasting one of the most creative play callers in Kyle Shanahan with perhaps the best package of weapons in the league, San Francisco’s red zone touchdown percentage is in the middle of the league at 55.5%.
Maiocco believes it might have something to do with the lack of a traditional power running game and physical receivers.
“I think you have to run the ball down there, and I’m not sure their offensive line is necessarily a power offensive line, and teams can certainly stack to the left side of that offensive line,” Maiocco said. “What we’ve seen in the last couple weeks for sure is the Cardinals and the Saints put six men on the line of scrimmage, and they made it extremely difficult for the 49ers to run the ball, and that’s in base situations in the middle of the field.
“I think teams are kind of like locked in and going to beat them at the numbers game and have more defenders than they can block. Then it’s a matter of if you’re going to throw the ball down there, I’m not sure the 49ers have very many guys who are great at beating man coverage off the line of scrimmage. I think that’s why Jauan Jennings has excelled because he’s one of the guys who is better at it. Maybe that has something to do with it too. Right now the personnel, they don’t have the guys that can get open quickly in a very confined space.”
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