49ers lose Fred Warner for season - and the impact was immediate
Yahoo Sports NFL analyst Nate Tice and NFL writer Charles McDonald react to the San Francisco linebacker’s dislocated ankle injury that will sideline him for the rest of the year - and how Tampa Bay immediately took advantage in Sunday’s win. Check out the full conversation on “Football 301” - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
Fred Warner gets hurt, which is significant, and I have a stat that points exactly how significant it is, but what are your takeaways about Baker in the box going 5 and 1 against the 49ers?
Uh, well, Kyle Shanahan just announced that Fred Warner will be out for the rest of the season.
He's getting surgery on a dislocated ankle.
So it sucks.
They're just crushed with injuries right now.
Uh, yeah, and that's a, you know, that's a future Hall of Famer, so it sucks to see guys like that get hurt and he's easily the clear-cut best linebacker in the game with no real competition for the number two.
It was felt.
Notice how many throws Baker threw over the middle.
Like it was just time and time again between the hashes, between the hashes, just stuff over the middle.
And that's what makes Fred Warner so good.
Um, I've compared him to like a center in basketball.
Like it's not just the places he makes, it's the places he takes away, like the ones he negates.
Like the quarterbacks don't even try to throw into his area.
And when they do, they're, you know, throwing underneath.
They're not getting explosive plays over the middle of the field.
And so this was the fourth most yards per attempt the 49ers defense has given up over the middle since 2018.
That was Fred Warner's rookie year.
This is from our friend Keegan Abdu from NextGen Stats.
Um, Mayfield averaged 4.9 yards of target separation on those throws.
That's the second most allowed on passes over the middle by the 49ers in the game since 2018.
So that's a test matching stats right there, just perfect.
And then matching truly a player's loss, you know, for that 49ers defense.
And I was getting excited about like, man, you know, next man up for the 49ers, this guy.
This guy's healthy.
Like, uh, Mois Mustafa is coming back.
All right.
We still got Fred Warner.
Mike Williams is playing better.
OK. Upton Stout looks great in the slot.
Like, OK, you still got, OK, like I, I can see this vision where they can keep competing and It's like, oh no, no, Nick Bowe says out, Fred Warner's out.
It's just like, oh, OK, we got Jauan Jennings and Kyle Shanahan fighting multiple times on the sideline.
It's like, oh, OK.
I was trying to talk myself into him and I just kind of, they just sprayed me with cold water.
So, uh, yeah, I kind of feel for the 49ers who just keep competing, but just keep losing bodies to major, major stars.
It's crazy.
There, it feels like there's more teams like this every year where they just get decimated.
I mean, Baltimore's another one.
Man, it sucks because there's still 11 games left, man.
You got to keep going.