Shouldering is rewarded for 49ers’ Coyle
Here are the final numbers from Brock Coyle’s 2017 season: 10 starts, 64 tackles, one forced fumble and one torn labrum that led to many dislocations of his right shoulder.
Exactly how many dislocations? Good question.
On Sunday, as he sat on a bench just off the practice field, the 49ers’ inside linebacker tried to tally the times his shoulder popped out of socket because of a posterior tear of his labrum, a disk of cartilage that helps stabilize the shoulder joint.
“Let’s see,” Coyle began, the “Washington (game), a few times. Arizona. Cowboys. I think Tennessee I might have been all right? Jacksonville, it happened. Yeah, I’d say Jacksonville was the last time I felt it really good. And the last game, it was OK.”
So that’s a lot of dislocating. Coyle, who said each dislocation was followed by several minutes of pain, was asked if a specific member of the medical staff served as his in-game pop-the-shoulder-back-inplace person.
“Oh, I would do it myself,” Coyle explained. “Or it would just slip out and slip back in. I’d feel it go out and in. And then there were a few times where it would be (really) out, and I would just lift my arm and it would slip back in.”
Coyle’s ability to play well through the pain — and with a shoulder harness — paid off. In March, as he was rehabbing from shoulder surgery he had two days after the regularseason finale, Coyle, 27, signed a three-year, $8.4 million deal with the 49ers that includes $3 million fully guaranteed.
The contract was evidence Coyle proved he was more than a core special-teams player, which was his primary role from 2014 through ’16 with Seattle, when he had five starts and 33 tackles.
Last year, after Malcolm Smith sustained a season-ending injury in training camp and the 49ers released NaVorro Bowman in October, they turned to Coyle, an undrafted free agent from Montana who was not a Super Bowl MVP (as Smith was) or a first-team AllPro (Bowman).
By the end of the season, though, Coyle was a big reason the 49ers’ run defense, which ranked 32nd in the NFL in 2016, had morphed from soft to stout.
From Weeks 12 through 16, the 49ers didn’t allow 100 rushing yards in a game, which matched their longest streak since 2012. During the streak, they limited the NFL’s sixthleading rusher, Chicago’s Jordan Howard, to 38 yards on 13 carries and its eighth-leading rusher, Jacksonville’s Leonard Fournette, to 48 yards on 18 carries.
Heralded rookie inside linebacker Reuben Foster earned most of the headlines for the improved run defense, but Coyle earned plenty of respect from teammates and coaches.
“We appreciate Brock and what he (does), so he’s not underrated in this building,” defensive coordinator Robert Saleh said. “Maybe outside, but here he’s definitely appreciated.”
Prior to Coyle’s 10 seasonending starts, he hadn’t started more than two consecutive games in his first three seasons. And his extended time as a first-stringer allowed him to answer a question that nagged him.
“I left Seattle and came here for the chance I got last year to start and to see: Can I be a starting linebacker; can I be an efficient, good starting linebacker in the NFL?” Coyle said. “That was my goal, and they gave it to me.”
That doesn’t mean Coyle will be handed a starting spot this season.
After being sidelined during the offseason program because of his shoulder rehab, Coyle has started alongside Foster during the first four training-camp practices.
However, Coyle soon could be supplanted by Smith, who has been sidelined with a minor leg injury. And he’ll also face competition from rookie Fred Warner, a third-round pick. Coyle and Warner figure to compete to start with Smith during the first two regularseason games when Foster is serving an NFL suspension.
“You can’t compete with others or worry about other people because that’s going to take away your focus,” Coyle said. “… If I look back and I feel I did the best I could and I’m not out there, I can live that. And if I can help the team in any other way — I want to do whatever I can to help us win however they see fit.”
Coyle’s ability to play through his injury is one reason he has been deemed a fit by the 49ers’ regime. It’s notable the 49ers in April traded right tackle Trent Brown, who had questions about his commitment intensify when he went on injured reserve last year after telling the team he couldn’t play with a torn labrum.
Coyle not only played with his injury, but he played better than many expected, given his modest pedigree. His decision to play hurt might have resulted in plenty of painful dislocations, but it also helped lead him to a new contract.
“I would think so just because the type of players they want here are tough, smart and reliable,” Coyle said. “… Something I pride myself on is being tough, and I definitely think I showed that last year.”