HOW WILL 49ERS’ DEFENSE DEAL WITH CHIEFS’ SPEED?
Slowing down Hill and the ‘Legion of Zoom’ will be vital
For years, the 49ers were haunted by “The Legion of Boom” in Seattle. While those ghosts are long gone, San Francisco is about to encounter another frightening adversary with an equally ominous moniker.
“The Legion of Zoom,” fueled by Chiefs speedsters Tyreek Hill, Mecole Hardman and Sammy Watkins, will await the 49ers at Super Bowl LIV in Miami next week.
As much as Kansas City’s generational quarterback Patrick Mahomes is the primary threat to deny the 49ers their sixth Super Bowl title, it’s his high-speed receivers who keep the Chiefs offense thriving in the fast lane.
Mahomes’ top three receivers
have all been clocked at least 21.3 mph on plays this year, something no other team can claim. But the 49ers come close. They are the only team that’s given the Chiefs a run for their speedy offense. Kansas City ball carriers had the best average top speed in the league at 13.36 mph, according to NFL Next Gen Stats, but the 49ers were on their tail at 13.35 mph.
Just don’t mention this to Hill, who’s been sensitive to the speed comparisons to the 49ers, especially when it comes to nicknames. Hill’s Twitter handle is @Cheetah and he wasn’t pleased to learn a year ago that 49ers running back Matt Breida called himself “Breida the Cheetah.”
“There’s only one cheetah in the league, just know that. You can’t be a cheetah and run a 4.48, or whatever you run,” Hill said of Breida, who actually ran a 4.38 coming out of college.
Hill does have a leg to stand on. And it’s a really fast one. He’s been timed at a blistering 4.25 in the 40yard dash and Next Gen Stats had him with the fastest speed of any player this year at 22.64 miles per hour (while chasing a teammate!). Over the past two years, those analytics have Hill with an NFLleading 59 plays of at least 20 mph, far more than Buffalo’s Robert Foster, who had 33 plays of at least 20 mph. Hill’s speed and bigplay ability — 58 catches, 860 yards and seven TDs in just 12 games this year — make him the most dangerous of Chiefs receivers who’ve helped their team score the third-most points in the NFL (29.8).
As the only player in NFL history to have a play of 60 or more yards in five consecutive games, the troubled-but-talented Hill demands the most attention from opposing defensive backs. But, in more ways than one, it’s easy to lose sight of Hill’s running mates, 21-year-old rookie Hardman (4.33 in the 40) and Sammy Watkins (4.43 in the 40). Teams have done so at their own risk as Hardman’s scored on an eye-popping 23 percent of his catches (six touchdowns on 26 catches) and Watkins had 53 catches for 673 yards and three scores.
The devastation of the Chiefs’ receiving corps was on display in the AFC Championship on Sunday when Hill caught two TD passes and Watkins had a game-high 114 yards receiving, including a back-breaking 60-yard, fourth-quarter TD catch in a 35-24 win over the Titans.
In short, dealing with this offense is quite a challenge, even for the secondrated 49ers defense.
“It’s hard to stop,” Chiefs tackle Mitchell Schwartz told The Wall Street Journal. “We’ve got the best quarterback in the world, the fastest NFL player in the world and a couple other guys who are right there behind him.”
But there is a way to stop the speedy Chiefs, Titans coach Mike Vrabel insisted even after failing to do so Sunday.
“Just being fast in itself isn’t the answer. You have to be fast and talented,” Vrabel said. “There are ways to defend the speed.”
And there may be no defense better equipped to deal with Kansas City’s fast-paced offense than San Francisco’s. The 49ers’ pass defense was able to hold its opposition to a leaguelow 34 passes of 20 yards or more, according to Pro Football Focus.
The 49ers are expected to have K’Waun Williams, perhaps the league’s top slot corner, shadowing Hill. That leaves corners Richard Sherman and Emmanuel Moseley with the task of dealing with Watkins and Hardman, the Chiefs’ other wideouts in their pass-driven “11 personnel” offense (one back, one tight end and three receivers).
But Nick Bosa, DeForest Buckner, Dee Ford and Arik Armstead, San Francisco’s talented and quicktwitched defensive linemen, will be the best solution to keeping the Chiefs offense under control by providing pressure on Mahomes.
“We just need to be on our P’s and our Q’s and also just contain the speed they have at receiver, obviously they have a lot of weapons on the outside and at running back,” Buckner told NFL Network. “We just have to do a really good overall job of containing their speed.”
And if all else fails for the 49ers, Chiefs fullback Anthony Sherman may have revealed the only guaranteed way to deal with Kansas City’s receivers.