The San Francisco 49ers have been making some nice roster moves this spring, adding Mike Evans and Osa Odighizuwa on a team-friendly one-year contract and a trade from the Dallas Cowboys, respectively.
Those two moves helped fill two major needs at wide receiver and interior defensive line, but there is still work to be done this offseason.
As ESPN’s Nick Wagoner points out, there is a clear “biggest remaining hole” on the roster, and it’s the edge rusher position after an embarrassing season last year.
49ers’ biggest roster hole is EDGE rusher after brutal 2025 season
“Huff’s departure wasn’t a huge surprise. But in tandem with Nick Bosa and Mykel Williams coming back from torn ACL’s, it puts the onus on San Francisco to add more talent and depth at a position that didn’t have enough of either in 2025,” Wagoner writes.
The 49ers cannot go through the 2026 NFL offseason without addressing the edge rusher room. Nick Bosa and Mykel Williams are both coming off serious injuries, and Bryce Huff’s unexpected retirement only heightens the need for edge rusher help.
Last season, the 49ers’ edge rusher room was a major embarrassment for the team. While the injuries played a big role in the struggles of the pass rush last year, the production was still far from what a team is looking for.
The 49ers finished the season with 20 team sacks, which was three fewer sacks than one player, Myles Garrett of the Cleveland Browns, got this past season.
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The leading sack-getter for the 49ers was a tie between Huff and Clelin Ferrell with four each. Bosa had two, and he finished with the third-most sacks of an edge rusher last year. He played in three games total.
Keion White had 1.5 sacks, and Williams had one. That was all the defensive ends/edge rushers got for the 49ers. Out of 20 team sacks, 12.5 came from edge defenders.
The other 7.5 sacks came from Sam Okuayinonu with 3.0 sacks, while Tatum Bethune, Upton Stout, C.J. West, and Alfred Collins had 1.0 sack each. Kalia Davis had 0.5 sacks last year, rounding out a brutal showing from the pass rush group in 2025.
The 49ers need major help at edge rusher this offseason, and after the first wave of free agency, it’s still a major hole on the roster. Getting Bosa and Williams back will be huge, but the team still needs a lot more help along the DL in 2026.
